Everyone mentions how they lurked to get an earlier date but it is so true. In the Clinton era when we were lurking at work with the Reno criminality, those of us working for his impeachment were very aware of abuses of Federal power and how the Federal forces could be used for clamping down on people.
I had a copy of the Paula Jones lawsuit the week it was filed. I had been following Clinton’s Whitewater problems since I did some business in NW Arkansas in the 90s. I was a real cautious person in those days and started following the events over the internet in 97 and 98 and found FR from that first Whitewater link on Drudge when Drudge was fairly new. Lurked from Febraury or March of ‘98 but by early ‘99 was a regular on an internet chat room in the evenings with Yellow Rose of Texas, amom, Towanda, RAH, Two_Thirds_Vote_Aye and some others. They finally got me to register and figure out a work around for my office firewall in May of ‘99. So by the time I started posting I was already steeped in the FR lore and history.
Many have changed their screen names and gotten new dates due to that process not always keeping the same date as well. It seems like there are a lot of old timers showing up on threads in the last month — indicative of the pregnant moment many are feeling.
Of course I remember your screen name from that era but there still are those that I have kept up with for the full dozen years.
Although I still haven't figured out what the mods have against Miss Canada. :-)