Arthur McGowan posted a vanity once, shrill and frantic, about all the pings he was getting. He basically screamed "Stop pinging me!" to the whole forum in about three paragraphs. It was hilarious!
What ensued can only be described as a feeding frenzy. Sorry, Arthur, I normally wouldn't ping you, even while mentioning your name, but this thread was simply too much to ignore.
Let the record reflect that the Arthur McGowan vanity thread is one of my top three of all time. The 'How to Properly Flame' thread and the 'Richard Gere Haiku' threads were also very good, but alas, were deleted from FR servers long ago.
OK - I I recall that. In fact, in his own way, Laz still messes with that - per a search. AMcG is a Catholc priest and all around good guy; as well as being a FR legend.
What did we all do before Free Republic? Well, it might surprise you to know there never was a time before Free Republic. And as good as the forum is now, it was much then.
BTW: I didn't know what a "ping" was at the time. I thought I was the victim of a form of spam. Also BTW: I don't know how pinging is done, or why it's called pinging. I thought that was a term from sonar.