His signup date was in November 1997 IIRC, mine was in January1998.
Before that he seems to have operated on AOL or keelynet or a bbs back in the days of dialup.
14,400 baud, screamin fast.....
Jim Robertson didn't “sign up in November of 1997... he founded Free Republic in September of 1996. He had some help from family and a few people still here and made it a public Website in February of 1997. And yes in the years previous to that he ran a bulletin boards and other projects. The fact that you have been unaware of the actual history of the site seems weird.
Looking through “Kevmo” posts from here and on other sites is a scary proposition. Your obvious issues with Dunning–Kruger, your defeatist tone and gullibility permeates so much of what you are leaving behind. You seem to relish your role here as a straw-man to stir up the rest of us. I do feel very very sorry for you.
Remember Quidam and Val Porter? The good old days