Old Guestbook Gems #1
25 years ago I started writing a diary on Diaryland, before it was called blogging. I managed to write over 800 posts before life got in the way and the website basically died.
One of the more fortunate things I did was setup a guestbook with Bravenet. A service that is still around today. I can still read the 388 guestbook entries I received. I'm diving into it as a sort of time capsule and sharing some of them here.
1st May 2001
The very first guestbook entry I received.
Fear less, hope more;
Whine less, breathe more;
Talk less, say more;
Hate less, love more;
And all good things are yours.
This post was from someone called A.
We connected via the internet, I can't remember how but we worked out that she lived about 4 hours away and at some point had gone out with a guy that had gone to the same high school as me.
I didn't really know him, but I knew who he was.
From what I remember she was creative, supportive and insightful of the posts I was making and me in general.
She heavily used ICQ. Not really my thing at all, I was more AIM, MSN messenger and Yahoo Chat, but I remember jumping on it once and talking to some people she knew.
It was a very tight group of people on there with a lot of history. I felt like an outsider and never went back to it.
I met A once with her new boyfriend (who might be her husband now?) when they travelled up for something and stopped in to say hi. At that point in my life I was working nightshift. I remember being super tired as their schedule was a bit loose.
Thinking back, this is probably the first person I met from the internet.
We're friends on Facebook these days. We don't really talk, but I did get a random message a few months ago which ended in being asked if I had Tiktok and something about renovations I recall.
I got the feeling they were making renovation content on there and were after some more views.
I'll have a another guestbook gem at some point in the future.