H-hello?? Is anyone home????? :o
I'm not sure how to start this but I spent a lot of time here when I was a teenager back in the Georgian era, first as smallpoxx and then as dark-side-risenx. I remember spending hours in the chat talking to people from all over the world whose stark fucking daftness equalled that of my own, the sort of people who always seemed to be in short supply IRL - maybe because of actual scarcity or maybe because I'd just be too shy to approach them????
Now certainly, I would add some people I met on here to MSN, which stood for Messaging Service Network. I should explain for the benefit of all the young people on here: this was an old fashioned instant-messaging service, not too unlike discord, but the catch was you couldn't actually choose your own username - the government of wherever you lived would assign you an MSN handle along with your National Insurance Number (or Social Security Number for Americans, whatever it would be were you lived really), and if the ruling classes christened you 'WeanusBoBeanus89', then like it or lump it, that's what you were called. I think SoEmo and websites like it came to be in the cradle of this kind of repression, a places where you could just be whoever you wanted to be no matter where you were from, what you did for a living etc.
No but seriously, I would add people I met here onto MSN and chat to them on there, but I still would keep logging onto SoEmo, because there was always more cool people you could meet! Already mentioned the chat, but I used every feature of the site really; profile comments, the forums, the odd PM, just really enjoying being enmeshed in the community. Then of course, I GREW UP, and started using the internet to make my life miserable like you're supposed to!! hah.
Looking at the list of top forum posters now I remember a few fondly:
xSUICIDEBLOODx - A very nice lady, great craic and always great contibutions to the forum too
Nick-Aotmzgin - Big prescence in the chat and another one of the peeps I remember as being part of the furniture here
Vybz - A relentlessly lovely bloke
nikkiwest - Really dead on and a lot more sensible than me despite being the same age, must have found my nonsense really eye rolling if she did bother to read it :P
And of course, lovely Matt/ xXeMoRaCeRXx. Thank you for tolerating me, and so many like me over the years. lol. You won't remember me specifically, but you might remember a SoEmo banner that I made in minecraft (and was too foolish to back up) if that rings a bell. Really wish I could have kept that saved for you!
I'll not name check anyone else but I if I sat here all night I'm sure I could think of a couple dozen probably.
I think most people will regret parts of how they behaved at the age of 14 or 15 by the time they're even 16 or 17, let alone 30 - but I still feel compelled to say "sorry!" for how unkind I could be occasionally, particularly to female members of the community. Sorry! Most everyone's long gone anyway, but while I'm here being all glowy and nostalgic and stuff, it does feel only right to acknowledge it.
Anyway, I like to think I've come full circle to being a reasonably tolerable person to talk to these days, so don't anyone be afraid to say hi. (This is a little "do as I say and not as I do" for now but I might get a bit less coy if I do stick around and settle in more)
Okay thanks for reading!! ^_^
