J Fortuna wrote:

Having just accidentally made a fool of myself by not realizing that Rob
Halgren has been part of rgo since the very beginning of its history (see
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...u.edu&rnum=183),
I thought that maybe it is time for a humble request:



I wasn't offended...

Could those of you, who have been around rgo for a while, please share with
those of us, who like me know very little about its history, something about
how rgo was started, who has been around for like forever, who isn't around
anymore but you wish they were + any stories that are especially memorable
from rgo history, anything you would advise us to look for in the archives
perhaps? For example: I once spent an entire evening ROFL while reading a
selection of the threads that Mick Fournier has been involved in over time.



Aren't many 'old timers' still posting. Aaron Hicks posts
sometimes. And a few more. It is difficult to maintain the energy to
do it for several years. I took a year or two mostly off too. I think
a lot of old timers still read the group, just don't post much. My
distant memory seems to recall that we (Rod Venger was the driving
force, who has since gone on to other things) started out as a
subculture on the rec.gardens group. Back in the good old days (before
AOL got usenet, and before them it was some other band of internet
barbarians... *grin*) a newsgroup was a great way, and perhaps the only
way, to communicate and ask questions over the net. Now we have
web-logs, wiki-wiki pages, orchid web forums, and the whole bit. I only
ever read this newsgroup, sorry. As an aside, I was one of the first
people to have a web page devoted to orchids
(http://www.msu.edu/~halgren). I confess it hasn't changed much since I
created it, back when you had to install your web browser in several
parts and figure out what a 'winsock' was.

The flame war between Mick and Rod was memorable. I don't know that
it was pleasant... Some topics come up over and over again (where do I
cut my Phal spike is a good one). The influxes of 'newbies' when
various dialup services went on line was kind of fun. Before that,
everybody on the usenet was either a college student or had access to a
university network, some military folks, and the hard core tech people
(hackers and legitimately employed, both). I wish I could remember the
name of the first horde... It was a bit of a shock to our culture.
Everybody knew the rules of internet politeness (or was soon hammered
down - that was always fun), even if they didn't always abide by them.
It was pretty anarchic, and you actually needed to know something to be
there. The hordes changed that, but I think now (in the last couple of
years) things have reached a pretty good equilibrium.

Thanks -- and sorry to be too ignorant and too talkative at times



No such thing as either, as long as you ask questions you will learn
stuff. It is only people that ask questions and then don't learn from
them that get under my skin...

--
Rob's Rules: http://www.msu.edu/~halgren
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a. See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to purchase
more orchids, obtain more credit