<p>1,000 posts?! <glyph of=“” scratching=“” beard=“”> Okay, I’ll stamp your passport with the “<em>Senior</em>” Newcomer’s stamp. You must come by some time…I’ll show you photos of the CC landscape when the rocks were still cooling.</glyph></p>
<p>So tell us. When <em>did</em> CC start up? How long were you all on the old forum software? Historical curiousity…</p>
<p>
ooooh, ooooh, OOOOH!!! Come to MY house!!! <em>I’LL</em> serve you personally, and besides, lts, I’ve been WAITING forever to have you over!!! 
~b.</p>
<p>I arrived in October 2002 or so. I remember the big deal shortly thereafter about passing the 50,000 post mark…total, for the whole board. A few months back, I did some SEARCHing to come up with my first posts. There are more people that I had realized still around from that era, though some post but rarely…I saw still-familiar names responding to my first question(s), though some have morphed into new identities.</p>
<p>Cruising old threads made me feel nostalgia…and ancient. Some flames that burned very bright, both student and parent, have gafiated and are gone as if they never existed. I wonder what happened to some of the students from that era…I hear from a couple occasionally but for others I can only imagine. </p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that some day I, too, shall sail from Greyhavens into the West but that time is not yet. I still have debts to pay forward. And a new wave of data acquisition in the offing.</p>
<p>There were far fewer separate Forums in the old days. And even within Forums, things have expanded dramatically. There were no Cafes. Breaking out some colleges from the mass was a multi-step process. Ivies first. Top LAC’s in response a few weeks later. Top (Other) in response almost immediately after that. Organizing the remainder into Alphabetical later still.</p>
<p>Oh, yeah…I remember when there were no Mods. It was a bit of Wild West but the board was smaller and it wasn’t quite as necessary, imo. “What Are My Chances” was as pointless and angst-ridden then.</p>
<p>I think that CC started in either late 2000 or early 2001.</p>
<p>anyone can surf the old posts just by clicking on “College Discussion Archive” at the bottom all this (and any other CC page)</p>
<p>Thanks. Gafiated? I haven’t met a word I didn’t know in decades.</p>
<p>CONGRATULATIONS!!! </p>
<p>Do you get a “Senior” card in the mail? Or is it like being a high school senior, where you can skip class with impunity? With college applications looming in the horizon?</p>
<p>I got an A.A.R.P. card: “American Association of (should-be) Retired Posters”</p>
<p>Sorry, AlumMother, it’s a word I’m trying to slide into general usage.</p>
<p>gafiate = Get Away From It All</p>
<p>origin: used among people up to their eyebrows and beyond in science fiction fandom (planning conventions, making costumes, reading/watching/arguing etc.) to describe those who were once active but have gone away and gotten immersed in the “Mundane” world with things like spouses, kids, careers (though having same is not exclusive of participating in fandom). </p>
<p>It’s a word that by tireless effort I expect to be firmly established as general slang sometime in the next three centuries.</p>
<p>LOL theDad</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.jessesword.com/sf/view/179[/url]”>http://www.jessesword.com/sf/view/179</a></p>
<p>Gafiation. Who knew. LOL TheDad wasn’t kidding…</p>
<p>BTW, Dig, come back to the Alley. Now we have dolphins and seals feeding us grapes at your party…</p>
<p>Does TheDad <em>ever</em> kid?</p>
<p>Word is that he’s so relentlessly serious that he’s a real wet blanket at party. He probably could shut down an orgy by suddenly asking a question about combinatorics or Fermat’s Last Theorem.</p>
<p>…unless he actually <em>got</em> an answer, in which case the orgy could continue, and a debate would rage in a corner.</p>
<p>Mathematicians. You never know when you will run into them…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p><em>OR</em> the orgy might INTENSIFY–that is, if there were some bizarre women attending who somehow found combinatorics or Fermat’s Last Theorem to be a real turn on… 
</p>
<p>~b.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/proof/germain.html[/url]”>http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/proof/germain.html</a></p>
<p>…the true story of Sophie Germain, an 18th-century woman who assumed a man’s identity in order to pursue her passion – attempting to prove Fermat’s Last Theorem</p>
<p>Arghhh… Fermat’s Last Theorem’s been done. Wanna be a millionnaire? Then try anyone of these: </p>
<h1>Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture</h1>
<h1>Hodge Conjecture</h1>
<h1>Navier-Stokes Equations</h1>
<h1>P vs NP</h1>
<h1>Poincar</h1>
<p>Hodge Conjecture: if my wife finds out that I’m at an orgy, she’ll murder me.</p>
<p>Poincare Conjecture: if my mistress finds out that I’m at an orgy, she’ll murder me. (Note that Poincare was French.)</p>
<p>Riemann Hypothesis: I’m not going to get to go this, am I?</p>
<p>P vs. NP: don’t ask, don’t tell.</p>
<p>Yang-Mills Theory: too graphic to be discussed on this board.</p>
<p>Yours for edification…</p>
<p>TheDad:
You left out three. I’ll start with the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture: Sounds like an S&M party to me.</p>
<p>ROFLMAO!!! Only on CC could an initially-cryptic countdown thread turn into 118 posts ranging from invitations to virtual parties at SA, to the history of CC to math theorems…see what you’ve started Mr. Senior Digi?</p>
<p>Marite, I didn’t want to betray any knowledge that I didn’t have. Thank you for stepping forward and filling in one of the gaps. :)</p>