Just read an article in last week's New Yorker which made the comment that AOL was the first "consumer-oriented" online service and I had to laugh. I mean, really.

Steve Case ought to have a framed graphic of the Q-Link load screen on his office wall - and worship at it daily. After all, Q was the one that started it all for the online industry (and for me as well).

I was known variously as Dog Brain, Arf, and most commonly as RUSS20 and a few other left-hand type-twisters (designed to cut down OLM's while I was busy playing in the Trivia Rooms).

Q was still pretty rough when I managed to scrape up the cash to get the equipment I needed to sign on for the first time. I still remember my first night - stumbling into the Trivia room just in time to answer the question "Who murdered John Lennon?" I typed in "Mark A*****E Chapman." And someone named Meliffer typed "Oh Dear."

Meli's still a very close friend.

I loved Trivia games and played whenever there was a game. I was soon invited by Stique to be a co-host. Eventually, Q-Link even deigned to award online staff with free hours - so it was no longer such a financial hassle to play.

About 18 months into the whole experience, someone, I don't know who, casually suggested that some of use get together in real life. A few months later, we had our first Trivia Bash in Albany, New York.

What insanity! Got to meet Pat Bell, Ginzo, Milo, Ceilidh, Fortytude, Deverin. All in all there were about 35 of us - in a hotel conference room, playing online trivia. At our "banquet, Saturday night, one of the non-attending members, a computer magazine writer, had SPAM brought to our table --- hence the spam juggling that occurred later... Spudley did a presentation on exotic veggies - none of us slept. I remember speaking to everyone just before we broke camp on Sunday. I told the rest of the group that the whole online experience would be forever altered for them - little did I realize back then how prophetic that statement was.

Word of the bash got around quickly. Soon other groups started doing it - the Q-Link started doing it as well. We had other Trivia bashes - St Louis (what a time that was - Tjudge, if you're reading this, I promised I wouldn't ever tell) - from the screwed up flight, the unexpected overnight in Chicago, eating supper at Denny's at 6AM), Washington DC, Queens, Ocean NJ...

We all know what happened. Q ripped off most of the staff by refusing to transfer accumulated free time to AOL (I was out 2800$ worth of free time and, true to my word, still badmouth AOL whenever I get the chance - and I get plenty of chances).

I got my own ISP connection, plunged into USENET, greeted the WEB, changed careers - and now most of my life is built around computers - yup, everyone said that Commodores were toys - but Commodore and Q (and US, ALL OF US WHO WERE ONLINE) changed the face of the world with what they accomplished back then. Now terms that used to draw raised eyebrows from the mainstream - chat rooms, modem, online ARE the mainstream. It's getting harder and harder to feel like the pioneers that all of us were!

I still am in touch with Timely (who has settled down as health problems continue to plague him), Meli and Mom (2 of our dearest and closest friends), Patti and Bob - err Ceilidh and Spudley - they have their own record company now and a CD that's doing very well), and, too infrequently, Cait and Grizz. Last summer I drove past St Louis and wished I could contact Fantysis and her MOM (her MOM and I did some elbow time together at the St Louis Bash)

And you know, every once in a while I get email that starts out..."Hey - are you RUSS20? You probably don't remember me but ......." I still get pleasure from Q, even though it's been gone almost 5 years. I still have several Commodores, waiting for the retro movement to catch up. Who knows