On July 24th, 2001 I received an email from Johanne Chaine [Alexandrie] informing me I'd been accepted as Wincustomize.com's newest Wizop.

The only reason I 'remember' the date is that somehow I managed NOT to lose the email after a decade of new systems/computers/whatever.

The list of CC's is a veritable who's who of the world of Skinning way back then.

iMike, Shoggot, Renato C. Veras Jr, Patrick Ford, Migellito, David Knott, Brad Wardell, Kris Kwilas, Snoopsoft, and Angela Marshall. [and sent by Johanne].

Those were the then Admins/Wizops prior to my promotion....and a pretty illustrious bunch they were, too.  {fortunately I was able to lower the standard... just to keep things real]...

Probably most now-a-days might not recognize the names.....so their nicks are...

iMike, Shoggot, treetog, T-Man, Migellito, DavidK, Frogboy, Nakor, Snoopsoft and Karmagirl [and Alexandrie].

Needless to say I'd known all of these 'guys' back before the beginnings of Wincustomize... we'd all ...er.... 'migrated' [through necessity] from skinz.org - our original social 'home'.

At that time a co called 'eFront' was effectively ruining the site [they couldn't differentiate between 'ruining' and 'running' - probably 'just' a typo], Customize.org was under 're-invention' or had just done so, Deskmod appeared a little 'wobbly'....and a guy called Jark had just launched Deviantart.com which was originally a haven for skinz.org skinner refugees but fairly soon focussed more on its intended 'target'....any/all online artists generally.

So, that's the background...and the content of the email was....

"He is already a leader in the community!

I would like to welcome abord Jafo as our new wizop, I'm sure he will do
a great job on WinCustomize.

Congratulation JAFO you deserve it!


Regards
Johanne Chainé "

I kinda think Johanne had a soft spot for me...

One of the interesting names in the CC was 'shoggot'.  He was a long-time admin of skinz.org [whereas I had only just become one a week before its demise [ I still claim there was no relation]], and one of his roles was being the single decider of what made it...or did not make it into skinz's wallpaper gallery.

I remember all those people simply trying in vain to get one passed....and particularly when Doreen succeeded [once]...

One job I took on as 'new Mod on the block' was to review all [then] 700 wallpapers in our gallery here and cull those with 'issues' and/or of particularly poor quality.... not a simple task on a 33.6k dialup at $2.00 per hour [back then].  The process probably cost me personally a hundred or so dollars...

Over the early days of Wincustomize the site's purpose [raison d'etre] evolved [as things do] and not to everyone's favour which led to one or two departures from our ranks, both generally and at 'admin' level.  Later, some of the crew focused on other projects, whilst both Brad and Angie were [mostly] happy to leave the day-to-day dramas-and-teen-angst in the Mods' hands.

On a side note, my new position had me in closer/more regular contact with DavidK and it was he who mentioned one night [my time] that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center.  Sharing such a moment with someone half a world away [in Canada] brings you close.  Unfortunately Dave's health has since deteriorated and he is unable to continue to interact online.

***********************************

10 years later and actually nothing has changed, not really.

People still skin.

People still get uptight with each other.

People still submit simply horrible stuff and have it rejected.

People still complain about that.

People still expound they can cure the world/Stardock's failings/skinning's 'decline'/cancer.

People still get their bums kicked into oblivion [exiled].

People still entertain, interact and enjoy being HERE.

....and I still enjoy being HERE, too.

Here's to another 10 years....