Go into your SJ Inbox and you will find some funny (and heartwarming) shirt

[swingline]

swingline is my second handle on here, but I can't remember the password to my old handle.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

My first DM was from IJAG. She had sussed out we had mutual friends.

 

[MTM]

My first DM was in 2008 with SoCalDude discussing a terrible boss we discovered we both worked for through a thread about terrible bosses.

Then there are a lot of messages to copperpot from when we played Sheep.

 

[PaperDoll]

Apparently back in Feb. 2003, @Smallpotatoes and I discussed which high school sport has the worst parents. I'm sticking with swimming.

 

[qtlaw]

I was talking to IJAG about how "good " the Ws were in …2007!

 

[jr/shotglass]

Piotr Rasputin certainly got the Best of My Love for a while there.

 

[bumpy mcgee]

My first DM is a congrats from Jesus Muscatel on 'an inspiring Heywood Jablome,' reference. The classics never die.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

The oldest PM/DM that I kept was from IJAG in 2008 wondering why in the fork I wasn't answering my phone.

 

[I Should Coco]

OK, that was interesting and not what I thought would be there.

I started here in early 2009 (after all the Obama election fireworks) and it was primarily for the jobs board, as I was looking to move from the Midwest to the Northwest. It eventually happened in summer 2009, and I haven't looked back.

So anyway, just about all my early DMs were about job offers -- either ones I was seeking or others asking me about the Quad-Cities job openings.

I had forgotten that UP Chip and I connected way back then as former Yoopers (although I only worked up there for a few years).

There was also this interesting advice/commentary from April 2009 about moving to western Montana (a few details omitted to protect the poster's identity):

The paper isn't great. It's a fairly typical small town paper, and stories have gotten killed b/c advertisers might get upset. The SE and city editors are fantastic. I don't speak of the managing editor. It's not a great paper, to be honest, but it has some really amazing writers and the people who do leave tend to go onto bigger and better things. Hagadone isn't nearly as involved with it as it is with CDA, which is a very good thing (least as long as the old man is alive).

It paid well when I was there, better than (other shop). It's affordable as long as you aren't trying to buy a house. Housing prices are batshirt (damned Californians), but rental prices are about where they should be for the area. Hagadone owns one of the big complexes (very affordable and very cool townhouse type units) and you can get moved up the waiting list really fast.

 

[I Should Coco]

Of course, by 2010 there were a ton of DMs with SJ.com college football poll ballots (or replies to harassing reminders for said ballots).

I have slappy4428 to thank for that!

 

[dixiehack]

First one was from Brookerton, who hasn't posted in nine years.

I saw your post about the plagarism. Do you work for the [redacted] newspaper?

I did indeed, although I remember none of the details. We didn't have any plagiarism that I'm aware of then so it may have been someone ripping us off.

If you look for DMs in early July 2006 there's an appeal for funds from Webby that may list every poster at that point in time in the To: field, or at least the most frequent ones.

 

[ChrisLong]

In 2014, the day after I retired, ending my 44-year newspaper career, I posted a recap of my time in the business. It was quite lengthy. The next post was a shot at me by VERSATILE about the long post and who cares. I said nobody made him read it.
Then I got a PM from AMY, who said she wanted to slap Versatile silly. She congratulated me on my career. That was nice.