I'm curious, Thomas--how did you get involved with this Q&A forum?

-- Nonnie (x96smock@wmich.edu), April 24, 1999

Answers

The simple answer: I started it and run it.

I knew about Philip Greenspun's web development site, and a few days before the movie premiered I created the forum on the www.greenspun.com server. In retrospect, it was an easy and obvious decision; I suspected that people would want something like this once the movie came out.

Creating a forum on the server is easy and free, and requires only a modicum of technical and HTML knowledge. For a while it was the largest Q & A forum, eventually bogging-down the entire server. It was looking dismal until Greenspun moved all the Q & A forums to a new multiprocessor computer called Xolas.

Now the TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) forum is number one; it will soon pass the 100,000 posting mark in the next few weeks with no signs of slowing (if anything, it will speed up as we near the end of the year).

Nonnie: By the way, you were the 7500th posting here.

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-- Thomas M. Terashima (tom@nucleus.com), April 28, 1999.

Further to your question:

I should also credit all those who have posted here. A list of some of them are on the statistics page. We haven't seen much from Dan Draghici (the top poster) lately; he seems to be busy after graduating college.

-- Thomas M. Terashima (tom@nucleus.com), April 29, 1999.

Hi Thomas,

Just curious, but why isn't my e-mail addy on the statistics page? I think it may depend on the number of postings I submit; I think I may have to reach a certain point to be recognized. Well, just wondering!

-- Kelly (kelly_Rose1@hotmail.com), April 29, 1999.

Kelly:

It depends on the number of postings you've made from a specific email address; you're about 22 away from showing-up on the list.

-- Thomas M. Terashima (titanicshack@yahoo.com), May 02, 1999.

Did you have an interest in the story of Titanic before the movie came out?

-- Nonnie (nonnie@switchboardmail.com), May 04, 1999.

I knew of the disaster (mostly from reading an abridgement of A Night to Remember in an oldReader's Digest) but it was the past two years that really got me involved. The Cameron film was the catalyst; the history, the myths, and the grey area inbetween continue to hold my interest.

-- Thomas M. Terashima (titanicshack@yahoo.com), May 04, 1999.