According to Google, it was twenty years ago today, that I made my first comment in an on-line forum (that doesn’t link to my comment which, it seems, has escaped the archives, but to one which quotes it).

It was a post to the then-active alt.music.pink-floyd Usenet newsgroup. It includes the obligatory typo (PInk) and an embarrassingly-mangled signature (I shared a Demon Internet dial-up account with my then boss, Graham). The content was relatively trivial.

But even so, I had no idea where it would lead me. It was the first-step on a life-changing journey; being online effectively became my career, first as a website manager, then as a freelance consultant, and as a Wikipedian (and Wikimedian) in Residence. It greatly enhanced my life experiences, created opportunities for travel, and is the foundation of many long-lasting “meatspace” friendships, with people from all around the world.

So I’m using this anniversary as an excuse to ask you all to call for an open, fair and internet. Join the Open Rights Group or a similar organisation. Let your MP or other representative know that you support net neutrality and oppose repressive legislation. Don’t let vested interests spoil what we have made.

And please, forgive my twenty years of awful typing.