(posted Feb 14, 1998 by Firebird)
       Two years ago a 14 year old kid spied something called a MUD on his
local freenet.  A little black and white window opened up in his terminal with:
DentinMud v2.04
            /\                    /     ______________    ______       /\
          /   \                 /             /         /            /   \
        /      \              /             /         /            /      \
      /-------- \           /             /         /            /_______/
    /            \        /             /         / -------    /       \
  /               \     /             /         /            /          \
/                  \  /_________    /         /_________   /             \
            /\                    ______     ___
          /   \                 /           /   \           /\               /
        /      \              /           /      \        /   \            /
      /-------- \           /           /         \     /      \         /
    /            \        / -------     \         /   /         \      /
  /               \     /                \      /   /            \   /
/                  \  /_________          \___/   /               \/

                        -The Original DentinMUD
                        Coded entirely by Dentin.
  -Soon, we will have our own wing at the Betty Ford Clinic.

     This was the first intro screen I ever saw.  I was rather amused by 
this...what is this...some sort of game.  It asked me for a name and I scoured
my imagination for something, then looking across my computer table I spied my
Gravis Firebird joystick...and then there was Firebird.

     After going through the lengthy process of your first login, I popped
into old mud school.  The first thing I ever heard on gossip was Nathalie and
some guy named Cock flaming at each other...this was great!  I farted around, 
and I tried to ask someone for help.  I tried to say help but I just typed
help.  A screen came up and I was truly amazed.  I looked at every single one
of those things, and managed to get a couple of levels and some equipment.  I
was rather proud of myself, and I remember arguing with some high levels about
whether 500 xp was a lot or not.  I loved to kill baby bears.

     I went to school the next day, asked some of the geeks in the computer
lab about muds, they sat me down and chatted for an hour.  It kind of scared
me off for a couple of days until someone with some sense heard I mudded.  At
my school only four did.  He told me alot about the stuff, and all three of
those kids gave me a bunch of addies.  I visited all of em but they really, 
sucked.  I kept coming back to Alter Aeon, to the people, the fights, the neat
little features.  Other muds all looked the same to me, but the way the screen
scrolled, the way the mud responded to commands was excellent.  Even during lag
I've gotten so used to it I can feel when commands go through. I got a hold of 
my own envy-mud code about a year ago I tried to make a mud.  Me and two other 
guys went to work.  Sucked.  One ran around with his god-char killing stuff to
get eq, one chatted with all his mudbuds from other muds, and I tried to
improve it.  I tried to think of all the things DentinMud had, and I tried to
make it like that.  I never even got started.  The system admin deleted my
account on the server, and the mud admin deleted my char.  I'm not a very
amiable person.

     I checked everywhere to find another so that I'd have somewhere to go when
Alter Aeon was down.  I never found one.  DentinMud's the greatest mud, no one
can argue against that towards me, no one can sway my opinion.  I don't know 
what's going on, I don't even pretend to like most of us are doing. Personally,
I think this is just a big scare tactic by the powers that be, trying to make
us, the people of Alter Aeon, fly straight.  Too many deviants, cheaters,
spammers and flamers.  Give it up kiddies, if this mud goes away I'll have to
go back to playing Doom.

(The last paragraph refers to the Kenai Armageddon invasion, during which
many rumors were started, and no-one knew what was going on.  -dentin)