You might remember me as VeNoM

[Gangrif]

Hey folks, I've been sort of absent from this community for too long.

In the BBS days I was VeNoM. This is literally the first "handle" I ever used online, from back in the days of Dial-up bbs's, and my young teenage years. I'd chosen the name because of the comic book character.

That me is long behind me. But I kept the name in the BBS community all this time just to maintain consistency.

Life is very different now than it was even a few years ago when I shut down my BBS. I was (and am once more) the SysOp of The Underground BBS. The Underground was online from somewhere in the early 2000's when I bought the entire software stack of a BBS that I'd learned to BBS on, after it had gone offline. That BBS used to be Cyberspace 7 BBS. But I digress. The Underground was online almost nonstop from somewhere around 2002 until I shut it down somewhere in 2017-2018.

The board wasnt getting a lot of traffic anymore, and frankly, I just didn't have the time for it. I've had a career in IT/OPS for something like 20 years, starting out in support, and working my way up. I was a Senior Sysadmin in Higher-ed when I shut down the board. Anyone who's worked as a sysadmin in Higher-ed can probably relate. It's demanding. You're asked to do a lot with very little staff, money, and hardware. Then some management changes made my day to day life just hell. Well, maybe hell isnt the right word. We'll say that the job that used to bring me fulfillment was now a source of stress and anxiety.

Luckily, about a year ago, an opportunity presented itself, and all my years of living in the open source and linux world finally paid off. I was able to get a position working for Red Hat. Not only did this get me out of the high stress and high responsibility job I was in, but it got me into a 9-5 job, no more hights/weekends, and no more commute!

Fast forward to a few days ago, when this very community here suddenly got a resurgence. I can say that I am ready to see this take off, and Im ready to be part of it.

The Underground BBS came back online this morning, from a backup I'd taken before I deleted the AWS instance I was running it on. I'm a tad excited! I cant wait to see where this goes.

I'm Still VeNoM on The underground, but I'm Gangrif in just about every other tech community (including all of our internal communities at Red Hat), so It's time to consolidate.

Thanks Questman for keeping this thing alive, and Duckula for the new life you're hopefully bringing to it.

[killdash9]

Great to here and welcome back!

[Nuke]

Miss the board VeNoM - that was killer!
-=Nuke=-