Steven Den Beste and I have been friends for about 8 years now.

Originally, we clashed on Usenet.  But eventually we set up a Political Forum on Stardock's own News server (news://news.stardock.com) which is where Steven Den Beste and I had some great discussions with many others.  He eventually migrated to putting up his own website which I linked to at the start from the various Stardock sites to help get it going. 

His blog then inspired me to put up JoeUser.com which eventually got opened to all. So indeed, Steven's had a huge impact on many.

The USS Clueless was in fact one of my seminal blogging experiences as well (pretty sure I ran across it from surfing Draginol's various sites actually). He wrote some of the most extensive and well thought out political articles I have read to date. Ranks right up there with VDH as the best in the world in my book (blogroll).

I take pride in the fact that I was one of the very first readers of Steven's blog, having checked out his Web site weekly before he even styarted the blog. I met him (and Draginol) on Usenet, in comp.os.os2.advocacy, when I was an OS/2 user and Steven was a Windows user who had to use OS/2 Warp at work (and didn't like it).

Over the years I have started to consider Steven one of my friends and , as far as I know, that was mutual.

I never much liked Web forums and still read Usenet, but when Steven moved off Usenet and onto the Web, I started reading blogs because of him. I read his blog and the blogs he linked to. That's how I ended up on JoeUser.

Although I can't claim to be one of Steven's friends, I do think of him as a friend. Coming from what seems to be a similar background to Andrew's, I find myself a perpetual lurker. How you guys find the time to participate so fully in so many discussions is beyond me. Heck, I have a hard enough time just following them.

That said, I've come to appreciate the wealth of knowledge that I've been exposed to while lurking. From politics, to science, to history, to engineering, and to the humanities - I really do respect the expertise that presents itself, whether on Usenet, JU, or USS Clueless, or elsewhere. And add to that, the fact that it comes from all corners of the earth, I truly am astounded!

When Steven closed down his BBS I lost track of a number of folks whose writings I like. Perhaps some of them are here, but I just don't recognize their new handles.

Anyway, best wishes to Steven and all the regulars who have fed me on so many occassions. I am forever in your debt. On the off chance that Steve is reading this, you are in my thoughts and my prayers.

Dave Lewis