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Well done everyone.

06:46 / 12.09.01

The events of the last 24 hours have shocked everyone across the world and no one knows what is likely to happen next. I'd just like to say thank you to the regular posters on Barbelith who have
been posting regular news reports to the board - particularly as other news resources on the net collapsed under the strain. I'm extremely proud of the community we've established. I don't think
the board has ever been so useful.

For anyone that's interested, I am opening up the Barbelith Webzine for people's thoughts and first person accounts of what happened. If you have something to say, write it and e-mail it to
me at the normal e-mail address (tom@barbelith.com) and I'll try and get it up on the site as soon as possible...

[ 12-09-2001: Message edited by: Tom Coates ]

Regrettable Juvenilia

08:51 / 12.09.01

At work yesterday, I kept getting the latest updates/rumours before anyone else in the office, and people kept asking me how... I had to lie. Well, what was I going to say, the comics/politics/weirdo messageboard I spend most of my working day on?

08:51 / 12.09.01

I really needed to be with people, even though I'm across the country, and even though I thought I wanted isolation, but it was many hours before I was able to see friends.

I think that being able to see everyone's reactions, speculations, and reports on the news thread went a long way to maintaining my sanity, especially since I can find little objective reason why I felt so affected. Thanks, Tom, and my very best to the NY/Washington folks, and to Wyrd, and everyone else directly affected.

08:51 / 12.09.01

I had a group of co-workers clustered around my PC at one point. Normally I’d be really discrete, but fuck it: it was the biggest news story of my lifetime, and my friends were involved. This place was by far the best news source I encountered. The mix of eyewitness accounts, up to the minute information and analysis enabled me to keep my office informed (including one close friend who had a relative in NYC who she hadn’t heard from).

The character, love and commitment displayed by the members of Barbelith has been incredibly moving. I was staggered by the accounts of the New Yorkers, thankful that you’d not only let us know you were OK but given your time to create a detailed, personal and accurate record of events. You are brilliant people and I’m proud to know you. I feel privileged to be a part of this board.

I’m praying for the situation in general, but if anyone has any specific requests please private message me. I’m just gutted that I have to work, rather than spend proper time interceding.

jUne, a sunshiny month

08:51 / 12.09.01

in the end of yesterday afternoon, all the french biggest medias were fucked up on the net, and i do believe that worldwide ones were broken too.
i was speakin online and on the phone and was telljn what i read here...
guess what ? i'd news here, after people took time to post, and that i tak etime to read it, BEFORE FRENCH NATIONALS BIGGEST TV's were doin it !
so i asked to all the people i knew to chekc the lith as the online news report.
my first thought, after wanting to take news from my NY pals, was chekin' the lith.
thanks a lot to all of you people.
and once again, all my thoughts to those who seek people, or who are waiting for news too.

Ronald Thomas Clontle

08:51 / 12.09.01

a number of friends of mine who know about this site from me but do not post had told me that they were looking to this site for news and analysis... I thought that was really amazing, and spoke well of us all.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

10:11 / 12.09.01

I've spent the night working in a press monitoring agency, reading the same stuff we knew at the end of last night over and over again... with the same hideous pictures over and over again... and it's kind of reassuring to get the view of other human beings who haven't become numbed (in every sense) by this... I think everyone I know's far from there, but that doesn't make me less horrified...
I know I only joined a few days ago, but the ranges of reaction expressed here confirm my initial good opinions... after 12 hours of media voice filling my eyes, it's good to remember there are human beings out there.
Love, hope & peace (in the unlikely event that's not too much to ask) to anyone involved or close to events. Sorry to sound so corny. I don't mean to.

11:30 / 12.09.01

I have no TV channels and no radio. Everyone on this board not only provided me with my sole information concerning what was going on. You also gave such a balanced and varied view of what was happening that when I talked about this tragedy with ohers, and they all repeated the same rhetoric, I wished the whole world would step into Barbelith from time to time.

12:44 / 12.09.01

quote:Originally posted by expressionless:
I had a group of co-workers clustered around my PC at one point. Normally I’d be really discrete, but fuck it: it was the biggest news story of my lifetime, and my friends were involved. This place was by far the best news source I encountered
...
The character, love and commitment displayed by the members of Barbelith has been incredibly moving. I was staggered by the accounts of the New Yorkers, thankful that you’d not only let us know you were OK but given your time to create a detailed, personal and accurate record of events. You are brilliant people and I’m proud to know you.

With you. Yes. Same thing happened here.
I'm amazed by this place. Between here and a link betty woo pointed me to on livejournal, I was way ahead of CNN. Incredible. Moving.

12:56 / 12.09.01

can i give some credit to the warren ellis delphi forum. i was switching between there and here all day yesterday, and a fair bit of the info i brought here came from them too.

14:23 / 12.09.01

In the midst of the emerging bloodlust, this is also one of the few places preventing me from losing all faith in humanity.

autopilot disengaged

23:41 / 12.09.01

maybe a seperate point, but it's 3 in the morning and my keys look like melting marshmallows...

anyway - what i was going to say was - when (and if) this is all over - could i suggest we do something with the posts it's generated?

though a lot of it may quickly become obsolete as the truth emerges, i think there have been some excellent, incisive and compassionate points made by assorted barbelithians - and some organized compendium of such would make a brilliant feature for the webzine (another bonus would be that it would be a work produced by a collective).

whaddya say?

Ganesh

03:06 / 13.09.01

I first heard when one of the nurses who'd been out get lunch and heard the radio burst into the office to tell us. There was a general scrabble for more information and, since we're crappy old NHS, no Internet access.

I went AWOL to the cyber-cafe around the corner (just beat the rush) and my first impulse was to head for Barbelith. Throughout events, this place has consistently been the quickest, most complete way of finding summaries of the situation and linking to updated news sites (everyone's been asking about my information sources, and at least three people have liked what they've read and registered here). It's also served to flag up and winnow out many of the rumours, scare stories and disinformation - as well as giving first-hand accounts and a lot of reassurance.

I absolutely agree that we should consider 'freezing' some of these threads, in some way, shape or form. If nothing else, it's a record of events unfolding and our reactions to them.

Tom: if this is likely to necessitate extra bandwidth, I'm willing to make a contribution. Could you email me the most recent address to which I can sent a donation?