I have not been interested in some of the “social networking” sites on the Internet, such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter or even YouTube. This opinion has been formed after spending nearly 15 years being involved in online gaming, sharing many different aspects of my life with others. Many of these individuals I had never met, but through gaming formed an online relationship with because of our gaming interests. I became so involved with gaming, I became a involved with a development team who developed an online game beginning in 1999.

Since my retirement I have disassociated myself with anything online game related. I got tired of being in the spotlight and dealing with the demands and stress created by these online relationships. I continue to share my thoughts and interests on this site, but have never taken any interest in sharing my thoughts with friends whom I have known through school or work over the years.

Recently a friend I play soccer with sent me an e-mail invite from Facebook. I had heard of the site, but never signed up or added a profile. My sister and wife both had MySpace accounts, again I never visited, but did sign up so I could see some of my sister’s information. Since 1995 I have maintained my little piece of cyberspace here, on The 6th Floor, which was created out of my online alias, which was “Oswald” (yes, the patsy in the JFK assassination). The site has seen many changes, once mainly game related, the site has shifted interests to other personal interests such as amateur radio, 68 Cougar and other random news I provide.

Earlier this week I did create a Facebook profile. Since signing up I have added a few friends including some I play soccer with, as well as coworkers from jobs past and high school buddies. My sister told me, “don’t hate social networking…you haven’t even given it a chance.” I have, it was the years I spent being a figurehead in a gaming community we created. Yet I am willing to give social networking a chance. Hell, my sister even told my my mother has a Facebook page!

While I would much rather direct friends of mine to this site, I am going to start some level of participation on Facebook. Hopefully my friends will decide to read more of my dribble here on T6F. I am also looking at incorporating Twitter into the next version of The 6th Floor. We will see how that goes.