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#9039 10/26/00 09:40 PM
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Marty Offline OP
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I'm interested to learn how other people got to know about AWAD (the word-a-day email service) and this board AWADtalk.

In my case it went like this... I saw a newspaper ad with a really odd title, something like NOT A SUN IN PERU (but that's not quite right). Turns out it was an ad for superannuation, and quite a clever one, using anagrams for many of the keywords. At the bottom, in very fine print, was an acknowledgement of Anu Garg's Internet Anagram Server http://wordsmith.org/anagram/index.html.

I checked out the URL, and was immediately captivated to see the words INTERNET ANAGRAM SERVER rearrange themselves to form I, REARRANGEMENT SERVANT. I plugged a few names into the system, marvelled at the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of words that were returned very quickly, and thought, cute. Some weeks later I followed a link from that page to the AWAD home page, signed up for the AWAD mail, and then on to AWADtalk. I read AWADtalk postings for a while until one day I felt the urge to contribute to one of the discussions.

What's your story?

(Apologies if you've done this before, but I guess we've had a lot of strangers join us since then, anyway)


#9040 10/26/00 09:54 PM
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My story is sadly prosaic. Some months ago, my father bought a Reader's Digest book entitled, "Teach Yourself Computers, the Internet and Windows 98." In the section on mailing lists, it has a page "INTERESTING MAILING LISTS" and AWAD was on it, so I subscribed. I was an AWAD subscriber for around ten months before I joined AWADtalk.


#9041 10/26/00 10:31 PM
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I was also flipping through a magazine when I came upon an <intersting web site> blurb. I tore it out but did not look up the site for some two months or so because I lost it. When I found the scrap of paper again I was hooked.

It took about two weeks to join AWADtalk after joining AWAD. I must admit that I didn't read the stuff at the bottom because all that is usually just advertising. The day I read it...off I was in AWADtalk.


#9042 10/27/00 01:41 AM
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An angel!
A good friend of mine signed me up to get AWAD, not even knowing about the bulletin board, because she knew I
love words! I noticed the mention of AWADtalk a few days later, watched a while, then got up my nerve and logged in.
I have written her super-grateful thank-you notes!
I love you people!!!


#9043 10/27/00 01:43 AM
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#9044 10/27/00 02:45 AM
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I was introduced to the Wordsmith over a year ago by my brother in law who had found the anagrams. He showed me some funny thing he had come across when anagraming our names, I think. I looked at the site and found the AWAD mailing list, which I have enjoyed exceedingly. Only after I recently found myself underemployed did I have the inclination to see what all this AWADtalk was all about.


#9045 10/27/00 05:15 AM
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For me, it was just a lucky event:
For my classes I am making a lot of wooden models of mathematical objects; between them there are some devices to draw algebraic curves; so I was thinking about the SPHIROGRAPH, which is a toy to make wonderful drawings putting a pen in a hole in a wheel rolling over another wheel...
I understand that you all are thinking "what can be the link to AWAD??"
Well, searching in the Web for "spirograph", I found a virtual copy of it... in Anu's page!


#9046 10/27/00 01:55 PM
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I do third level helpdesk support, and notice AWAD in someone mail (actually AWAD was open when i came to assist). After resolving the users problem, we talked about words, and she was kind enough to forward the word of the day to me, and i subscibed. That was a few months ago. It taken me time to explore the AWAD site, and I read posting for a while.

It is an addictive place..


#9047 10/27/00 02:11 PM
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jmh Offline
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I think I joined a Word a Day in 1996, it was mentioned in a magazine, I think. I do love it (and don't tell Anu ... but it is very useful for checking that your e-mail is working).

I noticed the "Happy Sexennium, AWAD! Announcing Birth of AWADtalk" mail in March and just had to have a look. Its been great fun. I love the range of people that are attracted to the board.

The mail said "On this occasion, we at Wordsmith World Headquarters present a bulletin board AWADtalk http://wordsmith.org/board/awadtalk.cgi where you can absorb words,discuss your favorite ones, powwow with fellow linguaphiles, help each other in sleuthing mystery themes, ask questions about etymologies, chitchat about
puzzles, wordplay, crosswords and anything else that you can imagine."

I think we've managed to do all that, especially the "anything else that you can imagine" bit!


#9048 10/27/00 02:24 PM
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old hand
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I'd never heard of AWAD until early this year - a friend (who was an AWAD subscriber) on another messageboard posted the AWADtalk URL. I followed, having nothing better to do at the time. And I stuck.


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