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!