I just spent minimum 2 hours spelunking through internet archives looking for old friends that I lost when Quizilla and Polyvore shut down. Because none of us ever thought those sites would go anywhere, or thought to exchange emails. For a few of us, I got as far as individual profile pages even, but couldn't get into "journals" or Stuff. With Quizilla, we had a little warning and could circulate our new usernames on other sites at least, but those have vanished now too. So I have reached a dead end, and it makes me sad.
I miss the people I used to know back then. They were closer friends in some cases than people I knew irl, even though we only ever had usernames and nicknames, and I spent years of my life chatting/writing/posting with them. Some of them probably saved my life without ever knowing honestly. I wonder if some of them, the ones I hung on every word of their fics and rp posts, ever went on to write a traditional novel, or a choose your own adventure app/book, or anything like that. I wonder if any of them found me here or on AO3, or if I found them, under some foreign new username and we don't even know it.
And unless I want to post my usernames, that I'm not sure I even remember right, and just hope that shot in the dark works, I have nowhere else to go, just accept that those bonds are lost.
