Great essay. I got into fandom about 1994, too. And wow, I remember all of this. My first computer (other than work's) had a 28.8 modem built in. And I thought that was pretty cool. I'd been using a 9600 baud modem before that. They were the size of a hard cover book.

It's sort of amazing how fast the technology has changed. And how splintered we've all become.