I was a moderator (we didn’t call it that) at an online chess server, with live chat. When the attacks happened, people started to talk about it. At first I tried to moderate them, sending them to appropriate chat rooms, but soon the admins told me these were special circumstances and to just let people talk.
What was especially strange for me was that I might’ve been among the first people in my neck of the woods to hear about it. People were not chronically online at the time - I just happened to be online, and in a live chat environment with Americans, so I heard about it that way. When I turned on the TV, there was nothing yet. I kept switching between channels, and finally CNN was the first to interrupt their programming for a special bulletin, followed quickly by BBC. Other channels followed a bit later.
As for the conversations online, I mostly remember shock, and later fear of what this might start. Jokes and memes came later.
Oh wow, you just reminded me that this was the beginning of “all day all night all the time news”.
Pre 9/11 I don’t think it existed (I wasn’t really watching the news), but day of, as more and more information came in, they just kept updating when they had new news and reiterating what they had when there wasn’t anything new.
I was a moderator (we didn’t call it that) at an online chess server, with live chat. When the attacks happened, people started to talk about it. At first I tried to moderate them, sending them to appropriate chat rooms, but soon the admins told me these were special circumstances and to just let people talk.
What was especially strange for me was that I might’ve been among the first people in my neck of the woods to hear about it. People were not chronically online at the time - I just happened to be online, and in a live chat environment with Americans, so I heard about it that way. When I turned on the TV, there was nothing yet. I kept switching between channels, and finally CNN was the first to interrupt their programming for a special bulletin, followed quickly by BBC. Other channels followed a bit later.
As for the conversations online, I mostly remember shock, and later fear of what this might start. Jokes and memes came later.
Oh wow, you just reminded me that this was the beginning of “all day all night all the time news”.
Pre 9/11 I don’t think it existed (I wasn’t really watching the news), but day of, as more and more information came in, they just kept updating when they had new news and reiterating what they had when there wasn’t anything new.