NY FReepers who DISAPPEARED on-line the moment of the tragedy

Silly, FR archives ^ | Sept. 16, 2001 (late) | Silly

[Silly]

By searching the homepages of all NY FReepers, and clicking on the "Find In Forum" link, I have identified four FReepers who:
1] Were active posters (not dormant users);
2] Posting up until the tragedy;
2] Then suddenly stopped posting on FR.

I've listed the most alarming one first:

thefactor: Posted twice at 10:07 a.m. and 10:20 a.m. on Tuesday, watching in horror as "the tower" went down, describing chaos, and asking for prayer. See this thread: Plane Crashes into World Trade Center. Read his posts #112 and #119 VERY CAREFULLY and tell me whether you too think this sounds like an EYEWITNESS in the SECOND TOWER. We should check the timeline of events that day: What time did the first and second towers collapse? This FReeper also lives in NYC, according to previous posts. Young male.

The next three -- sorry, two -- stanz is accounted for -- are slightly less alarming, but still warrant our concern, as they were active posters. You and I know how addictive this place is. Why would someone be an active poster -- in NYC -- and then stop posting after one of the worst tragedies in history?

Attillathehon: posted from “the middle of Manhattan” at 9:51 AM Eastern on Tuesday; nothing since.

PBRSTREETGANG: a very frequent poster who last posted at 8:41 a.m. Eastern Tuesday, Sept. 11, and NOTHING since. Had posted the day before, then again moments before the initial strike of the North Tower.

NOTE: These are all active FReepers, not people who haven't posted in months.

Do you know these FReepers?

[Silly]

Captain,

I just have to say again that your point seems so valid and has calmed me. Thanks for thinking of it. It still would not surprise me, however, if this thing went either way -- it could be a TV watcher, someone in the neighborhood, or possibly a tenant in the tower.

Sometimes the most obvious facts -- like, "I'm in Tower 2" -- just don't always occur to people to make.

[537 Votes]

Read his posts #112 and #119 VERY CAREFULLY and tell me whether you too think this sounds like an EYEWITNESS in the SECOND TOWER.

No, because if you look at the earlier posts, you'll see remarks about the second tower having been hit too. As addictive as FR is, no one would stay at their computer after an airplane crashed into their building (and I'm pretty sure electricity would have gone out).

Furthermore, he stated only that he lived in NYC; if he had been in the second tower, he surely would have mentioned that. If you personally witnessed Kennedy get shot, would you say, "I was in Dallas at the time," or would you say, "I was right next to the Grassy Knoll!"

I don't know what happened to thefactor, but he wasn't in the towers.

[dandelion]

Yes, I was wondering the same thing. Time to pray, keep praying, pray without ceasing - there will be many, many things to pray about in the coming days...

[Nick Danger]

thefactor bookmarked the "I love this drawing" thread, about the eagle sharpening its talons, on his home page. That thread was not posted until the 14th. It would appear thefactor made it through.

[Silly]

If you are right next door to a collapsed building you are not on the internet talking about it.

I'm sure that you just have to be right about that... Let's pray that thefactor will check in. Thanks for more sanity.

...unless you think your building is safe...

[Silly]

NICK SOLVES IT -- GREAT SLEUTHING, DUDE!!!

thefactor bookmarked a thread posted AFTERWARDS on the 14th!

You win a big sticky bun from me, tough guy. I never thought to look for bookmarks. Dude, excellent.

thefactor is safe.

[firebrand]

I know some people who work downtown who were asked to report to buildings uptown for a few days. I think there are still power and phone outages.

[sigSEGV]

I manage the network remotely for an office in Manhattan, and I can say that there are still problems with communications.

[Silly]

do you have the thread [PBRSTREETGANG] posted in?

Just go to his homepage and click "Find in Forum."

[StayoutdaBushesWay]

Good work Nick :)

[Clinton's a rapist]

Impressive sleuthing.

[Silly]

Good points, both of you. My point, however, was merely to counter the "chaos" comment, like somehow the city was incommunicado. For the most part, it isn't. But your points are well taken.

[185JHP]

Is NYCGOPchick still with us? I liked PBR's "Apocalypse Now" screen name and I thought about asking him if he was on one. This isn't

[lowbridge]

Good to know thefactor is doing ok. :-) But here is the info anyways:

The first, American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 out of Boston for Los Angeles, crashed into the north tower at 8:48 a.m. Eighteen minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175, also headed from Boston to Los Angeles, plowed into the south tower.

In New York, the planes blasted fiery, gaping holes in the upper floors of the Twin Towers. A witness said he saw bodies falling and people jumping out. About an hour later, the southern tower collapsed with a roar and a huge cloud of smoke; the other tower fell about a half-hour after that.

FReepers started reporting the collapse of the second tower at about 10:01am

[Silly]

NYC GOP Chick last posted Wednesday evening, Sept. 12.

Go to her homepage, and click, "Find in Forum."

[BostonGuy]

I'm on an e-mail list that is run through an NYC T1 line. The list just came back on-line today, thanks to a neighbor sharing bandwidth on his still functioning T1 (the list host has not had his connectivity restored yet). There are definitely lines of communication that are still down in the "ground zero" area. I hope those that were near the destruction are OK, and I hope their lack of communication is due to inability to connect...

[right-sidedNYer]

What's the state of telecommunications in NY? Perhaps their communications link was damaged in the bombing. Maybe they just post from work (no home PC?) and they haven't been back since the bombing.

The state of communications in NY is far better than I would have anticipated in this situation. I can only tell you of my own experiences. I'm on southern LI - about 15 miles away from the WTC. I work for a company out in CA - and have not been able to get through to them since Tuesday. Through e-mails I have learned that the company they use routed their lines through the WTC - and even though they have tried rerouting on several occasions - there has been no success. I also have had a heck of a time getting through to my parents in CT on several occasions. One of the dial-around LD services I use only yields a "circuits are busy" busy signal - the other "this number has been disconnected." There also is no TV other than CBS w/o cable. I also have a friend up in Westchester County who has been without her DSL connection since Tuesday. Hopefully that's the problem with these NY Freepers. Will be checking back in.

[Silly]

To all:

I'm going to bed. Thanks for the impressive thread-bumping, concern, sleuthing and sanity.

Leave it to helpful FReepers to help me dig for facts and SO QUICKLY track down thefactor. Let's continue to work on the other two, please.

Jim,

In case you're checking this in the morning, the mystery has been solved. It seems the nightmare I was having was not a "ghost in the rafters" after all, but just a "bluebird in the attic."

[185JHP]

Thanks.