Interview #7:
For the 7th interview, I had the pleasure to meet up with Nattie. It was the opportunity for a deeper insight of a member of the first hours of TF. We go back to the incipient ToriForum and its founding members and the idea that drove to it. We also get to understand what are the reasons for the success of such a forum.
Redcloud: Hey Nattie, how are you doing?
Nattie: Good, How are you honey?
Redcloud: I feel great! Thanks.
Nattie: I'm just sitting here listening to a few tracks from The Beekeeper, by Tori of course. Tori has been inspirational to me in so many ways lately
Redcloud: So what do I do if you already know all my questions?? LMAO
Nattie: I don't know any of them actually...
Redcloud: No problem lol
Nattie: Okay
Redcloud: What's the most inspirational album for you?
Nattie: That's a really good question.
Redcloud:
Nattie: I've been listening to a lot of Tori lately, actually I've listened to her almost every day for seven years straight now. But right now I'm truly and deeply inspired by The Beekeeper. The organic feel to it is really calling out to me and I've found myself listening to nature a lot more now that I've become more aware of it through Tori's music.
Redcloud: Are you inspired by the sheer silence and noises of nature?
Nattie: Of course. The calls of nature are alive. The wind speaks to me and it inspires me through its magical chaos.
Redcloud: So you're a member of the first hours of TF. How did you run into this web site?
Nattie: I'd been a friend of Haullie's (From http://www.alltheseyears.net) for a while. I had gone to her website looking for research on rape, as I was a survivor. I saw that she was looking for Administrators at her new forum:: The Toriforum. I told her I was, of course, interested, so she set me up and I was on my journey of love and friendship that I see there everyday now.
Redcloud: Have you stayed in touch with her?
Nattie: Yes! Through our growing friendship, that is actually growing everyday, we became fast friends which eventually grew into creating A Sorta Fundraiser (http://silent.alltheseyears.net) together and that grew into me and her meeting in California to do an "in-person" fundraiser. We had the best time! I stayed at her house for a week, I've never had a better time.
Nattie: She’s a wonderful woman and a strong friend.
Redcloud: So she had an accurate idea of what the forum should be. What was this idea at the time?
Nattie: Well, in the past their had been other Tori Forums wherein the members were very nasty to each other. Haullie's original idea was to create a safe, loving environment wherein NO internet Drama would ensue.
The forum has been successful to date in keeping trolls and cruel members out.
Redcloud: Who were the other first members to register in TF?
Nattie: The ones that I can recall are Haullie, Pat, Jennifer and Me. We were also the original administrators
Redcloud: They were aware of this idea. But how well did the following members fit in this idea?
Nattie: Haullie made it well known that the Toriforum was a safe place. There were, of course, some trolls from the "other" nastier forums who tried to ruin the forum through insulting and hurting. But everyone in the beginning knew about Haullie's intentions because most of the members were introduced to the forum through Haullie personally. I still only invite people who I know will benefit from the love and growing support that is shown everyday at the forum.
Redcloud: How did the forum evolve from there? After the trolls left, how many active members were there?
Nattie: The forum grew incredibly fast. I saw on other forums that they were making fun of how fast our forum was growing. It may have been that they were jealous. Because a lot of people heard about our loving, supportive environment and left the other forums because of the nastiness. I believe within the first year we had more than 150 members.
Redcloud: That's respectable indeed. Do you remember a period of low activity during the first year?
Nattie: Not at all. The first few weeks were pretty slow, but the four of us had a lot of fun, just posting about trivial things like what we did, what we were eating, etc. Which, as you know, is still an ongoing theme in the Lounge.
But after that it was totally swinging.
Redcloud: How so?
Nattie: Everyone's posts were going from less than a hundred to 500 and beyond. Look at Mary's post count, she has over 17, 000 posts. When I first joined I was known as the posting freak. When Mary came along, she took over the postition. I was happy to give her the torch. You can see by her post count, and many other's, that the forum is a place that they spend a lot of time at. The post counts alone speak volumes about what this forum is about.
Redcloud: I think that we are interested in each other's daily activities and worries.
Nattie: Exactly.
Redcloud: We are interested in knowing each other
Nattie: I wouldn't come to this forum everyday unless I actually wanted to interact with the people there. Mostly I visit the Lounge, that's were the personal stuff is. That's where the love lives at the Toriforum, in the Grateful threads and in the Whatever Threads. That's where you find the deepest love that most people can't even show their own families. Toriforum is a place where you can sit back, enjoy a glass of wine and have some good conversations, in a message style.
It also helps that a lot of us share the passion of Tori's music to bind us together.
Everyone has their own spice that they add to the pot, it's like making a chili. If we were all the same, the chili would taste over spiced and very bland. We need to add each ingredient carefully.
Redcloud: That looks like a team! Complementary people!
Nattie: That's exactly what it is. We all work like clockwork, each piece fits in with the other pieces. If we didn't fit, we wouldn't have as many regular members, we'd all be insulting each other and the Angry snatch would be over flowing with juices.
Redcloud: Do you think people tell more of themselves because they can hide behind their screens?
Nattie: Possibly. It's always easier to face your demons when you don't have some in your face telling you that you have to be a saint in order to be a living, breathing human being. We learn a lot about ourselves through writing. At least I do, and I think that in going to the Toriforum on a daily basis we all get a chance to look back at our day, discuss it and have other people's opinions on what happened or what didn't happen and that way we can talk about it, deal with it and get over it. That's how I get over a lot of my ugly days. If I didn't have the Toriforum and it's lovely members I wouldn't be able to go a day without bottling up my feelings and exploding with anger from not dealing and talking about my issues.
Redcloud: So this forum has helped many people deal with their own issues...
Nattie: I believe so. For example, I recently started PMing a long time member, I've found out some things about her, but in the process of supporting her in her hour of need, I discovered that I was in pain in the sense that I have an eating disorder. I've had it for many years now, but I never really listened to what that part of me was saying. Writing to her has opened a door for me that was closed tight before, there was no breaking into that room, you couldn't even bomb it open. Thanks to her I'm on the long road to recovery.
Redcloud: It acted as a catalizer...
Nattie: Yes, and now that the door is open, there's no going back. You can't open a door and then close it. If you do then you're shutting yourself off to the reality of the situation.
Redcloud: People evolve at the same time as TF, then...
Nattie: Yes, Funnily enough, I was just reading the TORIFORUM HISTORY thread, and I was reading Kier's comment about phases and growing that happens through the years of Toriforum history. Eveyone is affected by everyone else. It's like being in a cyclone {I watched The Wizard of Oz last night <3} everyone is bumping into everyone else and they are pretty much adding a taking from each other when they bump. It's like planets when they collide, and example of this is the moon. The moon is a part of Earth, although it's far away, it's still a piece of us. The moon resulted from a large collision with the Earth and it knocked some of the earth off and became the moon. At the forum we all interact and take and give pieces. Therefore I believe that we are all piece of each other. I've learned to love deeper than ever before because of the Toriforum.
Redcloud: yes, the history of the Earth is fascinating. What's more, at the beginning, there were only simple molecules and they aggregated, later there were stars, planets and other stuff like that. After a long time, life developped on planet Earth and there we are. We can then say we all are star dust since stars and us come from the same space history.
But that's another story! lol Let's get back to our subject!
Nattie: Sure.
Star Dust. That's very lovely. We are all made of stars you know.
Heehee...
Redcloud: We grow out of each other, in some way. Thanks to each other.
Nattie: That's true, it has happened to me with a few good friends. I always bid them a fond farewell, until i see them again that is.
Redcloud: What member who you had no interaction with at all would you like to get to know better?
Nattie: I would love to get to know Kier more, she seems so lovely and beautiful inside and out. There's a secret calm to her, it's very intriging. Sometimes I just want to scoop her up in my arms and tell her it's okay, you know? She's deserves everything she could ever want.
Redcloud: I understand and I agree.
Nattie: I knew you would understand.
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To be continued...
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: HOLIER THAN THOU ~ Live! Metallica 11-27-04 [even though James forgot the lyrics!]
Thank you Aimee and Lemon Pie! 
