Last Tuesday, I said "Screw it!" and finally posted a few lines on the message board at work.

The message read: "Wanted: People who know what zines, MLs, lj, BNFs and betas are and who are interested in a monthly Stammtisch meet in the Rhine-Main-area."

I hoped the message was obscure enough to lead to confusion among the uninitiated while managing to scream "Slash!" to anyone involved in the fandom. I took great care to use only "insider" words that don't lead to clear results in Google.

However, considering that more than 5.000 people have access to the message board - of which about half should live around here - I was very surprised to get not a single e-mail from anyone.

I cannot imagine I'm the only slash fan in 5.000 people. Either the ones here don't read the message board, are "oldtimers" not active in today's online fandom, or are lurkers afraid to speak up. Argh.

Well, at least the rest of my colleagues seem to either think that it had something to do with gaming (those who know me), or believe it to be a very secret lonely hearts and/or sex ad (those who don't). Which led to some very creative lying and today's deletion of the message, let me tell you. :::headdesk:::

:::sigh:::