Do you actively participate in Classmates or other Find-Old-Buddies-Because-They-Signed-Up-Here sites?
Back when it was free to do so, and with minimal private info, I signed up for my high school’s listing on Classmates. That was many years back.
I check in periodically to do everything I can do for free and mostly just check to see if anybody I hung out with, dated, knew on a first name basis, or gave two rips about was listed there. So far, nada.
I feel like a fool for even signing up since everybody I cared about had better sense than I did. They stayed away.
I get at least an email every week or two telling me how people have been “checking my listing” (as I said, my name is all that’s there) and are interested in renewing acquaintances. Right.
Anything better happen to or for you at these places?
Is there such a place where you can actually run down old chums?
I was (maybe still am) registered on the site, as are many of the people I went to school with. The only reason anybody contacted me through the site was because I was the person trying to locate people for a class reunion. However, most of those contacts came through information obtained from phone calls. Your school may keep a contact list of alums who are your class representative. That person might be able to hook you up with old friends. There are sites that will allow you to do nationwide name searches for people, but if the name is common, you’re out of luck.
About 6 years ago, my high school graduated class used Classmates to organize our high school reunion. It was okay, not great (using Classmates, as well as the reunion itself.) I revisited the site just now; it’s a lot less clunky than it was before, but IMHO Classmates still feels rather predatory.
There’s always Facebook.
Like you, I signed up eons ago. I’ve scanned the lists periodically but I don’t care enough to pay. I got a couple of messages from old friends and I responded, but nothing ever came of it.
Except this one time…
Six or seven years ago, I got a phone call with a message from someone whose name I recognized, although not as a classmate. Long story short, ended up getting back in touch with my very first boyfriend from when I was in the Navy. I had an unusual maiden name, and he knew I went to school in Baltimore, so it was fairly easy for him to track me down. I had filled out enough of a profile that he knew where I worked (on a Navy base) and since he was still in the Navy, he knew was able to get Base Information who got his message to me.
I had one big find on Classmates – the sister of an old girlfriend who gave me an update on what the whole family was doing. Otherwise it’s a lot like a real-life high school reunion: one or two people you may have vaguely wondered what happened to, a bunch of people you don’t care about, and none of the really cool kids.
Not long ago, after failing to see anybody I would want to connect with in a listing of several hundred names going back to when I was there, I started Googling old high school people I was genuinely curious about. Only found one. He had killed somebody in a hunting accident and made the news. No charges were mentioned.
There have been several reunions over the years that I just haven’t felt the urge to attend. So I’m way out of touch. I did get a listing of all the dead guys and gals and how they died. Most naturally, thanks for that, but a few in bad ways to go. About the number you’d expect for folks in their 60’s.
I signed up several years ago and immediately received email from a few old friends. Most of the emails contained lists of dead classmates and that was depressing. I’ve since let my membership lapse but I still get tons of email from Classmates. I’m sorry I signed up in the first place.
Anyone I wanted to keep in touch with after high school, I have. The important ones, anyway. I couldn’t really care less if other classmates wanted to find me.
Sometimes I find an old acquaintance on Facebook or MySpace; I feel like both of those will eventually make these “Classmates” sites obsolete.