"Lest We Forget"

[multimediac17]

The “World Trade Center Plane Crash” thread is such a difficult read. Sometimes I go back to it, once in a blue moon, and I’ll probably have a look on September 11 this year. As somebody said above, your heart just pounds the whole way through it. It’s hard to explain.

[Zeldar]

@HardlySanguine

Stumbled across this thread, from last year, while browsing through MPSIMS, if anyone’s interested in a more recent perspective.

Good find. If there are others from other years, please post links to them.

Thanks, HardlySanguine for this and other help! If you don’t mind, would you explain the method you used to verify that the thread by Living Dead Girl at 09-11-2001, 08:03 AM is the earliest one dealing with the attacks? I could post your PM to me here, but perhaps you’d like to embellish on it for others’ sakes. That’s some clever searching tools for future reference, in case others (like me) weren’t aware of those tricks.

[Baron_Greenback]

@Zeldar

Thanks, HardlySanguine for this and other help! If you don’t mind, would you explain the method you used to verify that the thread by Living Dead Girl at 09-11-2001, 08:03 AM is the earliest one dealing with the attacks? I could post your PM to me here, but perhaps you’d like to embellish on it for others’ sakes. That’s some clever searching tools for future reference, in case others (like me) weren’t aware of those tricks.

To be honest Zeldar, judging by the timestamp, there’s not much scope for there to have been an earlier thread.

Re the SMS thing above, I think it may actually be a dump of text pager, rather than cell phone, traffic:

http://911.wikileaks.org/

It’s a shame that some MBs I was on at the time no longer seem to have archives going that far back eg Snopes, Popbitch. They would be a small, but historically interesting, thing to have kept.

The Fark archive still exists. Here’s a link to that week’s archive here:

http://www.fark.com/archives/index.2001-09-16.shtml

It’s fairly obvious what the first of many, many WTC threads is.

[Zeldar]

@Baron_Greenback

@Zeldar

Thanks, HardlySanguine for this and other help! If you don’t mind, would you explain the method you used to verify that the thread by Living Dead Girl at 09-11-2001, 08:03 AM is the earliest one dealing with the attacks? I could post your PM to me here, but perhaps you’d like to embellish on it for others’ sakes. That’s some clever searching tools for future reference, in case others (like me) weren’t aware of those tricks.

To be honest Zeldar, judging by the timestamp, there’s not much scope for there to have been an earlier thread.

Re the SMS thing above, I think it may actually be a dump of text pager, rather than cell phone, traffic:

http://911.wikileaks.org/

It’s a shame that some MBs I was on at the time no longer seem to have archives going that far back eg Snopes, Popbitch. They would be a small, but historically interesting, thing to have kept.

The Fark archive still exists. Here’s a link to that week’s archive here:

http://www.fark.com/archives/index.2001-09-16.shtml

It’s fairly obvious what the first of many, many WTC threads is.

Thanks for all this, Baron Greenback.

What HardlySanguine had told me about involves the sequence numbers in individual posts such as

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=12861623#post12861623

and how those sequence numbers are the ultimate in time stamps. You can increment or decrement them and get the next post “in time” regardless of the forum or thread the post belongs with. It was by way of that sort of poking around that HardlySanguine confirmed that the Living Dead Girl thread/post was THE EARLIEST here.

I didn’t know these things before HardlySanguine shared them with me. I am still hoping he will share whatever else we should know about those numbers, as compared with thread numbers, forum numbers, user numbers and whatever other numbers we’re awash in.

ETA that number is already up to
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=12861689&posted=1#post12861689

[Skywatcher]

@Zeldar

It’s difficult to imagine that this issue hasn’t been addressed before, and I’m not wanting to replow old ground. But if we can point to threads, posts, even, that help to revisit what Dopers saw, heard, felt and said about that day, maybe this thread could be a resource for revisiting the time.

On September 11, 2001, I…, started by Hilarity N. Suze three years ago today. I recounted my walk home in post 156.

[Skywatcher]

Here, I recounted being in a minor tornado a half-mile south of the Pentagon two weeks after 9/11.

[Zeldar]

Thanks for both of those, Lute Skywatcher, and not to make light of the tornado thing, but it did make me think of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TDqvD34hEA

At least you’re able to view this as “in the past.”

[Zeldar]

@chacoguy

So, does anyone know what happened to the poster named “vix”?

I have been curious myself ever since reading the Living Dead Girl thread. I just checked and she’s as active as this week! I have no memory of exchanging comments with her so I would feel uneasy addressing her to visit this thread, but if any of you know her better than I, perhaps such a thing might be in order.

See Straight Dope Message Board - Your direct line to thousands of the smartest, hippest people on the planet, plus a few total dipsticks.

[mnemosyne]

All of those people offering to email or place calls for others…in the end, did you? I don’t know why, but I’d like to hear about that. It must have been odd to call a complete stranger, on behalf of another complete stranger, to tell them they were ok, but then again, everything on that day was odd.

Even if no one placed a call or sent an email, the fact that so many people volunteered to do so is pretty amazing.

[HardlySanguine]

@Zeldar

What HardlySanguine had told me about involves the sequence numbers in individual posts such as

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=12861623#post12861623

and how those sequence numbers are the ultimate in time stamps. You can increment or decrement them and get the next post “in time” regardless of the forum or thread the post belongs with. It was by way of that sort of poking around that HardlySanguine confirmed that the Living Dead Girl thread/post was THE EARLIEST here.

I didn’t know these things before HardlySanguine shared them with me. I am still hoping he will share whatever else we should know about those numbers, as compared with thread numbers, forum numbers, user numbers and whatever other numbers we’re awash in.

Yep, here’s the PM I sent if anyone is actually curious:

If you take the earliest post you found and tick back the numbers (p=1598426 – in the URL) you go backwards in time, one post at a time. Going back to p=1598400, this post time-stamped one minute before the attack (going by Wikipedia). Those twenty-six posts contain nothing relevant so it looks like the post by Living Dead Girl was, indeed, the first one.

The system vBulletin uses is quite straightforward - it counts everything chronologically:
/sdmb/showthread.php?t=
/sdmb/showpost.php?p=
/sdmb/member.php?u=
/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?f= (revealing the existence of secret or scrubbed forums [take a look at f=8, for example]
/sdmb/search.php?searchid= (well, this one looks like it’s cleared almost immediately, but if you do a search yourself and turn back the searchid by one or two you can see what someone else just searched for)

I’m also going to link to alterego’s Google Search Tips post which is always great in these situations.

/hijack

[Zeldar]

Thanks, HardlySanguine, for those tips.

Did we ever learn of Dopers or relatives and friends of Dopers who didn’t survive the 9/11 attacks? Is there a post or thread to that effect?

Just last night we saw a promo for this:
http://corporate.discovery.com/discovery-news/investigation-discovery-premieres-controversial-ne/

[Annie-Xmas]

@Rilchiam

There’s also a GQ thread, started earlier in 2001, which discusses the feasibility of landing every plane in the US at once. Bumped on 9/11 or shortly thereafter.

That thread was started on September 4, 2001!

[Zeldar]

@Rilchiam

There’s also a GQ thread, started earlier in 2001, which discusses the feasibility of landing every plane in the US at once. Bumped on 9/11 or shortly thereafter.

@Annie-Xmas

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rilchiam
There’s also a GQ thread, started earlier in 2001, which discusses the feasibility of landing every plane in the US at once. Bumped on 9/11 or shortly thereafter.

That thread was started on September 4, 2001!

I’ve located that thread, and if you want to look for more titles in the GQ archives in the Sep/2001 timeframe look at:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/f-3-p-120.html
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/f-3-p-121.html
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/f-3-p-122.html

The thread cited is:

Impossible for every plane to land?

General Questions
Impossible for every plane to land?
09-04-2001, 06:07 PM
Alzarian

=================================

Assuming that HardlySanguine has deduced the sequential nature of the Thread Numbers, and assuming I didn’t miss one on either end of the range, the threads started on 9/11/2001 are in this range:

Threads on 9/11/2001

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-86437.html

I love those How Ya Doon commercials!!!

Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS)
I love those How Ya Doon commercials!!!
09-11-2001, 12:05 AM
Rilchiam

Bin Laden and the SBG

General Questions
Bin Laden and the SBG
09-12-2001, 12:02 AM
kgriffey79

86620
86437

00183

===================================

For the associated archives data for the other fora, see Post # 3 above.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

Thanks for this thread. “Lest we forget,” indeed.

[chorpler]

@Zeldar

@chacoguy

So, does anyone know what happened to the poster named “vix”?

I have been curious myself ever since reading the Living Dead Girl thread. I just checked and she’s as active as this week! I have no memory of exchanging comments with her so I would feel uneasy addressing her to visit this thread, but if any of you know her better than I, perhaps such a thing might be in order.

See Straight Dope Message Board - Your direct line to thousands of the smartest, hippest people on the planet, plus a few total dipsticks.

People were very panicked, hoping vix was alive, in this thread asking NYC Dopers to check in.

She responded in post 65 and confirmed that she was alive.

[Zeldar]

Thanks for the details on Vix, chorpler, but do you know her well enough to ask her to comment here in this thread? If not, that’s fine. I don’t remember crossing threads with her before, so I would feel awkward PMing her myself. Maybe looking back on that time is not all that comfortable for her.

[Musicat]

Memories can be faulty, but I seem to recall a news report, shortly after both towers were hit, that yet another would-be hijacking team was intercepted at the Boston airport before getting on the plane.

It was probably just hysteria – after reports of two or three planes hijacked, it wouldn’t seem all that unlikely that there were one or two more. But AFAIK, it turned out to be a bogus report.

Anyone remember this and have the slightest cite for it?

[Rilchiam]

Maybe, but there were a lot of bogus reports, as you put it. Like the supposed truck bomb on the Mall/in front of the Capitol Building.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

I remember hearing a rumor, within half an hour of the first plane hitting the WTC, that there had been an explosion at the Supreme Court building in Washington.

[cochrane]

@Musicat

Memories can be faulty, but I seem to recall a news report, shortly after both towers were hit, that yet another would-be hijacking team was intercepted at the Boston airport before getting on the plane.

It was probably just hysteria – after reports of two or three planes hijacked, it wouldn’t seem all that unlikely that there were one or two more. But AFAIK, it turned out to be a bogus report.

Anyone remember this and have the slightest cite for it?

I had watched a show on the History Channel some years back about United Airlines Flight 23 from JFK that returned to the gate after flight dispatcher Ed Ballinger sent a warning after the crash into the north tower. Six men initially refused to leave the plane. They eventually disembarked and disappeared into the crowd. Authorities checked their luggage and found copies of the Koran and al-Qeada instruction sheets. This was not officially labeled as a confirmed hijack attempt, however.

According to historycommons.org, there was a total of nine suspected aborted hijackings which may have been averted when the order was given to ground all air traffic. Again, none of these has officially been publicly confirmed as a hijack attempt, so take them with a grain of salt.