Long time lurker, first time poster here.

Thankyou very much for the great blog and a fantastic interview with Justin Hall; something that i have wanted to see for a long time, on both counts ;)

The one thing i would like to say (and excuse me for being rude) is; what's with the random [b]embolding[/b] of certain words on this blog? Surely you can trust your loyal readership to make their own conclusions by this point?

Good comment. I was just trying to find a way to break up the monotony of the text's visual appearance, but I got lazy/heavy-handed. I'll take them out since they're not really doing anything anyway.

give me a break. what a blowhard. you masturbate this prick like it is the cumshot to end all. He's done nothing NOTHING his entire life.

Not held a job, not made an honest day's wages, not done anything, except rub his dead dad's money all over himself. He's a prick. He will never grow up at this point.

It's easy to pontificate when you've done shit your entire life, just a dilletante. He's the epitomy of every middle-manager who spouts bs but really has nothing to say.
He was kind of interesting 10 years ago, today he's a fucking no-talent cock.

3 years to make video games and little java phone apps? You can learn that in a month.

He spews crap from his mouth like no other.. but he's produced nothing, not a thing. At this point of his life, I'd think he'd have something better to contribute to us than acne, an inflated sense of self, and skills at spending his parents' hard-earned money.

Wow, that was a very post-specific SPAM comment. Their technology is getting better!

I don't know much about Justin, but it seems like "oversharing" is the pop-psych word of the hour, something that maybe a primary school teacher would use to chide a hyperactive blabberkid into momentary silence. ("We're oversharing again, aren't we, Shane? Let's have a time-out for a few minutes so that Vanessa can tell us all about her rubber-band sculpture now, shall we?") So then is "oversharing" just a euphemism for compulsive exhibitionism and attention-demanding behavior? A "Mommy! Daddy! Watch this! Look at me!" kind of thing gone totally haywire? Or what?

Justin Hall wasn't the first to share aspects of his life over the Internet. Before the Web there was Usenet (which still exists and is still very active). People have been writing about their lives on the Internet since the early 1980s.

Justin Hall unfortunately still hasn't learned that the Internet is not a community. It is a tool. He already went through one "mental breakdown" which he videoed and posted to his website. He still doesn't seem to know when he's experiencing real life and when he's playing to the camera.

Justin Hall is truly a child of the information age, and he's probably the worse for it.

I've followed Justin since "homepage" and MacWorld SF, and find him to be a risk-taker and a truthseeker. He's got the balls to put himself out there in a court of widely-diverse public scrutiny with genuine innocence and inquisitiveness. Those that would label him a dilatante are jealous and bitter old queens who missed their calling. Why not just stay tuned like the rest of us, as we watch Justin's transformation unfold?

Where is this bitterness coming from towards Justin? Are you all basically people who read every word the man wrote and somehow became infatuated or obsessed with someone's online persona?

I think Justin is/was a good read and someone who was very thoughtful and influential in the continuing evolution of the internet. I started reading him when basically he was the only guide to the fledgeling internet porn scene! Prurient something is what he called it. I lost track of him twice for about 2 or 3 years, then started reading again. Consistently interesting. I see that the details of his life (family, relationships, etc.) are online, but I really don't get all that invested in it. I know the sketch of his life but don't stress the details. Is stressing the details the key to being bitter and angry towards Justin for some oblique reason?

I just don't get it. He's an internet inspiration who genuinely changed the web and made it a better place... he may have many personal flaws, but how is that relevant to reading his thoughts in an interview?

i miss Justin!
what a provocative character -- note the commentary here -- people spending a lot of energy on him! that's a lot of power that he holds, and that people give to him. for that, he gets "respek" from me.

even though he's largely absent from the blogging world, he seems to have created a negative space (not as in "bad" but as in the imprint he's left) full of questions and conjecture. that's cool, too. i think the questions seem largely symptomatic of larger issues around identity and the net. what impressions do we make on each other? how are we communicating? how much of ourselves (our true selves) do we put forth?

anyway. thanks for the great interview. it was an intriguing read -- good questions!

I read Justin's site almost daily from '95 to about '02, when I (and the 'net) finally, dare I say it, "grew out" of it.

I dislike the style of "Frank Hall"'s comments, but I think there's a grain of truth in them. I think I even posted rants on Justin's site that drifted in the same general direction (that's when I realized the romance was over, and I had to move on).

Justin's early quasi-celebrity is a classic case of right place, right time. He spoke directly to the affluent white youth culture of the 90s, or at least, some part of it. I loved him for it. Lots of other people did, too. You could forgive his spoiled-brat exhibitionism, his making too much of quite ordinary youthful experimentation with drugs and sex.

He simply hasn't aged well -- the Japan adventure struck me as the beginning of a really awkward floundering about as the Web became more commonplace, the technology too complex for amateur generalist to master, and gen-X started facing grown-up type problems. And yes, the extended floundering is a mark of his social privilege, a real luxury, and I can see where that might really bother some people.

The end of "oversharing" looks like a healthy step for him.

My hope for Justin is that he learns the difference between his ego and his ideals, and that both might become a little less inflated. That the man grows up, in other words. That'll disappoint his younger fans who believe Justin's own hype about himself, who are still looking for idols. But they'll get over it.

Justin was "new" and made a great contribution by honestly writing about his life in an open forum. I certainly wouldn't do it. And if he was not the first, he was perhaps - the most open to attack.

Hey, I think that some people could have more consideration for Justin having the guts to share his life on the net. I think one person mentioned that internet is a "tool". Well, in case you didn't notice, it's used for a variety (understatement) of things, including self-expression and creative outlets. If you want to name the net a "tool", you can say we're "tools", too.
I wish people would chill out, and relax! I give Mr. Hall a lot of respect for expressing what we wouldn't dare, and for doing it so creatively, too! His site took a lot of time and commitment, so don't think your 2-second bashing is going to make a huge difference on a decade of hard work!!

I've read Justin's website off and on for years. I think as I got older his life and his writing seemed increasingly adolescent. The rest of us grew up, took on adult responsibilities and Justin didn't. Where there's no struggle there's no depth.

As one new to Justin Hall; I have to say a lot of what he writes is profound. Of course to Frank Hall (related?) he will always be a waste of space, as he doesnt contribute to the Bush Economy, or otherwise justify his existence.

No; he's interested in exploring his existence.

Here's a clue Frank: Nobody has to justify their existence. Not to you, not to me, not to anyone. If someone wants to spend their life stoned on a beach, its their life. Not yours. If someone wants to a a poet, its their choice, not yours. If someone wants to climb a mountain "because its there", its their choice, not yours.

George Bush blew his parents money (and the money of well-connected friends) on cocaine, fast cars and women. - oh, and oil companies. Who cares? Its his choice, not yours.

I have read things of Justin which I find profound. The only thing I have read from you was the rant above, which I found neither witty nor profound.