Yes, thank you, Gary.  Using your timeline, I can now pretty safely place my arrival at the AOL site sometime early in the 21st Century.  I remember some obnoxious posters over on AOL, but nothing like the East-West rap wars you describe, so I must have gotten here (there) after that was over.

If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.                                                                                     Dorothy Parker