clarrydFounder

User number three. Larry Dedio signed up in November 2000, which means he was on eZabel before eZabel really knew what it was yet. His first comment, from March 2001, was a casual nod to iwz about reading tech news on the Shack — the kind of thing you say to someone whose living room you've been hanging out in long enough that you don't need to introduce yourself. A few months later, he made a formal pitch to host the entire site on his own Linux server, offering 24-hour tech support and a personal satisfaction guarantee, like a man submitting a business proposal to a friend's garage band. thefunkyfresh seconded the motion. Nobody else quite knew what to do with it. That was Larry in a nutshell: a tech guy with big energy and a loose grip on the formalities, who showed up ready to contribute infrastructure while everyone else was still figuring out how to post comments.

He was a New Jersey guy through and through — an Audi enthusiast, a LAN party regular, and a fixture at eZabel gatherings. He attended fourteen events, from the original eZabel parties to manhunt games to rocksupastar's legendary LAN sessions and post-marital engagement party. His crew ran deep: he traded tech talk and World of Warcraft strategies with Ian (he played a level 12 druid who died a lot and had strong opinions about root-starfire-wrath rotations), swapped banter with flomojopoanode, and carried on an extended, chaotic exchange with Mike Schiano that involved IP address detective work, workplace goofing, and the accidental terrorizing of originalsnob by revealing he knew what town she lived in. By 2005, he was married — and openly, warmly grateful for it. His comment about his in-laws was one of the most genuinely tender things anyone posted on the site: "in the two years i have been married.. and together 4 I have never felt more a part of a family then i do now." web-toedchloe replied that she'd always sensed he wanted exactly that.

Larry's posting was sparse but unmistakable — 33 comments spread across seven years, with long stretches of silence broken by sudden bursts of presence. His final appearance, in December 2007, was a triumphant return after more than two years of quiet: "clarryd is back and reigns supreme!! Kneel before Zod." Ian laughed. "No way. It's been over 2 years since your last post." That was the thing about Larry — he could vanish for entire calendar years and walk back in like he'd never left, because in a sense he hadn't. He was user number three. He offered to host the site before most members had even found it. He read 167 news articles and 83 photos and 30 forum threads without ever needing to announce his presence. He was always there, just usually watching.

eZabel Personality Type: ISTP — "The Silent Founder." A behind-the-scenes original who contributed more in presence than in volume, who offered to carry the weight of the whole operation before anyone asked, and who could disappear for years only to return with a Superman villain quote and the same easy confidence he'd had since day one.