Fraymates MSN Group

There may have been a dozen or so fray-generated MSN groups. A few of the sites were fairly active, like Captain Greybeard and the Denjim, Lapcat's Lair, and Prudieville. But none were so well known as Fraymates and Kausville. There were almost two hundred pages of image files at Fraymates, photos of fraysters and their families, fraymeets, and vacations. And at Kausville, there were thousands of threads discussing politics, money, sex, food, (and the fray).

The site, Fraymates, was initiated by a Kausfiles regular, Berzerker. In 2002, he and SouthernGal (a brand-newcomer at the time) had gotten into a political argument that turned personal for a post or two. Zerkie and SoGal were immediately sorry for what they'd said to each other.

And for Zerkie, an idea was born. He said that he'd forgotten that he was arguing with a flesh-and-blood human being. So he started a site to help remind all of us that fraysters (or fraymates) are not just strings in the ether.

Looking through some files today, I found this screenshot of Zerkie's admonishment to keep Fraymates friendly. In the 6+ years the group stood, only 8 bans were ever necessary. And only 4 of those banned were of fraysters.