Boys and girls,
This isn't actually about "me", the guy behind "Johnie". I only want to write here about how I came to be "Johnie" and why. The only personal information I want to volunteer is that I'm a male Dutchman, was born in the early 50's, I was never married and don't have any kids that I know of. Yes, I've dated girls but that has been a while ago.
In October 1995 I got myself an Internet account lacking all knowledge of WWW and newsgroups and whatever. One of the reasons I got this account was because I wanted to get in touch with people that felt like me, of course I didn't even know where to start. So I went in search of boys-pictures first (the other reason I got myself access to the Internet) and found a couple of WWW-sites, the most important one the "Free Spirits" page, because there I found a lot I was looking for. At one point I found the newsgroups, and was very disappointed that my ISP didn't have any alt.binaries groups.
After a long search I found a public server (pubnews.demon.co.uk) that closed down to the public some months later, and had to do with altavista for a while. Later, March 1996 with the help of Camillo, I found an ISP that had abpb and got to be a member there. These first months were simply wonderful! In those early days (at least for me) I found the nicest series like BCBH, CHBOY, DSDJ, MEM, SANDP. I downloaded the first 500 Sandboy pictures; my telephone bill was rocketing sky-high those days as was to be expected.
At last, after having lived for so many years with this secret, I found people that were like me. I started to communicate with people that posted in abpb because for some reason I thought people that were so openly bl's could be trusted and I thought they would trust me if I got to be a poster in the group as well. The first guy I ever wrote was Steffen whom was the FAQ keeper at the time. Another early friend was Dandyboy: I do wonder what happened to him; I miss him. I also got in touch with Blueboy, Comquest, DownyBoy, Kacy, Pexote, Pojken, Sandboy, Stingray, VBoy and others. Geez, I was so desperate to reach out and get in touch, I really wanted to know every bl in the world.
I managed to mail-order a photo-book by Alain Prost, "Jungens aller Welt". Also I was so lucky that someone loaned me his scanner (he never asked for it back and I still use it :-). So I started to write to some posters for advice regarding scanning techniques, and Comquest was so friendly to help me out. I had many questions and he has been a wonderful teacher and very patient at that. I started to post as "Johnie" in early April 1996, the first series was called AP-JAW. Later I did a small series called FV and was desperately waiting for more books to come in. I had to scan some of my own pictures because I was already out of material and decided to call them JPP's, which stands for "Johnie Proudly Presents" as you might have guessed by the name of my home page (SBJ or Scanned By Johnie looked too much like SJB or Sexy Japanese Boys). I also got some magazines called "OK", from Martijn, the Dutch equivalent of NAMBLA, and scanned those. The second book I did was "Les Garcons"; after that I never was out of material. I found the bookstore Intermale in Amsterdam where I bought quite a couple of books, and a very good friend let me scan his collection of "BOY" magazines.
In the years that I have been posting I "met" quite an amazing number of people! Your reactions are what keep me motivated; the fuel for my engine, so to speak. Thank you for your positive responses, keep them coming! I always try to react, but understand why my replies are sometimes on the short side. I'm fortunate to live in a part of the world where being a bl is not illegal and where Boy photobooks can still be obtained. I'm glad that I have friends who share their books and magazines and that I have the technical abilities to transform printed material into digital images that can be shared with the world. This way these images depicting the beauty of the BOY will never be lost.
Unfortunately, abpb isn't always a pleasant place to be, due to some people that lack a normal sense of what is acceptable and don't show any respect for their kinfolk. Some people don't seem to understand that the group is dropped by many ISP's when inappropriate material is posted. I had to change providers quite a couple of times myself. I have still a lot of material that I want to scan and post, but when the group isn't there for most all, "Johnie" will also no longer be there. Child pornography is NOT allowed in this newsgroup. People that repeatedly post this material after having been given notice that they should stop will be reported to their ISP's. So please read the FAQ for alt.binaries.pictures.boys before you post. This newsgroup can be a pleasant place for us all by adhering to these guidelines.
There's something I like to get off my chest: there are people that think it's a good idea to rename files that they downloaded from the newsgroups before they repost them. Well, it's NOT! Personally I think it's frustrating when using time to download files that I don't have (judging by the filename), to later find out that I already have the exact files; it's even worse to find out that I have been downloading my own scans! PLEASSSSSE, don't change filenames when you post them.
Cheers,
"Johnie"