Hello everyone!

I thought I'd take a moment this morning to say hi and introduce myself. My name is Kyle Nally, and yes, that's my actual name. I'm a 40-year-old student of web design and application development at Kalamazoo Valley Community College and currently live in Kalamazoo, MI.

Many people would feel that that is far too much personal information to just "put out there". I used to agree with that; online privacy has become a serious issue and many people just don't want their "business" to be publicly available. I've decided to take the opposite stance: online privacy isn't. I've seen what's happened at the hands of anonymous users at the orange site, and in my opinion the use of one's actual name tends to make the experience better for other users- it's hard to hurl invective from behind a pseudonym when there isn't one to hide behind!

Not that I mean to do anything of the sort, but it does tend to keep a person honest, something increasingly hard to find on the internet these days. Given my age, I remember when Usenet was The Forum and NCSA Mosaic was The Browser, and yes, the internet was a more polite (if far less useful) environment back then. Oh, trolls and trolling existed, but not to the degree we see today. At any rate, yes, you really do know who I am, and what I look like.

And yes, there really is a Kalamazoo. Despite recent tragic events, this is a great town with a vibrant cultural scene. We're the home of Bell's Brewery, the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, several colleges (at one of which I am a student), and one university. If you're ever in southwest Michigan, it's worth the drive; there's really something for everyone here.

In any case- HELLO! I'm happy to be here and hope I can make a contribution now and again. Drop me a line here and say hi if you like!

KGN