The Story of Mike Kreffel, Pre-OTF Internet Freedom Fighter
I knew Kref way, way before there was an OTF or a Peegs.com. When we first met was on the old Star News forum circa late 1994-95. Not kidding: there was only a handful of posters back then. Myself, Kref, Randy, Bob H, Smokey, Native, Niteowl, Historian and Satchmore. Of that group 5 are now dead. Soon great posters like Solid Sender and Clubjockey came along, but so did a host of assholes: Gojko, Ducati, Mace, Minnesota Hoosier, etc aka the Loopers. If you are reading this, it is a shame you are still alive and Kref is dead. GFY to all of you, and please die soon.
If some of you pussies think TMP is bad (hi MaxCoke), you didn't experience Gojko and his bag of dickheads. They managed to chase off some great posters. Kref handled it all with humor. They never cracked him. Before the big schism caused by Knight's deserved firing, it was a true pain in the ass dealing with them. Several of us created alternate personas to troll the hell out of them, and Kref helped provide much of the material for our subversive efforts. While Andy and Etec hadn't created the OTF yet, that spirit was already alive and well.
Kref was a artist and dabbled in a bit of everything (some of his work was publishedin Playboy as well as other many other mags). Before what we know call memes, Kref was making stuff to troll Loopers.
Not many of you can imagine what it was like posting in those days. A few of us actually had Loopers calling our employers for posting on Peegs, or worse. The only comparable thing in the OTF era is when Seyton got snitched on.
Kref was rightfully worried about his job because of how spiteful these people were, so his efforts were never credited. You guys just knew him as the Coaching Buttons Guy.
Thankfully, the IIBF became Peegs.com and Peegs was forced to ban-hammer a bunch of guys that were once his "friends." Pegram went through a mess of shit back then as well. That's how bad the Loopers were: they turned a nipple-hating fascist like Mike Pegram into a sympathetic character.
Anyway, I will save my other Kref-lore for next year. I don't know if Trover still reads the forums, but he was a great friend to Kref as well. I always think of him as well today, though thankfully he is still alive and kicking.