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==History==
WSO was founded in January of 1995 by [[Jon Zeppieri]], [[DeWitt Clinton]], [[Jon Kim]], and others. Originally, the servers were Apple Powermac 7100 machines running WebStar.
1996 saw the beginning of the Internet boom, and the arrival of many new recruits to WSO. With the strong UNIX background of [[Jon Zeppieri]], [[Iein Valdez]], [[Geoff Hutchison]], and [[DeWitt Clinton]] and a blazingly-fast Pentium I 100MHz machine, WSO was migrated to a FreeBSD-based server. Meanwhile, WSO attracted the artistic talents of [[Kate Tan]], [[Eric Smith]], and [[Kenric Taylor]]. Others lending their computer expertise and love for technology included [[Matt Garland]], [[Ken Fowler]], and [[Christine Soarse]]. Finally, [[Jonah Wittkamper]] served as general all-around cheerleader for WSO. The fall of 1996 saw the arrival of a new crop of freshman, including [[Chuck Hagenbuch]] (would would go on to design [[Horde/IMP]], the Williams College Webmail system), [[Dan Mason]] (Big blank in institutional memoryHTML coder extrordinaire), [[Chris Richards]] (security and FSH enthusiast), and [[Jason Healy]] (future all-campus listserver nazi). By winter, the website had been overhauled (sporting a scan of Chuck's right hand), and new services were cropping up like crazy: the online Facebook, all-campus and dorm listservers, online DA and calendar announcements, and a small software archive. WSO continued to grow at a rapid pace, as new services were added and members signed on for web and e-mail accounts. [[Free University]] HTML courses were taught to students and members of the community, and several clubs and organizations at the college created web pages about themselves. As the use of technology grew, WSO acquired more and better equipment. Better funding was provided by the IT department of the college, and WSO soon got a new server. A new naming scheme was conceived for the servers: [[Scary Aunt Names]]. The new machine was christented "Ethel", and replaced the aging Pentium I ("Mabel"). In the years that followed, several new servers came on board: Gertrude, Spiker .... (and others?).
In the fall of 2002, abuse of the [[WSO Forums]] continued. A thread entitled "Gays Suck" prompted the [[Queer Student Union]] to print out the thread and post it in [[Baxter Hall]], inviting responses with paper and pen. Abuse escalated at the end of October, at which time there were several pornographic images, violent threats, and racist, sexist, and homophobic posts to be found in the forums. On October 30, the forums were removed.
