ok, here's the background of my particular case:

up through 6th grade or so, i had this really good friend who i spent tons of time with. he left the school i was at in 5th grade and we only really stayed in touch for a year or so after that, then slowly fell out of touch, then i heard he had moved and i assumed we'd never see each other again. it was sad but there were lots of signs that we were going our separate ways.

just tonight i got kind of drunk and remembered this dude, and realized that he's probably wondered what i've been up to, just like i've always been wondering what he has been up to since, like, 10 years ago when we last spoke.

so i search for this dude's name on google. he has a pretty unique name, and right away i find his account page on an online gaming website. apparently the dude is really into counterstrike these days.

so i signed up for the website just so i could send him a message, and basically said something along the lines of "whats up, if i'm sending this to the wrong dude i apologize, but if this is really you, dude, let me know whats up cuz its been a while!"

it was really kind of satisfying to be able to track this dude down again. but it's the first time i've done such a thing on the internet.

anyhow, does anyone have similar stories, or opinions on this matter?

I got curious a few months ago and looked up the first woman I ever slept with. Found her pretty easily and sent her an email. From the website she had set up for her business I discovered she was married with children. So the email was very much in the vein of "Hi, I see you've put a nice life together. If you don't want to reply that's cool, but if you do it would be nice to get caught up." She responded and we did that. No drama.

I also found an old male friend who worked at Toyota down in L.A. We used to be pretty tight, so I sent him an email at work. He was very receptive, but almost immediately started in with the religious stuff.

If you don't come off like a stalker I don't see a problem with it. Most people have at least Googled the names of old friends.

I had an old girlfriend track me down in this manner. We had kinda fallen out of touch - she had gotten married, kids, etc. We still get together every now and then since she first tracked me down.

I think it's not crap - the recipient can easily not respond if it's unwelcome.

I have reconnected with some people(best friends) i thought i'd never hear from again.

Not Crap.

Here's what I have posted on my personal myspace page under people I'd like to meet section, might clear up my thoughts on the subject:

I'm not really interested in meeting anyone. ESPECIALLY any half a brain trashy fucking LOSERS I went to high school with, so stop sending me 'Hey!, wow it's been so long since I've talked to you...' Yeah there's a reason for that, dipshit. Some of us have grown up and moved on with our lives. I know a lot of you haven't, a lot of you are sitting in your parents basement playing video games waiting for Friday night so you can go sit in some garage somewhere and drink beer with the same 5 filthy scumbags you had homeroom with in 1993 till you are unconcious. Yeah, not my scene fuck off I don't care. If I want to talk to you, odds are we talk on a pretty regular basis already so stop yourself before you make even more of an idiot of yourself than you are already in your day to day life. I don't care what you've been up to and I'm not about to tell you what I've been up to. Know this....I laugh every day thinking about what a bunch of worthless junkies, jailbirds, trash, spineless cowards and all around sacks of shit most of you dumb fuck assholes have become. Thanks for that. Oh yeah, this only applies to MALES I went to high school with...if you are a female and haven't gotten really fat feel free to send a little note I'd love to hear what's up with you.

Billy? Billy Corgan? From Mrs. Moto's homeroom ? What have you been doing with yourself, dude? Hey, sorry about all those wedgies and shit.

i've bumped into a few old friends and acquaintances on Facebook. mostly living elsewhere, but a couple who are in Montreal. i would have never known otherwise.

i have never done a random Google search though...

Not Crap

Emphatic not crap. A number of old friends have found ME on the internet, and I've always been delighted by the surprise. To know that I am in their thoughts even after so much time has passed (in some cases 10+ years) is something that makes me very happy.

i can never find anyone. they did a really good job of getting away from me.

I've been bothered by morons I didn't care to ever speak to again, but then I also managed to reconnect with some cool people I had only fallen out of touch with b/c of bad timing and circumstance. Not Crap, WF 5 for stalkers who wanna talk about sixth grade again.