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In early 1999, a naive, 24-year-old cavefish settled into an attic apartment in Yonkers and got a job as a receptionist at a teeny tiny little dot-com in Tribeca. The plan was to do that job until her big break at CNN came along. That didn't happen, but what happened instead is that she became the CEO's executive asistant. Then she became the office manager. Then she hired and managed all of the administrative staff. Then she weasled her way into a job as a PR cordinator, which, despite the two every awesome ladies she was working with, decided that PR wasn't right or her, because, well, you have to like talking on the phone and schmoozing and stuff, and the cavefish did not like either of those things.

She set her sights on the editorial department, moved on in, and ended up being a senior poducer, managing all of the large advertising client's campaigns and a team of freelancers and production assistants, and generally loving her job. And then the bubble burst, the layoffs started, and after four years at Bolt.com, the cavefish was let go in round five of letting people go. She was ready to move on, sure, but it was hard to leave a company she'd invested so much of herself into.

In those four years, she got her heart broken, made some lifelong friends, made a drunken ass out of herself on some occasions, made the CEO cry, hired some good and bad people, fired some good and bad people, watched what went down on 9/11 with her co-workers, got over her fear of public speaking, and became an X-Box master.

This week, an email chain started. A 10-Year Bolt Reunion email chain, to be exact. And also this week, that same cavefish who spent so many years there what feels like a lifetime ago, went to the little website that started it all and saw this:



It's a little sad, but it was also time for the site that so many people really believed in -- that was a haven for teenagers who wanted to feel like they belonged and were a part of something, and wanted to have a voice that they didn't have in their every day lives, and did, until the company decided that the bottom line was more important than the community, which is what happens when you're a sinking business -- to shut its doors.

From the email chain, which I think sums up Bolt.com pretty well, on how Bolt was really the first "social networking" site that existed:

Remember, the only thing worse than being late on a trend is being too early. Like Faith No More and Mallrats, we were tragically ahead of our time.

Word. Bye, Bolt. We had some good times, and we'll be drinking to you in September, one last time.

UPDATE: A former Bolt member weighs in.