I'll start. I got my first ST, a mega STE in 2008. Heh, not quite true. Until 1995 I had only one computer, the Atari XE. At that point I was 2 years away from the panhellenic exams (uni entry exams) and decided I wanted a new computer. At the time I had no clue atari was going bust etc and I was between the Falcon, the 1200 and a 486 pc. At the machines demoing, I saw a game on the 1200, some stuff on the PC and some 3d cubes and a multimedia presentation on falcon. Add brand loyalty to that and you get it. Brand loyalty, is bad but it served me well there. I could do almost anything I wanted on the falcon, from games (granted I didn't have access to the super cool pc games of the time, wing commander, x-wing etc) but it was fun. The productivity software got me till 2001-2 when I had to write my thesis and everything went smoothly. Then I got a pc.
Now, I must admit the falcon is little more than a gaming machine and demo viewer. But the little more is important too. I've spent many hours ircing with it, I use it for some science work (yes I am a scientist) and generally I try to find things I can do there that are not too slow, or too demanding to be done there. I found that doing some serious work at the Atari does add a fun factor there.
Your stories?

For me, I got my ST second hand around 86.  Half med STFM with TOS1.2 on board, and whihc I later (and fiarly expensively!) had upgraded to one meg.

Bought the ST from a guy in a caravan on a cold windy Welsh caravan park in teh valleys, and never looked back.  Came with lots of original sofware and lots of WNW/Automation menus and a few unbranded menus of the same ilk.  Some of these had a sticker on the back with a contacts name and address (kinda stupid perhaps but there we go) and then I started making contacts via him.

Then was always adding to my collection via new contatcs and swap meets etc.  Then of course I moved away and ST got left at home, but it was then I got in to pacifiST in 1996 I think it was and started up Aktiv8's FTP site whihc was truely a well hammered FTP site and also got my in troube in uni - lol

Anyway added to my collection further using Demonburps ST emporium, Pacigame and pacidemo etc - adding disks that I had once lost etc.  And I suppose the rest is history... I'm still here and enjoying the scene.  My ST (Still at my dads) still works, just needs a good clean up

Do I win the "crumbling reference manual" competition?

I got me STe way back in the day when I was friends with Apollo/Iceman and sort of did know The Law. I got all me menu games from them and even helped to playtest and supply some of the games.
I was wondering if anyone knows the whereabouts of Apollo/Iceman be good to get in contact with im again.Did know he went to th e USA some years ago now.

Hi, got my first st right at the end of the commercial st scene in the uk. I remember buying the last few copies of atari world off the shelf when they made an announcement in one issue that they were changing the paper it would be printed on to keep costs down because of low circulation.It went from glossy paper to something akin to toilet roll.How good is that

I had bought my st complete with various disks and gradually waded through them where there were quit a few menus,automation amongst them but nothing to suggest that the crews were still active......and bam! in more recent times to my great surprise and pleasure dbug become active again I remember the most recent disks in there were from stosser software a group avidly supporting atari at the time,anybody remember heartlands with the dizzy sprite and hero 1 and 2 ?

In the interim my st had been stored away like so many i suppose{though i never forgot it} and the pc took over.Then the  emulation scene came which rekindled my interest and realised i could write back the images to real hardware and the st came back out of storage,decided to buy an ste and have 2 now,one upstairs complete with monitor master for switching between mono and colour monitors and one downstairs hooked up to the television{my wife thinks im sad}
I also have a current brother hl-5240 laser printer http://www.brother.co.uk/g3.cfm/s_page/166900/s_level/38090/s_product/HL5240ZU1 hooked up which works great
It has emulation mode for PCL6, BR-Script 3, IBM Proprinter XL, Epson FX-850 which  it enters depending on the type of data it receives,hence easy to use with an st

Its a continuing voyage of discovery really,much of the stuff im seeing for the first time around including the majority of dbugs patches and its great fun,plenty of free software and the st seems more popular now than when i first had it

So what is it that i like so much about this little grey/yellow box,i dont know but st graphics /sounds fill me with joy

tara  for now