The web world was a smaller place then. A lot of web designers/developers had signed up. Like a lot of people, I used to come and read MiFi long before actually signing up. That's why I wasn't in the first '1000'.
Gore-Bush, 9/11 and Flash Wars
In the early days, topics were more tech oriented. There was a lot of too-and-fro over web design and the role of usability -- particularly that version of usability unfortunately promoted by Nielsen. His rather limited view of design was happily superceded by such people as the wonderful Jared Spool who knew how to speak to designers and thus had a far more positive impact.
Later on, there were the weeks and weeks of the Gore-Bush election controversy as well as 9/11.
Metafilter was the group blog where we went to discuss these things. Thank you.