I started in 2000 right before kunark launched and was it sucked me right in. Made tons of friends and played pretty hardcore up until the end of PoP then got distracted with real life.
I still get the urge sometimes and will hop into a TLP or p99 every few years. Had a good group of friends on red for 2 years or so before the population fell off a cliff.
Just recently played through a pretty amazing emu server that kept me and a friend busy for several months. I'm sure in 6 months or so I'll be looking to come back and get another eq fix in whatever form it takes this time!