I joined June of 2002. I was into game development at the time. I was moding the original Jedi Knight, had just discovered a little game called Stick Soldiers, and IIRC another game called Soldat. I had a crazy idea about making a cross between Soldat and Jedi Knight -- a side-scrolling jedi knight adventure. I went on my merry way looking to see if perhaps such a game existed.
An MSN search landed me, by some hook or crook, on TRF. At that time TRF had a sexay grey and silver style with the Millennium Falcon in the background, jumping to hyperspace. I think it was the fixed background that first entranced me, because I was also getting into web development at the time, and I didn't know how the heck someone could make the background sit still and the text scroll over it.
I spent some time lurking, and while doing so I read Omnae's thread with Kahn. I forget what it was called, but it hooked me on the concept of collaborative fiction. I joined up intent on recruiting the members of TRF to write the story to my game, while doing a little writing of my own. I think some people took me a little more seriously than they should have (Gash, I be looking at you) and offered up a lot for the story. Four years later, and I'm still here.