Since the first raid, they would happen every month. They were really fun -- we'd make a different theme for each one, so it was this great picketing-party. Of course there would be chocolate cake. After time went by, some anons did get to know each other. I was amazed at the diversity of who the people were. Students, professors, IT professionals, everything you can imagine. There were exes too. There was an anon who would only wear their Clear bracelet when they were picketing outside an Org.
But it was in some ways a very tight hivemind. The most amazing researching and doxing machine you can imagine.
Given the rich uniqueness of the culture, there was never one type - mad computer or researching skills were common attributes though.
Edit: You didn't see the anons outside the Org that you were associated with? There were hundreds there, too.
No, I'm afraid not, I never saw hundreds, I was late to the party to answer your question.
During that time of 2008/2009 I was not doing services at the org, I wasn't doing any courses or auditing. Reason being we decided, my partner & I at that time period, why the partner should redo OT7 as the greatest good, part of the GAT release by DM, new discovered tech. Those every 6 month sec checks, later called refreshers, where very financially a burden, hence we decided my partner would benefit more and I could continue after my partner finished the redo of OT7. Little did we know at the time, it was years, oh my, and costing us a small fortune every 6 months, like $20K.
We were scrambling to "make it go right".
So, I never heard of any news about the org or protests. I didn't watch the news on TV or the internet at the time, Ron said it was entheta.
At the end of 2010, I was persuaded to do the new GAT1 TR's & Objectives course, it was a co-audit, and only cost about $850 or $1000, so we decided to allow me to do it, in between the spouse still doing redo OT7. Little did I know at the time, the new TR's & Objections co-audit was a year long endeavor, like a few hundred hours, oh my, every fuck'in weekend truck'in into the org from a suburb about an hour away with traffic.
When I first started this co-audit with my twin, why there were some protesters there, every weekend, numbers would range from 5-10.
When I first saw these protesters, I was like WFT is this, who are these people, and why are they doing this? Nobody from the org never mentioned the big protest event earlier, I was clueless. So was my partner.
2012 I get the Debbie Cook email while I'm at the tail end of the TR'S & Objectives co-audit. Something is wrong in Denmark as I thought there was from my hidden thoughts from being around the org for a whole year.