Silicon Investor seemed to difficult to navigate. If I recall correctly, it was like everything posted backwards and finding continuations of threads was difficult....I read some of it and it seemed a pain. As for surfit being alive?? I dunno. I have his address, or perhaps an old address around here somewhere, but don't recall where in Cali he was? Santa Monica maybe? I remember being shocked when I saw that Misty May Treanor talked about him in her book about her dad, Butch. When Matt Treanor came to the Rangers, I kept meaning to ask him to ask his wife but never got the chance as he didn't stick around long.
I think SI went live in September 1995, so you'd have been a very early adopter. I discovered it the day I first got online in June 1996, and joined immediately. Naturally I told myself I'd NEVER post there, I'd only read.