I started out IRCing in various channels on EFnet around 1999. Not anime-related though. It was
this sexy page (or a previous incarnation of it... heh) that first drew me to IRC. I remember reading a lot of docs on how to use IRC. Some of them concerned IRCing on UNIX with old clients like ircII or EPIC. So I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I first got on. :p (It took me a while to realize the phenomenon known as idling on IRC. When I got on nobody was talking. I was like, What the hell? Is this thing even working??? ...It didn't help either that EFnet had frequent netsplits...though it's much better now.) Early on, I mostly focused on calculator and math channels. I still idle on EFnet but don't really participate over there as much as I used to.
As far as anime and fansubs and stuff are concerned, I started hanging out in E-F's channel around January 2002, right after I got broadband Internet. I roamed around, idling in various channels and setting up an fserve. I also hanged out in A-E and for a short time A-Keep and other channels that were on ETG at the time. (I remember A-E distro back in 2002. A bustling place that was... while it lasted. :p) A friend told me about HnK as well. :3
I didn't really start idling in L-E until October 2003. It was around that time that I started helping out with Usenet posts here and there (this was when mikala was still actively posting). I now do most of the posting of L-E's new releases to Usenet. And... I've been around pretty much ever since.