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friezaessIt's interesting to see how the Internet has worked it's way into popular culture. Things have changed a lot in ten years.
I remember being involved with various fandoms around the turn of the century. This was back when Bravenet forums were popular (before fancy-shmancy bulletin boards required you to register) and people had midi files playing in the background of their Geocities websites (remember FLASHING ANIMATED BACKGROUNDS?). On-line fandoms were crude to say the least, as transfer speeds were slow and Web 2.0 was still a few years in the making. Newsgroups and mailing lists and eventually Yahoo! Groups were popular hang outs, though forums had gained an increasing number of followers and seemed to be defining themselves as the prefered method of communicating. No-one in my high school used the Internet for anything other than ICQ conversations and homework, though occasionally I'd hear people talking about rotten.com, which seems to have been replaced by jj.am and /b/ these days. Most normal teens didn't know what LOL meant. Shocking, isn't it?
There's an online fandom for pretty much everything nowadays - and a slash fandom for absolutley everything - though this was not always the case. (Do web cliques still exist?) I had to search for months before finding a community relevant to my interests, possibly due to the lack of a decent search engine. Ah, for the days where I got up early to play RPGs on mailing lists and debate over the virtues of my favourite characters on dodgy forums where I was the only Australian. I found a modest amount of e-fame in my fandom's community by establishing a horribly, horribly fangirlish site about my then crush. It was littered with mouseovers and MSPaint icons and as well as the usual fansite stuff also had highly relevant information like how much I liked football/being a tomboy (*wince*) and hated it when the VCR broke, as well as details about ill-fated parent/teacher interviews. (It still exists and has around 46, 000 hits. No, you're not getting the address.)
It still takes me by surprise when I see that the geekery which once caused me alienation has now become so popular. It's like the reverse of how things are supposed to happen- as you get older, the things you like generally get LESS cool. Watching kids get excited about things you were doing a decade ago is weird to say the least. Seeing "OMG!" used in TV and movies almost feels like someone's invading your territory.
Also, I miss l337sp34k :(
I remember being involved with various fandoms around the turn of the century. This was back when Bravenet forums were popular (before fancy-shmancy bulletin boards required you to register) and people had midi files playing in the background of their Geocities websites (remember FLASHING ANIMATED BACKGROUNDS?). On-line fandoms were crude to say the least, as transfer speeds were slow and Web 2.0 was still a few years in the making. Newsgroups and mailing lists and eventually Yahoo! Groups were popular hang outs, though forums had gained an increasing number of followers and seemed to be defining themselves as the prefered method of communicating. No-one in my high school used the Internet for anything other than ICQ conversations and homework, though occasionally I'd hear people talking about rotten.com, which seems to have been replaced by jj.am and /b/ these days. Most normal teens didn't know what LOL meant. Shocking, isn't it?
There's an online fandom for pretty much everything nowadays - and a slash fandom for absolutley everything - though this was not always the case. (Do web cliques still exist?) I had to search for months before finding a community relevant to my interests, possibly due to the lack of a decent search engine. Ah, for the days where I got up early to play RPGs on mailing lists and debate over the virtues of my favourite characters on dodgy forums where I was the only Australian. I found a modest amount of e-fame in my fandom's community by establishing a horribly, horribly fangirlish site about my then crush. It was littered with mouseovers and MSPaint icons and as well as the usual fansite stuff also had highly relevant information like how much I liked football/being a tomboy (*wince*) and hated it when the VCR broke, as well as details about ill-fated parent/teacher interviews. (It still exists and has around 46, 000 hits. No, you're not getting the address.)
It still takes me by surprise when I see that the geekery which once caused me alienation has now become so popular. It's like the reverse of how things are supposed to happen- as you get older, the things you like generally get LESS cool. Watching kids get excited about things you were doing a decade ago is weird to say the least. Seeing "OMG!" used in TV and movies almost feels like someone's invading your territory.
Also, I miss l337sp34k :(
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Date: 2009-04-18 01:23 pm (UTC)OH MY GOD. NOSTALGIA.
Fansites. I confess, I miss them. I miss them a lot. Character shrines, music/anime/manga/etc. shrines...
Now, we just have Wikipedia. And, well, ok, I like Wikipedia, but... THE FANSITES. I MISS THEM. I MISS THEM A LOT.