The Old-Skool Internet
Back in 1994, when even email was brand-new for most of us, and the world wide web was nothing but a collection of university and government sites, I stumbled across a Usenet newsgroup called alt.starfleet.rpg.
Reading this group via my trusty 386, a 2400-baud modem, and a Prodigy account, I quickly discovered that it was a Star Trek-based role-playing-game (RPG). Via newsgroup postings and emails, a collection of players on each individual "starship" or "starbase" would weave a 24th-century tale of adventure, suspense, romance, etc. Each person would pick up the thread from where the last person left off, and advance the plot just far enough for the next person to take over.
The really good writers always knew to leave the plot at a cliffhanger or other crucial moment, leaving the next writer a juicy storyline to attack. Sure, there were sometimes difficulties, like "cross-posting," where two people's contradictory chapters would be written nearly simultaneously. Or, someone would write that another person's character died, or had sex with the whole ship, without that writer's permission. The "captain" of each unit would then have to sort things out, and say "OK, X didn't *really* happen, but Y did."
I was hooked. Instantly. I dashed off an email to the person in charge of new recruits, signing up as quickly as I could. As a lowly ensign, I first had to go through a "training simulation," so that my writing style could be evaluated. I was then assigned to the USS ODYSSEUS, a brand-new ship just being filled with writers.
I stayed in ASR, and its successor, WorldWeavers, on and off for the next seven years. I love Trek, and I love writing, so it was a natural for me. My character on the ODYSSEUS eventually rose through the ranks to become the ship's captain, and I wrote for several other ships as well. It was the most creative endeavor in which I've ever participated.
During the first couple of years, I was obsessive about participating on these ships. I would check my Prodigy, and later my AOL account, several times per day, waiting for someone else to advance the plot so I could jump back in. I created websites, and "ship's books," detailing the interiors of these vessels we "served" on to help ensure continuity of the plot. I helped organize "joint missions," where two ships' crews wrote a storyline together. My characters destroyed ships, killed Klingons and Borg, found romance, got drunk, got in fights, etc., etc.
What's the point of all this? That I'm a mega-geek, dorkier than anyone knew? No, although that is true.
My point is, the Internet used to be fun. In the mid-90s, I felt like I had stumbled on this little secret, that only the dorkiest of us knew about. I only found ASR because I had Usenet access at work, and I only had Usenet access at work because I was employed at a university.
The Internet used to be this fun little secret world of the geek. You didn't get to pick your own email addresses, like CutiePie123@aol.com -- instead, they would be randomly assigned, things like MFKY35A@prodigy.net -- completely cryptic and weird.
There were a fraction of the websites that exist today, and most of them were simple text pages with one or two pixellated images -- not multimedia orgies.
But, it was great. I checked my email obsessively, and was thrilled when I had something new, because it wasn't going to be spam, and it wasn't going to be someone asking me to do work. The only thing it could be was correspondence from my little Trek world.
Now, everything has changed. The Internet is just another medium that we all use -- like the telephone, or cable TV. It's completely and utterly taken for granted. I mean, my Mom has a cable modem now and takes classes online!!! My Mom!!
I can't even imagine what it would be like to not have the web at my beck and call, to look something up, to buy something, to get the latest news. It's the most useful creation in my lifetime.
But I don't get thrilled anymore to see that I have email. Because I get close to 100 emails some days, and few of them are anything good. The majority, particularly on my rzeszut.com account, are spam. Offers for herbal viagra, discount mortgage rates, or videos of naked Japanese schoolgirls being f*cked.
Or, they're work-related, and someone needs help with their printer, or a scanner, or can't access their files, or they deleted something, or they just forgot how to turn the computer on...
A very small minority of my emails these days are actually fun, personal emails that I'm happy to get. Sometimes, even emails to and from my darling wife are mundane discussions about going to the bank, or calling the cable guy, or what's for dinner tonight.
Don't get me wrong -- those discussions are necessary, and email is often a lot more convenient then picking up a phone.
But, reading some of my early ASR/WW posts and emails, I feel wistful for the old-school Internet, a unique experience that we'll never have again.
Reading this group via my trusty 386, a 2400-baud modem, and a Prodigy account, I quickly discovered that it was a Star Trek-based role-playing-game (RPG). Via newsgroup postings and emails, a collection of players on each individual "starship" or "starbase" would weave a 24th-century tale of adventure, suspense, romance, etc. Each person would pick up the thread from where the last person left off, and advance the plot just far enough for the next person to take over.
The really good writers always knew to leave the plot at a cliffhanger or other crucial moment, leaving the next writer a juicy storyline to attack. Sure, there were sometimes difficulties, like "cross-posting," where two people's contradictory chapters would be written nearly simultaneously. Or, someone would write that another person's character died, or had sex with the whole ship, without that writer's permission. The "captain" of each unit would then have to sort things out, and say "OK, X didn't *really* happen, but Y did."
I was hooked. Instantly. I dashed off an email to the person in charge of new recruits, signing up as quickly as I could. As a lowly ensign, I first had to go through a "training simulation," so that my writing style could be evaluated. I was then assigned to the USS ODYSSEUS, a brand-new ship just being filled with writers.
I stayed in ASR, and its successor, WorldWeavers, on and off for the next seven years. I love Trek, and I love writing, so it was a natural for me. My character on the ODYSSEUS eventually rose through the ranks to become the ship's captain, and I wrote for several other ships as well. It was the most creative endeavor in which I've ever participated.
During the first couple of years, I was obsessive about participating on these ships. I would check my Prodigy, and later my AOL account, several times per day, waiting for someone else to advance the plot so I could jump back in. I created websites, and "ship's books," detailing the interiors of these vessels we "served" on to help ensure continuity of the plot. I helped organize "joint missions," where two ships' crews wrote a storyline together. My characters destroyed ships, killed Klingons and Borg, found romance, got drunk, got in fights, etc., etc.
What's the point of all this? That I'm a mega-geek, dorkier than anyone knew? No, although that is true.
My point is, the Internet used to be fun. In the mid-90s, I felt like I had stumbled on this little secret, that only the dorkiest of us knew about. I only found ASR because I had Usenet access at work, and I only had Usenet access at work because I was employed at a university.
The Internet used to be this fun little secret world of the geek. You didn't get to pick your own email addresses, like CutiePie123@aol.com -- instead, they would be randomly assigned, things like MFKY35A@prodigy.net -- completely cryptic and weird.
There were a fraction of the websites that exist today, and most of them were simple text pages with one or two pixellated images -- not multimedia orgies.
But, it was great. I checked my email obsessively, and was thrilled when I had something new, because it wasn't going to be spam, and it wasn't going to be someone asking me to do work. The only thing it could be was correspondence from my little Trek world.
Now, everything has changed. The Internet is just another medium that we all use -- like the telephone, or cable TV. It's completely and utterly taken for granted. I mean, my Mom has a cable modem now and takes classes online!!! My Mom!!
I can't even imagine what it would be like to not have the web at my beck and call, to look something up, to buy something, to get the latest news. It's the most useful creation in my lifetime.
But I don't get thrilled anymore to see that I have email. Because I get close to 100 emails some days, and few of them are anything good. The majority, particularly on my rzeszut.com account, are spam. Offers for herbal viagra, discount mortgage rates, or videos of naked Japanese schoolgirls being f*cked.
Or, they're work-related, and someone needs help with their printer, or a scanner, or can't access their files, or they deleted something, or they just forgot how to turn the computer on...
A very small minority of my emails these days are actually fun, personal emails that I'm happy to get. Sometimes, even emails to and from my darling wife are mundane discussions about going to the bank, or calling the cable guy, or what's for dinner tonight.
Don't get me wrong -- those discussions are necessary, and email is often a lot more convenient then picking up a phone.
But, reading some of my early ASR/WW posts and emails, I feel wistful for the old-school Internet, a unique experience that we'll never have again.
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