A Cyber History of the Online Xena Community: Part I -- September 1995 To June 1996
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| Title: | A Cyber History of the Online Xena Community: Part I -- September 1995 To June 1996 |
| Creator: | Diane Silver |
| Date(s): | October 1997 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | early Xena: Warrior Princess fandom |
| External Links: | A Cyber History Of The Online Xena Community, Part 1, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
A Cyber History of the Online Xena Community: Part I -- September 1995 To June 1996 is fanwork by Diane Silver. It is part essay, article, and timeline.
The focus is early Xena: Warrior Princess fandom.
A similar article is The History of Xena Fan Fiction on the Internet.
Parts
- Introduction
- First Xena Web Site and Xena Chat On AOL
- The Xena Netforum
- The First Xena Mailing List
- The Term "Xenite"
- Xena Withdrawal Syndrome
- January 1996
- March 1996
- April 1996
- May/June 1996
- Chronology
- Acknowledgements
- Direct Links
Related Interviews
This timeline/essay includes links to related interviews.
- Artemis On Fandom And Her Web Page
- Carol Burrell on Fandom and the Xena Site at Logomancy
- Tom Simpson On Fandom And The Birth Of Tom's Xena Page
- Gonegra on the Birth of Xena Chats
- Spikus on Fandom and the Birth of the Xenaverse Mailing List
- Kym Taborn On Xena Media Review
- Venator On Fandom And The Chakram Mailing List
- Tyldus on his entry into online Xena Fandom
- Avicus on his entry into online Xena Fandom
- Lillian Varessi on Fandom and the first Xenite Club Fan Mailing to Lucy Lawless
Excerpts
Imagine a time when Xena: Warrior Princess was a hidden treasure. Most folks found the show by accident while they channel surfed, and if they became obsessive fans, they had no one to talk to. There were no XenaFests, no professionally run Xena conventions and no fan clubs. The NetForum did not exist. There were no mailing lists, no message boards, no chat rooms, no web sites and no online magazines about Xena: Warrior Princess. Few newspaper or magazine articles had been written about the show, and no one in the media had even begun to talk about its possible cultural significance. Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor were unknown actresses. No one even had a clue as to the actresses true hair color. An important point in early Xenadom. Trust me on that.
The whole wacky net journey began a month after the show premiered on U.S. television. In September 1995, the first episode of Xena: Warrior Princess, entitled SINS OF THE PAST (#01), aired on U.S. television nine months after the debut of its parent show, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. On October 5, 1995, MCA-Universal debuted the Xena Netforum.
In its first weeks of existence, the NetForum averaged nine posts a day. After a month, there had only been a total of 287 posts. One year later, the average number of messages posted on the NetForum was nearly 300 a day. "It was certainly a smaller group of people," Sandi-J said. "For a couple months, the Xena NetForum had only about 30 - 50 posters."
The first Xena chat anywhere in cyberspace happened on Sunday, October 8, 1995 in the Lawless chat room on America On-Line(AOL). GONEGRA, the founder of that chat, likes to laugh about that very first chat. She was the only person who showed up that night. A week later, on October 15, she had better luck. As she was waiting in the room and wondering if anyone else would show up, someone with the nickname of Tyldus [official Xena staff person] arrived.
Tyldus said the early chats were easy going.
"Mostly, it was people asking me questions about the show and what I did," he said. "It was a 'feeling out' period, where we were all trying to see what each other was like. I think more than a few people didn't believe I was who I said I was."
Eventually, two fans nicknamed Nitefall and Trillian also arrived and participated in that first Xena chat. In later chats, Avicus [another Xena staff official staff member] became an active participant.
"In the early days of the AOL chats, I kept a low profile and didn't reveal for the longest time that I worked on the show," he said. "I was more interested in seeing what people to to say without revealing that a 'staffer' was in the chat room with them. I really wasn't trying to be sneaky, but I didn't want to appear to be someone who was looking for special attention or some kind of ego gratification. I also wanted to preserve (to some degree) my privacy. So, I kept quiet and just observed, for the most part."
Avicus said that for a while he was able to remain anonymous.
"However, after a period of time I started answering questions about specific things about the show and it became obvious to people that I must be working on the series in some capacity. In one particular AOL chat - Michael Levine - director: CRADLE OF HOPE and ALTARED STATES, etc. - caught me giving out some show-specific information about CHARIOTS OF WAR and asked me via IM (immediate message) who the he** I was. So, eventually it got out that I was a film-editor on the show."
By the end of the first week in January, 1996, IRC (InterRelay Chat) Xena chats had begun. Online Xenadom was embroiled in a debate over what fans should call themselves. Fans from Lord Nelson to Artemis, Venator, Athena, BBQlight and Heparin argued, joked, cajoled and spluttered irritatedly about whether to use the word XenaPhile, Xenamaniacs, Xenaholics, Xenai, Xenatistas, Xenuts, Xenites or one of several other terems. The term "Xenite", coined by Venator, was the favorite of many fans. Other fans opposed it. Lord Nelson complained that the word "Xenite" was the same as a term used on the original Star Trek for a harmful mineral that was mined by slaves. The Xena mailing list took up the debate.
"At the time I [Kym Taborn] was editing a Star Trek fan newsletter and I wanted to start another. I had researched a few ideas about doing a ST novel-based one, a B5 one and an MST3K one. None of those really panned out, but then XWP barged into my life. It was an early fandom and I felt this was an opportunity I could not miss. I had felt I had missed jumping on the boat with early ST fandom. I felt that Xena fandom had great potential and that I would not be wasting my time taking on such a huge (and I mean huge) project. The gamble was not only whether the Xena fans would be interested in reading essentially old news about the show and its primary actors, but whether they wanted to read commentary as well. I discovered that not only is there a demand for that, but I can't even keep up with it! Even with a staff of 5 people working at it."
XMR was the first regular X:WP fan magazine to be published that was not associated with a fan club. Actually, XMR may have been the first Xena publication to be produced by any group in any media.