Seeing A Dream Become Reality

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Title:	Seeing A Dream Become Reality
Creator:	Leva Cygnet
Date(s):	May 11, 2007
Medium:	online
Fandom:	multifandom
Topic:
External Links:	Seeing A Dream Become Reality
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Seeing A Dream Become Reality is a 2007 essay by Leva Cygnet.

It is a retrospective look at Cygnet's site, Firefox News, and how it went from an amateur fan "hobby site run purely for fun" in 1998 to a for-profit venture in 2007.

Some Topics Discussed

• the hard work of creating a website
• crowdsourcing for fandom and profit
• paying fans money for their fiction on this site
• being able to drive 65 mph in your car and watch television at the same time (!)
• changing technology and expectations

From the Essay

So I was doing a bit of housecleaning in some ancient corners of this domain and I found a blog post written in 1998. Of course, we didn't call them blogs back then but that's pretty much what it was.

If you're just finding this site I know it looks nicely polished now. However, it hasn't always been that way. Once upon a time, not too long ago, it was a hobby site run purely for fun.

I'd like to say the development of Firefox News was pure hard work, but really, I know I won the lottery of domain names when I registered firefox.org. But there has certainly been a lot of hard work involved in this as well...

[...]

Maybe the site was meant to be. Maybe it was just dumb chance. Personally, I think it was both.

However, when I found this old post, it reminded me that I've been dreaming of something like this site for a very long time.

Here's the 1998 post (in bold) with my comments interspersed.

Firefox.org is currently an amateur venture. However, I'm both a dreamer and a relatively long-term netizen.

I've been online on a regular (daily) basis since 1993 or 1994. I still remember the first Web site I saw was Webcrawler.com, before Webcrawler even registered their domain. It was somebody's college project. I think it took me about two seconds flat to find fans online, too ...

In the new technology of the web, I see potential as great as that of the pioneer days of television or radio. The web combines the best parts of television and written media with the added bonus of communication and user participation. I see the potential, but right now, Firefox.org is currently a hobby; something I do in my spare time. But someday ... I have a vision for this site.

-- The funny thing is, I believe I was underestimating the potential of the web. Remember, this was written in 1998 -- the web had only been around for about five years. It was still geeksville out there.

I thought the web was really going to take off and become mainstream, mostly because it was just too much fun not to get a whole lot more popular.

However, the technology has come so far that it's hard to even believe it.

Currently, I am watching streaming video in another window while doing 65mph down Maricopa Road in Arizona , and the nearest town is several miles away. If you had told me almost ten years ago that I could get high speed internet access over a cell phone and watch TV on my laptop on my commute home I'd have laughed in your face. It took several hours to download twenty minutes of video over a phone line back then.

This is my dream:

Still is. :-)

Someday, I see Firefox.org containing a mixture of science and art, fantasy and technology, music and magic, all neatly packaged as entertainment. I want a site where netizens can read a good book, watch an animated flick, listen to midis, read reviews, play games, and yet also connect with other people. I see a site with dedicated chat rooms for various subjects, a site with associated listservs and newsletters and perhaps real-world publications.

-- Hmm.

The site's definitely getting there.

Does anyone use the word 'netizen' anymore?

The site has original fiction on it, including Langley's Painting, which I love and is my personal favorite of all the stories I've purchased. It is very nearly book length. I'm also editing another novel (140K words) for the site. I buy fiction regularly, in varying lengths. So I think that satisfies the spirit of the 'site containing novels' aspect -- I wanted a site with fiction on it.

I had funny animations, actual cartoons, in mind for the "animation" aspect. The technology has changed a lot since then ... I'm not sure if Flash was out or not, but I know I was thinking short Perl scripts and sequentially displayed .gifs for making animation work.

Midis ... have come and gone as a sound format.

Reviews? We gots reviews. I even have people sending me review copies, which is the coolest thing ever and yes, I know I owe some people reviews, and I'm working on it!

The site has chat rooms. Just not public ones. That may eventually change, but they're a pain in the ass to moderate, so it's unlikely they'll be any public ones in the near future.

Listservs and majordomos are yesterday's technology and have largely been replaced by bulletin boards and hybrids of mailing lists and bulletin boards like Google and Yahoo Groups. I do, however, have near-future plans to have mailing lists for the site.

I don't want a site with just pretty pictures and sounds. I want Firefox.org to be about people.

I still believe that. By "about people" I meant that it should be a site that is about its users, with strong user participation. I don't want a static site -- I want interactivity and a real community. And I'm making a strong move in that direction in the near future, with a Fan Reporter program.

And I can't do it alone. Besides, there's strength in numbers and the more creative minds involved, the more content the site will have.

Yup.

[...]

(And special thanks should go to Melissa Wilson, who has put in many hours writing site news. Without her efforts, the site would be a lot smaller.)

So, I'm looking for people who can see the same dream I see and are willing to put together a site for the pure fun of it, with a carrot of potential commercial expansion somewhere in some nebulous future.

Heeeee!

It's so nice to be able to say, "I'll pay you for that!" Because, dude, that's just cool. I'm a business. The whole 'commercial expansion' thing ... dude, it happened!

If you have an idea for a page, or own a page that needs a new home, see the TOS and then tell me your idea. :)

The TOS link doesn't exist anymore, but the offer still stands. I'm always open to suggestions for mutually beneficial ideas for the site.

Now ... I'm looking forward towards a very bright future for the site. The dream I had so long ago is coming true in ways I'd never expected.

To that end, I've spent almost a year and a half learning and studying about web publishing and web development. I've tried to figure out what works and what doesn't. I've learned how to attract traffic. I've lurked on an awful lot of bulletin boards, and occasionally made a fool of myself by posting stupid questions or stupider suggestions. But I think I have a pretty good grasp on things, and it amazes me to think back and realize that almost ten years ago I had a pipe dream that's coming true now.

Finding the article I quoted above made me realize that dreams really do sometimes do come true ... and by luck and work and some help from some friends, this one's happening.

It'll be interesting to see where the site is in another nine years ... my goals and dreams now are to make it big. I want to have the best, biggest, busiest fannish web site on the 'net. It'll take time, and lots more work, but I'm sure gonna try to make it happen.