Early Birds
| Forever Knight Faction | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Early Birds |
| Abbreviation: | |
| Date(s): | 1999-2012 |
| Leaders: | |
| Founder: | Ceily Trogg |
| Type: | chat room |
| Focus: | |
| Wars: | |
| Community: | Forever Knight Early Birds Yahoo!Group |
| URL: | The Forever Knight Early Birds |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Forever Knight Early Birds is a Yahoo!Group that, from 1999 to 2012, offered an early evening chat room "for those who rise before the sun sets", i.e. fans whose daily schedule meant that they were unable to stay up late enough to participate in the main FK Fans' chat room. The Early Birds' chat room ran 8-9 pm CST. (It should be noted, though, that the name of the community could lead to confusion, with people occasionally assuming that the name "Early Birds" meant that the chat was held in the morning.)[1]
Although they never took part in any of the Forever Knight Wars, the Early Birds are sometimes cited as one of the many factions of Forever Knight fandom.
Webpage
The Yahoo!Group has a webpage on Volta's website Embracing the Knight.[2] Its function is to inform people of the existence of the chat room and link to the Yahoo!Group.
History
The Forever Knight Early Birds was started on 16 November 1999 by fk4ever (Ceily Trogg),[3] replacing an earlier bulletin board.[4]
For several years, the Early Birds were an active and close-knit community. In addition to the chat room, they made use of Yahoo!'s Album feature, with the first pictures uploaded by Volta circa 21 November 1999.[5] This section eventually included a variety of pictorial material uploaded by community members, including screen captures, fan art, and personal photographs. Yahoo!'s Files feature was used for fan fiction and sound captures.
The group was strongly active in 2000 and continued regularly until 2005. However, involvement gradually dwindled, as indicated by the following question by "Nicholas de Brabant" on 3 March 2006:
Are there any fans still out there with this group?Hasn't been much going on lately.
NdB1228
Although three fans promptly responded, there was little subsequent activity.
On 5 July 2012, Yahoo! discontinued its Group Chat Rooms. Although the Group itself nominally continues to exist, its principal purpose was thereby ended.
Faction Icon
In 2012, Greer Watson created an icon for the Early Birds as part of her project to create a set of icons for all the Forever Knight factions. On a sunrise background, the design composits a cropped photograph of a robin pulling a worm out of the ground.
List of References
- ^ Such a mistake is made by Dot Simpson in a post made to the community on 3 March 2006.
- ^ Volta's site was originally at http://lavender.fortunecity.com/judidench/428/, and was moved to its current location in the Forever Knight Website Archive after the hosting service FortuneCity was discontinued in 2012.
- ^ See the first post.
- ^ The existence of an earlier bulletin board is mentioned in the fourth post, made by Gwenn Musicante on 19 November 1999. Her full comment: "Wow! What a great place to be with so many familiar names. I'm hoping to drop by as often as I can. I miss all of you from the B. Board. This was a great idea, thanks fk4ever!"
- ^ The new upload by Volta was pointed out in a post made by fk4ever on 21 November 1999.