Spikus on Fandom and the Birth of the Xenaverse Mailing List
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Spikus on Fandom and the Birth of the Xenaverse Mailing List |
| Interviewer: | Diane Silver |
| Interviewee: | Spikus |
| Date(s): | conducted in the spring of 1997, posted October 1997 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | Xena: Warrior Princess |
| External Links: | Spikus on Fandom and the Birth of the XenaVerse Mailing List, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Spikus on Fandom and the Birth of the Xenaverse Mailing List is a 1997 Xena: Warrior Princess fan interview at Whoosh!.
Series
For others in this series, see Whoosh! Interview Series.
Some Excerpts
What did you do first in online Xenadom, and how did your online activities change over time?
Although I mostly lurked on the Netforum, I emailed a couple of people privately. After a few months of the NetForum, the originator of the initial Xena mail list offered to start a mail list for those Xenites who didn't have Web access or found the Netforum too clunky (that was me). (Sorry, I've forgotten the guy's name.) [It was Arbiter.]
I was one of the first 20 or so people on that original Xena list. It was fantastic! I had really disliked the Netforum interface and was happy to have my obsession land squarely in my computer every day.
That list kept growing and some of the members (myself included), began doing a subset of posts called FLUFF. Cliches had already developed and power struggles ensued. The list split into two: one was the moderated Xena list (for "serious" discussions), one was the unmoderated FLUFF list (the Xenaverse). Most of the FLUFF listers also belonged to the moderated list.
This continued for a number of months. Then the FLUFF list had problems and went down. The list owner had other priorities than getting the FLUFF list back up but would not allow us to post on the moderated list. This caused some large grumblings from the FLUFFers. Penthesilea and I had met in real life and become friends and fellow FLUFFers who chaffed at this loss. Penth got permission to start her own list at her university; she asked me to help run it; we became Co-Warlords.
At about the same time, Sandi-J formed the Herc/Xena list for those fans who wanted to discuss both shows at once. More power struggles and skirmishes, and the "original" list folded.
A couple of months later, Chakram, a reincarnation of the original list, restarted. After that came Xena Campfire Girls, then the Gabsclan, and on and on.
My activities have changed significantly. I didn't participate much in the Netforum, but was pretty vocal in the early days of the original list. Ally and I were the original FLUFFers on the old list and even after the list split, I spent a significant amount of time on each list. On becoming a CoWarlord for XenaVerse, I've spent more time on adminstrative duties than actual fun posts to the list. And I haven't fluffed in AGES. In fact, I rarely get a chance to read all the posts. I just don't have the time.
What was it like during the early days online? How has it changed?
Well, I sort of think of it as 20 newbies all getting in the same room and grinning ear to ear and drunk on all the cool friendly vibes and energy. I was ecstatic to be able to talk with other people who thought that Xena was the best thing since sliced bread. Everything everyone had to say was great-- the ideas and reactions we all had were fresh and new and everyone was SO happy to be connecting with other people who had been so overwhelmingly swept up by X:WP.
Now, of course, us cynical old-timers have either dropped off the lists or lurk mostly (like me) or spend too much energy nitpicking at annoying lines or characters. But that's the cynical view. Many of the old-timers also have provided the best perspective on the growth of the characters, the arcs of the storylines, and the continued (although usually more manageable) obsessiveness about X:WP.
In recent months, the XenaVerse has been growing by leaps and bounds. We have almost 600 people (between the regular list and the digest) now and we get about 2 new people a day (net -- between subbing and unsubbing).
While I'm glad more and more people are watching X:WP, I miss the "family" feeling I had when the Xenite community was smaller. (Family in both senses--both queers getting to know and accept each other and queer and straight interacting in newer, more positive ways.)