I used to participate in a Usenet newsgroup called misc.writing, a group supposedly about writing in all of its forms but in reality about anything but. The people there were writers, though; most had never published, but quite a few had. These were the ones that kept themselves off topic the most; usually, the wannabes contributed actual writing-related posts.
There were also trolls. One I remember in particular called herself Chelsea and claimed to be a published writer; her merits consisted of about 800 Usenet posts. She also thought I was George Lucas. Really. I won’t tell that story now, but if you’re interested, do a Google groups search on “Ari+Chelsea+George+Lucas”.
The other night, after a three-year absence, I visited misc.writing again. The place hasn’t changed at all. Sure, there are some new names and many of the old ones are gone, but it’s scary how little the place has changed. The same trolls, the same endless political discussions, the same insults.
But the scariest thing of all is to realize that all of this time, I’ve thought of a Usenet newsgroup as a “place”. Virtual reality is here, folks.
Synchronicity…
I didn’t actually go back myself, but we were talking of MW, Deck and I, just the other night. It’s funny how much of a HOME that place was, and now… it’s just air and darkness swarming with evil little electrons.
It was lots of little things, rather than one big catastrophe, but I still find myself wondering what the hell happened to the place.
It’s nasty these days. People I thought were OK, if eccentric, are anything but, and there’s very little to suggest that anything, *ever*, can be writing-related for long.
There are no good punsters left, either.
I just wandered past and had a look at one or two of the threads that you’re back into – Ari, why on earth are you bothering…?
It started with “let’s go back and see what has happened to the place”. It continued with “oh, my, what is going on here, is this the Twilight Zone”, and now it’s morphed into “I don’t suffer fools and I’d like to see fools suffer”.
I’m weak. I know.