Here’s the bad news: there never was another universal town square for science fiction. The community splintered across many different platforms. While that was a real loss, it wasn’t an unmitigated loss. Those communities incubated all kinds of writers and readers who found the SFRT inhospitable or overwhelming.
But the other reason the community never recohered is that we kept trusting other businesses to own those communities, and they kept betraying our trust. Prodigy wanted us to “stop talking to each other and start buying things.” Livejournal purged its queers.
The most successful successor to GEnie SFRT is Archive of Our Own (AO3), a freewheeling, welcoming, volunteer-run, nonprofit fanfic site with a gaggle of pro-bono lawyers and a deep bench of community specialists and technologists.
- When the Town Square Shatters: Once again, science fiction fandom shows us how to use the internet.
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Is it just me or has other people been stuck on a NPC quest in crk. There is this Ferryman Cookie that wants to deliver a message to the Ferryman. I-I don’t know what to do. I can’t find the Ferryman. Please someone send help. I’m crying inside now and I’m hoping that some god will help me.
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Some of Britain's finest Tudor buildings survive in her market towns
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Spyro the Dragon - Town Square:
“Here’s another cute little level in the game, with a lot of humour and nice visuals. Unfortunately, there’s one annoying thief to deal with, but overall it’s a pretty chill and fun level.”
PS: the gameplay used for this gifset is not mine. The original video belongs to the user: prosafiagaming, on Youtube.
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The internet came along. It was bigger. It was better. Once web browsers entered the picture, it was easier to use.
GEnie was text-only, accessed via a terminal program that used arcane text commands that were easier to use than, say, a text-based Usenet reader, but still too much for many. When GE finally released its first graphic interface, it was slow, buggy and crude.
But mostly, it the GEnie died because GE didn’t give a shit about GEnie. These were the Jack Welch years, when the company was getting out of the “doing things” business and converting itself into a doomed, cockamamie finance scam.
A mediocre, ultrawealthy sociopath found himself in charge of a once-in-history, all-encompassing town square, and he destroyed it, without even noticing.
Sound familiar?
- When the Town Square Shatters: Once again, science fiction fandom shows us how to use the internet.
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A great shot of an early 1960s family looking down Main Street USA. But how could it not be? It's at a Picture Spot selected by Kodak!
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Holy Trinity Church, 29.05.2020
Tykocin, Poland
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