The Bronze Age
Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your boardname.
      by Rachel Hyland

Joss Whedon with legendary Bronzer, -mere-

Hey, don't I know you? Yeah, sure I do. I've seen you around cyber-space, haven't I, reading stuff about Buffy, and Roswell, and the Trek? I'm sure that's you... it isn't? Oh, well. Hi, anyway. Welcome to my article. You'll find it's a nice place to visit, as long as you follow one simple rule: keep reading. That tends to help when you're reading something. Y'know, it just makes sense, and it greatly disturbs me when I hear of people going about it all the wrong way... ah, but I fear I am straying off topic now, and really should get back to the issue at hand. No random ranting here for me, no sir... 'cause that's what I use my Message Boards for.

Message Boards, Posting Boards, Bulletin Boards, Discussion Boards. Call them what you will. They are worlds unlike any other, communities within communities, places where fans, aficionados and downright creepy people can go to discuss such topics as the under-utilization of Xander, the pregnancy of Scully, and the need to look all hard and grown up by typing the word fuck as often as possible. Way before there was mIRC or AIM or any other form of Instant Messaging, these Boards provided a forum for the disgruntled (and let's be honest, it is mostly the disgruntled) geek to talk about all that was ailin' em. And there are now so many of these locales that were I to cover them all -- in all of their infinite variety and wonder -- then, well, I would get very bored. And believe me, you don't want to see that. So, with apologies to the Charmed, Space: 1999 and accursed Sentinel fans, I'm just gonna hit my personal highlights.

But first, are you either new to the 'Net, new to this magazine, or new to this planet and therefore don't actually know what a Posting Board is? Well, allow me to enlighten you. It's one of these. (Is that the last link herein to 11th Hour's fun-filled Message Board? I think not.) A Posting Board (or PB) is a website at which anyone, pretty much anyone at all, can broadcast their opinion, their belief or their lack of coherent thought for all the web wide world to see. They are usually structured in such a way that one has only to click on a few links to find a suitable topic, read others' input, and then just jump into the discussion and refute, agree with, or vilify the existing quorum. While the styles of the Boards and the caliber of debates vary, and PBs can be both heavily moderated and positively anarchic -- and many shades in between -- there is still one universal constant among them all: they're very addictive. To illustrate, let me tell you a little about my posting experiences. My name is Rachel, and I'm a Posting Board-a-holic. It has been sixteen minutes since my last post...

My story begins in the heady days of pre-millennial madness, when those Spice Girls topped the world's charts and that Blair Witch was only just considering registering a domain name. I, an avid Trekkie, X-Phile and Buffy fan et. al (and so, one of the aforementioned geeks), hopped on the 'Net in search of my spiritual home. It was many, many months later that I found it (and, for the curious, you're looking at it, kid), but until that happy day came by, I did manage to find a few other sites of solace. Most of them have since slipped from my memory -- and my Favorites List -- like things that I really don't feel the need to recall, but there are some places, some sites, some URL's, that I will remember fondly for... well, at least as long as it takes to complete this sentence. Hopefully longer. Who can say?

Bronzer Ty King kills Jenny in "Passion".

First stop on Self-indulgent Memory Lane: NitCentral. Created by author Phil Farrand in 1995, NitCentral has become one of the most active, and diverse, Discussion Boards on the internet. The site was born, says Farrand, "...as a way to increase awareness about my books!" These highly-enjoyable books, the Nitpickers Guides (four for Trekkers and one for X-Philes), seek to point out the many oversights, inconsistencies and stupidities of series creators (boy, did he choose the right shows to look at there), and though the site was intended as a place for members of the "Nitpicker's Guild" to discuss Star Trek nits and to become more proficient at detecting them (something that has become increasingly easier as time goes on) the site got a lot bigger than that. "As long as there are creators, there will be nitpickers!" Farrand explains. "Doesn't really matter what the topic is." As is amply demonstrated by the number of forums at NitCentral: it houses discussions on everything from Star Wars to Sailor Moon, from Mystery Science Theatre 3000 to M*A*S*H -- and, my God, Providence is there, now! Running a Discus Board program (hey, just like the 11th Hour Message Board!), the NitCentral boards are rife with contentious debate on many subjects beside the originally instigated Trek, even including such life subjects as Religion. "Given the embedded religious overtones of many of the sci-fi properties," says Farrand, "it was inevitable that exchanges between nitpickers would wander into the topic. Then MikeC asked if he could moderate a topic called Religious Musings and -- as long as he was willing to ensure that the discussions stayed civil -- I was happy to oblige."

So, I spent my time on L plates at NitCentral, learning the PB ropes, speculating on the nature of God, and figuring out how to make my words italic. But the NitCentral Boards, as fun as they were, had one deficiency: few people there wanted to talk about Buffy. Now, for me, that is one of life's necessities, and so when I came across the hallowed pages of BuffyGuide.com, there was much rejoicing deep down in my geeker heart. Then a much different site from the corporate monolith you see today, Buffy Guide was my ideal. I discussed there Buffy, I won there prizes, and I met there two very, very good friends, with whom I still keep in touch today. But the format changed, and the site owners went commercial, and I decided I was in need of a new Buffy home on the web; I found it at UGO.com, and there was much fun had there by all. Until, that is, controversy struck when the Board administrator sparked contention with new and draconian dictates, and the resultant schism led to the formation of the new -- and aptly entitled -- Buffy and Angel Boards. A tight-knit, quite insular and yet dynamic community, it is a place that Slayerette dreams are made of -- and if you think I am giving you the URL to it, then you are sadly mistaken. I don't wanna seem selfish, but the fact is, I am! I am very protective of my little haven of Buffy, and I don't ever wish to jeopardize its sanctity by allowing your kind of riff raff in.

And while, yes, I am kidding, some Posting Boards are even more openly hostile to outsiders than I just pretended to be (though I'm still not disclosing that URL.) The Galactic Conquest Sim Boards, which I happened upon sometime ago for no reason that I can fathom, ask you not to post unless you are a member of the Galactic Conquest Sim. Now, I don't even know what the hell that is -- except that it's something Star Wars-y, obviously -- yet I find this board endlessly fascinating. So, though I don't post there (Heaven forfend!), I do do the other thing. I lurk. Lurkdom is like a form of guilt-free voyeurism, whereby you can go to a PB and read the details of other people's lives without having to give back anything of yourself. As a lurker, one can get enormous insight into various issues and individuals, and yet still maintain a position of complete and holy obscurity. And for the past several weeks I have been even more glad of my license to lurk than usual. 'Cause I have been lurking at...

The Bronze.

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