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

"What? We don't have to type here?"

Yes, the ever-changing, ever-intimidating, ever-confusing universe that is the Official Posting Board of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The Bronze (named for the club in the show -- but why am I explaining this to you? You're reading The 11th Hour, aren't you?) is perhaps the most fabled of all Posting Board communities. A phenomenon even in a vast virtual world populated with same, The Bronze is a free-flowing, free-thinking (oddly linear) entity in which anything and everything can and usually does happen. "It's a place where, in order to really fit in and survive, you must be a good written communicator," says veteran poster MeeB, who writes news for 11th Hour as Mary_Beth, and so must naturally fit that criteria. "And I think part of that stems from the fact that Joss [Whedon] himself is so witty and the show is so well-written. Of course, because VIPs post, we get lots of VIP-hunters," she continues ruefully, "but the regulars try to steer them away or set them straight, because the VIPs really don't come by regularly and the board is about more than that." Poster Allyson agrees. "It's sort of like fishing when they come on the board, I think," she says of the VIPs, who are most often writers, actors or composers from the show. "A sort of competition to get your name in color (VIP's post in color, the serfs get beige.) Unless I actually have a question, I steer clear of the board when a VIP is posting. It gets pretty messy." Monique, a Bronzer for many years and founder of the Nicholas Brendon Aficionados, agrees. "It can be disturbing to see people come in wanting to do nothing but post to a VIP, who they apparently picture as keeping a constant vigil at the posting board. The VIPs are really very little of what makes the Bronze such a wonderful community."

But, of course, it is Buffy creator and human miracle Joss Whedon's posts -- along with those of his staff and cast -- that make The Bronze so well-known throughout the web. Other show's creators may participate in live chats or frequent the boards of their shows, but it is only Whedon whose every sentence and typo and completely crazy line of reasoning is then preserved for posterity and circulated on mailing lists and newsgroups, and is then considered to be news by some very discerning web publications. Although, happily, our Mary_Beth's attention to what "Joss says" does extend beyond the news-item worthy. "Joss said recently that he and the writers find the board invaluable -- that we make them laugh and we make them think," she says proudly -- and they certainly return the favor. "The board actually belongs to Joss," she continues, "and it stays in the unique linear format because he understands it. Yes, I know. Joss understanding something linear is kind of mind-boggling, isn't it?"

Of course, interspersed with the witty banter from creators and fans, the deconstructing of Buffy's latest hair disaster and the analysis of just what that Cheese Guy was all about (did so mean something!), there are the less-topical posts. The positively incomprehensible posts. The posts from new fans whom many Bronzers feel do not quite yet understand their place in the scheme of things. "I've noticed a definite shift at the Bronze in the past 19 months," says Monique, with some regret. "More fans of the show have online access, and naturally they end up at the official website. In more and more instances, these people have experience in chat rooms, and don't notice that there's a difference between those and a posting board like the Bronze." Allyson is less charitable. "The way I feel about it," she says, speaking of the semi-literate attempts of some "Newbie" posters, "if you can't write a complete sentence to save your life, get the fuck off a message board."

MeeB attempts to explain the lure of the Bronze for those who actually do know about grammar: "The Bronze is a highly developed community," she says. "People are writing books about it, studying it for sociology class -- and getting sucked into the community while doing so. We have our own sort of language and slang that has evolved both from the show (which has such a specific language all its own) and from one another, and things that happen on the board. Goats are sacred. There have been many romances, several engagements, and a couple of marriages involving PBers. A large charity event has resulted out of it -- The Posting Board Party (PBP), and we have smaller PBFPs (Posting Board Fan Parties) all over the world." Monique offers this insight: "The Bronze can be a lot of fun, and I like being part of that," she says.

Amber Benson: okay, we get it. She's a hottie.

Sharp-witted poster Eiddileg (who just makes me laugh and laugh) continues: "The Bronze is confusing, [but] when there isn't a trauma going on, such as a flurry over VIP conjurers or something that has been affectionately been termed 'Pruittgate,' it is a fun place." "Pruittgate" refers to the posting of "The Parable of the Knight" by former Buffy and Angel stunt co-ordinator Jeff Pruitt, which was a thinly-veiled -- and extremely tedious -- attack on most of Buffy's cast and crew. "He entered the land of libel," says poster Antipodean of Pruitt's twenty-four hour spate of posting. "I didn't go to work for four hours," she says, "I was late that day. I could see what was going on, there were some colours on the Board, and we could see that Jeff had been sacked... and after a while I just thought 'What the hell is he doing? Why is he doing this?' And as the day went on he just got more and more paranoid, more and more weird. In hindsight, we think it was to get Sophia (Crawford, Buffy stunt-double and Pruitt's girlfriend) out of her contract."

11th Hour webwizard zero (Lisa Kincaid) was affected by the Pruitt saga as well. "I used to visit the Bronze quite a bit," says Lisa, also owner and moderator of the boards at JamesMarsters.com and GlennQuinn.com, "[but] I haven't been back since the whole Jeff Pruitt fiasco... I never loved the format of that board, though I did dig some of the company, but there's really no point in going back now. It's passed `sometimes annoying but generally cool' and regressed fully into 'petty bullshit', and not just because of Pruitt's postings... mostly because of how people reacted to what he did." MeeB weighs in: "The Internet, in this case, became the proverbial double-edged sword. The fans and VIPs got so close that they both forgot that not everyone knows everything nor can they, in this environment. Fans start to think they should know everything, when they don't need to."

But it is the Bronzers' sense of belonging, not only to each other and their board but to the show itself, that is at the heart of their community. And some posters have become entangled with Buffy themselves. With several Buffy-related websites to her credit -- including author Christopher Golden's Official Website -- actress Little Willow has been posting at the Bronze since 1997, and is an enthusiastic supporter of the community. "I've seen people become the best of friends, fake 'families,' start dating, move, change jobs, become stronger in who they are, plan trips, visit events, get married, cry on each other's shoulders, escape an evil workday, and more -- all due to the Bronze," she says. "Personally, I've garnered some dynamic friends through the Bronze and wouldn't trade it for anything." Little Willow has also garnered personal relationships with several Buffy stars -- her interview with Danny Strong (Jonathan) was in 11th Hour back in March -- and it is not too much to say that the posting community helped her kickstart a career as web-designer and publicist. "Christopher Golden started posting," she says of the Buffy and Angel scribe, "and after posting with [him] there and getting replies, we started emailing. Then Christopher offered me the "West Coast Publicist" job in March 1999 -- meaning that I promote his novels, comics, companions, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel-related or not -- on-line." And the Bronze has certainly helped others get careers going as well. Perhaps the most celebrated cases of such good fortune are those of -mere- and Becker. -mere- is Meredyth Smith, now a staff-writer on Angel, and as for Becker, "he's either a PA or a writer's assistant," says our trusty news reporter Mary_Beth. "I'm not sure which." Hmmm. That's disquieting.

But is that the only reason, really, that people post at the Bronze? To make contact with the VIPs, get invited to join the creative team, to become a writer for the show, despite all of their protestations to the contrary? Hardly. "What I really enjoy is that these are people I would have never otherwise had in my life, and I think that is the benefit to all of this..." quoth Allyson of her Bronzing adventures. "So much is written about the unhealthy aspects of cyber-life, that I think it is important to stress that otherwise socially healthy people can enhance their circle of friends if they are smart and careful. I have great friends, date pretty often, I think I'm pretty, and while I hate people, I can fake being personable enough to function as a regular person in the world. I make decent money, have sex when I want it, get drunk when I need to, and shower daily. I guess the point of all that info is to dispel the notion that only Rocky Dennis-looking, socially maladjusted freaks take part in a message board community." Oh, now she tells me! Excuse me a moment...

Mmmm. Rainbow-bakin' good.

There, I reset the clock. It has now been one minute and seventeen seconds since my last post. And you were here for an historic occasion. 'Cause in that time just now when I was absent (you didn't notice?), I was off posting. But I wasn't just posting anywhere. I was posting, for the first time, at The Bronze, man. And, you know, it wasn't as bad as I feared -- and fear it I did. "I hear we have an interesting rep on the 'Net," Eiddileg says in response to that, seeming bewildered. "Are we snobby or violent? I can't recall." MeeB votes for the former. "Outsiders see us as snobby," she says, "but we'll welcome anyone who has something thoughtful or interesting to say or ask. They also see us as 'sycophants' -- but we criticize. Heck, if we're so sycophantic, then why is Marti Noxon leery of the board? Because she saw criticism there for one of her early episodes and it stung. For the most part, though, the writers have open minds, good senses of humor, and thick skins." Eiddileg has the final word on the issue: "Just remember, we're nice, we're loverly, we are very supportive and protective of our friends, and we don't bite," she attests of herself and her fellow Bronzers. "Unless you really, really piss us off."

Ah, another thing to add to my Posting Board Life Lessons...

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