Alfandria: Difference between revisions
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==Culture== |
==Culture== |
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Alfandria has developed a rich culture and extensive body of jargon over its history. |
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elder members were called fruits, newer members were called nuts |
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Elder members of alt.fan.dragons are called 'old fruits', and newer members are called 'young nuts'. A person was typically considered to become an old fruit one year after their first post, so the anniversary of that post is known as their 'fruiting day'. Karenji remarks in ''Draconic Dictionary'' that some people were 'early fruiters' or 'insta-fruiters' - they fit in so well with the group's culture that it was as if they had always been a member.<ref>{{Citation|title=Draconic Dictionary|author=Karenji|url=https://www.labyrinth.net.au/~gsj/Karenji/Drakkydictionary.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20191220012544/https://www.labyrinth.net.au/~gsj/Karenji/Drakkydictionary.html}}</ref> |
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dragon code! |
dragon code! |
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Revision as of 18:19, 24 May 2023
Alfandria is the name given to the community which formed around the Usenet newsgroup alt.fan.dragons. It is considered the origin of the draconic community. After the newsgroup, the members also founded a MUCK, an IRC channel, a livejournal community, and a hub website. Most of these spaces still operate today.
History
Creation of alt.fan.dragons
The alt.fan.dragons newsgroup was established on December 1st, 1993 by ExistingPhantom as a place to discuss dragons more generally. Phantom was "a starving dragon fan in a dragonless internet", and posted to Usenet asking if any others were interested in creating a group.[1] In the proposal for the creation of the group, its intended uses included discussing ideas about dragons and depictions of dragons in fiction, and sharing art and creative writing related to dragons. It was created under the alt.fan.* namespace, which represented fan communities.[2]
People who identified as dragons began to appear somewhere between September and November of 1994. Phantom names Blackburn as one of the first people to self-describe as such. He initially tried to stem the posts about dragon identity, because he was concerned it would put off other posters. Eventually, he stopped when he realized the group was more popular than ever before.[1]
the group was referred to as the Dominance for a while, but later someone came up with 'alfandria' and that name stuck[1]
Creation of other spaces
Dalvenjah FoxFire, founder of the DALnet IRC network, was also a regular of alt.fan.dragons. In 1995, he created the #afd channel.[3][4] As a result of technical issues caused by malicious users, the channel was recreated on the SorceryNet network in 2003.[5]
a muck (site still seems to be up?),[6] need to find more details about its creation and use. noted as running as lately as 2013[7]
an ftp site[8]
and a livejournal community[9] (first post in 2001)[10]
the lj was used to organized in-person meetups in the mid 2000s[11][12][13]
(other places probably were too, but that's what i've got sources for so far)
Book project
inspired by the poetry and art posted to the group[14]
was to be called "soaring heart and soul: the stories and poems of dragons"[14]
significant progress was made
publishing, paying contributors and copyright registration was being discussed[14]
book was even going to be taken to a publisher's convention[14]
stated as being 'on hold' in 1999, seemingly related to the unauthorized republishing of contributors' works[15]
Culture
Alfandria has developed a rich culture and extensive body of jargon over its history.
Elder members of alt.fan.dragons are called 'old fruits', and newer members are called 'young nuts'. A person was typically considered to become an old fruit one year after their first post, so the anniversary of that post is known as their 'fruiting day'. Karenji remarks in Draconic Dictionary that some people were 'early fruiters' or 'insta-fruiters' - they fit in so well with the group's culture that it was as if they had always been a member.[16]
dragon code!
stuff abt the relationship between people who actually identified as dragons in ways we would consider otherkin-ish vs other people who were fans or roleplayers or whatever
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 ExistingPhantom. "The early history of AFD, as present by ExistingPhantom" (Archived version)
- ↑ ExistingPhantom. "Proposal / Request For Discussion - New Newsgroup ALT.FAN.DRAGONS" (Archived version)
- ↑ Miravlix. (April 16th, 2023) "30 years..."
- ↑ Draconis The Lord Dragon. (Feb 13th, 1995) "Build it and They Will Come...So Come Already."
- ↑ Lonita. (January 9th, 2003) "Notice"
- ↑ "alfandria.net"
- ↑ Arcturax. (July 7th, 2013) "Just another day in the Alfandria clearing"
- ↑ "Alt.Fan.Dragons Frequently Asked Questions" (Archived version)
- ↑ "Alfandria: Alt.Fan.Dragons LJ"
- ↑ Banrai. (August 3rd, 2001) "First post, welcome and all that..."
- ↑ Tal. (February 12th, 2006) "London, UK March Gather"
- ↑ ExistingPhantom. (December 23rd, 2005) "FC 2006 Dragon Gather"
- ↑ Tal. (June 7th, 2007) "UK August Gather poll!"
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 Quelonzia. "AFD Publication Project Update" (Archived version)
- ↑ "Dragon Poetry and Story Book Project." (Archived version)
- ↑ Karenji. "Draconic Dictionary" (Archived version)