From:	"Robert A. Hayden" <hayden@*******.MANKATO.MSUS.EDU>
Subject:	Re: Happy Birthday
Date:	Wed, 3 Nov 1993 01:05:02 -0600

On Tue, 2 Nov 1993, Nightfox wrote:

> Happy Birthday list!!!!!!!!
>
> Hey Rob - is this the ACTUAL birthday, or is the day when everyone
> started to use their characters? (Vinnie, then a few people, then me)

On november 2th, the list actually was created by the High Lords of
Hearn. If you remember, int he preceeding three weeks or so,
'ShadowBabble' was carried on on the ShadowRN list, but was moved when a
vote was taken in which about a dozen people voted for the seperate list
and four or five voted AGAINST!

I started with a decker character named Dante' who quietly slipped into
the shadows after the new year, to be replaced by Norm Conquest (a troll
coming of age with his shamanistic calling, now a top executive for
Yoshida Tech). MONICA and RUFUS were also born out of the MagnaTech fiasco
which traced its roots back to the defunct 'Underground' newsletter I was
producing for my local games. Vinnie contributed greatly and the
spillover obviously occured. The Underground folded after four issues
when ShadowTalk became a better forum for fiction writing (and my gaming
group folded due to graduations and marriages).

We began with a core group of about 15 people, averaging about 15 or so
postings a day, until February when MONICA caused all hell to break
loose, and we then skyrocketed to our first month with over .5 megs of
postings, and several days where the list froze after the 50 post limit.
Today we average about .75 megs of material a month.

When PLOT-D came online, storylines lost some of the spontaniety that
existed back in February and March, but also developed, I believe, much
more depth to them than simple soap opera settings with little
direction. I'm not sure if this is good or not, but material has
continued to come in at an unbelievable pace.

When I created this list. I never imagined that it would become what it
is today. I never imagined there being over 100 people on the list and
megs of information pouring in. It is all quite staggering.

I have archives at home, on tape, of all the archives, both edited and
unedited. Almost nine megabytes of raw text was created in the span of
12 short months. That's a tremendous achievement and I'd like to say
that, taken as a whole, I have never worked with a finer group of
people. We've turned a simple fun activity into a story with a life of
its own, with characters that can be believed, in a setting as alluring
as it is fearful.

In the next year, I encourage you all to stretch your talents and your
lives by seeing if we can leave this year's record far behind in the dust.

In peace,

Your fearless leader,
Robert

--
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