 November 22, 2011 - 10:39pm | I've been looking at the history of Star Frontiers on the internet. For awhile now it seemed that there is an "old guard" and a "young guard" that have both carried the SF torch keeping the game alive. I have little doubt that the Star Frontiers community of today would not be what it is without the torch bearers that kept the light shining in the void. Yet changes in how we relate to each other on the internet has brought about a new era of collaboration and creation of new content with a successful fan magazine that is gaining nothing but popularity. In the '90s and moving into the 2000's people like Albin Johnson, Timothy Norris, Art Eaton, Layne Saltern, and many more carried the torch but it didn't seem that many of them that were active in the '90s were that active in the SF community so much anymore. Every time I click on a link I've favorited and it comes up 404 error I feel saddened for my hobby and the SF fans that will be active when I no longer am. It also seems that the web presence from the '90s to the later 2000s has changed. In the 90's it seemed that Sf web sites tended toward individual efforts spot lighting home brew campaigns, PBEM games, SF novels written and published for free on the web. Largely the theme during the early days of the internet seems to have been individual efforts with individuals talking to the net audience. Which is why so many of those old sites are no longer available as they drop from the internet because the creator is nolonger associated with the educational institution where the site was hosted, they have moved on with other pursuits and no longer pay for the site, or because Geocities went away. As the internet evolved the 2000's saw the emergence of cooporative sites and the mature version of the list serv; forums. For the past seven or more years the most significant SF sites have been those with a major component of the site being forums. This new breed of SF site is about people talking to each other. Sites like StarFrontiers; dot com, dot org, dot US, and dot info. Play by post games seem to have superceded the PBEM due to the popularity of forums. Note the above is a basic generalization of the trends I found. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 February 6, 2017 - 7:13pm | An interesting observation... yeah, it takes me a while to read through some of these projects. Joe Cabadas |
February 6, 2017 - 7:15pm | I don't know much about SF's presence on the internet until I decided to search for it -- which is now two years ago. This topic would make an interesting story for the magazine. Joe Cabadas |
 February 6, 2017 - 9:44pm | I was on the old list serv out of Idaho State back in the early/middle nintiies. Then when my univeristy email expired I dropped off the list. There was a group of guys at USU that gamed a custom SF that I interacted with during that time. The rest was the list serv and people's own websites. I see the same similar trend Jedion described. Post USU I searched the internet at home and gathered my own stuff on my local hard drive through the 2000s until 2008 when I found SF.us in my google searches and lurked for a bit. Once I felt comfortable enough that the site was not a closed group like some of the old sites used to be I spoke up by joining in. This boosted my SF crativity because it opened up colaberation way beyond the old list serv and the old campaign specific sites. Bill Logan deserves big kudos for invisioning and designing SF.us to be a collaberative, open, and expansive culture. -iggy |
February 6, 2017 - 9:49pm | I was on the old list serv out of Idaho State back in the early/middle nintiies. Then when my univeristy email expired I dropped off the list. There was a group of guys at USU that gamed a custom SF that I interacted with during that time. The rest was the list serv and people's own websites.
I see the same similar trend Jedion described. Post USU I searched the internet at home and gathered my own stuff on my local hard drive through the 2000s until 2008 when I found SF.us in my google searches and lurked for a bit. Once I felt comfortable enough that the site was not a closed group like some of the old sites used to be I spoke up by joining in. This boosted my SF crativity because it opened up colaberation way beyond the old list serv and the old campaign specific sites. Bill Logan deserves big kudos for invisioning and designing SF.us to be a collaberative, open, and expansive culture. Yes, I've enjoyed posting things here rather than the it's my own campaign. Gee I wish I could share something... Joe Cabadas |
August 5, 2018 - 6:44am | The Facebook group is an interesting phenomenon. I never paid much attention to FB until the last 3 years. I've interacted with the FB star frontiers group more since WotC recinded the fan licenses. the FB group is a wider audience with more immediate interaction but not the same as a site like this one with forums. a different experience and not always strictly SF related I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
