The History of X-Ville
This is a brief history of X-Ville compiled by John A. Coffin,
Flukeman and myself with help from the writers of X-Ville.
Our Humble Origin
By: John A. Coffin
The beginnings of X-Ville remain obscured in the rose colored glasses of old fogies who were around when it all happened. It is impossible to pinpoint the exact dates or events that, when connected together, reveal the hidden picture that is X-Ville. The two things we can be sure of, though, are that gizzie (aka: Coleen Sullivan-Baier) was at the center of it and that we had nothing to do with it.
To understand the origins of the beast, which is to understand X-Ville itself, one must familiarize oneself first witht he comings and going of a place formerly known as alt.tv.x-files, the cultural soup from which X-Ville was fissioned. A.t.x-f is a place where all opinions are welcome, although not always. It is a place where fierce polarity over significant issues can rip neutron stars apart. It is a place where whether or not David Duchovny dresses to the right or to the left can be a significant issue.
A.t.x-f is also a breeding ground of devoted worshippers and awe inspiring Gods and Goddesses. It is a place where a clever thought, a well written sentence, and brilliantly executed action can be appreciated and bronzed into one's synapses. It is also a place where a person who says, "Bite Me!" can not only attract a following who would gladly throw themselves into into burning lava so that their Goddess could pass over unharmed, but also unite against a whole slew of teeth gnashing meanies who would wish her in the burning lava.
Many find this hard to believe.
However, when I first met Gizzie, she already had COG (Cult of gizzie) creating home pages in her honor and COG2 checking all the K-Marts of the world for a lunch box for her. She now has six (count them) such groups all to herself which is more than some actors on "The X-Files." She also had a quiet following of naysayers who would fill her mailbox with "F**k off and die!" messages until three in the morning. The first thing she said to me was, "Bite Me!"
As well as saying "Bite Me!," gizzie has voiced many clevr thoughts, has sculpted sawtooth biting sentences, and has performed actions which prompted history to sit and watch. She also knows stuff (she just does). I have never met a person who can get away with consistently recreating herself, yet remain so true. While the rest of us take time off work to try to keep up with copying her old antics, she's busy coming up with something new.
The summer of 1996 saw anticipation for the new season crescendo to a climactic frenzy very much like the orchestral bridge in "A Day in the Life." Some of us toughed out the Summer months. Without any new episodes to discuss, we had a chance to get to know each other. Thank to Doc Aay's "Idle Thoughts on an Idle Afternoon" post, many of us did. The news group began to feel more like a smoking room where friends get together and gossip than a conference room where scholars discussed angels dancing on the heads of pins. gizzie would refer to the news group as "the pool" or "the playground." Eventually, she referred to it as our neighborhood.
With the combined popularities of "The X-Files" and the internet, the new Fall season opened the floodgates to record posting on alt.tv.x-files. It was crazy. The season premiere inspired upwards of one thousand posts witihn a few hours of its airing in North America. Everyone had questions, and answers, and opinions, and counter-opinions, and gossip about future episodes, and gossip about Winona Ryder, and opinions about gossip about Winona Ryder, and opinions about people posting their opinions about the gossip on Winona Ryder, and get rich quick schemes, and trading cards to trade, and questions about the "X" on the window, and squidge moments, and opinions about people who post about squidges, and nit-picks, and webpages, and a whole bunch of other things to discuss.
It was beautiful.
As a witty response to the unprecedented traffic at alt.tv.x-files, gizzie posted a "Cyber Trafic" report. It referred to such things as ""the corner of Samantha's Alive and Why did Mulder Leave Scully" in a town called "X-Ville." It was undoubtedly meant as a comment on things happening in alt.tv.x-files and indirectly as a tribute to the fact the "The X-Files" was very popular and doing very well-something that most of us enjoyed seeing for our favorite show-and not meant to incite people to create a virtual on-line village.
gizzie, who knows a good thing when she sees it, knows that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing more than once. Such was the case with her Cyber Traffic reports. As high traffic levels continued, she continued to report on traffic, all the time developing her repertoire. Others who got the joke started to refer to the comings and goings in X-Ville. With the high traffic levels, the community feeling which had developed during the Summer was missed, and small reference posts from here to there helped bridge the gap.
The inside joke was not appreciated at all. There were those who disliked the idea of community; the news group, they felt, was for the discussing of stuff relating to "The X-Files" and not for dicussing each other. Even if these X-Ville posts did refer to things loosely associated witht he show, these "X-Villains" felt that the posts were somehow ruining the fabric of alt.tv.x-files, clogging up an already busy news group and just plain silly.
All opinions, welcome or unwelcome, get heard at alt.tv.x-files. This is arguably one of the great strengths of the internet, Usenet and alt.hieracy itself. It also gives rise to pigheaded rivalry.The X-Ville vs. X-Villain rivalry was one such situation. The gist of differences of opinions lie in deciding whether or not X-Ville posts are in essence "The X-Files" related discussion, for if they are not, then they should not be posted on the group. However, this was never directly argued.
It started with "The X-Ville people are idiots who are ruining my news group. You should all leave" posts. These were often answered and counter-answered in a Monty python-esque argument style. Nothing was resolved. Polarity was created. Then some people came up with the brain storm that just didn't like these X-Ville posts, and therefore they shouldn't exist. These were countered with the "If you don't like it, then don't read it" posts. Then the rationalists came in with the "X-Ville takes up space and I have to pay to download" posts. It should be noted that all posts take up space at alt.tv.x-files and not just these "X-Ville posts." However, by isolating the issue at hand, whether or not X-Ville posts are "The X-Files" related or not, we were able to disagree a great deal on how much space these X-Ville posts actually took up, what "bandwidth" actually meant, how news groups are run, whether alt.tv.x-files should be moderated, who is or isn't a loser, and who does or doesn't own the news group.
Finally, a compromise of sorts was suggested: all X-Ville posts should be labeled so that they can be kill-filed, thus allowing those who like them to continue reading and writing them, and those who don't like them (and who may be paying for download time) to eliminate them without having to read (or download) them. This wasn't a very good compromise in a sense that the X-Villains wanted X-Ville posts removed completely from the news group and were not completely satisfied witht he solution; the question of belonging had never been resolved. Small skirmishes were created regarding how to label the X-Ville posts so that they could be best kill-filed, but all in all, most people were compliant in labeling their posts.
It can be argued that this counter-action did more to mold and shape the course of X-Ville from an inside joke to a virtual village than any other thing. A joke grows thin after a very short time, no matter how developed it becomes. Undoubtedly, the Cyber Traffic reports would have died off as the traffic eventually did and gizzie would have gone on to her next schtick. References to this thing called X-Ville would have decreased until they were non-existant. Even David Letterman can only beat a joke so far into the ground before it ceases to have any use. With posts isolated all across the news group, this undoubtedly would have been the result. Fencing off X-Ville posts by requiring them to have an "XV:" label in essence created a vacuum needing to be filled.
And filled it was...
The Next Chapter as told by Flukeman
Prehistory:
During the stay in the atx enclosure, nobody bothered to archive, or study the history. It's before my time, personally, and nobody here today was here back then. Or if they were, nobody's talking. I've managed to dig up a website from this era. Should anybody want to study this topic, I'd consider it a great way to kiss up. I think (I'm probably wrong) that the First DAMU (Division Anti-Troll Militia Unit) was formed during this time. Puffy's, the bar next door to Flynn's Tattoo Parlor opened. MOTW's opened underneath Puffy's. The death metal band "Scream Moldy Bore" formed around it's lead whatever, Savage Brutality (was called Heavy at the time). Alan's spa also opened at this time. Castle M was built by now.
The Move:
At some point, the enclosure was deemed a failure, and we were asked to move. Alt.tv.x-files.x-ville was born. Specifically, it was on Tuesday March 11th 12:06:25 1997 that Andrew Richardson created a mighty stroke of a post to alt.config, the township we all know and love (thanks for the research Isabella). John's original FAQ was written about this time. Somewhere towards the end of the summer, the castle was host to a Goth Ball where the citizens got drunk on Absinthe and made out with Krycek clones. The punch was spiked with Prozac. At some point towards the end of the ball, thew Splugorth invaded and the DAMU went off to fight 'em. The war leveled the town, but the UN graciously rebuilt it (I think the Observatory's still down). An unremarkable orphanage with thirty kids also burned down at this point. I offered to host--er baby-sit--the kids until better accomodations could be found, but this idea was shot down. Savage Brutality formed an Army of Darkness and threatened havoc on the town if his ISP (AOL at the time) didn't allow access to the newsgroup. The UN disbanded the DAMU, but they've reformed as the Fifth Business. The OBSSE relocated to Castle M during this period . They were headed by Reverand Mother Nancy, no clever sig. Sister Myrke was in charge of the kitchen crew. Then El Mundo Gira aired.
The Fire and the Rose atarted up a small band of idealists to create the Second Salmon. Dedicated to restoring John Shiban's good name, and basically telling the world, "he's not that bad," the 2S came under fire from the rogue OBSSE during Operation: Haiku in Vancouver. It wasn't too long after this that Punk M, recent inductee to OBSSE, received a spiritual visitation from Scully herself, revealing the existance of the Anti-Scully. Sister Myrke pushed for an inquisition to root out the source of this evil, but was held in check by Rev. Ma Nancy (ncs). At least until Savage Brutality, the self-proclained Anti-Scully, posted "Ice Pick Sodomy." After that, everyone from Anti-Scullyists, to Anti Cusackians were interrogated and tasered and thrown into dungeons. There are small rumors that some Anti-Scullyists remain at large (I think there's only one).
The Dark Ages:
The Inquisition happened in the Summer on 1997. The rest of the summer was bleak. Very bleak. Nothing particularly bad happened, it's just that nothing happened. And there were very few people here for it to happen to. The Ice Rink was built around this time, Lowri (the anime waif) was gunned down by an unknown assailant, and the Fifth business was beset by problems on all sides. Two hockey teams would emerge to fight for locker space at the ice rink: Team Firestorm (mostly Fifth Business) and th XV Flying Queequegs. Firestorm was the team that knew how to play.
The Renaissance:
I chart this from around the time that the XV University football game started. In October of 1997, XV University's football team had a game against the Tunguska Oileans (it's still going on, in fact). I was busted for Pez smuggling and insurance fraud, but I got acquitted. We got our first radio station since the move, X-BEE 101.3 FM, and our first meteorologist. The morgue reopened for the first time in years. Bridget Gibson moved into Castle M. Fifth Business has had to reorganize due to the deaths of their leadership, but the newest incarnation seems ready to tackle anything, from psychic CIA agents, to pissed off Sidhe. We even got a pub and a library. The associate librarian (Katherine Loki) in foolin' around with a military spy (Zane). OTOH, she may just be using him to score drugs. Puffy's began an Open Mic event, and the Big Spender Shopping Mall began construction.
The Modern Age:
The flukeman colony living in the sewers were found to have been sterilized by a retro virus following an edict by their maker banning breeding. A council of seven renegade flukemem attempted to bypass this by cloning themselves, but this ended in a disaster for everyone involved. Due to treachery and violence, the Council of Seven has been whittled down to the Council of Four. Following the desertion of both Kato and Creed, and rumors of Kitty's (not barmaid) possible consorting with the enemy, Lady Sally may have to rethink some of the Fifth Business' standard operating procedure. The Canadian Embassy and the spa have reopened, though Claire seems to have had some small troubles with a gym teacher named Fujisawa. The Big Spender shopping mall remains under construction. We're all a bunch of sad, tossing gets. Oh, and Beagle's firing up a troll BBQ. It looks like Zane has returned.
Claire and Fujisawa hit several residents with a barrage of beer soaked stuffing. My new girlfriend (Pattie, an accidently created misshapen merging of a multitude of Mountie men) was targeted by an angry torch-weilding mob. Phoebe found an insane dental student who'd used the floor above the radio station to torture Simon, a mutant with a lot of mouths. Countedd and Charter helped to put a stop to that, though. I got some immature revenge with a Halloween inspired assault of eggs and pumpkins. During the cleanup, we were invaded. By robots. It was all very harrowing. Meanwhile, the East to West shop opened it's doors to a flaming pumpkin and rabid political campaigners. A collection of new townsfolk proved instrumental in defeating the robots. In the wake of Project Prism (the robot invasion), the Fifth Business membership seems to have formed stronger ties of loyalty than ever before.
Charter switched bodies with Michael McKean, but that was cleared up by a magic spell from Lady Sally before too much harm could be done. Alby held a Christmas party at Puffy's for all the NPCs and anyone else who happened by. Bridget held a family Christmas party at Castle M. Charter and Claire got in a fight with Creed. The M&S Hotel & Cafe opened, and the town welcomed three new witches: Tara, Marita and Selene. Laika had puppies (Claggart's the father, I think), and Charter distrubuted a bunch of them around town. Countess had a Christmas party and managed to fit all of us into her apartment (Euclid would love to know how).