[FFML] [Spamfilk] Re: The end of the FFML

[Alexander CHEEZEM]

Y'know, I figured I might as well mention something else -- I was looking back through my old e-mails, and one thing stood out to me.
When Jeanne Hedge passed, I might not have heard about it without the FFML. I certainly didn't hear about it on any other corner of the Internet.
When Epsilon passed, I first heard about it here -- and might not have made the connection to the old FFML participant (as he used other handles elsewhere, AIRC -- but I can't look for those notices at the moment for reasons I'll get into below) without this list.
E.L.L.... well, I heard about it elsewhere, but *still*.
And that's without the fics that I still get primarily via this list when they (occasionally) update -- Drunkard's Walk comes to mind.

Maybe it's just the circumstances. As I write this, three of the seven sites I most frequent are down -- two due to a literal datacenter fire and one due to a particularly dickish hacker. They should be back up. Eventually.
(Of the seven, two of the remainder are webmail clients. If you discount them, it's three of the *five* sites I use the most.)

The IRC communities I've participated in have generally fallen apart to various degrees as well, in part due to Discord, but more due to drift. Those aware of the more... prickly... bits of my present circumstances will understand the impact this has had on me, especially with everything else.

I'm also mourning the rather rapid-fire losses of the last year. I've lost several friends since COVID started, including the two people in my social circles who I (arguably) most respected.
But, more than that, I simply find that the FFML still serves a purpose to me. I've thought about it -- is my reaction just it being *one more* loss when I really don't need any more? I don't think it is.

And so I mourn it. It will be missed.
-- Aleh
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com>
To: The Fanfiction Mailing List <ffml at chez-vrolet.net>
Sent: Mon, Apr 5, 2021 8:52 pm
Subject: [FFML] [Spamfilk] Re: The end of the FFML

On Mon, Apr 5, 2021 at 4:29 PM Ragman Jack <stevedtav at gmail.com> wrote:

> Ultimately, though, nostalgia alone is no reason to keep the list up and
> running. It hurts, but we have to Let It Go.
>
> And now I’m going to sit back and wait for the Frozen jokes. =D
>

I was wondering who was going to trip my muse, and how it would be
triggered.

---

The pixels glow white on my screen tonight.
The list's traffic's grown so dim.
A listserv so isolated,
And it looks like I'm an admin.

The Web is spreading like this growing life outside.
Can't keep the list going, heaven knows I've tried.
Nobody comes in, no new people see.
Year by year, new forums keep calling me.
React, don't act, don't let them know.
Well, now they know.

Let it go, let it go.
Can't keep it up anymore.
Let it go, let it go.
Turn away and close the door.
I don't care what they're going to say.
Let the Web rage on.
Being old never bothered me anyway.

It's funny how nostalgia makes everything seem radical.
How we remember the good, and not the practical.
I never stopped seeing what I can do:
Tweak the same old plots, but the fandom's new.
Across the series, across the venues, no one list for me:
I'm free.

Let it go, let it go.
I am an eternal scribe.
Let it go, let it go.
I'll write until I die.
Understand, this is how I play.
Let the Web rage on.

Online libraries are flourishing all around,
So many that our attention gets split and drowned.
Yet one thought crystallizes like an icy blast:
We're never going back, the past is in the past.

Let it go, let it go.
Find ever new groups, on and on.
Let it go, let it go.
That single community is gone.
I write on, by night and day.
Let the Web rage on.
Being old never bothered me anyway.
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