by H. Jekyll
Thanks for the history lesson. As one of the few people who started with alt.sex.stories all those years ago, it brings back memories.
(THE Frank Mccoy was arrested? Wow, didn't know that.
Excellent article. Always glad to read something by someone who knows what they are talking about. I have enjoyed reading your stories here and elsewhere.
Boyd
As a newcomer to this world of writing and posting erotica, I found your article informative and enjoyable to read. Thank you. xantu
Very informative but my interest is selfish. I was hoping to read a new offering! Guess you fooled me! LOL I am a huge fan an have always enjoyed your work. Please begin writing again...PLEASE! The gendre needs more writers like you.
Best regards,
poodlepapa@hotmail.com
I used to check alt.sex.stories.moderated but found Lit and SOL to be a more time-effective mechanism to find stories that I like (in fact, I remember when alt.sex.stories was not full of spam).<p>I've noticed a couple of trends. First, I think the overall quality of writing on Lit and SOL is improving through time (especially on Lit). Second, I think the cleverness of the story plots and character development is improving, i.e. beyond sex-story cliche. It is really more interesting to read about how characters respond to sex situations than setting up your wife to get gang-banged by 10 inch cocks etc.<p>Interesting and thought-provoking essay, HJ.
Thanks for your well thought out and researched article. I think that one of the points you are making by implication as that sexulaity has been marginalized because most people who are passionate have felt apologetic about it. Some of the leading thinkers and planners of our day have also been our most passionate people. Since they were (understandably) low profile we have over time and given our religious and cultural proscriptions full sway over the public mind.
While working with the law we really need to take a principled stand on sexual politics (if thats the right word) <smile>. One key sub issue is Sex for Elders. People would halve their medical bills in the process !
A couple of months ago I noticed that A.S.S.I. had just... vanished. My local DSL ISP who, to my knowledge, had never banned any newsgroup, could no longer find it when I tried to open it. My subscription provider also simultaneously became unable to serve it, even though I tried both coasts' servers. Looking for an explanation serendipitously brought me here, and now I suspect I know where it went. I also now know there are alternatives. ;-)
will read some of your other work now.. smiles..==blues==
Great tips, dude!
H.Jekyll, have you found out if Deirdre still writes?She must be fifty-eight now. Paul
Thanks for posting. That was the fascinating.
You expanded a history of cyber-erotica into a discussion of server protocols, politics, economics, psychology, and literature. And the mention of Usenet was a real trip down memory lane. I was messing with that back when I was 8 years old.
Just curious, what is your profession outside of erotica? You sound like a fellow engineer but with such a broad perspective you could be anything.
I used to really enjoy writing/reading stories on Lit in 2001-2003, but this is my first time on the site in years. Tell you the truth, the attention seems to have died down a lot. From casual browsing it looks like most of the stories on here were posted before 2005. Its a little sad to see traffic on this great site waning.
But I am glad to see that open-minded people are still sharing & enjoying these stories, even if there are less of them.
Thanks again,
John
Quite pleasurable to read and accept the beginnings of this wonderful world. :)
My own first on-line encounter with erotic fiction was on CServe in the late 1980's. It hosted two forums: HSX100 was mostly vanilla, and the stroky stuff was all over in HSX200. I still have a few of those stories on my drive somewhere, too.
Don
Thank you for helping preserve history.
We're in an age where "if Google doesn't know about it then it never happened".
The unarchived materials from before Google was well established is outstanding, the large gaps mentioned regarding Google Groups applies to much technical information too.
In doing literature searches, Google misses materials before 1990 which I know about because I read library paper copies, or were given references by other researchers, or in one case, found thesis materials in the personal library of a deceased relative.
Records of the accomplishments of the baby-boomer generation will be lost in the gap between microfilm libraries and search engines.