Ten Old Fans

Continuing on the thread a bit downstream, we ask the hypothetical question, "If we had to give an award for contributions to Daria fandom, to whom would we give it?"

That's a toughie. So I decided to come up with my own list of nominees.

I had a few things in mind -- I wanted to go back in time as far as possible, to 1997-1998 if necessary. This is going to eliminate quite a few people that would be nominated by most Daria fans -- Kara Wild, Kemical Reaxion, Canadibrit, thea_zara, The Angst Guy, Deref -- not because they're not deserving, but because my goal was to go back as far as I possibly could.

My major resource was USEnet, reading the old message traffic on alt.tv.daria between 1997 and 1999. There were a few people I considered like "Kyle" and "endless, nameless", but I doubt that those pseudonyms would ring any bells among Second Fandom (or even First Fandom) at all.

So we're going for strict notoriety here. I'll list the names. See if they ring a bell.

CINCGREEN's nominations for a Special Award for Contributions to Daria fandom are....

1. Katherine Goodman

Katherine Goodman was the operator of the alt.lawndale.com website, a writer of fan fiction and designer of icons. The site was probably up between 1997 and 1998, when Ms. Goodman removed it.

The scorched remnants of the alt.lawndale.com web site can be found here . (The name was snapped up by a porn site in 2003 and is now owned by one of those "we sponsor this domain" sites; I would go to the link above rather than typing it in.) It was considered at the time one of the best Daria sites on the net, receiving a "Top Ten Toon Site Award" from TotalTV, which has now been bought out by TV Guide.

Going through what's left of the site is quite interesting, and I recommend the link above heartily. I take from reading the site that Katherine had contacts at MTV at one time.

(Legends: a) Peter Guerin also claims in an essay that Katherine Goodman was a co-writer of the infamous "Ragged Denim", the first male/male Daria slash ever written and worth a post here in its own right. If that's TRUE, then more power to Ms. Goodman. b) Supposedly, Glenn Eichler himself was a fan of the site.)

Katherine was a high school student at the time, and she has now GAFIAted -- "Gotten Away From It All". As Martin J. Pollard said on August 4, 2000, "I
say, let them have their well-earned privacy and just remember them
fondly."

2. Rowena Stubbs

Roweena ran another large Daria site at the beginning of First Fandom, called Planet Daria. The scorched remnants of the site can unfortunately, not be found -- that site is gone, and not even Web Archive can rescue it. The site had a web-based chat page, and was one of the earlier Daria messageboards.

In addition to creating the "Planet Daria" websites, Ms. Stubbs tirelessly archived episodes, creating the first of the Daria episode transcripts you see on Outpost Daria. That alone ought to give anyone honorable mention.

3. Michelle Klein-Hass

Where do you start? We'll start with the fact that she was the moderator of another large Daria site called Lawndale Commons. The site operated between 1998 and late 1999.

The scorched remnants of the Lawndale Commons (old) website can be found here .

In addition to being the creator of Lawndale Commons, she is an editor at Toon Magazine, a quarterly publication and has spoken often with Glenn Eichler himself in the aspects of both reporter and Daria fan. She is also an essayist and a fan fiction writer.

She has had a long-standing presence on the IRC chatroom #daria+ and on USENET's alt.tv.daria. She might not be found on any of the message boards, but she still remains interested in Daria fandom after several years.

4. "Wraith"

"Wraith" is the creator of the Sick Sad World website, which can be found at ssw.ssw.net . In addition to the usual fan activity, there is a set of archived comments by Wraith dating all the way from 1997 -- he was there from the very beginning. The archives were almost a must-read in the early days of Daria fandom.

Wraith is not very active in Daria fandom anymore, but after suspending the site after Daria's second season (by 1999, four major Daria fan sites had came and gone), he later restored the site to the glory that you can see in the above link. He hasn't gotten away from it ALL yet, but he has gotten away from MOST of it. He might be found if you post at the Scorched Remnants Message Boards and ask for him.


5. Mike Quinn

Mike Quinn is a member of First Fandom of long standing. For five years, Mr. Quinn wrote the famous "Mike's Delayed Reaction Reviews", where he reviews and comments on each of the 67 Daria episodes -- it's a lot of text and a lot of work, and the complete archive can be found on Outpost Daria. The reviews stirred up a lot of debate in Daria fandom, but most fans eagerly awaited the publishing of a review after an episode.

6. Martin J. Pollard

When Planet Daria and alt.lawndale.com went down, there was a outcry among the fandom. Where would the fan fiction and transcripts of Daria episodes be stored? As it turned out, they would end up on Outpost Daria, the fifth major Daria fan site which is still more or less the first stop where you go to find Daria information.

Most of the fan fiction on Outpost Daria is quite literally irreplacable. Many of these fan works are from 1997 and 1998, from the older Daria fan sites. The fans have stopped writing; their fiction lives on at Outpost Daria. All the transcripts from the Planet Daria site can be found there, a large collection of essays and archived news.

In addition, Mr. Pollard used to run a message board (The Outpost Daria Message Board). The board no longer exists (it did run before 2000), but Mr. Pollard directed the former message traffic to the Paperpusher Message Board, which is now the primary Daria message board. He also posted/posts on USENEt and frequented the #daria+ channel.

7. "The Paperpusher"

"The Paperpusher" (first name Rich) has been a Daria fan since at least 1998. And, like many Daria fans, created his own site with fan fiction, news, and a message board.

The scorched remnants of the first Paperpusher Site can be found here . As the message boards in Daria fan history went up, and then went down, they were first directed to the Outpost Daria Message Board, and finally, the message board at Paperpusher's site, which would later be referred to as the PPMB.

Rich still pays for the message board, which is a great service to Daria fandom. However, he has turned the actual operation of the board to other Daria fans. Rich is involved in academic studies now and does not have much time for fandom these days, but is still interested in the show.

8. (Father) Martin Sylvester

Since there are two well-known "Martin"s in Daria fandom, the other Martin of the two is sometimes called "Father Martin" or "the Padre". He's called "Father Martin" as he is a Catholic priest in England.

A Daria fan since at least 1998, the "Irony Maiden" website has been up since at least 1999. The site has a different purpose than most Daria fan based sites -- the purpose is to keep up with the show outside the United States, to follow on which channels in which nations one can find "Daria".

In addition, one can find information about some of the earliest "Dariacons", which are "mini-collections", gatherings of a few fans here and there around the world to meet and discuss Daria. Father Martin has himself travelled to the United States and met many Daria fans in person, and has been nothing less than a gracious spirit.

9. C. E. Forman

C(hristopher) E. Forman came over to Daria fandom from the "Beavis and Butt-Head" days. (He is the creator of the "Beavis and Butt-head FAQ" on alt.tv.beavis-n-butthead). C. E. was primarily known for the creation of fan fiction and his "The Lost Seasons" series, 16 Daria stories diverging from Daria's second and third seasons. At one time, many Daria fans considered him the best writer of Daria fan fiction -- his works are still being discussed today on the PPMB, as I write this.

He exchanged mail with many fans in First Fandom, contributed to Kara Wild's "Abruptly Amy" series, and outbid every other Daria fan for two rare Daria collectibles -- an original telephone answering machine message done by Tracy Grandstaff and an in-house "Daria" themed Christmas card by MTV Animation. Unfortunately, he is no longer active in Daria fandom.

10. "Crazy Nutso"

"Crazy Nutso" first appeared on USEnet in 1999, and created his own Daria website shortly thereafter called "Daria's Rubber Room".

The scorched remnants of the site can be found here . (Warning: web archive did not save the original background, so you will have to highlight the whole page to get an idea of what it looked like).

CN was primarily known as a parody writer, and his most famous fan work is called "'Shipper Wars". A link can be found here , at GlitterBerries. Some of the references might be dated, but the fic does give you insight into who the major personalities were on the old Outpost Daria Message Board.

CN still runs a chat room called "The Rubber Room". Many of the older Daria fans can be found there, some fans that you'll not be able to find on other message boards.