Sometime at around 11 pm Eastern Standard Time, Martin Pollard, webmaster of Outpost Daria, told the assembled fandom (or at least, that part of it that assembled at the PPMB) that he would no longer be updating Outpost Daria. It was not so much of a “Boy, I don’t really want to do Outpost Daria anymore” post but a sort of a “So long, Mac — I’m getting away from it all” message.

Chat rooms immediately erupted in wild accusations, with friendships broken as fast as someone could type a frowny-face emoticon. There was wailing and gnashing of teeth on the message boards.

Long-time fans like E.A. Smith suddenly began randomly picking fights with passersby on the street like a crazed jackal, the skin of his victims neatly wedged underneath his sharpened fingernails, as he roamed the streets in a caffeine-fueled frenzy. They had to call the tranquilizer gun in for Richard Lobinske, who at the last report was holding off police with a flit gun filled with DDT, his clothes in tatters, cackling like a madman on acid ...

Okay. That’s a bit of hyperbole. Nothing like that happened, although it would have been much more interesting if it did. The mood seems to be like that of a man who has been told he has terminal cancer — everyone thinking, “What other bad news am I going to get? Wife leaving me? Dog humping my daughter? Bush doesn’t leave in 2009?”

Before I wax about the greatness of Outpost Daria, let’s get the hedgehog out from under the bush. Martin Pollard and I have not ... uh ... gotten along, to put it mildly. For the longest time, I didn’t like Martin, and I’m sure Martin didn’t like me.

I also don’t know exactly how we stand now. I think we have a better appreciation for each other’s accomplishments — this comes with age, when you realize that you treated the most trivial of stuff like it was the most important thing in the world, which, of course, it was at the time.

So I’ll get my parting shots out of the way before I talk about the good stuff and this new crisis in fandom. I thought Martin frankly could be a real dick towards new fans (he has mellowed out a bit over the years, though). I still don’t like “Sins of the Past,” but I suspect that Martin probably didn’t mean for anyone to interpret it the way I noticeably did, so, no, Martin is not a secret rapist.

I thought his picking and choosing of “Featured Authors” was the most pretentious thing on Earth, but he changed even that, putting Thomas Mikkelsen in the Martin Hall of Fame and opening the whole process up to fan input. And since he pulled back from his involvement in day-to-day PPMB chat, I can’t even nag him for throwing his weight around (figuratively) in chatroom arguments. (My wife, however, still has not forgiven Mr. Pollard. C’est la vie.)

My damnation of Martin was that he was a BNF — a Big Name Fan, with all the good and the bad that entails. My focus was on the bad, but now, let’s focus on the good.

I’ve said for the longest time that you can never be a self-proclaimed BNF, as BNF-hood is thrust upon you, and Martin was definitely big name as a fan. Hell, it’s hard to even imagine a Daria fandom without Martin taking an active role in it, and my mind boggles at the prospect.

Outpost Daria was the ultimate fan shop. Always had been, even when I started lurking about the fandom in 1999/2000. Part of this is because Martin is one of the few fans who have been involved since the very beginning, the veteran of a thousand fannish wars.

When other fans’ sites went down, such as alt.lawndale, who was there to pick up the slack? Martin was.

When the Lawndale Commons message board went down, who was there to provide an alternative message board, which was the Outpost Daria message board? Martin was.

When Outpost Daria was “Foxed,” a lesser man might have just said, “Fuck it, I’m getting out of here.” Martin didn’t. He hung in there and saw it out till the end.

When fans needed to know something important or juicy, who got the word out on the message boards? At alt.tv.daria (when it was still one of the first fan stops)? Who got the word out in the #daria+ chat room? Martin did.

In short, if service to the fandom over the years could be measured in Girl Scout badges, Martin would probably have to wear a badge-covered suit instead of a sash. And the odd part is that these aren’t just mindless superlatives. The record speaks for itself.

This is why Martin is a BNF in the good sense of the term. The fandom, frankly, would not be the way the way it is today, might not have even survived, without the tireless work of Martin and others like him. And to hear that Martin is abandoning the post is sad — but face it. Martin has reached the stature where he doesn’t owe anyone any explanation. He can just say, “I’m leaving, you’re going to have to work out these issues on your own. I’ve done enough for fandom, thank you.”

And what issues? Think about this. The scripts. The fan art. The fan fiction, most of which is probably the only record of any fannish activity before 2000. Some of that stuff is irreplaceable. Granted that a lot of it is probably not worth reading, but how’re we gonna know if it isn’t there to look at? Hell, in five years, people might be saying, “Michelle who?” “Invisigoth who?” “Thomas who?”

I’m chuckling, thinking about the massive pain in the ass it’s going to be to copy and store the contents of the site. Right now, fans are praying that Martin will turn over the contents and the domain name to someone else, ’cause if he don’t, then someone is going to have to bite the bullet and, you know ... actually ... do something, instead of just talking about doing something. (I hear Eccles has volunteered his site. “Poor blighter,” as WWII pilots might have said.)

Well, they call it “crunch time” in football. Let’s see if anyone actually steps up and takes on the mantle of being the Number One Daria website, or if people just sit about and watch Outpost Daria blow away like dust in the wind.

Because without a channel actively showing Daria, and without a premier fan site, all we’re left with is the PPMB. Either this generation of fans is going to step up to the mike and throw down, or the fandom is going to go under, collapsing under the weight of its own apathy.

(“But, CINCGREEN,” you say, “how come you don’t step up, huh?” You’ve gotta be kidding. I’m hitting middle age, and running an Outpost-Daria-like site is a full-time job, with no pay, and fans biting your ankles because you posted their fic in Times New Roman instead of Arial. I want my ankles kept clean. Let some young stud or studette step up and do the job.)

So what brought this ugly mess on? Of course, I gotta speak out, because the words are already being said in other places. Might as well get the shameful mess out in the open.

Apparently, at some point, Martin decided to host the Kara Wild/Glenn Eichler interviews on his website. Kara wanted those interviews removed from Martin’s website. Kara stated that those interviews belonged to her, and they would pretty much be the exclusive property of DVDaria. She told him that he was being a very bad person for not removing those interviews post-haste.

From what I can tell, several things happened after that:

a) Martin packed it in,
b) Martin has not removed the interviews (this might not be true, as I can’t find them on the site), but
c) Martin removed all of Kara’s fics.

Martin ain’t saying nothing. But you can draw your own conclusions.

Now, I’ll be up front with you. If I had been in Kara’s shoes ... I would have just friggin’ let it go. I mean, really ... how many fans do you think were going to find those interviews on DVDaria? Maybe three, tops. Hell, I don’t even visit DVDaria but once in a blue moon. MTV ain’t putting out those DVDs soon, and MTV has frankly turned its back on us. You might as well replace the site with a four-word blurb, “DVDs ain’t out yet.”

If the interviews had stayed on Outpost Daria, at least people would have seen them. Dunno. Tough call if I’m in Kara’s shoes, but I’d probably just overlook it, unless Martin had somehow claimed that he was the one doing the interviewing.

Was Kara in the right to ask Martin to do that? From what I understand, yes. (And please, let’s not chat about copyrights and fanworks and trademarks and Acuff vs. Rose because it makes my ass hurt. As far as I’m concerned, we’re all thieves. The minute I wrote down the name “Daria Morgendorffer,” I committed a crime, possibly in Albania.)

Was Martin in the right to do what he did? Yeah, ’cause it was his site, dumbass. He pays the electric bills, so let’s not get pissed when he flips the switch. Hey, he’s even agreed to keep the lights on till December. Then, he releases the hounds. He could have just left without a “by your leave” and everyone would be sitting with their thumbs up their asses, wondering what to do next.

However, I don’t think it was a dignified way to go out. Not at all. Kara was a jerk taking a private manner public. If she was going to go after Martin’s jibblies, she should have just said, on the PPMB, “Look, please take all of my stuff off your site, and now. Gracias.” If people wanted to know why, it should have been a matter for private messaging. Not “I’ve asked you three times, and if you don’t do it ... well, I’ll ask you again, and really loudly!”

Martin was a jerk by, in effect, taking his ball and going home. Maybe ... oh hell, I don’t know, maybe both sides could get together, and ... oh ... I don’t know ... apologize! (“But I’m in the right! But I’m in the right and GOD AND MAN MUST KNOW THAT I’M IN THE RIGHT!” — the motto of every fandom, everywhere.)

All right. I, CINCGREEN, have officially become the voice of reason of Daria fandom. You’ve finally broken me. God, I hate you all. “When the gates of Hell are full, the dead will walk the earth, and CINCGREEN will be the voice of reason, and Lynn Cullen will walk the land, without let or hindrance.” *

Anyway, as Cypress Hill wisely said, “I ain’t going out like that, I ain’t going out like that.” And Martin ... well, he shouldn’a gone out like that. It besmirches his legend. But, as I said before, Martin has reached the stature where he doesn’t owe anyone an explanation.

So shine on, you crazy diamond. I’ve battled you many a day, and like Patton saluted Rommel, I salute you and thank you for at least nine or ten years of service to this fandom. I hope your health improves, and ... well, Martin, you know what they say ... “You don’t leave fandom, fandom leaves you.”

So ... if fandom hasn’t quite left you yet, don’t give up the keys to Outpost Daria so soon. I think even I would be glad to see you back.

But if Outpost Daria in 2008 becomes the home of “the cutest baby pictures you ever saw,” well, don’t say you weren’t warned.

___
* Canadibrit has released a new ep of “The Look-Alike Series.” Man. Outpost Daria going under. New “TLAS” fic. “Set the wayback machine, Mr. Peabody, we’re going back to 1999 ...!”

Labels: Essays, Fandom, Sites