Planet Daria: Difference between revisions
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The web mistress was Rowena Stubbs, who was a full time college student at this time. </p> |
The web mistress was Rowena Stubbs, who was a full time college student at this time. </p> |
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The author first discovered Daria on MTV in January of 1998, during a blizzard which confined him to his home and the warming glow of his television. An animation marathon was in progress on MTV, and during this marathon the author saw his first full Daria episode, |
The author first discovered Daria on MTV in January of 1998, during a blizzard which confined him to his home and the warming glow of his television. An animation marathon was in progress on MTV, and during this marathon the author saw his first full Daria episode, [[The Road Worrier]]. Fascinated by this unexpected presentation of intelligent content in such an unexpected place (and an uncanny parallel to a van trip the author took to see a band in his callow youth), the author proceeded to tape (using the primitive VHS technology of that era) the reminding shows of the first season, and prepared for “Daria Day” in February, which would unveil Season 2. </p> |
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It was during this period the author discovered another use for his computer other than the trapping and subsequent disposal of email spam for porn sites and various enlargement devices. Between the screeching and hissing of his modem which occurred each time the phone company saw fit to drop his connection, he discovered first the smaller sites that featured regurgitated MTV content, and then links that took him finally to the fabled Planet Daria.</p> |
It was during this period the author discovered another use for his computer other than the trapping and subsequent disposal of email spam for porn sites and various enlargement devices. Between the screeching and hissing of his modem which occurred each time the phone company saw fit to drop his connection, he discovered first the smaller sites that featured regurgitated MTV content, and then links that took him finally to the fabled Planet Daria.</p> |
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==Ted== |
==Ted== |
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On March 29, 1998 |
On March 29, 1998 [[The New Kid]] premiered on MTV. Featuring Daria’s first “date”, instead of the dream hookup with Trent the fans were all waiting for, it showed instead a clumsy, awkward Daria thrust into a social situation that she didn’t handle well at all. Instead of Daria, triumphant, the fans met, well, themselves. Ted was too much like most prom dates for comfort, or, to male fans, too much like their reflection in the mirror (The author falls into the latter category). There was stunned silence, and then during the ensuing drought, much reflection on if the show had already “jumped the shark”. It would be late June when the next half of the season would be shown, and if any such shark jumping had indeed taken place. There was plenty of time for the fans to get on each other’s nerves.</p> |
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<p> And they did.</p> |
<p> And they did.</p> |
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==Boner== |
==Boner== |
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==Gifted== |
==Gifted== |
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<p>On June 1998, [[Gifted]] aired, and it was once again revealed to the waiting fan base that Daria was not the smartest, most savvy inhabitant of the planet. She was not the intellectual equal of first Ted, and now she was shown to be intellectually equal or behind the students of the gifted school. In the next episode, [[Ill]] a skin rash reduces her to hiding in a bathroom stall. At this stage both Katherine and Wrath officially stopped updating their sites, with Katherine publicly lamenting the lost of quality in the show. Planet Daria remained as the one and only remaining “mega site”. Some fans starts drifting away to other fandoms, but those that remain begin to converge on the only game left in town.</p> |
<p>On June 1998, [[Gifted]] aired, and it was once again revealed to the waiting fan base that Daria was not the smartest, most savvy inhabitant of the planet. She was not the intellectual equal of first Ted, and now she was shown to be intellectually equal or behind the students of the gifted school. In the next episode, [[Ill]] a skin rash reduces her to hiding in a bathroom stall. At this stage both Katherine and Wrath officially stopped updating their sites, with Katherine publicly lamenting the lost of quality in the show. Planet Daria remained as the one and only remaining “mega site”. Some fans starts drifting away to other fandoms, but those that remain begin to converge on the only game left in town.</p> |
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==The Frames == |
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<p>On many of the smaller sites, there were two images of Daria taken from “the Invitation”, one wearing glasses, and one without. These were always followed by the words:</p> |
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<p>Browsers that support Frames, click here.</p> |
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<p>Browsers that do not support Frames, click here.</p> |
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<p>Since the day Netscape (remember them) unleashed the horror of frames on the World Wide Web, many of the smaller sites incorporated them, in effect creating two sites, one with frames that would remain updated, and one without, that would from that point on, would not.</p> |
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As the fall of 1998 was ending and the cold winter of Planet Daria began, the site, which had never followed the chrome and glitz trends of the past was in full lockstep with them now. The “frames/noframes” page met you at the door, and after upgrading to a browser that supported them (a painful exercise in those days), I went to the newly updated side of the house. |
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It was full of moving panels, java clocks that displayed exactly the same time as the tiny clock on the right lower half of the authors computer, and icons that did annoying things as you moused over them. The author had already started his search for another place to go. But he didn’t leave until the final act.</p> |
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==Whining== |
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It was, of course, at this time that Planet Daria was receiving the most attention from the outside world. An animation magazine pronounced it number 5 on its “Best Of” list, beating out John K.’s Spumco web site (at number 8), which was filled with original content continuously. Other “Best Of” awards arrived at the door, and Rowena announced that there would be complete updates of content every Wednesday from that point on. |
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Like the sound of summer cicada in the trees, there was a continuous, endless whine from the fans. God help Rowena if the update was so large that part of it had to be done the next day. Fans would show up Wednesday afternoon with their 6 megabyte’s scanned artwork, drawn on lined legal pads and colored in crayon, demanding these appear by the next day. There was much complaining if the art was made too small, or cropped to fit in any way. Half a story would arrive at noon Wednesday, and the rest at 11:59, and if the whole thing wasn’t up the next day, the poor, long suffering arteest would make sure Rowena and whole ‘net knew about her shortcomings as web mistress. This was the tone of the final months of Planet Daria. Planet Daria fans demanded that things change!</p> |
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<p>And it did.</p> |
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==Epilog== |
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Planet Daria closed down on the last week of November, 1998. All content was removed, and Rowena offered to email any stories they had put up back to them. Her reason for leaving was for financial and time constraints.</p> |
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<p>Diezel Monkey did not mince words. On alt.tv.daria, the usenet service that predated all of the message boards, he let people know in [http://groups.google.com/group/alt.tv.daria/search?group=alt.tv.daria&q=diezel+monkey&qt_g=Search+this+group profanity laced words] exactly how he felt about the matter.</p> |
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Diezel would a few months later break up with Rowena. He left on the-wall.net some photos of his ex, and a cryptic Aleister Crowley [http://web.archive.org/web/19981205123852/www.the-wall.net/~monkey/rowena/ quote] dedicated to her.</p> |
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In the months preceding and immediately following the dissolution of Planet Daria, [[Outpost Daria]] and [[Lawndale Commons]] moved to the forefront as the new goto “mega sites”. Outpost Daria collected the fan fiction and art from the now defunct Planet Daria and alt.lawndale.com, and this work can still be found there.</p> |
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Diezel Monkey would return briefly to Daria fandom, and moved his new message board to Lawndale Commons. There, the author signed in, questioned some of the rules, and was immediately censored and removed from the board. The author then moved to the Helpful Corn message board, long abandoned by one of the smaller sites, and completely un-moderated and uncensored (the password had been lost). Hilarity would soon ensue, but that is another tale of another site.</p> |
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The author does not know what became of Rowena Stubbs. She is long out of school, and no effort was made by the author to locate her on the web. If she where to, by chance, read this entry, then let it be known at the author appreciated her work and long suffering devotion to her site and her craft. She is missed, and the author wishes her well.</p> |
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The author himself eventually began to write fan fiction and create fan art, and posted these on Outpost Daria, Glitterberrys and the Contrarian. He was a frequent poster on the Paperpusher message board. Eventually, the author got a life.</p> |
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The author has briefly exited that life long enough to fill in this stub.</p> |
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<p>The author still blames Ted.</p> |
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==Contents== |
==Contents== |
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