This site launched 31 May 1995.
Hence, 31 May 2004 was its ninth anniversary.
Some bits from the old days are still available.
(Requires speakers and sound card.)
Load Holy Family Council # 8701 in a new window. Let the music begin. Wait a few bars.
Then load the same web page in a second new window.
Instant Eno.
Alternatively, simply load the MIDI file in a new window.
Wait a few bars, then load the same MIDI file in a second new window.
Instant Eno.
The illusion that the web would usher in a new era of limitless creativity can now be put away with the rest of the broken toys.
Lance Arthur’s Glassdog.com, once an experimental narrative powerhouse, is now merely a blog.
Oh, little child. Long ago, before you were born, some of us dreamed big dreams. We thought the simplicity of HTML and the low cost of web hosting would produce a worldwide creative flowering. A second Renaissance, every person an inventor and publisher. Magazines, communities, visual experiments. New narrative forms. Interactive jam sessions. In-depth explorations of every imaginable topic, from Leadbelly discographies to single parent self-help resources. This we envisioned. This we soldiered for. And what did we get?
Blogs, Gmail, and Friendster.
Requiescat in pace.
Someone posted a comment on Joshua Kaufman’s unraveled blog, signed it “zeldman,” and included my URL. As far as anyone reading unraveled could tell, I was the author of that comment.
It is an easy and obvious prank to pull. Go to a blog, write a silly or offensive comment, and sign it Jakob Nielsen or Instapundit or Kottke. Voila: instant controversy.
Identity on the web is a gossamer construct, easily spoofed. With the unwitting help of Google, you could injure reputations in minutes by posting forged comments at heavily linked sites. Many sites encourage discussion; few have any way of verifying that you are who you say you are.
Sites could take Draconian measures to ensure the identity of every poster, but such measures would tend to discourage participation, and participation is their lifeblood.
Faked identity is not the only risk inherent in free and open online discussions. All kinds of behavior can reduce the effectiveness and pleasure of virtual conversations, as anyone who has ever stopped participating in a once-favorite discussion community can attest.
A few weeks back, the ALA staff considered asking the magazine’s readers to register before they could post a comment on any of our articles—and holding any registered reader’s initial comments until we had reviewed them.
We pondered taking these steps because a single ALA reader considered it his life’s mission to trash the magazine, respond insultingly to every other reader’s post, and conclude each of his comments with a link to his site in an attempt to gain traffic via ALA/Google network effects.
The guy’s behavior was annoying, but squeezing all our readers through the eye of a needle would have been even more detrimental to the site experience. We decided to ride it out and wait for him to settle down—which he did. He now contributes meaningfully to the magazine’s discussion forums.
The rules of netiquette beg to be broken. You could post in a children’s forum and sign Michael Jackson’s name. You could write a pro-Bush letter and sign it Michael Moore.
It’s not strange that a few people would amuse themselves this way.
What’s remarkable is that, despite the ease of achieving such pranks, few people indulge. The web depends on trust, and most people are worthy of it.
Another Friday, another scratching of the itch that is A List Apart, For People Who Make Websites. In this week’s double issue:
Animators use onion skinning to render a snapshot of motion across time. Now, web designers can use this technique to create the truly extensible CSS-based drop shadow.
Because ALA’s readers are web users as well as designers and developers, we offer this tidbit from Derek Featherstone on creating user stylesheets to print articles to your own specifications.