1
50
91
-
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/9205ecf720041e1213e2cadae2756967.png
0bd82c0eab97fb2899d1dd5e726e2e59
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Name
Name of Forum
AEGIS (AIDS Education General Information System)
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
714 Area Code
Abbreviations/Alias
Any other names used to refer to this forum
Founded as TerraNet
Year Founded (approximate)
1987
Last Year Active (approximate)
Unknown
Sponsor or Institutional Host
Organizations that hosted, sponsored, or maintained the forum
<ul>
<li>Initially sponsored by J2CP Information Services</li>
<li>Sponsored from 1990 to 1995 by the Sisters of St. Elizabeth of Hungary</li>
<li>From 1996 onward, BBS sponsored by non-profit organization AEGiS</li>
</ul>
City and State/Province
San Juan Capistrano, CA; later Santa Ana, CA
Baud Rate
300/1200/2400 baud
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
LGBT people; transgender people; transsexual people; people with HIV/AIDS
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
<ul>
<li>Ad for TerraNet from <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/hq37vn57m" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>The Transsexual Voice</em>, December 1991</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/bg257f135" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Our Sorority, Issue 15 (1987)</a> - Included in listing of online resources</li>
<li><a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/fb494852w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twenty Minutes (February, 1991)</a> - Letter from BBS founder Sister Mary Elizabeth on recent changes to BBS</li>
<li>Appeared in <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/catalog?f%5Bcollection_name_ssim%5D%5B%5D=Transgender+Tapestry&sort=dta_sortable_date_dtsi+asc%2C+title_primary_ssort+asc" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">TS-TV Tapestry's BBS listings</a> from 1991-1995</li>
<li><a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/jw827b69n" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chrysalis Quarterly, Vol. 1 No. 6 (Fall, 1993)</a> - </li>
<li>Reprint of <em>The Reader</em> (San Diego, CA) article about the founding of AEGIS</li>
<li><a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/r207tp43x" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cross-Talk: The Gender Community's News & Information Monthly, No. 60 (October, 1994)</a> - Discussion of AEGIS BBS in article on gender community-specific BBSs</li>
<li><a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/pn89d6567" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The 7th annual Coming Together - Working Together Convention Program Book (1993)</a> - BBS founder Sister Mary Elizabeth, SSE awarded for her community work, including TerraNet</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ocweekly.com/news/this-sister-oughta-be-famous-6395237" target="_blank" rel="noopener">OC Weekly: This Sister Oughta Be Famous (May 1999)</a> - Profile of Sister Mary Elizabeth</li>
<li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20071022055127/http://www.aegis.org/about/about.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AEGiS.org: History of AEGIS (archived Oct 22, 2007)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Elizabeth_Clark" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wikipedia page for Mary Elizabeth Clark</a></li>
<li><a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/cyberspace/social-medias-dialup-ancestor-the-bulletin-board-system" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Social Media’s Dial-Up Ancestor: The Bulletin Board System (October 2016)</a> - Brief discussion of AEGIS and Clark</li>
</ul>
Network/Platform
Networks or Platforms the forum participated in
TGNet echo
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
AEGIS (AIDS Education General Information System)
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Bulletin Board System (BBS)
AEGIS
AIDS Education General Information System
bbs
LGBT people
people living with HIV/AIDS
TerraNet
TGNet
transgender people
transsexual people
website
-
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/4b8022038deb8dffb23916c7a3549d3c.png
f5bda335d4fee76bf7f766d0e72fadc5
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
415 area code, later 714 area code
City and State/Province
San Francisco, CA
Year Founded (approximate)
<ul>
<li>Founded 1986</li>
<li>Moved to Gopher in 1994</li>
<li>aidsinfobbs.org opened in 1997</li>
</ul>
Last Year Active (approximate)
Still active
Network/Platform
Networks or Platforms the forum participated in
Computerized AIDS Information Network (CAIN); FidoNet (Node Address: 1:103/927); AEGIS (AIDS Education General Information System) Network (National Hub)
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
Attached classified ad from <a href="http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/sfbagals/Sentinal/1989_SFS_Vol17_No17_Apr_.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">San Francisco Sentinel (April 27, 1989)</a><br />
<ul>
<li>Archived version of <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19971222020300/http://aidsinfobbs.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">aidsinfobbs.org</a> (Archived Dec 22, 1997)</li>
<li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19971222020707/http://aidsinfobbs.org/description.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Description</a> of the web version, written by Ben Gardiner (Archived Dec 22, 1997)</li>
<li><a href="https://paganpressbooks.com/jpl/BEN-TAW.HTM" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Interview with Ben Gardiner</a>, first published in the New York Native (July 30, 1990)</li>
<li><a href="https://archive.org/details/bbsdocumentary-interview-gardiner-2002-07" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Audio interview with sysop Ben Gardiner</a>, conducted by Jason Scott as part of the BBS Documentary (2002)</li>
<li><a href="https://paganpressbooks.com/jpl/BEN.HTM">Obituary for Ben Gardiner</a>, by friend John Lauritsen (2010)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Ben-Gardiner-dies-gay-rights-activist-actor-3271651.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Obituary for Ben Gardiner</a> from the SFGate (Feb 27, 2010)</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
AIDS Info BBS
AEGIS Network
AIDS Info BBS
bbs
CAIN
FidoNet
people living with HIV/AIDS
-
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/39542b9e9268fc05f0d087b6f694c9bb.zip
704e8fdc5904c2a21dfc6972f67e084b
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
AIDS Info BBS: Documents
Description
An account of the resource
This collection holds files recovered from archived versions of the AIDS Info BBS website, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19971222020300/http://aidsinfobbs.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as archived by the Internet Archive</a>. The AIDS Info BBS, as its name suggests, hosted a variety of different information, including copies of mainstream news stories, medical research, statistics, community periodicals, and message boards.<br /><br />This collection holds files from four areas relevant to the QDHP, covering the late 1980s up to the early 2000s: <br />
<ul>
<li>"Caregivers" mailing list archive</li>
<li>"Rethink" and "quilty" mailing lists archives</li>
<li>Message archives for two BBS-based fora: "openforum" and "thisBBS"</li>
<li>AIDS-related periodicals, including a complete archive of AIDS Treatment News issues</li>
</ul>
In total, the collection holds 12,496 files, collected in four .zip archives. While their original folder hierarchy on the AIDS Info BBS has been maintained, all files have been converted (if they weren't already) to plain text files (.txt) for ease of use. Message files are titled using the order in which they were posted (ie: 001, 002, 003). Some folders also contain "desc" files, which are brief descriptions of the folder's topic and/or contents.<br /><br />However, not every message posted to the site was preserved by the Internet Archive, and such absences are reflected in these archives: while some folders contain many of the original files, others only contain one or two preserved messages. Furthermore, except for the "caregivers" mailing list, messages were not originally anonymized when posted to the AIDS Info BBS site, and have not been subsequently anonymized by the QDHP. <br /><br />If you would like messages you wrote <strong>to be redacted and/or removed from any of these folders</strong>, please contact the curator at <a href="mailto:admin@queerdigital.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admin@queerdigital.com</a>.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="http://queerdigital.com/items/show/92">AIDS Info BBS</a>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
AIDS Info BBS: AIDS Periodicals
Description
An account of the resource
Collection of files (all in plain text [.txt] format) held in the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100408074507/http://aidsinfobbs.org/periodicals" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Periodicals</a> portion of the AIDS Info BBS. Newsletter age varies, but covers the late 1980s up to the early 2000s, depending on the publication. File hierarchy (listed below) mirrors original source.<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><br /><br />Total files:</strong></span> 772 Files<strong></strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><br />Archiv</strong><strong>e</strong><strong> includes:</strong></span><br />
<ul>
<li><strong>actup</strong> - Treatment Issues Digest, published weekly by ACT UP/NY's Treatment Issues committee</li>
<li><strong>atn</strong> - Issues of AIDS Treatment News, published by John James</li>
<li><strong>bealive </strong>- Issues of the Los Angeles-based Being Alive Newsletter</li>
<li><strong>bealivew </strong>- Issues of the Los Angeles-based Women Being Alive Newsletter</li>
<li><strong>beta </strong>- Issues of the Bulletin of Experimental Treatments for AIDS, published by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation</li>
<li><strong>catie </strong>- Issues of the Treatment Update newsletter</li>
<li><strong>critpath </strong>- Issues of the Critical Path AIDS Project Newsletter</li>
<li><strong>eurocaso</strong> - Newsletter published in Europe, circa 1992</li>
<li><strong>focus</strong> - Newsletter published by the AIDS Health Project, which was affiliated with University of California, San Francisco</li>
<li><strong>gmhcissues</strong> - Treatment Issues, a newsletter published by the Gay Men's Health Crisis</li>
<li><strong>kairos</strong> - Newsletters from Kairos House, a support center for AIDS caregivers located in San Francisco.</li>
<li><strong>naplwa </strong>- Newsletter for the National Association of People Living With AIDS</li>
<li><strong>napwa</strong> - Newsletter for the National Association of People With AIDS</li>
<li><strong>pediatric</strong> - The Pediatric AIDS Newsletter is published by SPIN, the Service Provider Informatiion Network of the Boston AIDS Consortium</li>
<li><strong>projnform</strong> - Newsletter and documents produced by San Francisco-based organization Project Inform</li>
<li><strong>search</strong> - Newsletter of Los Angeles-based Searchlight group</li>
<li><strong>seasons</strong> - Newsletter of The National Native American AIDS Prevention Center in Oakland, CA.</li>
</ul>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
AIDS Info BBS
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1988-2003
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Plain text files
AIDS Info BBS
periodicals
-
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/a7908d7876feca70fb5fc2f6c31e994d.zip
c374d7e0403c777808f2220699d6edcf
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
AIDS Info BBS: Documents
Description
An account of the resource
This collection holds files recovered from archived versions of the AIDS Info BBS website, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19971222020300/http://aidsinfobbs.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as archived by the Internet Archive</a>. The AIDS Info BBS, as its name suggests, hosted a variety of different information, including copies of mainstream news stories, medical research, statistics, community periodicals, and message boards.<br /><br />This collection holds files from four areas relevant to the QDHP, covering the late 1980s up to the early 2000s: <br />
<ul>
<li>"Caregivers" mailing list archive</li>
<li>"Rethink" and "quilty" mailing lists archives</li>
<li>Message archives for two BBS-based fora: "openforum" and "thisBBS"</li>
<li>AIDS-related periodicals, including a complete archive of AIDS Treatment News issues</li>
</ul>
In total, the collection holds 12,496 files, collected in four .zip archives. While their original folder hierarchy on the AIDS Info BBS has been maintained, all files have been converted (if they weren't already) to plain text files (.txt) for ease of use. Message files are titled using the order in which they were posted (ie: 001, 002, 003). Some folders also contain "desc" files, which are brief descriptions of the folder's topic and/or contents.<br /><br />However, not every message posted to the site was preserved by the Internet Archive, and such absences are reflected in these archives: while some folders contain many of the original files, others only contain one or two preserved messages. Furthermore, except for the "caregivers" mailing list, messages were not originally anonymized when posted to the AIDS Info BBS site, and have not been subsequently anonymized by the QDHP. <br /><br />If you would like messages you wrote <strong>to be redacted and/or removed from any of these folders</strong>, please contact the curator at <a href="mailto:admin@queerdigital.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admin@queerdigital.com</a>.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="http://queerdigital.com/items/show/92">AIDS Info BBS</a>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
AIDS Info BBS: BBS Fora
Description
An account of the resource
Collection of files (all in plain text [.txt] format) held in the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20041117001026/http://www.aidsinfobbs.org/openforum/">openforum</a> and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20041019014656/http://www.aidsinfobbs.org/thisbbs/">thisbbs</a> folders of the AIDS Info BBS. <span>Folders contain message archvies for the openforum and thisbbs sections of the AIDS Info BBS. For more information on the AIDS Info BBS, see the <a href="http://queerdigital.com/items/show/92" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Queer Community Catalog entry</a> and the <a href="http://queerdigital.com/collections/show/5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Documents collection</a> landing page.<br /><br /></span>Messages have not been anonymized. If you would like messages you wrote to be removed from this archive, please contact the curator at <a href="mailto:admin@queerdigital.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admin@queerdigital.com</a>.<br /><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><br />Total files:</strong></span> 2,796 files
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
AIDS Info BBS
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1987 - 1997
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Plain text files
AIDS Info BBS
bbs
-
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/1f27b8bd052a3fad4253fdd87687ec18.zip
1804ef61e383b9179c920231b0185b00
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
AIDS Info BBS: Documents
Description
An account of the resource
This collection holds files recovered from archived versions of the AIDS Info BBS website, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19971222020300/http://aidsinfobbs.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as archived by the Internet Archive</a>. The AIDS Info BBS, as its name suggests, hosted a variety of different information, including copies of mainstream news stories, medical research, statistics, community periodicals, and message boards.<br /><br />This collection holds files from four areas relevant to the QDHP, covering the late 1980s up to the early 2000s: <br />
<ul>
<li>"Caregivers" mailing list archive</li>
<li>"Rethink" and "quilty" mailing lists archives</li>
<li>Message archives for two BBS-based fora: "openforum" and "thisBBS"</li>
<li>AIDS-related periodicals, including a complete archive of AIDS Treatment News issues</li>
</ul>
In total, the collection holds 12,496 files, collected in four .zip archives. While their original folder hierarchy on the AIDS Info BBS has been maintained, all files have been converted (if they weren't already) to plain text files (.txt) for ease of use. Message files are titled using the order in which they were posted (ie: 001, 002, 003). Some folders also contain "desc" files, which are brief descriptions of the folder's topic and/or contents.<br /><br />However, not every message posted to the site was preserved by the Internet Archive, and such absences are reflected in these archives: while some folders contain many of the original files, others only contain one or two preserved messages. Furthermore, except for the "caregivers" mailing list, messages were not originally anonymized when posted to the AIDS Info BBS site, and have not been subsequently anonymized by the QDHP. <br /><br />If you would like messages you wrote <strong>to be redacted and/or removed from any of these folders</strong>, please contact the curator at <a href="mailto:admin@queerdigital.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admin@queerdigital.com</a>.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="http://queerdigital.com/items/show/92">AIDS Info BBS</a>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
AIDS Info BBS: Caregivers Mailing List
Description
An account of the resource
Collection of files (all in plain text [.txt] format) held in the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20041101120516/http://www.aidsinfobbs.org/caregivers/">caregivers</a> folder of the AIDS Info BBS. Folders contain messages posted to the "caregivers" mailing list, which offered support for caregivers of PWAs. <span>For more information on the AIDS Info BBS, see the <a href="http://queerdigital.com/items/show/92" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Queer Community Catalog entry</a> and the <a href="http://queerdigital.com/collections/show/5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Documents collection</a> landing page.</span><br /><br />Messages were originally anonymized by BBS sysop Ben Gardiner: poster e-mail addresses have been removed, and all posting dates have been updated to the date of their anonymization. However, if you would like messages you wrote to be removed from this archive, please contact the curator at <a href="mailto:admin@queerdigital.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admin@queerdigital.com</a>.<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><br /><br />Total files:</strong></span> 3,334 Files
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
AIDS Info BBS
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Plain text files
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
Unknown
AIDS Info BBS
mailing list
-
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/481f234976bab0d566888c581e92d703.zip
58dab4c67c712c4799789a5a33d9191e
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
AIDS Info BBS: Documents
Description
An account of the resource
This collection holds files recovered from archived versions of the AIDS Info BBS website, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19971222020300/http://aidsinfobbs.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as archived by the Internet Archive</a>. The AIDS Info BBS, as its name suggests, hosted a variety of different information, including copies of mainstream news stories, medical research, statistics, community periodicals, and message boards.<br /><br />This collection holds files from four areas relevant to the QDHP, covering the late 1980s up to the early 2000s: <br />
<ul>
<li>"Caregivers" mailing list archive</li>
<li>"Rethink" and "quilty" mailing lists archives</li>
<li>Message archives for two BBS-based fora: "openforum" and "thisBBS"</li>
<li>AIDS-related periodicals, including a complete archive of AIDS Treatment News issues</li>
</ul>
In total, the collection holds 12,496 files, collected in four .zip archives. While their original folder hierarchy on the AIDS Info BBS has been maintained, all files have been converted (if they weren't already) to plain text files (.txt) for ease of use. Message files are titled using the order in which they were posted (ie: 001, 002, 003). Some folders also contain "desc" files, which are brief descriptions of the folder's topic and/or contents.<br /><br />However, not every message posted to the site was preserved by the Internet Archive, and such absences are reflected in these archives: while some folders contain many of the original files, others only contain one or two preserved messages. Furthermore, except for the "caregivers" mailing list, messages were not originally anonymized when posted to the AIDS Info BBS site, and have not been subsequently anonymized by the QDHP. <br /><br />If you would like messages you wrote <strong>to be redacted and/or removed from any of these folders</strong>, please contact the curator at <a href="mailto:admin@queerdigital.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admin@queerdigital.com</a>.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="http://queerdigital.com/items/show/92">AIDS Info BBS</a>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
AIDS Info BBS: Rethinking AIDS Mailing Lists
Description
An account of the resource
Collection of files (all in plain text [.txt] format) held in the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20040422173703/http://www.aidsinfobbs.org/articles/rethink/">rethink</a> and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20041019001434/http://www.aidsinfobbs.org/articles/quilty/">quilty</a> folders of the AIDS Info BBS. Both folders contain message archives for the "rethink" and "quilty" mailing lists, both of which focused on rethinking AIDS orthodoxy. <span>For more information on the AIDS Info BBS, see the <a href="http://queerdigital.com/items/show/92" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Queer Community Catalog entry</a> and the <a href="http://queerdigital.com/collections/show/5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Documents collection</a> landing page.</span><br /><br />Messages have not been anonymized. If you would like messages you wrote to be removed from this archive, please contact the curator at <a href="mailto:admin@queerdigital.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admin@queerdigital.com</a>.<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><br /><br />Total files:</strong></span> 6,366 Files
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1994 - 2001
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Plain text files
AIDS Info BBS
mailing list
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
Usenet Newsgroup
Individual Usenet Newsgroup
Year Founded (approximate)
1996
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Crossdressers
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
<ul>
<li><a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/alt.fashion.crossdressing" target="_blank"><span><span>Google Groups Archive</span></span></a></li>
<li><span id="docs-internal-guid-eecf2494-27a4-ff32-2deb-e48bed3e67af"><a href="http://cydathria.com/ms_donna/afcd_main.html"><span>Founding Rationale and Charter</span></a></span></li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
alt.fashion.crossdressing
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Usenet newsgroup
alt.fashion.crossdressing
crossdressers
Usenet
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
Usenet Newsgroup
Individual Usenet Newsgroup
Year Founded (approximate)
1996
Abbreviations/Alias
Any other names used to refer to this forum
ASL; Later re-launched as alt.shoe.lesbians.moderated (ASLM)
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Lesbian people
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
<ul>
<li><a href="https://shoelesbians.com/about/index.htm" target="_blank">ASLM website</a> - Information on group history, FAQ, etc.</li>
<li><a href="https://shoelesbians.com/about/index.htm" target="_blank">Google Groups: alt.shoe.lesbians.moderated</a> - Archive of ASLM posts</li>
<li><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/bitwise/2014/08/lgbtq_nerds_and_the_evolution_of_life_online.html" target="_blank">Slate: When AOL Was GayOL</a> (2014) - Mentioned in article</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
alt.shoe.lesbians.moderated
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Usenet newsgroup
alt.shoe.lesbians.moderated
ASLM
lesbian people
Usenet
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
Usenet Newsgroup
Individual Usenet Newsgroup
Year Founded (approximate)
1996
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Transgender people; Crossdressers
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
<ul>
<li><a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/alt.support.crossdressing" target="_blank">Google Groups Archive</a></li>
<li><a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/alt.support.crossdressing/RZlagVGj4pM/nKEfJQuKH10J" target="_blank">Newsgroup Charter</a></li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
alt.support.crossdressing
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Usenet Newsgroup
alt.support.crossdressing
crossdressers
transgender people
Usenet
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
Usenet Newsgroup
Individual Usenet Newsgroup
Year Founded (approximate)
1998
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
intergender individuals, non-binary individuals, androgyne individuals
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
<ul>
<li><a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/alt.support.intergendered">alt.support.intergendered Google Groups archive</a></li>
<li><a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.support.intergendered/9arGB-gpngE">alt.support.intergendered Charter</a></li>
<li><a href="http://cydathria.com/ms_donna/asig_main.html">alt.support.intergended homepage</a></li>
<li><a href="http://cydathria.com/ms_donna/intergen.html">What is Intergendered?</a> - Essay by newsgroup founder on origins and use of term</li>
<li><a href="https://archive.org/details/transgendertapes1072unse/page/38">Androgyne Online</a> in <em>Transgender Tapestry </em>#107 (Fall/Winter, 2004) - mention of the term "intergender" in relation to a discussion of androgyne identity</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
alt.support.intergendered
androgyne individuals
intergender individuals
non-binary individuals
Usenet
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
Usenet Newsgroup
Individual Usenet Newsgroup
Year Founded (approximate)
1997
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Transgender people; Transsexual people
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
<ul>
<li><a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/alt.support.srs" target="_blank">Google Groups Archive</a></li>
<li><a href="https://rosalind.home.xs4all.nl/cha-assr.html" target="_blank">Founding Rationale and Charter</a></li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
alt.support.srs
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Usenet newsgroup
alt.support.srs
transgender people
transsexual people
Usenet
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
Usenet Newsgroup
Individual Usenet Newsgroup
Year Founded (approximate)
1992
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Transgender people; Transsexual people; Transvestites; Crossdressers
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
<ul>
<li><a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!forum/alt.transgendered" target="_blank">Google Groups Archive</a></li>
<li><span id="docs-internal-guid-eecf2494-2795-3f2d-f191-4ebcfb8ae829"><span>FAQ: </span><a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!msg/alt.transgendered/k64jqMh7zSs/IIEAEo2Sb_oJ;context-place=msg/alt.transgendered/-2Mw2SbZDSw/zyte_9mrP_0J"><span>Part 1</span></a><span>, </span><a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!msg/alt.transgendered/5dv_vi6YtCo/5btacvBOorsJ;context-place=msg/alt.transgendered/k64jqMh7zSs/IIEAEo2Sb_oJ"><span>Part 2</span></a><span>, </span><a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!msg/alt.transgendered/-2Mw2SbZDSw/zyte_9mrP_0J;context-place=msg/alt.transgendered/k64jqMh7zSs/IIEAEo2Sb_oJ"><span>Part 3</span></a><span> (posted 12/23/93-12/24/93)</span></span></li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
alt.transgendered
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Usenet newsgroup
crossdressers
transgender people
transsexual people
transvestites
Usenet
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Name
Name of Forum
Alternatives
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
212 area code
Year Founded (approximate)
Unknown
Last Year Active (approximate)
Unknown
City and State/Province
New York, NY
Baud Rate
2400/9600 baud
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Transgender people; Transsexual people; Gay people; Lesbians; Transvestites
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
<ul>
<li>Appeared in <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/catalog?f%5Bcollection_name_ssim%5D%5B%5D=Transgender+Tapestry&sort=dta_sortable_date_dtsi+asc%2C+title_primary_ssort+asc" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">TS-TV Tapestry's BBS listings</a> from 1991-1993</li>
<li><a href="http://karenannetaylor.orgfree.com/bbs.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">KAT's TAIL: BBS Listing</a> - Included in listing of transgender-related BBS systems</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Alternatives
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
BBS
Alternatives
bbs
gay people
lesbian people
transgender people
transsexual people
transvestites
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
Usenet Newsgroup
Individual Usenet Newsgroup
Year Founded (approximate)
1994
Exterior References
<ul>
<li><a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/aus.culture.lesbigay" target="_blank" rel="noopener">aus.culture.lesbigay Google Groups archive</a></li>
<li><a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!search/aus.culture.lesbigay/aus.culture.lesbigay/JonTXOg5EfU/PWgtgMTuDfUJ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">aus.culture.lesbigay FAQ (posted May 19, 1996)</a></li>
<li>Listed in <a href="http://www.qrd.org/qrd/trans/1995/good.tranny.guide-03.01.95" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Good Tranny Guide</a>, a guide to trans resources specific to Australia and New Zealand (compiled March 1995)</li>
</ul>
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Gay people, lesbian people, bisexual people, transgender people
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
Australian English
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
aus.culture.lesbigay
Australia
bisexual people
gay people
lesbian people
New Zealand
transgender people
Usenet
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Name
Name of Forum
Carolyn's Closet
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
612 Area Code
Year Founded (approximate)
1988
Last Year Active (approximate)
1994
Network/Platform
Networks or Platforms the forum participated in
Fidonet Node Address: 1:282/3015
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Transsexual people
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
City and State/Province
Minneapolis, MN
Baud Rate
300/1200 baud
Exterior References
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/bg257f135" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Our Sorority, Issue 15 (1987)</a> - Included in listing of online resources</li>
<li><a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/pn89d667r" target="_blank" title="Gender Networker V.1, 2" rel="noopener noreferrer">Gender Networker v.1, no.2 (1988)</a> - Included in listing of online resources</li>
<li><a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/r207tp43x" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cross-Talk: The Gender Community's News & Information Monthly, No. 60 (1994)</a> - Note included in article that author "later found a discussion about [Carolyn's Closet's] demise in a Fidonet echo" (36).</li>
<li><a href="http://karenannetaylor.orgfree.com/bbs.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">KAT's TAIL: BBS Listing</a> - Included in listing of transgender-related BBS systems</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Carolyn's Closet
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
BBS
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
Mailing List
E-mail Mailing Lists
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Transgender people; Crossdressers; Transsexual people
Year Founded (approximate)
1988
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
<ul>
<li>Appeared in <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/catalog?f%5Bcollection_name_ssim%5D%5B%5D=Transgender+Tapestry&sort=dta_sortable_date_dtsi+asc%2C+title_primary_ssort+asc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">TS-TV Tapestry's listings</a> from 1991-1995</li>
<li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19990117015833/http://www.swcp.com/~therev/cdf.html" target="_blank">cd-forum homepage</a> (Archived version, collected Jan 17, 1999) - contains information on cd-forum regulations, application process, and moderatrix bio</li>
<li><a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/3b591857h" target="_blank">Transgender Cyberspace</a> (1995) - Mentioned as possible resource</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
CD-Forum
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Mailing List
cd-forum
crossdressers
mailing list
transgender people
transsexual people
-
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/77de7a53ce9a3c27a109ac1b257f48f4.txt
0c76ee287466c6698de7babe2e0dbff0
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
Mailing List
E-mail Mailing Lists
Year Founded (approximate)
1988
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
transgendered people, crossdressers, transvestites, transsexual people
Years Active
Approximate years group was active online
1988-1995
Exterior References
<strong>Mailing List Description (circa 1993, taken from CDForum digest):</strong> "cd forum is a "safe space" digested electronic mailing list for the support of cross-dressing, transsexuality, and other gender issues. Friendly and frank discussions. No membership fees. Your address will be kept in strict confidence. Articles you submit for publication in the forum are stripped of header and signature id unless you instruct me otherwise. To subscribe, please send me a short paragraph describing your interest in cd forum, and where you heard of it. You will be requested to submit an introductory article within one month of your subscription.<br /><br />Attached: Mailing List description held in the <a href="http://www.qrd.org/qrd/electronic/email/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mailing List section</a> of the Queer Resources Directory. Original file mirrored from <a href="http://www.qrd.org/qrd/electronic/email/cd-forum" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
CDForum
cd-forum
crossdressers
mailing list
transgender people
transsexual people
transvestites
-
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/577c9b7c5865fa059c430d45b7f17df7.pdf
a895b1e51447d97297518e2c81c97c40
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Primary Documents Collection
Description
An account of the resource
This collection hold primary documents (listings, programs, applications, etc) related to LGBTQ life online pre-2010. When possible, files have been listed with their original date of publication and source. When mirrored from established sites, their original source is attributed and linked. If you have files you would like to submit for inclusion, please feel free to contact Avery Dame-Griff at <a href="mailto:admin@queerdigital.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admin@queerdigital.com</a>.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
CDForum Archive
Description
An account of the resource
This archive contains digests for the CDForum mailing list, covering 1988 to 1993. CDForum was one of the first trans-specific email mailing lists and remained active until at least 1995. Digests 145, 175, 177, 179, and 242 are not included.<br /><br />All email addresses have been redacted from the archival files, but messages have not been anonymized. If you would like messages you wrote to be removed from this archive, please contact the curator at <a href="mailto:admin@queerdigital.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admin@queerdigital.com</a>.<br /><br />Requests to access this archive will be reviewed by the curatorial team. If you are interested in accessing this archive, please submit a copy of the request form attached to this page. Once the request is submitted, the curatorial team will review your request and be in contact with you.<br /><br /><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Total files:</strong></span> 259 files
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1988-1993
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Donated by <a href="https://maryannhorton.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mary Ann Horton</a>.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Digests are stored in plain text unicode (.txt) files, organized by year of publication. Index of 1988-1991 is available at root.
Language
A language of the resource
American English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Mailing List
archive
cd-forum
crossdressers
mailing list
transgender people
transsexual people
transvestites
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
407
City and State/Province
Orlando, FL
Abbreviations/Alias
Any other names used to refer to this forum
CompuWho, Compu Who, members known as "Whosers"
Year Founded (approximate)
1989
Baud Rate
9600
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
gay people, lesbian people
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.compuwho.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Compu-Who website</a></li>
<li>"<a href="http://www.watermarkonline.com/2018/06/07/with-changes-to-orlandos-big-gay-weekend-coming-in-2019-we-look-back-on-the-history-of-gay-day/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">With changes to Orlando’s Big Gay Weekend coming in 2019, we look back on the history of Gay Day</a>," <em>Watermark Magazine</em> (June 7, 2018) - Article discussing Compu-Who's role in the founding and development of Gay Days at Disneyworld in Orlando, FL</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Compu-Who
bbs
gay people
lesbian people
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS Network
Topical Networks of Bulletin Board Systems
Host BBS
BBS that served as primary host for network
Funded by State of California
Year Founded (approximate)
1984
Last Year Active (approximate)
Unknown
Topical Focus
Primary topics of messages shared via network
HIV/AIDS-related information and resources
Exterior References
<ul>
<li><a href="http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/sfbagals/Sentinal/1985_SFS_Vol13_No06_July_18.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"State OKs Proposal on High Tech Data Service," San Francisco Sentinel (July 18, 1985)</a> - Article discussing the CAIN network and its purpose</li>
<li><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1986/01/26/aids-sufferers-find-solace-in-computer-network/b1c3ec23-76ae-43ee-8c42-c2d8ec3b31ae/?utm_term=.f3b1db20d2cb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"</a><span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1986/01/26/aids-sufferers-find-solace-in-computer-network/b1c3ec23-76ae-43ee-8c42-c2d8ec3b31ae/?utm_term=.f3b1db20d2cb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AIDS Sufferers Find Solace in Computer Network,"</a> Washington Post (Jan 26, 1986) - Discusses use of CAIN and AIDS-focused BBSes</span></li>
<li><a href="http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/sfbagals/Sentinal/1987_SFS__Vol15_No19_May_08.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"AIDS information by Computer," San Francisco Sentinel (May 8, 1987)</a> - Includes information on accessing CAIN </li>
<li><a href="http://queerdigital.com/items/show/61" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"National AIDS Clearinghouse Guide to AIDS BBSes" (April 2, 1993)</a> - Listing of CAIN member BBSes included in sci.med.aids FAQ.</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Computerized AIDS Information Network (CAIN)
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
BBS Network
bbs network
CAIN
Computerized AIDS Information Network
people living with HIV/AIDS
-
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/a5018107d0c27391dafe02f2c27a271d.png
9ece6eead51a94b99538ef4c096c6ae3
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Name
Name of Forum
Cross Connection
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
818 Area Code
Year Founded (approximate)
Unknown
Last Year Active (approximate)
Unknown
City and State/Province
Los Angeles, CA
Baud Rate
300/1200/2400 baud
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
transgender people; transsexual people; gender community
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
<ul>
<li><span>Attached advertisement from <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/xd07gs80t" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cross-Talk: The Gender Community's News & Information Monthly, No. 56 (June, 1994)</a></span></li>
<li><span>Regular advertiser in <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/catalog?f%5Bcollection_name_ssim%5D%5B%5D=Cross-Talk%3A+The+Gender+Community%E2%80%99s+News+%26+Information+Monthly" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cross-Talk: The Gender Community's News & Information Monthly</a></span></li>
<li><a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/r207tp43x" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cross-Talk: The Gender Community's News & Information Monthly, No. 60 (October, 1994)</a> - Discussion of Cross-Connection in article on gender community-specific BBSs</li>
<li><span>Appeared in </span><a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/catalog?f%5Bcollection_name_ssim%5D%5B%5D=Transgender+Tapestry&sort=dta_sortable_date_dtsi+asc%2C+title_primary_ssort+asc" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">TS-TV Tapestry's BBS listings</a><span> from 1991-1995</span></li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Cross Connection
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Bulletin Board System (BBS)
bbs
Cross Connection
gender community
transgender people
transsexual people
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Name
Name of Forum
Cross-Link
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
303 area code
Year Founded (approximate)
Unknown
Last Year Active (approximate)
Unknown
City and State/Province
Denver, CO
Baud Rate
300/1200 baud
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Transgendered people
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
<ul>
<li><a href="http://karenannetaylor.orgfree.com/bbs.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">KAT's TAIL: BBS Listing</a> - Included in listing of transgender-related BBS systems</li>
<li>Appeared in <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/catalog?f%5Bcollection_name_ssim%5D%5B%5D=Transgender+Tapestry&sort=dta_sortable_date_dtsi+asc%2C+title_primary_ssort+asc" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">TS-TV Tapestry's BBS listings</a> from 1990-1993</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Cross-Link
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
BBS
bbs
Cross-Link
transgendered people
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Name
Name of Forum
Different Realities
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
402 area code
Year Founded (approximate)
Unknown
Last Year Active (approximate)
Unknown
City and State/Province
Rochester, NY
Baud Rate
Unknown
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Transgender people
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
<ul>
<li>Appeared in <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/catalog?f%5Bcollection_name_ssim%5D%5B%5D=Transgender+Tapestry&sort=dta_sortable_date_dtsi+asc%2C+title_primary_ssort+asc" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">TS-TV Tapestry's BBS listings</a> from 1994-1995</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Different Realities
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
BBS
bbs
Different Realities
transgender people
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Name
Name of Forum
Educational TV Channel
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
415 area code
Abbreviations/Alias
Any other names used to refer to this forum
ETVC
City and State/Province
San Francisco, CA
Baud Rate
1200/2400/9600/14400 baud
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Transgendered people
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
<ul>
<li>Appeared in <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/catalog?f%5Bcollection_name_ssim%5D%5B%5D=Transgender+Tapestry&sort=dta_sortable_date_dtsi+asc%2C+title_primary_ssort+asc" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">TS-TV Tapestry's BBS listings</a> from 1995</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Educational TV Channel
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
BBS
bbs
Educational TV Channel
ETVC
transgender people
-
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/d22268fefa04493baabc1a385e9e1d7d.png
7575251ddf8cf807a4594da26a61ef24
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/b3ab9923a3eb514b64ac493ab4162247.png
331ffa047bc09eadb64c7c4bbe5de910
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Exterior References
<ul>
<li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19961226220202/http://bbs.eyecon.com:80/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Archive of Eye Contact BBS website</a> (Dec 26, 1996)</li>
<li>Attached advertisements from the <a href="http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/sfbagals/Sentinal/1989_SFS_Vol17_No17_Apr_.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">San Francisco Sentinel (April 27, 1989)</a> and <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=DWQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60&dq=%22eye+contact%22+%22bbs%22&source=bl&ots=pTgmkWKHzc&sig=lEo9rLzzoRdZzlOHw1PLY20005U&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwic1sCI8KHZAhUJ0WMKHZNABsMQ6AEIWjAL#v=onepage&q&f=false" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>The Advocate</em> (Apr 19, 1994)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://archive.org/stream/The.Joy.Of.Cybersex.1993#page/n145/mode/2up" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Specific section on Eye Contact in </a><em><a href="https://archive.org/stream/The.Joy.Of.Cybersex.1993#page/n145/mode/2up" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Joy of Cybersex</a> </em>(1993)</li>
<li><a href="https://cdn.loc.gov/copyright/onlinesp/agents/e/eccomps.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Filing</a> of designated <span>Digital Millennium Copyright Act (</span>DCMA)<span> agent, who receives notifications when an individual claims content on the platform represents copyright infringement (1998)</span></li>
</ul>
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
415 Area Code
City and State/Province
San Francisco, CA
Year Founded (approximate)
1989
Last Year Active (approximate)
2001
Baud Rate
2400
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
gay people
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Eye Contact BBS
bbs
gay people
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Name
Name of Forum
Feminet
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
408 area code
Year Founded (approximate)
1988
Last Year Active (approximate)
Unknown
Network/Platform
Networks or Platforms the forum participated in
Host board of TGNet
City and State/Province
Monterey Bay, CA
Baud Rate
1200/2400 baud
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Transgender people; Transsexual people
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
<ul>
<li>Home system of TGNet</li>
<li><a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/pn89d667r" target="_blank" title="Gender Networker V.1, 2" rel="noopener noreferrer">Gender Networker V.1, no.2 (1988)</a> - Included in listing of online resources</li>
<li><a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/8336h2050" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Twenty Minutes (August, 1989)</a> - Mention of BBS in IFGE 1989 report</li>
<li><a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/r207tp43x" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cross-Talk: The Gender Community's News & Information Monthly, No. 60 (1994)</a><span> - Includes detailed information on connecting to Feminet</span></li>
<li><a href="http://karenannetaylor.orgfree.com/bbs.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">KAT's TAIL: BBS Listing</a> - Included in listing of transgender-related BBS systems</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Feminet
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
BBS
bbs
Feminet
TGNet
transgender people
transsexual people
-
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/5895d58bc93c8ef7e8dc1f3a28dc1f68.png
7fe02764e4218d5d5c90fa359f027b1a
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Name
Name of Forum
Fog City BBS
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
415 Area Code
City and State/Province
San Francisco, CA
Year Founded (approximate)
1986
Last Year Active (approximate)
Unknown
Network/Platform
Networks or Platforms the forum participated in
Gaycom; Computerized AIDS Information Network (CAIN); AEGIS (AIDS Education General Information System) Network
Baud Rate
Unknown
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Gay people, People living with HIV/AIDS
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
<ul>
<li><a href="http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/sfbagals/Sentinal/sfs_index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Regular advertiser in San Francisco Sentinel in 1988-1989 (advertisement attached)</a></li>
<li>Host of <a href="https://archive.org/details/hypercard_caper-in-the-castro" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Caper in the Casto</a>, first LGBTQ video game</li>
<li><a href="http://queerdigital.com/items/show/61" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"National AIDS Clearinghouse Guide to AIDS BBSes" (April 2, 1993)</a> - Listed in Guide, which is included in sci.med.aids FAQ.</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Fog City BBS
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Bulletin Board System
AEGIS Network
bbs
CAIN
gay people
GayCom
people living with HIV/AIDS
-
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/ae7a941dd7bed32a4f675c5f6b0c419c.txt
611ff35072d1e3813995204fb653ed03
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Primary Documents Collection
Description
An account of the resource
This collection hold primary documents (listings, programs, applications, etc) related to LGBTQ life online pre-2010. When possible, files have been listed with their original date of publication and source. When mirrored from established sites, their original source is attributed and linked. If you have files you would like to submit for inclusion, please feel free to contact Avery Dame-Griff at <a href="mailto:admin@queerdigital.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admin@queerdigital.com</a>.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
GAY & LESBIAN BBS LIST - Undated
Subject
The topic of the resource
Gay & Lesbian BBSs
Description
An account of the resource
Listing of active Gay & Lesbian BBSs. Published monthly.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Risquilly
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<span>Retrieved from </span><a href="http://textfiles.com/sex/EROTICA/G/" target="_blank">textfiles.com's Erotica/G section</a><span>. Original copy available </span><a href="http://textfiles.com/sex/EROTICA/G/gaybbs.txt" target="_blank">here</a><span>.</span>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
Undated
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Plain Text File
Language
A language of the resource
American English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
BBS Listing
bbs listing
bisexual people
Gay & Lesbian BBS List
gay people
lesbian people
transgender people
-
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/19be8cb928c41369be0ddb306639807c.png
60c811ae85eb4ebb54a63ee60fab3be5
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/ccde54a717f5ea0a12af7d5e8b0a75aa.pdf
91f744f671122ca16300f2037d67f7d1
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Name
Name of Forum
Gay and Lesbian Information Bureau
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
703 Area Code
City and State/Province
Arlington, VA
Abbreviations/Alias
Any other names used to refer to this forum
GLIB
Year Founded (approximate)
1986
Last Year Active (approximate)
2001
Baud Rate
Unknown
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Gay people; Lesbian people; People with HIV/AIDS
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
Attached advertisement from <a href="https://archive.org/details/Boardwatch_Magazine_Vol_09_03_1995_Mar" target="_blank" rel="noopener">March 1995 issue of <em>Boardwatch Magazine</em></a>. Attached letter of thanks was mailed by President Bill Clinton to GLIB sysop Jon Larimore for their work on the campaign.<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bbslist.textfiles.com/703/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GLIB's listing in the Textfiles.com BBS List</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/TNQHQG6g0Sc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gay Fairfax: Episode #26 (1991)</a> - Recorded presentation by sysop Jon Larimore about GLIB, its services, and BBSes in general</li>
<li><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/09/15/glib-users-are-talking-it-up/92d19833-ac76-4029-aee4-0862a7d4acaf/?utm_term=.816c8f0bbab7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GLIB: Users are Talking It Up (Sept 15, 1994)</a> - Short Washington Post piece on GLIB</li>
<li><a href="http://queerdigital.com/items/show/61" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"National AIDS Clearinghouse Guide to AIDS BBSes" (April 2, 1993)</a> - Listed in Guide, which is included in sci.med.aids FAQ.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/mp3/93BBSCON/bw100.txt" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Boardwatch Top 100 (1993)</a> - Includes GLIB at #5</li>
<li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19970228045752/http://www.glib.org:80/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GLIB.org (archived Feb 28, 1997)</a> - Archived version of GLIB website, which BBS converted to in 1999</li>
<li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20001203044100/http://www.glib.org/whatglib.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">What is GLIB? (archived Dec 3, 2000)</a> - Informational page on the history of GLIB</li>
</ul>
Sponsor or Institutional Host
Organizations that hosted, sponsored, or maintained the forum
Community Educational Services Foundation (CESF)
Network/Platform
Networks or Platforms the forum participated in
GayCom, CAIN
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Gay and Lesbian Information Bureau (GLIB)
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Bulletin Board System
bbs
CAIN
Gay and Lesbian Information Bureau
gay people
GLIB
lesbian people
people living with HIV/AIDS
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Name
Name of Forum
GDANC
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
704 Area Code
Year Founded (approximate)
Unknown
Last Year Active (approximate)
Unknown
City and State/Province
Albemarle, NC
Baud Rate
Unknown
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Transgender People
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
<ul>
<li>Appeared in <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/catalog?f%5Bcollection_name_ssim%5D%5B%5D=Transgender+Tapestry&sort=dta_sortable_date_dtsi+asc%2C+title_primary_ssort+asc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">TS-TV Tapestry's BBS listings</a> from 1993-1995</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
GDANC
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Bulletin Board System (BBS)
bbs
GDANC
transgender people
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Name
Name of Forum
GDATN
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
615 Area Code
Year Founded (approximate)
Unknown
Last Year Active (approximate)
Unknown
City and State/Province
Albemarle, NC
Baud Rate
Unknown
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Transgender people
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
<ul>
<li>Appeared in <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/catalog?f%5Bcollection_name_ssim%5D%5B%5D=Transgender+Tapestry&sort=dta_sortable_date_dtsi+asc%2C+title_primary_ssort+asc" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">TS-TV Tapestry's BBS listings</a> from 1991-1992</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
GDATN
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Bulletin Board System (BBS)
bbs
GDATN
transgender people
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
Compuserve Conference
Sub-area of Compuserve
Year Founded (approximate)
1986
Section Number
Specific section of Forum
Unknown
Parent Forum
Host forum
Human Sexuality Forum, GO HSX-200
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Transgender people; transsexual people
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
<ul>
<li>Appeared in <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/catalog?f%5Bcollection_name_ssim%5D%5B%5D=Transgender+Tapestry&sort=dta_sortable_date_dtsi+asc%2C+title_primary_ssort+asc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">TS-TV Tapestry's BBS listings</a> from 1989-1995</li>
<li><a href="https://archive.org/details/CompuServeMagazineDec1991" target="_blank">"A Girl at Heart," Compuserve Magazine (December 1991)</a> - Short personal essay on the impact of Genderline on the author. Sent to all Compuserve subscribers.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.qrd.org/qrd/electronic/providers/1994/queer.areas.on.compuserve-01.15.94" target="_blank">Queer Areas on Compuserve (1994)</a> - Included in list</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ebar.com/columns/column.php?sec=transmissions&article=114" target="_blank">"Techno-trans plug in online," Bay Area Reporter (July 2009)</a> - Short essay recounting early history of transgender sites on digital media</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Genderline
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Compuserve sub-section
Compuserve
Genderline
transgender people
transsexual people
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Exterior References
<ul>
<li><a href="https://archive.org/stream/tvtstapestry4219unse#page/50/mode/2up/search/gendernet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GGA introduces GenderNet (1984)</a> - Announcement of GenderNet in TV-TS Tapestry #42</li>
<li><a href="https://archive.org/stream/tvtstapestry45unse#page/66/mode/2up/search/gendernet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GenderNet News (1985)</a> - Update on GenderNet in TV-TS Tapestry #45</li>
<li><a href="http://porn-report.com/computers-distribution.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Attorney General's Commission on Pornography: Final Report</a> (1986) - Mentioned as an example of a "<span>sexually oriented national and local bulletin boards system"</span></li>
<li><a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/j098zb17n" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IFGE's 1st Annual "Coming Together-Working Together" Convention: Book of Program Transcripts</a> (1987) - Discussion of how to use and access GenderNet as a possible resource</li>
<li><a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/bg257f135" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Our Sorority, Issue 15 (1987)</a> - Included in listing of online resources</li>
<li><a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/pn89d667r" target="_blank" title="Gender Networker V.1, 2" rel="noopener noreferrer">Gender Networker v.1, no.2 (1988)</a> - Included in listing of online resources</li>
<li>Appeared in <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/catalog?f%5Bcollection_name_ssim%5D%5B%5D=Transgender+Tapestry&sort=dta_sortable_date_dtsi+asc%2C+title_primary_ssort+asc" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">TS-TV Tapestry's BBS listings</a> from 1988-1989</li>
</ul>
Name
Name of Forum
GenderNet
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
408 and later 415 area code
Abbreviations/Alias
Any other names used to refer to this forum
Gender-net, Gender Net
Year Founded (approximate)
1984
Sponsor or Institutional Host
Organizations that hosted, sponsored, or maintained the forum
Gateway Gender Alliance (GGA)
City and State/Province
Sunnyvale, CA; later Oakland, CA
Baud Rate
300/1200 baud
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Transsexual people
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
GenderNet
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Bulletin Board System (BBS)
bbs
Gateway Gender Alliance
GenderNet
GGA
transsexual people
transvestites
-
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/48f3efc8c7de9c6da1db7ded36e3adc1.zip
eb93078584fe59a9677fddc0cc8a2e1e
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Primary Documents Collection
Description
An account of the resource
This collection hold primary documents (listings, programs, applications, etc) related to LGBTQ life online pre-2010. When possible, files have been listed with their original date of publication and source. When mirrored from established sites, their original source is attributed and linked. If you have files you would like to submit for inclusion, please feel free to contact Avery Dame-Griff at <a href="mailto:admin@queerdigital.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admin@queerdigital.com</a>.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Global Gaynet network file
Subject
The topic of the resource
BBS network
Description
An account of the resource
Information on joining national BBS network Global Gaynet. Contains description, network rules, conference list, and application.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<span>Retrieved from </span><a href="http://cd.textfiles.com/swextrav4">Shareware Extravagana 4</a><a href="http://cd.textfiles.com/swextrav4/" target="_blank">.</a><span> </span><span>Original copy </span><a href="http://cd.textfiles.com/swextrav4/swextrav4-1/bbsnet/ggo.zip" target="_blank">here</a><span>.</span>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1994
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
.zip file
Language
A language of the resource
American English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
BBS network information packet
bbs network
bisexual people
gay people
Global Gaynet
lesbian people
transvestites
-
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/a3fd13951a284e77de022041d20a7c4e.zip
0ec3ca5c0265d8380c52bea06c21fcde
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Primary Documents Collection
Description
An account of the resource
This collection hold primary documents (listings, programs, applications, etc) related to LGBTQ life online pre-2010. When possible, files have been listed with their original date of publication and source. When mirrored from established sites, their original source is attributed and linked. If you have files you would like to submit for inclusion, please feel free to contact Avery Dame-Griff at <a href="mailto:admin@queerdigital.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admin@queerdigital.com</a>.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
International GayLink network file
Subject
The topic of the resource
BBS network
Description
An account of the resource
Information on joining national BBS network International GayLink. Contains description, network rules, conference list, and application.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<span>Retrieved from </span><a href="http://cd.textfiles.com/swextrav4">Shareware Extravagana 4</a><a href="http://cd.textfiles.com/swextrav4/" target="_blank">.</a> <span>Original copy </span><a href="http://cd.textfiles.com/swextrav4/swextrav4-1/bbsnet/gaylink.zip" target="_blank">here</a><span>.</span>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1994
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
.zip file
Language
A language of the resource
American English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
BBS network information packet
bbs network
bisexual people
gay people
International Gaylink
lesbian people
transvestites
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
317 Area Code
Year Founded (approximate)
Unknown
Sponsor or Institutional Host
Organizations that hosted, sponsored, or maintained the forum
Indiana Crossdressers Society (IXE)
City and State/Province
Indianapolis, IN
Baud Rate
Unknown
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Transgender people; crossdressers
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
<ul>
<li>Information on connecting to KINKY BBS included in IXE listing in <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/catalog?f%5Bcollection_name_ssim%5D%5B%5D=Transgender+Tapestry&sort=dta_sortable_date_dtsi+asc%2C+title_primary_ssort+asc" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">TS-TV Tapestry</a> from 1989-1990</li>
<li><a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/9w0323153">Cross-Port InnerView, v.5, n.9 (Sept 1989)</a> - Mention of IXE BBS</li>
<li>Appeared in <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/catalog?f%5Bcollection_name_ssim%5D%5B%5D=Transgender+Tapestry&sort=dta_sortable_date_dtsi+asc%2C+title_primary_ssort+asc" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">TS-TV Tapestry's BBS listings</a> from 1991-1994</li>
<li><a href="http://karenannetaylor.orgfree.com/bbs.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">KAT's TAIL: BBS Listing</a> - Included in listing of transgender-related BBS systems</li>
</ul>
Abbreviations/Alias
Any other names used to refer to this forum
Initially named KINKY BBS
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
IXE BBS
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Bulletin Board System (BBS)
bbs
crossdressers
Indiana Crossdressers Society
IXE
IXE BBS
KINKY BBS
transgender people
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
Usenet Newsgroup
Individual Usenet Newsgroup
Year Founded (approximate)
Unknown
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Transgender people
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
Japanese
Exterior References
<ul>
<li><a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/japan.soc.transgender" target="_blank">Google Groups Archive</a></li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
japan.soc.transgender
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Usenet newsgroup
japan.soc.transgender
transgender people
Usenet
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Name
Name of Forum
LAMBDA BOARD - EDINBURGH
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
0131
City and State/Province
Edinburgh, Scotland
Year Founded (approximate)
Unknown, first reference in 1994
Last Year Active (approximate)
2006
Baud Rate
2400
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Women, Gay Men, Bisexuals, Transgender People
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
Scottish English
Exterior References
<ul>
<li>Regular advertiser in <a href="http://www.scotsgay.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ScotsGay Magazine</a> from 1994 to 2006</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
LAMBDA BOARD - EDINBURGH
bbs
bisexual people
gay people
lesbian people
transgender people
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
Proprietary Forum
Forum on a proprietary platform (AOL, Livejournal, etc.)
Network/Platform
Networks or Platforms the forum participated in
ECHO NYC
Year Founded (approximate)
Unknown
Last Year Active (approximate)
Unknown
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
gay people, lesbian people, bisexual people, transgender people, queer people
Exterior References
<ul>
<li>"<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/27/business/sound-bytes-an-electronic-salon-in-ny.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sound Bytes: An Electronic Salon, in N.Y.</a>," <em>New York Times</em> (March 27, 1994) - An early interview with ECHO founder Stacy Horn on the ECHO NYC BBS</li>
<li><a href="https://www.echonyc.com/~lambda/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Conference homepage</a> (last update date unknown)</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Lambda Conference (ECHO)
bisexual people
ECHONYC
gay people
Lambda Conference
lesbian people
queer people
transgender people
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Exterior References
<ul>
<li><a href="http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll4/id/16565/show/16564/rec/6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mentioned in short article in Kom Ut! International Newsletter</a>, included in <em>one Letter</em> V.38, N.8 (August 1993)</li>
<li>Appears in Textfiles.com's <a href="http://bbslist.textfiles.com/sweden/042/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Swedish BBS List (Area code 042)</a></li>
<li>Included in <a href="http://www.textfiles.com/bbs/BBSLISTS/europe.phk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">list of European BBSes</a> (undated)</li>
<li>Included in <a href="https://pastebin.com/S3nMGV0K" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Swedish BBS list</a> circa 1994</li>
</ul>
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
42
City and State/Province
Helsingborg, Sweden
Year Founded (approximate)
Unknown, first referenced in 1992
Last Year Active (approximate)
Unknown
Network/Platform
Networks or Platforms the forum participated in
GayNet International, FidoNet (2:200/228)
Baud Rate
300-9600 baud
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Gay people
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
Swedish
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Lambda Scandinavia
bbs
gay people
-
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/97e22b05969625c77537ae213afad193.txt
ab5dfa661ed0310295b0a4b7023fc483
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/3c03196420125584d30ccaca3ea96d19.png
85e513e69ab3e591928967534f6f3661
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Name
Name of Forum
Land of Awes BBS
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
316
City and State/Province
Wichita, KS
Year Founded (approximate)
1990
Last Year Active (approximate)
2001
Network/Platform
Networks or Platforms the forum participated in
FidoNet node 1:291/9
Sponsor or Institutional Host
Organizations that hosted, sponsored, or maintained the forum
Land of Awes
Baud Rate
Unknown
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Gay Men, Lesbians, Bisexual people
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
Attached ad for Land of Awes Phone Tree from <a href="https://history.okeq.org/items/show/458" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Parachute Vol 1, no. 7, Oct 1993</a>), as well as widely-circulated ECGM advertisement (retrieved from the <a href="http://www.qrd.org/qrd/electronic/1995/electronic.gay.community.magazine-01.29.95" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Queer Resources Directory</a>)<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19981206234920/http://www.awes.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Land of Awes Information Service Homepage</a> (archived Dec 6, 1999)</li>
<li>Hosted Land of Awes Phone Tree (see attached ad)</li>
<li>Hosted <a href="http://awes.com/egcm/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Electronic Gay Community Magazine</a> (first founded as print publication <em>Emerald City News)</em> from 1988 to 2007
<ul>
<li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19990224221223/http://www.zzapp.org/awes/egcm/#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Archived EGCM site</a> (archived Feb 24, 1999)</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Land of Awes
bbs
bisexual people
FidoNet
gay people
lesbian people
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
Website
A resource comprising of a web page or web pages and all related assets ( such as images, sound and video files, etc. ).
Local URL
The URL of the local directory containing all assets of the website
www.lesbian.org
Year Founded (approximate)
Unknown
Last Year Active (approximate)
Currently active
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Lesbian people
Exterior References
<ul>
<li><a href="https://archive.org/details/nc105_women" target="_blank">Interview with webmaster Amy Goodloe on PBS show Net Cafe</a> (1996)</li>
<li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/19961109095728/http://www.lesbian.org:80/" target="_blank">Lesbian.org (archived Nov 9, 1996)</a></li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Lesbian.org
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Website
lesbian people
lesbian youth
lesbian.org
website
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Name
Name of Forum
Lifetime BBS
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
708 area code
Year Founded (approximate)
Unknown
Last Year Active (approximate)
Unknown
City and State/Province
Chicago, IL
Baud Rate
Unknown
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Transgender people; Transsexual people
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/r207tp43x" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cross-Talk: The Gender Community's News & Information Monthly, No. 60 (1994)</a> - Includes mention of BBS</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Lifetime BBS
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
BBS
bbs
Lifetime BBS
transgender people
transsexual people
-
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/cbc0ed9cf9dd0d4ccef4cadedbe369f3.png
7a09d0b5c06cece8f997663a0be3edc5
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Exterior References
Attached ad from <a href="https://archive.org/details/BAR_19951130/page/n53" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nov 30, 1995 issue of the </a><em><a href="https://archive.org/details/BAR_19951130/page/n53" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bay Area Reporter</a>.</em><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19961019162416/http://bytenet.com/online/index.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Archived copy of telnet gateway, bytenet.com</a> (archived Oct 19, 1996)</li>
</ul>
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
415
City and State/Province
San Francisco, CA
Abbreviations/Alias
Any other names used to refer to this forum
Love Bytes
Baud Rate
9600
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Gay people
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Love Bytes
bbs
gay people
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Name
Name of Forum
Lunatic Fringe BBS
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
718 Area Code
City and State/Province
Bayside, NY
Baud Rate
1200/2400/9600/14400 baud
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Gender community
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
<ul>
<li>Appeared in <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/catalog?f%5Bcollection_name_ssim%5D%5B%5D=Transgender+Tapestry&sort=dta_sortable_date_dtsi+asc%2C+title_primary_ssort+asc" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">TS-TV Tapestry's BBS listings</a> from 1994-1995</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Lunatic Fringe BBS
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Bulletin Board System (BBS)
bbs
gender community
Lunatic Fringe BBS
-
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/ef914b5c945fd4acb412ba3925bd6776.png
8839c3f5a211d8ee770e11d32f2101e1
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
212 or 516
City and State/Province
Long Island, NY
Baud Rate
28.8 K
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Gay people
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
Attached advertisement from <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=NGNpFuAXu70C&pg=PA351&lpg=PA351&dq=%22male+forum%22+bbs&source=bl&ots=KJxJaFzvGv&sig=mt6iLi0kbTMahlbRKik7xBBjGao&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwichoe01NnbAhUmwlkKHauoBDEQ6AEINzAC#v=onepage&q&f=false"><em>PC Magazine</em> (May 14, 1996)</a>.<br />
<ul>
<li>Listing included in <em><a href="https://archive.org/stream/internetbbss00rich#page/n241/mode/2up/search/Male+Forum">Internet BBSs: A Guided Tour</a></em>.</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Male Forum
bbs
gay people
The Male Forum
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Exterior References
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.gaycalgary.com/Magazine.aspx?id=158&article=5509" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"Men For Men BBS – What Gay Geeks did in the early ’90s"</a> - Column by sysop Steve Polyak on the history of Men For Men</li>
<li><a href="http://www.gaycalgary.com/Magazine.aspx?id=156&article=5420" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"25th Anniversary of Men For Men/GayCalgary"</a> - Column by sysop Steve Polyak on the changes with Men for Men and GayCalgary </li>
</ul>
Name
Name of Forum
Men for Men BBS
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
403
City and State/Province
Calgary, Alberta
Year Founded (approximate)
1992
Last Year Active (approximate)
2006
Network/Platform
Networks or Platforms the forum participated in
FidoNet
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Gay men, bisexual men
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
Canadian English
Abbreviations/Alias
Any other names used to refer to this forum
MFM BBS
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Men for Men BBS
bbs
bisexual people
gay people
-
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/3ba5c9e2ba6bb0558293744c5d54c3ae.jpeg
7b29f86c045f50e2ed8baacef4c79798
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/5efed384a2d343c7f13b0dd91c330d39.jpg
cc2131cba9a309f59c887768bb86804b
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/4a2dda6ce9468bf8b441cbe890fe8492.jpg
d1e8a914595c7faf35c21de89d2e8fde
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/d571d57a7b2b268b86ade55929cb54da.jpg
5e20d728e422a627287c50fa2af9143f
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/cc528fa1f2f5f4f31678aaf825183a86.pdf
7123de8eb533c62c07275ae0a8567307
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/0a992094dba4c846916884e6a8d7515d.jpg
8fe13e199a975060de238ec292286060
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/a201fc329d8c4617baf286229a6789a7.jpg
250efe9d6dade55b696bbb7bdbbe6c66
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/2f93010ab9ccd357da5f599947af3295.jpg
82f57a14f0d469322acd3f097933dc2f
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/85e98cc625994bd4e61ee97295722644.jpg
3cdf45de066b1cc6e147bc49682f79d0
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/676f474549af0bdc2b66914ba2329228.jpg
cb8b78c79270af8005c8552bcf7e4f7e
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/67872b8b4c44c8615e07c4b8f1a124f1.jpg
226f928e86d2626bcc513e98c88fc792
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
BBS
Bulletin Board System
Name
Name of Forum
Multicom-4
Area Code
Area Code of BBS
716 Area Code
City and State/Province
Rochester, NY
Abbreviations/Alias
Any other names used to refer to this forum
MC4
Year Founded (approximate)
1979
Last Year Active (approximate)
1999
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
gay people; lesbian people; bisexual people
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
American English
Exterior References
Attached images courtsey of board sysop.<br /><br /><strong>Location of Public Terminals:</strong><br />
<ul>
<li>Bachelor Forum, Rochester NY</li>
<li>Rochester Spa & Body Club, Rochester NY</li>
<li>Rochester Custom Leathers, Rochester NY</li>
<li>Muther’s Bar, Rochester NY</li>
<li>Buddie’s Bar, Buffalo NY</li>
</ul>
<strong><strong>Attached Images (donated by board sysop Chaz Antonelli):<br /></strong></strong>
<ul>
<li>Business card for CACTUS-800, Multicom's predecessor (1979)</li>
<li>Advertisment for Multicom-3, ran in <em><a href="https://www.rochestercitynewspaper.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rochester City Newspaper</a>, </em>Rochester, NY (1988)</li>
<li>Advertisement for Rochester Custom Leathers and Multicom-4, one of several that ran in <a href="https://outalliance.org/empty-closet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>The Empty Closet</em></a>, Rochester, NY (Septermber 1989 to January 1999)</li>
<li>Informational Brochure on Multicom-4 (1993)</li>
<li>Logon screens for Multicom-4 (1996-1997)</li>
<li>Web logo for Multicom-4</li>
</ul>
<strong>External Links:</strong><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://mc4bbs.livejournal.com/246094.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">History of Multicom-4</a>, as recounted by sysop</li>
<li><a href="http://www.lib.rochester.edu/IN/RBSCP/Databases/Attachments/Closet/1991/1991_MAY.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Article on Multicom-4, <em>The Empty Closet</em> (Rochester, NY), May 1991 (p.17)</a></li>
<li>Ranked #26 in 1992 edition of the <a href="ftp://ftp.altexxanet.org/textfiles.com/inbox/FOC/bw100.txt">Boardwatch 100</a></li>
<li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19961111160108/http://www.multicom.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Multicom website</a> (initally archived Nov 11, 1996)</li>
<li><a href="https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Multicom4/info" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Yahoo! Group for former users (Restricted Group)</a>
<ul>
<li>Former member meetup also held in Rochester, NY through 2000s</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Multicom-4
bbs
bisexual people
gay people
lesbian people
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Queer Digital Community Catalog
Language
A language of the resource
English
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>This catalog collects basic information and resources on LGBTQ-related online communities prior to 2010, particularly those from the so-called Web 1.0 period. Each catalog entry includes information on the group’s format, its approximate dates of activity, its audience and topical focus, and links to other materials discussing the group, such as editorial columns, personal essays, or archival materials.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>One of the driving impulses for the creation of this catalog was to offer a starting place for research into early LGBTQ life online. As I found in my own research, simply knowing the name of a place or person could, in some cases, be key to my archival research. Beyond just its research utility, however, this catalog is also meant to preserve the memory, if not the content, of communities and groups whose names might otherwise be lost or forgotten.<br /></span></p>
<h2>Why a Catalog?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">I’ve chosen to focus on a catalog, as opposed to an archive, for several reasons. Firstly, at its most basic level, an archive is focused on primary material—in this case, the content of posts. However, archiving for most online groups from the mid-1980s up to the late 1990s is often incomplete at best, so in many cases, there’s limited to no archival material available. Instead, what exists in many cases is secondary material, writing describing or reflecting on posters’ experiences with and in these spaces. The catalog, ideally, links these disparate materials together in order to give a slightly fuller picture of the online landscape at any given time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, posters in early LGBTQ groups often wrote (sometimes in detail) about close and personal issues in their lives under the assumption that their posts would remain private within the group. Given this, I’ve designed the catalog to respect (to the best of my ability) posters’ initial expectation of privacy. Linked content has all been previously published in other venues, and any other detailed personal reflections submitted by users specifically for the catalog have been made public with their consent.</p>
<h2>What Qualifies A Community For Inclusion?</h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>There are no specific criteria determining inclusion in the QDCC. However, many of the communitites currently listed in the catalog have multiple references in contemporaneous periodicals, newsletters, web guides, or other LGBTQ-related informational websites. These sources are key for establishing not only the existence of a space, but its particular attributes.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong>On Audience Labels</strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">All of the communities cataloged include descriptive metadata culled from various sources, including contemporaneous listings in print publications and online reference guides. However, the terminology used in archival sources does not always match current preferred terms. <a href="http://notchesblog.com/2017/11/28/troubling-terms-the-label-problem-in-transgender-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As has been discussed elsewhere</a>, retroactively applying labels with which individuals or spaces might not have identified is a politically fraught act. In my metadata practices, then, I follow a policy similar to that of the <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/about/policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Transgender Archive</a>: whenever possible, I use terminology included in contemporaneous decriptions. If terminology is not used or a detailed description is not available, I categorize using terminology derived from the archival reference.</p>
<h2>Adding Communities to the Catalog</h2>
<p>This catalog is by no means complete, and I'm always looking for new groups to add, if additional information is available. Please feel free to suggest a community for inclusion using <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9oGcXtpUNGXXhEBIYdZlb40HTj3EDzG_fk4xltxxcCck6AQ/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this form</a>, or email me directly at <a href="mailto:adame@winona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adame@winona.edu</a>.</p>
Usenet Newsgroup
Individual Usenet Newsgroup
Year Founded (approximate)
Unknown
Intended Audience
The forum's intended audience
Transsexual people; Transgender people
Primary Language
Primary language used by participants
Dutch
Exterior References
<ul>
<li><a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/nl.support.transseksueel" target="_blank">Google Groups Archive</a></li>
<li><a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/nl.support.transseksueel/ogDpmejXsEQ" target="_blank">Newsgroup Charter</a></li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
nl.support.transseksueel
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Usenet newsgroup
nl.support.transseksueel
transgender people
transsexual people
Usenet
-
http://queerdigital.com/files/original/c75ed7f9401589115a28b2fe87e7a72b.txt
2b014ad594489c5dcd057bfb4177588a
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Primary Documents Collection
Description
An account of the resource
This collection hold primary documents (listings, programs, applications, etc) related to LGBTQ life online pre-2010. When possible, files have been listed with their original date of publication and source. When mirrored from established sites, their original source is attributed and linked. If you have files you would like to submit for inclusion, please feel free to contact Avery Dame-Griff at <a href="mailto:admin@queerdigital.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admin@queerdigital.com</a>.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Norman Brown's Consolidated List of aids/hiv Bulletin Boards - 1993 Revision #2
Subject
The topic of the resource
HIV/AIDS-related BBSs
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Norman Brown
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="http://textfiles.com/sex/abbs9302.txt" target="_blank">Original file</a> retrieved from "Sex, Sex Humor and Sexuality" collection on textfiles.com.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1993 Revision #2, updated February 1, 1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Plain Text File
Description
An account of the resource
Listing of HIV/AIDS-related BBSs. Released and revised monthly.
Language
A language of the resource
American English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
BBS Listing
bbs listing
people living with HIV/AIDS