Errors-To: ecto-owner@ns1.rutgers.edu Reply-To: ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu Sender: ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu From: ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu To: ecto-request@ns1.rutgers.edu Bcc: ecto-digest-outbound@ns1.rutgers.edu Subject: ecto #938 ecto, Number 938 Sunday, 26 December 1993 Today's Topics: *-----------------* Postscript Happy Holidays from Susanne! Let's Active stuff Tribe "Supercollider" tangent Re: IRC & telnetting, etc. Re: tangent Re: The days are getting longer again! Re: Another Ecto newbie/delu goodbye for now IRC / MUD whatever Re: some more HTR mentions Let's Active Re: IRC / MUD whatever Merry Christmas! Re: IRC & telnetting, etc. ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1993 17:10:24 CST From: Subject: Postscript I agree with everything MJM just said about Maestro Subgum. His system didn't zap my copy of the great review, at least, though that may or may not be what he was talking about. They have an additional album, _Hot Old Wadda_, which I got on tape last year at Rose on Ashland. I goofed on the spelling of "dysplasia" in today's main essay. I think I got it right this time. As you were :-). Mitch ======================================================================== From: r.lovejoy1@genie.geis.com Date: Thu, 23 Dec 93 23:25:00 BST Subject: Happy Holidays from Susanne! Susanne White, Happy's manager extraordinaire, has asked me to pass along to the entire list her warmest wishes for a Happy Holiday season, and good cheer for all! She wants all of us to know how much she appreciates all that we have done for Happy's career. Some day, I'll get her on line. She has a computer and a modem, I think, so it's just a matter of hooking things up and finding a host with net capabilities that doesn't charge an arm and a leg. Speaking of which, and changing the subject somewhat, the current PC Magazine offers this tidbit: "The International Internet Association is offering free Internet access through its master node in Washington, DC, in order to promote the 'free flow of information without regard to position or affiliation.' For a new account ID, call 202-387-5445 or fax 202-387-5446." Anyway, Happy Holidaze from S.W., and myself. Here's a nice closing joke, also from PC Mag: Q. How many Newtons does it take to change a light bulb? A. Foux! There to eat lemons, axe gravy soup. +*************************************************************************+ + Robert Lovejoy + I've got a letter here postmarked Deep Space + + Deepspace + -The Firesign Theatre + + Cherry Hill, NJ + But baby I'm here and I've been quite an + + r.lovejoy1@genie.geis.co + Alien too... + + kdvn07a on Prodigy + -Happy Rhodes + +*************************************************************************+ ======================================================================== From: p.cohen@genie.geis.com Date: Thu, 23 Dec 93 23:36:00 BST Subject: Let's Active Neal Copperman brought up the subject of Let's Active, but didn't know much about the band. Let me fill in the holes. Let's Active is Mitch Easter's band. It does not contain any members of Game Theory. Amazingly, the two bands developed similar sounds on the two opposite coasts. Let's Active is east coast, while Game Theory is west coast. The reason for the similarities is that both Mitch Easter and Scott Miller were heavily influenced by Big Star. If you don't know about THAT band, their 3 albums from the 70s are heavily recommended. Let's Active made 3 1/2 albums. They started with the "afoot" EP, then followed with the album "Cypress". The two are now combined onto one CD. "Big Plans for Everybody" and "Every Dog His His Day" followed. All their material is recommended, especially for any fans of Mitch Easter. Sadly, Mitch hasn't chosen to make a Let's Active album since 1988. And I must agree with Glenn the while Mitch Easter is a superb popmeister, Scott Miller borders on genius. +########################################################################+ +###+ Paul Cohen, Philadelphia, PA +###+ +########################################################################+ +###+ P.COHEN@genie.geis.com +###+ PMCOHEN@aol.com +###+ +###+ 70703.3126@compuserve.com +###+ PMCOHEN@delphi.com +###+ +########################################################################+ ======================================================================== From: r.lovejoy1@genie.geis.com Date: Thu, 23 Dec 93 23:24:00 BST Subject: stuff Hi All! Neal, did you ever see the New Twilight Zone? There was an episode I'll never forget. Jerry Stiller played the foreman of a group of workers who were responsible for constructing individual minutes of time. Seems a person got unstuck from his lifepath and wound up in this area of the twilight zone. Stiller's character explained that each minute of time was built just for those who would inhabit it; if no one was going to be in a particular room, it wasn't in existance. Sometimes, his workers would forget to place an article where it belonged, and THAT'S why we all get that feeling that we know we had something somewhere but it's gone. The workers build it into another minute, and it's back again where it should have been. So don't worry, your birth certificate will show up! Bob +*************************************************************************+ + Robert Lovejoy + I've got a letter here postmarked Deep Space + + Deepspace + -The Firesign Theatre + + Cherry Hill, NJ + But baby I'm here and I've been quite an + + r.lovejoy1@genie.geis.co + Alien too... + + kdvn07a on Prodigy + -Happy Rhodes + +*************************************************************************+ ======================================================================== From: p.cohen@genie.geis.com Date: Thu, 23 Dec 93 23:35:00 BST Subject: Tribe "Supercollider" Well, I just heard "Supercollider" on local alternative station WDRE. I'm hopeful, but not incredibly optimistic. I heard "Red Rover" once, as a new release, when the album first came out. Maybe this one'll get more support. +########################################################################+ +###+ Paul Cohen, Philadelphia, PA +###+ +########################################################################+ +###+ P.COHEN@genie.geis.com +###+ PMCOHEN@aol.com +###+ +###+ 70703.3126@compuserve.com +###+ PMCOHEN@delphi.com +###+ +########################################################################+ ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 23 Dec 93 19:21:02 EST From: mojzes@monet.vill.edu (brni) Subject: tangent hi all, still catchin' up, still way way behind...and 1/2 step behind what the machine claims is all the disk space i need. ah well... anyway, someone (i forget who) sez: >> Lenny Kravitz, "Are You Gonna Go My Way" >> Another uneven album, and Lenny takes himself much too seriously. He >> is a serious artist after all. But a few good tracks, and well worth >> a listen. Just don't expect anything new from his standard seventies >> pastiche. > and someone else (i forget that too) answers: >Not to criticize anyone's musical taste (because, believe me, I know >he has many fans, including my roommate and my boyfriend) but I just >can't understand the appeal of Lenny Kravitz. I don't think he has >an original note in his reportoire (sp?), I don't think he can sing, >and I think if he had never been married to Lisa Bonet, no one would >have every heard of him. Oh well, we can't like everyone. > you know, way back when, my lover of the time and i watched "angel heart" and "the shining" back to back. that night i dreamt that i was having wild passionate sex with lisa bonet, and suddenly, jack nicholson was breaking down the door with an axe, and i said "why *now*? COULDN'T YOU PICK A BETTER TIME?"...and i just hoped that the door would hold another few minutes...;^> i'm gonna have to rent that movie again sometime... love, brni ======================================================================== From: "Scott S. Zimmerman" Subject: Re: IRC & telnetting, etc. Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1993 16:31:08 -0800 (PST) Yes, in order to chat with other ectophiles, it would be nice not to have to rely on IRC . Chatting about Happy Rhodes in a Multi-User Dungeon environment seems like a most appropriate idea! Just look at Happy's album covers, and you can see that dungeons and Happy go together! :) In fact, I think we could really get carried away in the development of this virtual world. Sure, all we really need are a couple of rooms for chatting, but why not create a huge landscape based off of the lyrics to Happy's albums, and other ectophile related things... you know, have lots of cats wandering around, have the dungeons open on up to mother sea, with gulls flying overhead and the jellyfish drowned in the sand. off yonder somewheres else we can have the wheatfield with a couple staring up at the sky awaiting the arrival of aliens. Off somewheres else could be a modern day city selling lots of those *hysterical* ecto products that Boston Charlie just posted about. :) And all over the land could be characters from happy's music, like a guy in the city that might walk up to you and say "Girl I think you've come to the wrong century." If we can make this land interesting enough, it could do well to promote Happy's music to non-ectophiles who might venture in? I dunno... Just my initial thoughts on the issue! -Scott ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1993 19:59:39 -0500 (EST) From: Michael Colford Subject: Re: tangent On Thu, 23 Dec 1993, brni wrote: > > > and someone else (i forget that too) answers: That was me . . . > >Not to criticize anyone's musical taste (because, believe me, I know > >he has many fans, including my roommate and my boyfriend) but I just > >can't understand the appeal of Lenny Kravitz. I don't think he has > >an original note in his reportoire (sp?), I don't think he can sing, > >and I think if he had never been married to Lisa Bonet, no one would > >have every heard of him. Oh well, we can't like everyone. > > > you know, way back when, my lover of the time and i watched "angel > heart" and "the shining" back to back. that night i dreamt that i > was having wild passionate sex with lisa bonet, and suddenly, jack > nicholson was breaking down the door with an axe, and i said "why > *now*? COULDN'T YOU PICK A BETTER TIME?"...and i just hoped that the > door would hold another few minutes...;^> That means you have something in common with Lenny Kravitz. An interesting thought. Michael (whiling away the last few minutes of work before he can go home and finish wrapping his gifts!) ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 23 Dec 93 17:03:12 PST From: Neal Copperman Subject: Re: The days are getting longer again! Diane Burke - If that was the back of Tori Amos' Little Earthquakes, I say go home, grab a pair of gloves, and go back to the store and get it. Most stupendous album, probably made lots of top tens last year, but since I'm slow it was numero uno this year for me. buyitbuyitbuyit. Local critic Stephen Esmedina, who I just insulted recently for calling Aimee Mann reptilian picked her disc as the top of the year, which he so unrestrainedly called "persuasive". (What a recomendation, and how can he not like Everything's Different Now at all???) Liz Phair showed up in two lists, Jane in 2, and PJ Harvey and the Breeders in one. Ole Stephen says "I didn't think Jane Sibery's New Age Victorinaism would ever be more than Kate Bush ephemera. But When I Was A Boy is an almost vainglorious battle between Eros and Thanatos, masking a mystic's quest for the essence of carnality. It is festooned with Catholic iconography and views of the sky above and the mud below. The canon-like arrangements and the ardor of her singing give it the unearthly beauty and transgression of a Gregorian chant perfromed while in heat." Neal ======================================================================== From: r.lovejoy1@genie.geis.com Date: Fri, 24 Dec 93 01:41:00 BST Subject: Re: Another Ecto newbie/delu Hello Alucard (Dr.) Happy has toured, slightly, once. She performed at the QE2 in Albany, and at the University Museum Theatre in Philadelphia, after Warpaint was released. I had the privelage of attending the Philadelphia concert. It was the most wonderful musical event of my life. Happy turned out to be a stunning performer, projecting stage presence and fronting an excellent ensemble of bass, drums, keyboards, and guitar. The band setting provided new realizations of her material, and though at the time I had only heard Warpaint, I was mesmerized and awestruck. There were many "moments" of zenlike awe, such as hearing Ray Jung's bassline to "Feed The Fire" and feeling a low G where there had been none on the record. Happy danced about the stage at times, her long hair flying, and - well, it was a great concert. There are no solid tour plans in the works at this time, but Happy is composing her next album, so we are all quite hopeful we can see her again. The two aforementioned concerts are available on tape from the Dubbing Project. There was also a short (truncated!) performance in Philadelphia a year ago. Happy and the band were in great shape but some technical problems marred the set. The headlining band, it turned out, arrived very late and were quite arrogant. Happy was denied a sound check, and sure enough, as she attempted to debut the acoustic tribute version of "Feed the Fire" there was no guitar mike. The resulting delay cost them the time they were allotted to play their last song, which was cut off when they started. I'm still smoldering, but Kozmic Karma has bourne out; the headlining band that evening is no longer together. But I digress. Happy is a natural performer, and when she does get around to putting on another concert, wherever it is, you should be there. You owe it to your body. In other news, I note you signature, Alucard. In addition to being a famous backwards vampire, it was also the publishing company of Gentle Giant, one of my all time favorite bands, so I was just checking to see if you may have been a fan too ( a long shot ). Happy's publishing company. Hovering Slab, is also a great name... Happy is no longer in Albany, but in Woodstock, NY. Just a little further down the foad. Further? (!) Thanks for bearing with me! Welcome to ecto! +*************************************************************************+ + Robert Lovejoy + I've got a letter here postmarked Deep Space + + Deepspace + -The Firesign Theatre + + Cherry Hill, NJ + But baby I'm here and I've been quite an + + r.lovejoy1@genie.geis.co + Alien too... + + kdvn07a on Prodigy + -Happy Rhodes + +*************************************************************************+ ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1993 23:56:03 -0500 (EST) From: "she listens like her head's on fire.." Subject: goodbye for now Hello, please unsubscribe me from the list for a while. the vax cluster here is going down for a while to be upgraded and I'm going to be away for a few weeks in January for a vacation. my account just can't take all the mail when I'm away! I've really enjoyed being part of this list and I would like to subscribe again when I return. Until then...happy holidays everyone.:-) for those of you who irc occasionally...I'll be on and stop by. :-) -Quenby ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 23 Dec 93 20:51:16 PST From: tjshadb@ecto.ca.sandia.gov (Troy J. Shadbolt) Subject: IRC / MUD whatever a couple of questions for anyone who can answer. Where does one grab the IRC software? I think it's time to try this. Second: if anyone can give me an idea of how much CPU usage this MUD thing might use, I might be willing to let ecto operate in this form; but the times available would be limited to off-hours 'cause ecto is my work machine. D^2 was on SF Bay area Jeopardy tonight :-) troy ======================================================================== From: klaus@inphobos.wupper.de Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1993 22:25:09 Subject: Re: some more HTR mentions Paul> just found some HTR mentions that were absent in ecto archives ... Thanks a lot Paul! I've also added them to "The Happy Rhodes Encyclopedia". A new version (including WWW support) should be finished in about 2 weeks. > PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, March 21, 1992, Saturday > [apg: anyone have that ??] This is in the archives as /pub/hr/articles/PhillyInquirer.Mar.21.92 > Billboard, May 1, 1993 This is indeed missing in the archives, although it's in the HRE. I'll pass a copy of it to Jessica with the rest of my additions. > Billboard, April 3, 1993 > *** HAPPY RHODES Runners (no timing listed) I find it strange that Runners got a single review without it being released as a single (or have I missed something here?). Another note so that no one starts typing in the Aural Gratification newsletters: I've done that already, and they'll soon be in the archives as well. _____ Klaus Kluge * klaus@inphobos.wupper.de * I'll be here, I'll be (in) Ecto! ======================================================================== From: p.cohen@genie.geis.com Date: Fri, 24 Dec 93 06:07:00 BST Subject: Let's Active Neal Copperman brought up the subject of Let's Active, but didn't know much about the band. Let me fill in the holes. Let's Active is Mitch Easter's band. It does not contain any members of Game Theory. Amazingly, the two bands developed similar sounds on the two opposite coasts. Let's Active is east coast, while Game Theory is west coast. The reason for the similarities is that both Mitch Easter and Scott Miller were heavily influenced by Big Star. If you don't know about THAT band, their 3 albums from the 70s are heavily recommended. Let's Active made 3 1/2 albums. They started with the "afoot" EP, then followed with the album "Cypress". The two are now combined onto one CD. "Big Plans for Everybody" and "Every Dog His His Day" followed. All their material is recommended, especially for any fans of Mitch Easter. Sadly, Mitch hasn't chosen to make a Let's Active album since 1988. And I must agree with Glenn the while Mitch Easter is a superb popmeister, Scott Miller borders on genius. +########################################################################+ +###+ Paul Cohen, Philadelphia, PA +###+ +########################################################################+ +###+ P.COHEN@genie.geis.com +###+ PMCOHEN@aol.com +###+ +###+ 70703.3126@compuserve.com +###+ PMCOHEN@delphi.com +###+ +########################################################################+ ======================================================================== From: neilg@sfu.ca Subject: Re: IRC / MUD whatever Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1993 00:47:44 -0800 (PST) troy writes: > D^2 was on SF Bay area Jeopardy tonight :-) Okay, I'm gonna ask this.... was David, at the end of the show, standing on a stage between two female contestants, chatting with ol' wossname the host? Was he wearing a dark jacket and a beard? 'Cos if so, I caught the final 10 seconds of the show as the camera moves around the stage as they play the irritating theme music, and saw him. Of course if he doesn't fit the description then I guess I saw somebody else, while flipping the dial as dinner warmed up. :) - Neil K. -- 49N 16' 123W 7' / Vancouver, BC, Canada / neil_k_guy@sfu.ca ======================================================================== Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1993 03:41:55 +1000 From: GRAHAM.G.R.DOMBKINS@bhpmelmsm.bhp.bhpmel04.telememo.au Subject: Merry Christmas! Hi all!! I just dropped into work on Christmas Eve (I've been on holidays for a week!) so I thought I'd just drop every one out there a big MERRY CHRISTMAS. I hope to continue to enjoy all your company for next year. See ya!! ======================================================================== : Graham Dombkins /\/\ : Personal Computer Services / / /\ : BHP Information Technology / / / \ : PO Box 261, Warrawong, NSW 2502, AUSTRALIA / / / /\ \ : A.C.N. 006 476 218 \ \/ / / / : Phone +61-42-757113 \ / / / : Fax +61-42-757908 \/\/\/ : E-mail GRAHAM.G.R.DOMBKINS@ : BHPMELMSM.BHP.bhpmel04.telememo.au : AppleLink GRAHAM.G.R.DOMBKINS@=D002183@INTERNET# : AppleLink AUST0387 : X.400 G=GRAHAM I=GR S=DOMBKINS OU=BHPMELMSM O=BHP : P=BHPMEL04 A=TELEMEMO C=AU ======================================================================== "Hello Earth!! "I'm chasing nuns hello Earth..." - KT out in the yard..." - TA ======================================================================== ======================================================================== Date: Fri, 24 Dec 93 4:55:24 EST From: WretchAwry Subject: Re: IRC & telnetting, etc. Just some of my random and incoherant, but very excited, talk... This thread gains momentum when ScottZ posts: > Yes, in order to chat with other ectophiles, it would be nice not > to have to rely on IRC . Chatting about Happy Rhodes in a > Multi-User Dungeon environment seems like a most appropriate > idea! Oh my goodness, I sense we're on the verge of something truly wonderful here! I've never had any experience on MUD, MUSH or MUCK until tonight. A few months ago Alex Gibbs (aka Alice1) tried to show me around this part of the net, but I really didn't have the time or the proper level of interest to delve into it. I remember that there were some technical problems and I told Alex to forget it, but that I'd call on him if I changed my mind and wanted to explore again. I didn't, until tonight. I read each post in this thread and when I got to Scott's I was overwhelmed and overjoyed by the level of creativity and imagination that this post represented and I can't even tell you how excited reading this made me. To try to understand more about the MUD environment in which this "EctoWorld" would exist, I went Gophering. I found Games, I found MUDS, I found a whole *slew* of them! With Chris reading over my shoulder I spent a few hours just bopping around, entering MUDS and MUSH and whatnot. I learned a lot, yet I learned very little. I did get the most basic feel for what exactly a MUD and MUSH is and some basics about moving around in that world, which was certainly more than I'd known before I went a'gophering. That's a lot. Ah, but some of these things are *so* complicated and have dozens and dozens of commands, I didn't learn even a *fraction* of what in the hell is going on and what you have to do and know to be able to move around quickly and easily. Most of my time, literally, was spent typing "help" and "help commands" and "help topics" and then typing help for each of the commands. "help move" "help look" "help get" "help talk" "help help!" :-). I spent far more time reading tonight than actually *doing* anything while in the particular MUD or MUSH I happened to be in at the time. I'm sure *many* of you are already familiar with these things, so I probably sound like a hopeless newbie at this stuff :-), but hey, everyone has to start somewhere, right? At the same time, there are probably (maybe) lots of people out there who haven't the faintest idea what in the world any of us are talking about. I'm not in any position to give accurate, full descriptions of what a MUD is, what a MUSH is. Alex did a very good job telling me about these things way back when, but I've long since forgotten his exact descriptions. This is the impression I got from roaming around tonight (and I'm sorry that Alex wasn't around to guide me this time too) : You're in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike :-). Ooops, wrong game, though the original Adventure game seems to be a major inspiration behind MUD and MUSH. At your prompt, you type whatever it is you have to type to enter this world. Once you get there, you choose a name and, in some cases, a password. I imagine that's necessary for large MUDS so that one user can't use another user's "Identity." Without a password, such a thing could be possible, easy and, it seemed, hard to detect. On IRC, for instance, I use the name "Equipoise" as my nickname. A simple command (/who *) tells everyone in the group I'm in (#ecto) that the name "Equipoise" belongs to vickie@njin.rutgers.edu. If someone else used the nickname Equipoise, and they called other members of the group names, it would be super easy to check and see that it's not me (Vickie) calling someone names, but someone using my usual nickname. In MUD, it seemed, your nickname can only be used by *you*. I used the command "who" to see who else was on the MUD, but, the ones I checked didn't include the e-mail addresses that went along with the nicknames. If I got well-known on a particular MUD (and there are *tons* of different ones) as "Equipoise" and was known as a sweet and huggy person, someone else couldn't come in the group, change their name to Equipoise and proceed to call everyone "a**holes" and get everyone mad. Good point, since I didn't see a way for anyone to check to see if "Equipoise" was actually me or someone else using that name. It seems completely and utterly anonymous. Our world, "EctoWorld" could be either anonymous or non-anoymous, depending on the visitor, and passwords probably wouldn't be a good idea. Passwords tend to dicourage anyone from looking around. How can we make a Safe, Fun place like this, while protecting personal reputations from anyone who just might be in a mood to wreak havoc? Since I didn't write *anything* down, and I checked out so many MUDS, with many different scenarios, I'm not going to try and re-create one in particular. I just want to give a quick overview of how this stuff works, so I'm just going to make everything up, using Adventure as an example. So you're you (whoever you are) and no one else can pretend to be you. You're in a room, or a courtyard, or a town square, or somewhere else. You'll be told exactly where you are, and if you forget, you do whatever command necessary to help you let you know where you are and what's going on. "Look" seemed to be the most widely used. Type "look" and you'll be told something like "You're in a forest, standing by a babbling brook. You're standing on a road that leads east and west." so you flip a coin and type "w" and then you'll be told "you are heading west on the road. To the south is a building. The road runs east and west." You ahve a choice here. You can continue on the road west, re-trace your steps and see what was *east* of where you started out, or you can turn south. If you type "s" you might see "You are standing in front of a building. To the north is a road, heading east and west." You don't want to go north again, or you'd go back to the road. You came south specifically to check this building out. You type "enter" (or something such-like) and you're in! "You are in a building. To the south and west are doors." Does all that make sense? :-) >From there you go exploring. MUDS are games, so you pick up weapons, useful object, fight warriors, kill rats, find treasures, all while going from room to room, up and down stairs, through secret passageways, whatever. It seems like a lot of fun, but the game element and the scoring really wasn't of interest to me. I like the "environment" of having different places to go, things to see, people to talk to. That's why Scott's post excited me so much. Imagine going into an environment that was Happy/Ecto inspired....with things to do and things to see and read. If other people were there too, you could go into the living room (or kitchen, isn't that where everybody ends up at a party?) and chat. If someone wasn't there, you could still go exploring and find all kinds of cool things around. The way I "get" what MUDS are about, and the way I "get" what Scott is talking about, is that there's *always* something going on. (See, I'm just thinking on screen, writing down and trying to sort it out in my own mind, with at the same time trying to convey what's going on to anyone who is new to all this. So bear with me, please). In IRC, if you enter #ecto and no one else is there, you twiddle your thumbs or go do something totally unrelated while waiting for someone else to appear. By contrast, if this "EctoWorld" MUD (MUSH?) existed, you could wander through various rooms looking for someone/something just for the hell of it. I'm not being at all articulate. Let me go back to Scott's post for more details: > Just look at Happy's album covers, and you can see that > dungeons and Happy go together! :) In fact, I think we could > really get carried away in the development of this virtual > world. Sure, all we really need are a couple of rooms for chatting, > but why not create a huge landscape based off of the lyrics > to Happy's albums, and other ectophile related things... you know, > have lots of cats wandering around, have the dungeons open > on up to mother sea, with gulls flying overhead and the jellyfish drowned > in the sand. off yonder somewheres else we can have the wheatfield > with a couple staring up at the sky awaiting the arrival of aliens. Off > somewheres else could be a modern day city selling lots of those > *hysterical* ecto products that Boston Charlie just posted about. :) *ALL* of these things are just *perfect*!! The second I read this, I wanted this world to exist. I wanted to *go* there! Immediately! > And all over the land could be characters from happy's music, like a > guy in the city that might walk up to you and say "Girl I think you've > come to the wrong century." If we can make this land interesting enough, > it could do well to promote Happy's music to non-ectophiles who > might venture in? I dunno... Just my initial thoughts on the issue! Scott, I'm speechless with awe and excitement!! The sky is the limit here! I imagine somewhere would be an Ecto "music conservatory" with lots of information (everything in the wonderful "Encyclopedia" that Klaus put together) about Happy. Another room could be the "Library" with info about various genres of books. (Can threads, such as the recent one on SF authors and books, be stored here somehow?) How about a "Stereo Room" with the Ectophiles Guide on hand to give wanderers something to look up and read about? Imagine running into Alice while meandering through the place? Cats, yes! Lots of cats! Besides all this being tons of fun, Scott is right in that it would possibly attract non-Ectophiles who could learn more about Happy and be interested in finding out more about her. The worst that could happen to them is if they suddenly got "smopped" by a HollyBot :-). MUDS are games, and this wouldn't be a game. It would be an Open House, a block party, a hang out for anyone who's interested in a place that's friendly, fuzzy, huggy, interesting, humorous, educational and fun. Just like Ecto!! This is all so *GREAT*! It would have to be very user-friendly. Some of the places I visited tonight were kinda unfriendly. At one place I got bopped in the head with a volleyball by someone who didn't even say "hi" or "oops, sorry" Obviously, it was intentional. Someone having "fun" with a newbie. No one ever said hello to me, or tried to strike up a conversation, yet I kept "passing" people while going through the rooms. I tried to talk to a few people, but either they didn't hear/understand me because I was using wrong commands, or they chose not to talk and interact with me. It kinda hurt my feelings to be ignored :-). Many are user-unfriendly too. I understand that some MUDS are huge, and that people keep adding on rooms and command features. The commands weren't hard to figure out (with the help of the "help" feature) but oftentimes there were *so* many commands that it was overwhelming. I could easily see how someone could spent *tons* of time just learning commands and the lay of the land. "EctoWorld" (or whatever it might be called in the end) shouldn't be over-complicated or user-unfriendly in any way. *Everything* should be friendly, down to an automatic welcome and offers to help someone who seems lost. (Is that in itself complicated and hard to do?) One nice place provided a map so you could know where specific things were and go there quickly. There were signs to read everywhere. I didn't stay there long, but it seemed very user-friendly and a model for what EctoWorld could be. The entire philosophy of Ecto is based on (user) friendliness and warmth. This MUD (or whatever it would be called) would carry on the traditions set by the mailing list. How about a room for all those things you lost over the years :-) I'm so excited about this, and I *hopehopehope* it becomes a reality. *I'm* in no position to help set/start it up, and I really do hope that someone else is. Vickie ======================================================================== The ecto archives are on hardees.rutgers.edu in ~ftp/pub/hr. There is an INDEX file explaining what is where. Feel free to send me things you'd like to have added. -- jessica (jessica@ns1.rutgers.edu)