But we'll leave the deeply nostalgic moments - when you realise you've finally made it to the year 2000 - for when you sober up, after a night of being smashed out of your mind. One moment, a drunk, the next pondering the issues of life.

Unless a vodka-soaked Russian nuclear silo operator accidentally hits the launch key.

Anyway.

It's obvious that one of the things this decade will be most remembered for is the rise of the Net. You can't deny, especially if you're reading this page now, that the Net has consumed a significant part of your life. It's infringed on times you would otherwise be sleeping, eating, or watching tv (not to mention the times you should be working... say, you wouldn't happen to be reading this from work?). And if you run a web site, all the worse. Maintaining a web site is time consuming stuff. Where am I going with this?

1999 has seen a community of sorts develop - yeah you know what I'm referring to. A jumbled, cobbled together band of misfits (ironically glued together by controversy and competition) we now know was the Everything/Nothing community. If you run an e/n site, or visit even a handful of them on a frequent, regular basis, perhaps e/n has a bigger part in your life than you reckon. There was even an e/n day. Now on to other stuff...

CONTROVERSY

Inter-site warfare is one of the defining trademarks of e/n. It's non-existent in the weblog community which is supposedly more matured than e/n. Nonetheless, there's nothing inherently wrong with it. We get to see people's views expressed (often aggresively), and it also exposes the character of those involved. And like everything else on the Net, no-one's forcing you to read it. Regarding controversy, some people display the public face of impartiality, but most have a (private) opinion either way. Word gets around and soon everyone becomes aware. Here's some of the controversy that has graced this year.

1. Columbine & Guns April-May In the wake of a real life event (and commentary from a large number of e/n sites), the issue of the place of firearms in society was brought up. Those pro-gun, such as Schyler, clashed with those anti-gun, Frustrated, yours truly etc., and much arguing and bashing ensued. 2. Ramblings Closing "for sure" All damn year What, that's 3 times this year? :) First located at Xoom, then r33t, then Solosier and finally at their own domain. 3. Frustrated v Ramblings & Frustrated v Solosier July Memory's hazy, but it's goes along the lines of this. Ramblings posted a tasteless picture parodying Frustrated. Frustrated took offense. Legal action was threatened.   Frustrated v Solosier is almost as notorious as Shlonglor v Frustrated v GOTM. 4. Frustrated v Porno Pic Poster An amplified version of Frustrated v Ramblings, except this time the picture was utterly crass, and everyone sided Frus - with good reason. 5. Frustrated's Coma The best and worst of humanity. Whether it was pure hatred or suspicions still running high from the recent stunt KillKrazy played (see 6), many took the opportunity to kick her (and do other unmentionable things to her) while she was (literally) down. Constrast this with the flood of well wishing messages she received. 6. WTWD & The Publishing Offer Watch the World Die posted an article about being offered a large sum of money to publish his website writings. However, due to the restrictions the publisher would impose on his creative talent as a result, he turned the offer down. Many believed Kill and admired him for his action. It was a farce. There was no publisher. Still, the question remains - if it really happened, what option would he take? 7. WTWD Hack/Closure, BD Hack/Move, Stile Hack What do these three events have in common? Asides from showing a lot of people being really gullible, all three sites were apparently "hacked". But they weren't. WTWD closed and later reopened to where it currently resides. Brain Damage moved. Stile... well... made a lot of hits from the stunt. 8. Solosier Hacked Doug "hacked" Solosier. Probably the only case of a true breach of an e/n site's security. 9. Doug 'Nuff said. 10. The Roosh Documents Roosh accidentally sent Inferno private e-mails that were meant for others. Inferno forwarded the mails to Solosier. They weren't private for much longer. People got annoyed. 11. Stile Project Snuff Big furore over the "snuff video" that Stile Project made available. It was a fake movie clip depicting a woman having her head blown off with a gun. People forgot that they see this thing in movies all the time, and that they weren't forced into watching that video. It also raised questions as to Stile's state of mind. 12. Stile Project v BAMF As reported by the 5 Unruly Janitors, Stile stole tapes from Sharkey (with an "e"). Commando and Total Recall were reclaimed after SWAT invaded Stile's abode. Loss of life: TBA (from Brain Damage), Solosier. But everything was staged (duh). A humourous parody of controversy! :) 13. What E/N actually is I still reckon it applies to a community with similar interests and web sites, as opposed to a particular genre of sites.          Other Milestones    • 1st annual E/N Awards (hosted by Roosh) • 1st annual E/N Day (created by Paranoia) • 9/9/99 (where absolutely nothing happened) • 125 E/N sites listed on Hear Ye! • Number of e/n sites mentioned in print media: None.          Worst Quote of the Decade (aka "I wish I hadn't said that")    "I'm still here motherfuckers! I'm still here! muahahahahha" - surF

Did I miss something? Want something added? Let me know.

THE SOAPBOX
The soapbox is a thing with a life of its own. Never censored (except when some AOLer posted the same 20kb porn story on the 'box about 5 times in a row) or modified. It doesn't need to be anyhow. Someone's going to come along and replace your message with something else.

Various Statistics

Total Number of Entries: 1120
Entries of "something": 14
Entries containing the word "shit": 21
Entries containing the word "fuck": 54
Entries containing the word "ass": 36
Entries containing the word "the": 215
Entries containing the word "hello": 21
Entries containing the word "porn": 11
Entries containing the word "penis": 21
Entries complaining about lack of updates: 5

Peculiar Soaps

The Angst-ridden
"Isn't it odd that the person who least deserves it is in a coma, and all the flaming assholes are still running rampant?"
"Deserve is a notion that cannot be fairly applied, especially when it comes to comas. And in any event it is not odd: that is how it has always been. If people got what they *deserved* the world would be a very different place indeed."

The Observant
"99% of guys masterbate, and 85% of girls masterbate..... that 1% has no arms. (yayme@hotmail.com)"

The Stereotyping
"Wassup niggaz?"
"What are you? Some kind of fucking racist? Listen here, monket shit, slavery fucking ended in the 1800's. We don't don't need ignorant redneck shits like you moving the fucking progress on society back 100 fucking years. Fuck you and all your redneck duckfucker friends."

The Porn Search Engine
"trippy deal....i always thought this was a search box - Lonestar"
"You though it was a search engine... Were you the one who searched for "Intel Sex"? - Loopy"

"nude pics"
"nude britney spears bondage"
"nude pics with jello"
"nude pics of cocks"
"nude pics of your mom!"

"naked blondes" -male

"sex hot babes teens coeds porn pussy clit fuck finger piss rhinos spanking caholic girl girls grrls grills"
"hmm rhinos?"

The "I need Viagra" Person
"i just cant get it up... i just cant get it up... .i just cant seem to get it up for you.... i just cant get it up"

The Soothsayer
"Will Amelia go out with me very very soon?"
"Fuck no, you loser."

The Things We Probably Didn't Want To Know
"i measured my neighbor's grass yesterday....it was three inches high...boy, that's high"
"i went to Wal-Mart yesterday and bought a lampshade for a lamp that I bought at a yard sale...the old shade was dirty"
"My neighbor's dog has a 4 inch clit...i like to flick it around"
"This morning, I opened up my dresser drawer and noticed that my favorite pair of underwear was gone...then i realized that i was wearing them...on my head"
"When I'm all alone in my house, i put on womens lingerie and get in the closet and stay there for about 5 minutes"
"This morning, i watched my dog scratch behind his ear for almost five minutes...I think it has fleas"

The Good

Of course, it didn't look so good when the "she said" entry moved in to "he said"

The Truth
"Does anyone type anything REMOTELY intelligent into this? -Loopy"
"Nuh-uh. -G"

"I think it would be very unfortunate if this list of nonsense was all that survived our civilisation, and 2000 years from now archaeologists tried to decide what our society was like from it. A bit like trying to extrapolate world events from reading the newspaper, after it had been flushed down the toilet."

UNDERAPPRECIATED

There are a lot of dud startups in e/n, but that doesn't mean all newcomers are merely "jumping on the bandwagon". The downside of so many sites, is that it's harder to get a good site recognised. Here's a short list of lower-hit sites which, IMHO, should be receiving more hits than they're currently getting.

These sites are all new-ish. All are fairly interesting, update frequently and have a commendable layout.

• Clockwork
• De/nnis
• Slightly North of Tomorrow
• Techno Weenie (sonic is actually "old school" e/n :)
• Value of X

These sites have been around for a while. For quite a while, quietly updating away to a smaller audience. When was the last time you checked them out, if ever?

• Get Back At The Man
• Plutonia
• The Abode of The Fallen Angel
• The Heatsink
• The Soapbox
• This Crazy World

In closing, it's been a fun year (both in the real world, and the cyber world). Have a Merry Christmas y'all (or whatever celebration you'll engage in, depending on religion) and a spectacular New Millennium.

22.xii.99

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