"Your concept of celebrity was just boomer handed to you
anyways..."
Courtney Love in a 1994 net.news posting
This is my main gripe about the web: most home pages are
unidirectional. Sure, pages usually provide an email link to
the author but few web meisters provide anything like the open
dialog found on net.news.
It doesn't have to be that way. A nifty place called Matt's
Script Archive (www.worldwidemart.com/scripts) has free
software that lets you embed a threaded message board in a web
page. You'll need some technical savvy to set it up but you
should be able to manage if you've ever edited a CONFIG.SYS
file.
One of the better implementations of a web board is the View
Askew board (www.viewaskew.com). If you're an indie film buff,
you'll recognize View Askew as Kevin Smith's movie production
company. Again, if you're an indie film buff you'll recognize
Kevin Smith as the writer/director who made the outrageously
funny, outrageously low-budgeted /Clerks/ and /Chasing Amy/ as
well as the much maligned but pretty decent "big-budget" flick
/Mallrats/.
The conversation found on the View Askew board is not
particularly deep. Smith's films are loud, crude, and set in
New Jersey. Some of his audience follow suit online. Smith is
no troglodyte, however. Underneath the gross-out jokes and the
comic book references, Smith piles on telling satire and a
spoonful of advice: love is what really matters. I'm not far
enough into my thirties to disagree with him.
What sets the View Askew board apart is Smith and key members
of his team readily interact with the board's comic fan boys,
indie film aficionados, and those merely curious about the life
of a former counter jockey who managed to turn himself into an
award-winning film maker through a combination of good work and
good luck.
Smith, whose forte is dialog, is surprisingly spare with his
online words but tries to follow up many threads. His minions,
the people Smith readily acknowledges are the secret of his
success, are quick to answer questions in more detail. Most
users seem satisfied that Smith and company at least take time
to chat. Hey, just 'cause you've met Alyssa Milano and
Tarantino sort of likes your films doesn't mean you can forget
the movie go'ers!
While it would be nice if more celebs followed Smith's lead,
the net's flat structure creates some difficulties for those
with a wider audience. Paul McCartney, in a recent net outing,
had something like a million messages directed his way.
Ranters are another impediment. The net seems to follow the
Gordon Gekko rule: if it's wreckable someone will wreck it.
/Babylon 5/'s creator J. Michael Straczynski used to answer
questions on rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5 until flamers drove him
away. Back in '94, Courtney Love posted rambling messages to
alt.fan.courtney-love. Her cryptic posts (see
www.kkc.net/eyenet/1994/courtney.txt) delighted most but
ranters moved in for the kill, accusing her of murdering Kurt
Cobain. She beat a hasty retreat, giving what amounted to the
virtual finger: "God sometimes you kids make the Boomers look
f---ing hip."
