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Most people now-a-days understand the basic concept of the electronic "Message Board". They know what "posting" is and what "threads" are.. even if they don't use them. And if you don't know... well then you might wanna ask somebody or look it up or just stop reading right now. Because I'm not gonna explain any of that.

Xena.
That name will sound familiar to most television viewers. Xena: Warrior Princess. An action program that ran for 6 years. From 1995 -2001. Starring Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor. And if you don't know of the show… well then you might wanna ask somebody or look it up or just stop reading right now. Because I'm not gonna explain about that either! At least not right here. And not specifically!
I will start with an explanation though..
For my 51st birthday I wanted to do something I'd never done before. Nothing daring.. like bungee jumping or anything like that. Just something.. different! I had seen an advertisement for the annual Xena: Warrior Princess convention (henceforth known as XWP) in Pasadena (Feb 15-17, 2002) and having just started watching the show and having become an instant fan I decided this would be a perfectly strange and wonderful birthday destination. My husband thought the convention would be fun too. He isn't a real fan of the show (though he does find the girl on girl aspect of it intriguing)... he just likes to go places and do things.
Having never been to any kind of "Fanfest" I decided to check out some www's for information.
Xenaville was either my 2nd or 3rd stop. The population was a quaint 175. It had a pretty cool name. And it seemed like a pleasantly quirky place. So I lurked about for a while hoping to pick up some convention insight.
For about 10 days I visited on a daily bases. And in doing so I became quite aquatinted with this unique esoteric little community. I discovered that there are 3 types of Xenaville "citizenry". I classified them as.. "Residents" (those who post almost daily). "Weekenders" (those who post every week or so). And "Transients" (those who post once or twice then move on sometimes never returning).
I also discovered that there are 2 definite "neighborhoods" within "The Ville."
The "Xenaverse" (where all posts are Xena related). And "The Grapes" (for everything else). I did all my lurking in the Xenaverse… where I also quickly realized that this was a UK based website. And though people from almost every English speaking country in the world posted there I was having trouble finding the specific information I was looking for.
So on Jan 16, 2002 I became a resident citizen. I posted my first post (questions about snapping photographs, in/out privileges, if there was a bar in the place.. important stuff like that).
I've been there ever since and actually until I followed the Kid here had never really posted away from home.


posted by joyce at 12:22 AM