Year 200 Golden Ink Winners:
Bill Harris
Susan Hradil
The Inkies Story (draft)
by James Bell, Little Rock
Prologue
The
name "inkies" was originally derived from "Writer's Ink,"
(the name of a RoundTable on the GEnie BBS) which dates back to 1985.
Then several years (later) we called ourselves "Word Spinner's
Ink." Now inkies is a
multipurpose word with special linguistic properties: It never needs
capitalized, except at the beginning of a sentence, although it may be
capitalized for emphasis, and it's self-possessive, sometimes meaning "inkie's"
and more often "inkies.’”
-- Bill Sterling
The
Early Days at GEnie
Before the days of the Internet and the World Wide Web, computers communicated with each other through servers commonly called electronic bulletin boards and usually referred to as BBS (bulletin board services). These were text-based service originally set up to rent out unused capacities of expensive mainframe computers. Users were encouraged to use their bulletin boards in nonprime time: after 6 PM and before 8 AM on weekdays and all day long on holidays and weekends.
After CompuServe BBS was established in 1979 and Delphi BBS in 1983, GEIS (General Electric Information Services), a subsidiary of the General Electric Company, hired a Mr. Bill Louden from CompuServe to set up a BBS for GE to make use of its unused computer capacity. On October 1, 1985, in a joint venture between General Electric and Ameritech, Mr. Louden set up a BBS with DOS-based software named Aladdin. The BBS was named GEnie, an acronym for General Electric Network for Information Exchange.
The cost of using GEnie in the 1980s included a one-time setup charge of $29.95 and an additional per hour charge. For prime time (workdays 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM), the per hour charge was $18.00 regardless of modem speed. For nonprime time, the per hour charge was $5.00 using a 300 bps modem, $6.00 using a 1200 bps modem and $10.00 for using a 2400 bps modem.
At the time GEnie was set up, its main menu listed 13 submenus, one of which listed RoundTables (or RTs). The RoundTables listings included:
'Writer's Ink RoundTable
For any and all writers - poets, journalists, humorists, etc. Learn how to get published, share resources or just have fun.'
It
is this Writer’s Ink RoundTable, created October 1, 1985, that is recognized
as the venerable ancestor of Word
Spinner’s Ink Fiction Writer’s Community (inkies).
GEnie
at Its Peak
Brooke was the sysop (system operator, equivalent to today’s moderator) for the Writer’s Ink RoundTable. According to Nancy Sartor, he was a good one. As she put it, “He managed to manage us without our feeling managed.” Membership in Writer’s Ink was unrestricted and open to all. Writer’s Ink was filled with discussions and with short stories and chapters posted for critiquing.
Later, as the communities grew, categories were established within Writer’s Ink, each category based on a special interest. Bill Sterling recalls that the first category was reserved for announcements. There were categories for short stories, science-fiction, romance and even erotica. But Category No. 8 was different. It was named ‘Novel Workshop’ and was a restricted category. As sysop, Brooke admitted Ed Williams as its first member because he had published works.
Nancy Sartor was the first person Ed Williams admitted, probably in 1988. Later, Leila Joiner joined Writer’s Ink in 1990 was admitted to the Novel Workshop in 1991. Bill Sterling must have joined Printer’s Ink and the Novel Workshop sometime during this period. The Novel Workshop was a subset of Writer’s Ink so all members of the workshop were members of Writer’s Ink.
According to Nancy Sartor, “The whole thing sprang from a writers bb that offered critiques, but only one chapter at a time--like critters. For a novelist, the pace was just too slow. We needed to be able to swap entire manuscripts. We did this by compressing files and uploading them to the library where others would download and decompress. I often had two or three complete novels on my hard drive at one time.” According to Nancy, the Novel Workshop usually had five or six members and never more than ten.
Again, quoting Nancy Sartor, “We tried to keep novels at around 80 to 100,000 words. Yes, I read the entire novel. The critique was done as a separate thing sometimes and sometimes done mingled with the novel itself. That depended on the critiquer.”
The
Final Days at GEnie
By the 1990s, there was no longer a setup charge for using GEnie. For those using a 2400 bps modem, an $8.95 monthly subscription charge provided four hours of nonprime time, with a $3.00 charge for each hour after that. Prime time (workdays 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM) was charged at $9.50 per hour. But, for those using speedier up-to-date 9600 bps modems, a surcharge of $6.00 per hour (prime time and nonprime time) was imposed.
In 1995, Alfred Glossbrenner wrote in his ‘The Little Online Book,’ “The most charitable way to characterize GEnie is that it is currently in a rest period. ... Genie has the potential to be one incredible service. On the other hand, it has the potential to collapse completely. One day, some corporate bureaucrat at corporate headquarters could decide that the million dollars or so GEnie contributes each year just isn’t worth the paperwork and could order the service shut down entirely.”
According to Bill Sterling, “Genie began to die with the popularization of the internet. They tried to convert all the Round Tables to the Web, accessible only to subscribers, but that didn't work because they seemed more interested in forcing all Genie subscribers into their internet service. The problem, I think, was that most people thought of them as a content provider more than a service provider.
“While we were still using Genie,” Bill continued, “I remember writing a long memo to fellow inkies predicting the service's downfall. In any case, the Genie era was a very special time in our history, not only because it was when be began, but because we were the first in a brave new world of online workshops, and the exhilaration of it all was breathtaking.”
GEnie (now Genie) was sold to Yovelle Renaissance Corporation, which in turn was acquired by IDT (Interactive Discount Telecom) in 1996.
Nancy Sartor described how many inkies felt about the deteriorating situation at GEnie by the start of 1996. “(We felt) GEnie was folding. The bb's were losing money and they were all going under (including AOL that didn't). Ed was a sysop at the time and had some inside information about the goings on. We were afraid GEnie would pull the plug on us one happy day and we'd lose one another. We exchanged addresses and phone numbers to avoid total blackout ... “
Those who were members during the days of GEnie include the following (listed alphabetically): Jan Bear, John Carver, Scott Finney, Leila Joiner, Mary Knox, Gerry Kozak, Wayne Lively, Kathy Maier, Kevin McColley, Ruth Nestvold, Bill (Hopwood) Sterling, Nancy Sartor, Jim Tomlinson, Michael Tooher, Leslie Walstrom, Brian Wightman and Ed Williams.
Genie
Epilogue
Visitors to Genie dropped with the growth of other online services and fell dramatically following a sudden change in the fee structure in 1996.
At its peak, GEnie (as it was then called) claimed around 400,000 users. By the final year, insiders reported that there fewer than 10,000.
On December 4, 1999, it was announced that Genie would close for good on December 27th. Remaining users gathered in chat areas of the few Round Tables remaining to say goodbye and "watch the lights go out" at midnight on the 26th. But Genie did not close for four more days and a dwindling number watched at the close of each day. The Round Tables and all areas of Genie, except the Top, became unavailable slightly before midnight on December 30, 1999. There were still several users chatting at the end.
What remains of Genie today can be seen at http://www.genie.com/
The
EBBS Era – Before www.lit-arts.com
Leila Joiner described what was happening during the last days of Genie. “The Internet was just getting underway, but it was difficult to access it using a text-based system like GEnie. We decided to jump ship before it sank. Bill set us up with a couple of free e-mail lists ... set up through a friend of his at Virginia Tech.”
Professor Len Hatfield of the English Department at Virginia Tech had a Linux-based EBBS list server. On the EBBS server, he set up two lists: “inkies-a” (A for archives, a place to post work and critiques) and “inkies-l” (L for list, a place for discussions). Leila Joiner writes, “I don't recall if we were already affectionately referring to ourselves as ‘inkies,’ or if Bill came up with that name for the lists.”
This is Len Hatfield’s email of February 5, 1996 to Bill Sterling announcing creation of the inkie lists:
-
-
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
From:
EBBS Listproc <server@ebbs.english.vt.edu>
Message-Id: <199602051642.LAA26276@ebbs.english.vt.edu>
Subject: inkietudes
To: hopwood@aksi.net
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 1996 11:42:54 -0500 (EST)
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24]
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Bill:
Right
then: I've created a pair of new lists for your group,
INKIES-L and INKIES-A. These are
both concealed (they won't
show up on routine 'lists' commands sent to the robot), and
closed (subscription and access to any list-related files are by
your or my approval only; I won't be approving any, but having
me as co-owner and hidden subscriber will let me get error
postings more quickly).
First
thing to do, then, is to send a subscribing note to the
robot at this address:
LISTPROC@EBBS.ENGLISH.VT.EDU
with a blank subject line and no signature, that says just this:
SUBSCRIBE INKIES-? FIRST LAST
filling
in the listname extension and the personal names.
As the owner, you'll want to review the robot's operations by
giving it a general help command in another note.
Your
users shld all subscribe themselves similarly, and
for each one, you shld get a note from the list robot asking
your approval for the subscription. The
list's passwords are
both 'bill' (sans quotes).
Note:
there's no welc message yet for the manuscript list, so
you may want to have a short one there too to greet the
successful subscribers--just bip it along to me here and I'll
put it in place....
Let
me know if your run into any problems....and send me your
web page stuff whenever you're ready...I'll leave off putting up
a link until I have your stuff....
--
...Len Hatfield
EBBS List Mgr.
(lhat@ebbs.english.vt.edu)
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On March 6, 1996, Bill Sterling sent an email to Jan Bear announcing the first day of operation for the inkie lists and asking if she would like him to sign her up.
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3-6-96
To:
janb@ocp.org, KseniaStP@aol.com
Subject: Writer's Ink Cat 8 Lives on!
Jan,
We have our new group up and running. Right now it is closed to the public and consists only of Genie Cat 8 people from Writer's Ink. Could I sign you up? There are NO fees, and all your incoming and outgoing posts work through your existing e-mail system. It makes no difference which on-line service you use. You can cancel Genie and still keep in touch with the group.
Today's our first day of operation. So far today Nancy, Leila, Wayne, and Leslie have signed up. Many more will sign up tonight.
Just give me a yes and I'll add you to the group. And let me know which of your two accounts you want to sign up through.
--Bill (wm.sterling@genie.com)
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Most members of Category 8 migrated to the lists, They were (alphabetically): Jan Bear, John Carver, Leila Joiner, Mary Ellen Knox, Gerald (Gerry) Kozak, Wayne Lively, Kathy Maier, Joanne Marshall, Kevin McColley, Ruth Nestvold, Bill (Hopwood) Sterling, Nancy Sartor, Jim Tomlinson, Leslie Walstrom, Scott Ward, Brian Wightman and Ed Williams. Kathleen McKoon-Hennick, Regina Oehler and Michael Tooher never made the transition.
A charter and by-laws for a ‘writer’s workshop’ were proposed and adopted on February 10, 1996. Elections were held February 13th with the following officers elected:
President
– Nancy Sartor
Secretary and Historian – Joanne Marshall
Webmaster – Ed Williams
List Manager – Bill Sterling (replaced by Leila Joiner in March)
Admissions Coordinator – Leila Joiner
In
her inaugural message, President Sartor said, “As
I see it, our biggest remaining concern is whether or not to jump into the
website and offer ourselves for others to join.
I think Jim (Tomlinson) has expressed his feeling that we should open up,
and someone else, perhaps Scott (Ward), has expressed concern that we might want
to stay small.
“I think if we open it up and we begin to grow, we have to be prepared
for changes. We'll have to
sub-organize. Our free-and-easy
methods will have to become less free and easy.
That's a loss, I'm sure you'll all agree, but it has its advantages, too.
“We'll likely gain more talented (I don't mean as in more talented than
we, I mean additional talented) writers and perhaps even some more published
novelists so Kevin (McColley) won't feel so alone.
We'll certainly expand our knowledge base.
“But, I think we need to be prepared that we are looking at a potential
explosion of additional members.”
Nancy’s
address generated a tremendous amount of discussion.
In Category 8, members of the Novel Workshop made submissions for
critiquing in rotation, one on the first of the month and one on the fifteenth.
The question arose, How could the workshop accommodate additional members
without becoming unwieldy?
Possible
solutions involved setting up workshops for different genres or for different
levels of skill. One of the
stickiest questions was asked by Nancy Sartor: “We're all good friends.
Can we be ‘good friends’ with a hundred people?”
Bill Sterling responded by posting a detailed survey to learn what
members wanted in their new workshop.
Another
question was what to call the workshop since it was felt that the Writer’s Ink
name was already in use and might have been copyrighted.
Ed Williams raised the issue: “I know we're deep into admissions
discussion, but may I toss in one other item that needs to be addressed quickly?
We need a name. I think
"INKIES" is a great listserv name, but it's already grating on me to
see us refer to the group that way. It
just doesn't convey the high skill-level and professional comradeship ... “
Response
was quick. Wayne Lively replied,
“I agree with Ed. The name just
doesn't have me doing back flips, either. I
liked Nancy's The Magic Lamp Writer's Workshop.
It has a nice ring and implies many different things.
But I'd be open to other suggestions.
Bill explained why he chose to go with Inkies to set up the List, which
was fine. But for a ‘real’
name, I submit we find an alternative.”
Some
felt the word ‘Association’ might add professional dignity to the name.
Suggested names included:
The
Promethians Writers Association
Chaucer's Lamp Writers Association
Novel and Short Story Writers Association
The Associated Writers Group
The Alliance of Independent Authors
The Novus Writers Alliance
Prosus: an Association of
Independent Writers
Joanne
Marshall sent the following post (the first mention Word Spinners):
“<sigh> Hard as I try, I can't get myself interested in coming up with a
long name for this group. I keep
thinking of us as Inkies -- kind of chips off Writers' Ink -- and nothing else
sounds right to me. Heh.
I just thought of one -- based on a Lawrence Block book on writing -- the
Word Spinners. It implies the Web
without actually saying it. I'm a
frigging mystery writer. A staid
and dignified name just doesn't feel right to me.”
Bill Sterling added ‘Ink’ to ‘Word Spinner’ and suggested ‘Word Spinner’s Ink’ along with several additional names.
At the end of the debate, Gerry Kozak posted one of his tongue-in-cheek entries: “I read that someone loved the name "Pen," and wanted it as part of our name. I then thought of Pen Crafters, and Pen Wielders, and a few similar abominations. Those names led me to Penwright. Is not a Wheelwright a craftsman who fashions wheels? And is not a Cartwright one who makes carts? Or is a Cartwright one who makes maps as a cartographer does? That thought led me to think about the "ographer" suffix. We are ographers, are we not? We are pen ographers, or penographers, and we practicce penography. So then, the name I didn't get to nominate is: (Ta Ta!!!) The Penographers.
The names were voted on in groups until only two remained, Word Spinner’s Ink and Fiction Writer’s Pen. After receiving ten votes in the final vote (compared to 4 votes for Fiction Writer’s Pen), on February 27, 1996, Word Spinner’s Ink was declared the official ‘long’ name of the writer’s workshop while ‘inkies’ remained its ‘short’ name.
After organizing the writer’s workshop and naming it Word Spinner’s Ink, an admissions policy was proposed by Bill Sterling which created a tremendous debate. Members worried that writers of one genre or another would gain control of inkies, membership would grow too much too fast, etc. As the debate grew more acrimonious, the choice of a name was attacked.
President Sartor posted this message: “Word Spinners, Ink isn't my name of choice. I dunno who it was who liked it considering that we all seem to be proclaiming our hatred of it, but somehow it was liked enough so that we voted it in fair and square. If you can stand it for a while, I think it would just about throw us all into a retching, foaming mass of hysteria to open that one up again.”
At the same time, she and the other officers withdrew from the discussion and, on March 15th, sent out this notice with an accompanying questionnaire:
***IMPORTANT NOTICE***
In order to take
everyone's suggestions into account, I printed out
50 pages (single-spaced) of discussion on the admissions procedures
for the workshop, going all the way back to Bill's first proposal.
>From that information, I drew up the following questionnaire.
I've run it by the other
officers to see if I might have left
anything out, and now we're submitting it to the general membership.
Please answer the questions and return.
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The questionnaire stopped the debate. The admissions policy was modified by its results and was later declared to be in force on April 16th.
Many of the early messages on the inkies-l list were technical, an attempt to establish stronger lines of communication, especially chat. At Writer’s Ink on GEnie, Writer’s Ink members had been able to chat on Sunday evenings at 8:30 PM Eastern Time. They attempted to hold similar chat sessions when they moved to the inkies lists, but that meant using an IRC net.
As Bill Sterling explained, “An IRC net is a collection of servers that are all linked together. By that I mean it doesn't matter which server in the net that you connect to: you can chat with anyone or any group on any server in the net. For example, assume one person logs on to a server in Dallas and joins the #inkies discussion channel. Also assume that another person logs on to a server in Chicago and joins the
#inkies channel. If both these servers are in the same net, then both persons will be joining the same channel and will be able to chat with each other. The trick is that they have to be in the =same= net.“The easiest way to avoid splits (disconnections) is for everyone to connect to the exact same server. Dalnet is my first choice ... “ A number of Sunday evening chats were scheduled and held during March but, as most members had difficulty in accessing Dalnet, there were seldom more than four or five in a chat session.
With the ending of the admissions policy debate, regular posts almost ceased. A post from Joanne Marshall read: “Gerry - I don't know what's happening. I got your message, but it's been quiet otherwise. Maybe we've all dropped from fatigue over the name and admissions debates.”
One or more members were thought to have dropped out. Members started posting messages to cheer up themselves as well as others.
Wayne Lively sent this message: “I think the rumors of our demise are greatly exaggerated. The majority of the organizing work is out of the way. Believe it or not, that was the easy part. Now we can either get to the hard part, or perhaps watch this eventually peter out. This isn't going to be the same as CAT 8. If we don't have a reason to keep it bubbling, it won't last. Weeks would go by on GEnie with nothing happening, but we all passed by on our way to other places and conversations. Here, we have to make an effort. There has to be a reason to make it.”
Even Ed Williams, hard at work on the new inkies website, took time to send a post.
“There were no posts last night, and tonight there was just yours. In hindsight, was Inkies a star that burned brightly for a time and then extinguished?
“I think it's too soon to write the Inkies epitaph.
“Way too soon. Trust me. – Ed”
The www.lit-arts.com and EBBS Days
Originally, eighteen Category 8 members migrated from Genie in early February, 1996. By April 30th, two had dropped out, leaving inkies with only sixteen members.
On May 1, 1996, Ed William posted this Important Announcement on both inkies lists.
-------------------------------------
Something You've Been Waiting For
All has seemed quiet on the Web site front, but in fact major changes have been afoot. We have been developing a workshop home on the Internet that has no equal.
Consider these features:
We
now have an Internet domain name that reflects what we're about:
lit-arts.com.
Every workshop member can have a personalized e-mail address at the new
domain; mail is automatically forwarded to your own normal e-mail address (if
you change your e-mail provider, your name@lit-arts.com
address can remain constant).
E-mail addresses for workshop business have their own designation, e.g., "admissions@lit-arts.com," and "officers@lit-arts.com."
We can house both public and private Web pages.
Workshop members may have their own "mini-pages" on the new Web site; we want to keep these pages visually consistent, but the content is up to the individual member.
Private Web pages, the "Private Chambers," are accessible by a name and password combination that is selected by each member.
We have a private FTP site for the upload and download of workshop files.
Our private files library allows members to have point-and-click file viewing and downloading directly from their Web browsers, while still maintaining confidential access.
A public, "anonymous" FTP site is available at the main lit-arts.com address.
Workshop-specific fill-in forms are easily customized (some are already in place) to aid in polling the membership and in vote-taking on workshop ballots.
The Internet site is under our control. We can add new programs and features as we develop them, and not have to ask a network server owner to install them for us.
We have the ability to pull server statistics and monitor our Internet traffic and activities.
And perhaps most important, we've already created private, interactive message boards on the World-Wide Web that function similarly to the Categories we were accustomed to on GEnie
If this sounds like a sales pitch, it is. A small, "try before you buy" pitch.
After we'd waited many weeks for a Web site to materialize, I decided to investigate commercial Internet Presence Providers. I informed the Word Spinners' Ink officers of my gamble and, with no dissention, I selected a service provider, signed the contracts, and registered a domain name with InterNIC, the Internet overlords.
The new domain, lit-arts.com, will house, for starters, Word Spinners' Ink, the Scrivenery, and a site for Sleuth Fest, the annual convention of the Florida Chapter of Mystery Writers of America. Only writing-related entities will live in lit-arts.com, and my hope is that will aid in attracting qualified authors to the workshop.
There ain't no free lunch. But this one is almost free. A small annual fee will be required. Ten dollars. A whopping 84-cents per month. Your President and mine will be along shortly to give you the details.
In the meantime, I want to invite all of you to an open beta test of the new site. Here are the instructional keys to the kingdom:
Point your Web browser to: http://www.lit-arts.com/workshop/
Your temporary ID and password for the Private Chambers area are: beta and test
For file transfers, FTP directly to: lit-arts.com
Your ID and password for FTP access are: ink2 and critique
Please remember, IDs and passwords are CaSe SeNSiTiVe!
When you have the chance, e-mail me at ed@lit-arts.com with your first and second choices of an e-mail name (which will also serve as your Private Chambers ID), and with a password you would like to use for the Private Chambers. The FTP account is a single account owned by the workshop and will stay "ink2" and "critique".
Have fun! And please let me know what you think. Need I say to this workshop that constructive criticism is welcomed? <grin>
--Ed
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On May 6th, Nancy Sartor posted the following message:
“I think everybody else has probably said what needs saying here, Wayne. We're going to make Word Spinners Ink home to a lot more people. We're going to help each other write good books and stories. We're going to share information with one another, talk about good books, enjoy sales with one another, cry together and enjoy interacting with people of like minds. There are about a billion clubs, organizations and churches that come together for no greater purposes than those I've just mentioned.
“What we are not going to do is to return to a dark and gloomy time in our development when we spent countless hours and precious creative energies arguing over who we were and what we wanted to do. A good many of us are working very hard here to make this place good. The rest of us are being appreciative and supportive of that effort. It's a good situation for all concerned.
“So, pahdnah. Take a deep breath, shake off those gloomies and join us as we forge ahead.”
After testing the www.lit-arts.com website during the month of May and getting 12,350 hits, Word Spinner’s Ink took the website public on June 1, 1996. To cover Ed Williams’ out-of-pocket expenses and put the website on a pay-as-you-go basis, it was decided to assess each member dues of 82-1/2 cents per month, or $10 a full year. As the website had opened on May 1st, the dues per member assessed for 1996 were $6.67.
But some things were still not in place on the and panic hit as web search engines directed scores of visitors to the new site. There was no way applicants could join inkies if they wanted. After the inevitable debate, the problem was quickly corrected.
On June 20th, Admissions Coordinator Leila Joiner posted the following:
EVERYBODY PLEASE TAKE NOTE:
The short story which our applicants will be reviewing (at least for the time being) has been uploaded to the FTP library. The file name is "revstory.txt" and it's in the "admin" folder. It's a straight ASCII file, about 2100 words, so no one should have any problems downloading or reading it. Don't forget, you can also download it with your web browser.
We've had three requests so far this month for admissions information, one as recent as today. So far we have one bona fide applicant who has requested the story for review and an upload file number.
We're on our way, folks, after a long haul of getting things together! <YEAH!!! sounds of crowds cheering>
-------------------------------------
Finally, the long migration was over. But only fifteen members had managed to make it all the way to the web. They were (alphabetically): Jan Bear, John Carver, Leila Joiner, Gerald (Gerry) Kozak, Wayne Lively, Kathy Maier, Joanne Marshall, Ruth Nestvold, Bill (Hopwood) Sterling, Nancy Sartor, Jim Tomlinson, Leslie Walstrom, Scott Ward, Brian Wightman and Ed Williams.
On July 3rd, voting began on the first two applications received from the new website. On July 17th, President Sartor announced that, for the first time since leaving Genie, an applicant had been accepted as a new member. “Our new member,” she proudly announced, “is Mike Murphy from Australia.” The next day, it was announced that Tom Sweeney had been approved as the second new member.
In August, the admissions problem cropped up again when a visitor who wrote only short-shorts (250 to 500 words) asked to apply for membership. Joanne Marshall summed up the viewpoints nicely when she posted this message: “While I don't do short stories, and I'd hate to see us move away from novels altogether, I don't see a problem with letting a short-short writer in, as long as the person is a skilled writer. In my not so humble opinion, there are a lot of wannabe poets and short-short writers whose egos are much bigger than their talent, and because they can toss their ‘gems’ off a lot quicker than you can write a novel, they tend to flood message areas with their latest masterpieces. But, on the other hand, the short-short when done well, is a very disciplined art form. Why not let the person put his or her application in, and see what we think of their work? That way we can tell if we have a cutesy wannabe on our hands, or a disciplined artist.”
Ed Williams responded, “I praise folks who write 500-word vignettes. But unless there is an intent to write longer fiction I don't see the fit here.” By a close vote, it was decided to continue to restrict inkies membership only to those who wrote novels or short stories.
James Swan from Japan and Kathy Miller were admitted to inkies in August but long-time member Wayne Lively dropped out during the month to concentrate on writing his book.
Attempts to chat on the IRC net continued sporadically and were not always successful. This is Nancy Sartor’s summary of the August 12th attempt: “I wanted you guys to know I was there. I logged on successfully at 8:30 p.m.CDT (I'd been trying since about eight with no success). I got onto IGC.Dal.Net and set up the room. About nine, I think, Wayne managed to log on, said something like "Hey, lady," and the net went nuts and knocked us both off. I logged on many times through IRC.CRIS.COM and established a room, but I never could get dal.net to speak to me again.”
In September, Ed Williams finally got an rtc chat room going on the www.lit-arts.com website and, in of hopes of reaching more inkies, especially those overseas in Australia, Japan and Germany, website chats were scheduled for Sunday afternoons while the Monday evening chats continued on the IRC net. There were seldom more than four members in a chat room at one time.
Then all hell broke loose. In October, the two applicants that month received the same number of Yes votes, but one applicant received one more No vote than the other. Under the two-thirds admissions rule, the first applicant would be accepted while the second, with the same number of Yes votes but one more No vote, would be rejected. This caused an immediate outcry. Action on admitting the two applicants was postponed while an intense debate developed on the lists, during which time President Sartor was on a two-week vacation in Florida.
Tom Sweeney posted this message to express his displeasure with the debate: “I was concerned about all the time and energy spent on this. Not that it wasn't important, but not important enough to take all this time away from our primary goal, which I take to be writing. I've tried two face-to-face groups and had to leave because everyone talked about writing, and everyone wanted to be a writer, and did all the things writers do, except write. Inkies looked different to me ... “
Nancy Sartor arrived home October 20th, but the debate raged on and, if anything, intensified with long diatribes posted. Finally, Ed Williams set up a complex poll at the website with five options. Members had until November 2nd to vote.
On Sunday morning, November 3rd, Nancy Sartor posted the following. “Well, the vote is in and here's how it came down. We will admit our applicants based on a simple count of the votes. This procedure will be retroactive until October 1, 1996, and will apply to our new applicants.”
As a result of the change in rules from two-thirds Yes votes to a simple majority, both applicants, Betty Ruhlen and Mark Hamstra, were declared admitted to membership. However, Mark Hamstra declined to join afterall because the Internet was becoming an addiction with him so, as he explained, he was offlining.