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Questions of Alfandra
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Grissess Macookwee
Nov 20, 2021, 5:56:02 AM11/20/21
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Hello!
My curiosity gets the better of me; I know the name is associated with this group, and I suppose it is a MUD/MUCK/etc. of some kind, but... does Alfandra still exist in some shape or form? Are files archived or preserved somewhere? And, of course, what was it like in its heyday? (Long-winded, rambling reminiscences encouraged :)
[To be sure, since the two seem to intermingle: while I am, of course, interested in the lore/shared world/reality (or other fitting word, no offense) of this community as well, which sometimes seems taken as synonymous with Alfandra, my questions assume it names a game/server from a while ago. Still, by all means, wax poetic on whichever context suits!]
[Aside from the usual dragon obsession,] I must admit an ulterior motive: I've only just chanced on the concept of a MUD while I was working on making "multiplayer" a silly little text adventure inspired by the shenanigans of a LUG at my local university. I suppose that was the art some 20 years ago ("those who don't know history..."), but I'm perfectly fine with descriptions of what these programs were like in general; they sound very much like an original vector of social media, e.g., but all of it seems to be before my time, and I'm not sure the metaphors of these days, while descriptive, are accurate. (I'm also too stubborn to just use some other engine, since it's a learning experience to make one anew--"Tu deviens responsable pour toujours de ce que tu as apprivoisé"--and, besides, one of the "newest" ones was written in Python 1.4 ...)
... I digress! I'm eager to be regaled by tales of yore :)
Be well,
Grissess
My curiosity gets the better of me; I know the name is associated with this group, and I suppose it is a MUD/MUCK/etc. of some kind, but... does Alfandra still exist in some shape or form? Are files archived or preserved somewhere? And, of course, what was it like in its heyday? (Long-winded, rambling reminiscences encouraged :)
[To be sure, since the two seem to intermingle: while I am, of course, interested in the lore/shared world/reality (or other fitting word, no offense) of this community as well, which sometimes seems taken as synonymous with Alfandra, my questions assume it names a game/server from a while ago. Still, by all means, wax poetic on whichever context suits!]
[Aside from the usual dragon obsession,] I must admit an ulterior motive: I've only just chanced on the concept of a MUD while I was working on making "multiplayer" a silly little text adventure inspired by the shenanigans of a LUG at my local university. I suppose that was the art some 20 years ago ("those who don't know history..."), but I'm perfectly fine with descriptions of what these programs were like in general; they sound very much like an original vector of social media, e.g., but all of it seems to be before my time, and I'm not sure the metaphors of these days, while descriptive, are accurate. (I'm also too stubborn to just use some other engine, since it's a learning experience to make one anew--"Tu deviens responsable pour toujours de ce que tu as apprivoisé"--and, besides, one of the "newest" ones was written in Python 1.4 ...)
... I digress! I'm eager to be regaled by tales of yore :)
Be well,
Grissess
Raeadh`ani
Nov 24, 2021, 11:41:27 AM11/24/21
to
> My curiosity gets the better of me; I know the name is associated with this group, and I suppose it is a MUD/MUCK/etc. of some kind, but... does Alfandra still exist in some shape or form? Are files archived or preserved somewhere? And, of course, what was it like in its heyday? (Long-winded, rambling reminiscences encouraged :)
Oh goodness, I hope that someone has it preserved somewhere. I know ages ago that Arcturax was trying to keep it alive on some of his own servers but I'm unsure if he'd still have any of that information stored. Its been at least 10-15 years since he was hosting the muck
> [To be sure, since the two seem to intermingle: while I am, of course, interested in the lore/shared world/reality (or other fitting word, no offense) of this community as well, which sometimes seems taken as synonymous with Alfandra, my questions assume it names a game/server from a while ago. Still, by all means, wax poetic on whichever context suits!]
>
> [Aside from the usual dragon obsession,] I must admit an ulterior motive: I've only just chanced on the concept of a MUD while I was working on making "multiplayer" a silly little text adventure inspired by the shenanigans of a LUG at my local university. I suppose that was the art some 20 years ago ("those who don't know history..."), but I'm perfectly fine with descriptions of what these programs were like in general; they sound very much like an original vector of social media, e.g., but all of it seems to be before my time, and I'm not sure the metaphors of these days, while descriptive, are accurate. (I'm also too stubborn to just use some other engine, since it's a learning experience to make one anew--"Tu deviens responsable pour toujours de ce que tu as apprivoisé"--and, besides, one of the "newest" ones was written in Python 1.4 ...)
It was meant as a sort of RP platform but honestly, I did basically use it as a sort of social media in a way. Most of the time, I spent all my time in the clearing just chatting away with whomever was available at the time. In that way, it felt like more of a very descriptive IRC chat room from back in the day than any sort of "game". Having said that, it was also so much fun to explore the MUCK and see the things people had built. Their creativity and use of words AMAZED me. I miss throwing things in the well to see what may pop back up, that was always fun :)
its hard to focus on specific memories after its been so long since it was active & i have SO many happy times there. I joined the MUCK by way of someone I shall not name back in 2000 or 2001. The people I met during that time of my life helped me through SO much. I really miss those days sometimes.
Raeadh`ani
Grissess Macookwee
Nov 24, 2021, 4:32:04 PM11/24/21
to
On Wednesday, November 24, 2021 at 11:41:27 AM UTC-5, Raeadh`ani wrote:
> Oh goodness, I hope that someone has it preserved somewhere. I know ages ago that Arcturax was trying to keep it alive on some of his own servers but I'm unsure if he'd still have any of that information stored. Its been at least 10-15 years since he was hosting the muck
> Oh goodness, I hope that someone has it preserved somewhere. I know ages ago that Arcturax was trying to keep it alive on some of his own servers but I'm unsure if he'd still have any of that information stored. Its been at least 10-15 years since he was hosting the muck
> I have no idea why this is bugging me, but it is.. but its Alfandria. Toss another 'i' in there :) Alfandra just sounds odd to my ears lol
... did I really... While I was doing my due diligence to make sure these topics weren't discussed before, I thought I might have bumbled across the proper spelling--but I realize now that I put the name in AS the search, typo and all, and really had to ask the search engine to by very literal. It might well be that the first spelling I checked was in error--oops!
> It was meant as a sort of RP platform but honestly, I did basically use it as a sort of social media in a way. Most of the time, I spent all my time in the clearing just chatting away with whomever was available at the time. In that way, it felt like more of a very descriptive IRC chat room from back in the day than any sort of "game". Having said that, it was also so much fun to explore the MUCK and see the things people had built. Their creativity and use of words AMAZED me. I miss throwing things in the well to see what may pop back up, that was always fun :)
> its hard to focus on specific memories after its been so long since it was active & i have SO many happy times there. I joined the MUCK by way of someone I shall not name back in 2000 or 2001. The people I met during that time of my life helped me through SO much. I really miss those days sometimes.
Be well,
Grissess
L. McEachern
Nov 25, 2021, 1:29:19 AM11/25/21
to
On Saturday, November 20, 2021 at 3:56:02 AM UTC-7, graham...@gmail.com wrote:
> Hello!
>
> My curiosity gets the better of me; I know the name is associated with this group, and I suppose it is a MUD/MUCK/etc. of some kind, but... does Alfandra still exist in some shape or form? Are files archived or preserved somewhere? And, of course, what was it like in its heyday? (Long-winded, rambling reminiscences encouraged :)
> [To be sure, since the two seem to intermingle: while I am, of course, interested in the lore/shared world/reality (or other fitting word, no offense) of this community as well, which sometimes seems taken as synonymous with Alfandra, my questions assume it names a game/server from a while ago. Still, by all means, wax poetic on whichever context suits!]
>
I stumbled upon the newsgroup back in the fall of 1995. The newsgroup was quite busy back then with lots of posts daily. At one point we referred to this realm as The Dominance it later got changed to Alfandria. I remained active during which time I also started joining the Mucks. I believe the Muck Alfandria opened in 1998 which I promptly joined. It was also very active back in the day with as Rae has mentioned was riddled with creativity! It wad always fun to travel around and visit different people and see everyone's creations.
> Hello!
>
> My curiosity gets the better of me; I know the name is associated with this group, and I suppose it is a MUD/MUCK/etc. of some kind, but... does Alfandra still exist in some shape or form? Are files archived or preserved somewhere? And, of course, what was it like in its heyday? (Long-winded, rambling reminiscences encouraged :)
> [To be sure, since the two seem to intermingle: while I am, of course, interested in the lore/shared world/reality (or other fitting word, no offense) of this community as well, which sometimes seems taken as synonymous with Alfandra, my questions assume it names a game/server from a while ago. Still, by all means, wax poetic on whichever context suits!]
>
I vanished into the abyss by 1999.
Thinking back for the most part we were like a big caring family. I think everyone adopted or became mated to someone at some point. 🤣 Definitely wouldn't want to try to create a family tree of Alfandria for all those who were active back then. There were many gathers back then when we tried to get together with others. Often with just those local or semi local to the area. Some of us even wrote letters and sent Christmas cards via snail mail.
> [Aside from the usual dragon
obsession,] I must admit an ulterior motive: I've only just chanced on the concept of a MUD while I was working on making "multiplayer" a silly little text adventure inspired by the shenanigans of a LUG at my local university. I suppose that was the art some 20 years ago ("those who don't know history..."), but I'm perfectly fine with descriptions of what these programs were like in general; they sound very much like an original vector of social media, e.g., but all of it seems to be before my time, and I'm not sure the metaphors of these days, while descriptive, are accurate. (I'm also too stubborn to just use some other engine, since it's a learning experience to make one anew--"Tu deviens responsable pour toujours de ce que tu as apprivoisé"--and, besides, one of the "newest" ones was written in Python 1.4 ...)
>
> ... I digress! I'm eager to be regaled by tales of yore :)
> Be well,
> Grissess
Ekena -Who recently realized she is way way way past being an Old Fruit and would fermented into a Whine now.
Grissess Macookwee
Nov 25, 2021, 12:14:52 PM11/25/21
to
On Thursday, November 25, 2021 at 1:29:19 AM UTC-5, ek...@mail.com wrote:
[I've changed the order, apologies in advance!]
> My understanding is there was some kind of crash in the original Alfandria Muck and it sounds like files were lost. I know it was resurrected but have not visited the new Alfandria.
Interesting! I'm not sure which data it runs, but there is indeed something running on alfandria.net (the webserver there has the details). There wasn't much I could do as a guest, but it was an ample opportunity to read all the documentations. All the while, there were two connections--but I'm not sure if they were persons or bots... (It's amazing what one discovers when the search term is spelled correctly :)
> I stumbled upon the newsgroup back in the fall of 1995. The newsgroup was quite busy back then with lots of posts daily. At one point we referred to this realm as The Dominance it later got changed to Alfandria. I remained active during which time I also started joining the Mucks. I believe the Muck Alfandria opened in 1998 which I promptly joined. It was also very active back in the day with as Rae has mentioned was riddled with creativity! It wad always fun to travel around and visit different people and see everyone's creations.
I'm eager to see those creations, if they're still there--though I'm a bit anxious about doing something bumbly with software I know little about. I'm not sure if there's much hope of a tour these days; that world may yet serve best as an archive...
Another interesting discovery: the current MUCK has a Discord join link, but the rules in another document say the server is invite-only and not publicized (presuming there's a "free pass" for those of Alfandria); I can't claim in good conscience to be "of Alfandria". Nonetheless, is that server (avoiding publicizing its name) where the diaspora of Alfandria have gone?
> Ekena -Who recently realized she is way way way past being an Old Fruit and would fermented into a Whine now.
Be well,
Grissess
[I've changed the order, apologies in advance!]
> My understanding is there was some kind of crash in the original Alfandria Muck and it sounds like files were lost. I know it was resurrected but have not visited the new Alfandria.
> I stumbled upon the newsgroup back in the fall of 1995. The newsgroup was quite busy back then with lots of posts daily. At one point we referred to this realm as The Dominance it later got changed to Alfandria. I remained active during which time I also started joining the Mucks. I believe the Muck Alfandria opened in 1998 which I promptly joined. It was also very active back in the day with as Rae has mentioned was riddled with creativity! It wad always fun to travel around and visit different people and see everyone's creations.
Another interesting discovery: the current MUCK has a Discord join link, but the rules in another document say the server is invite-only and not publicized (presuming there's a "free pass" for those of Alfandria); I can't claim in good conscience to be "of Alfandria". Nonetheless, is that server (avoiding publicizing its name) where the diaspora of Alfandria have gone?
> Ekena -Who recently realized she is way way way past being an Old Fruit and would fermented into a Whine now.
Grissess
Raeadh`ani
Dec 2, 2021, 5:57:53 PM12/2/21
to
Honestly, I'm not sure that discord is specific for Alfandria anymore. I think its still dragon...something.. but I don't think its just alfandria. I might pop in there & see, I actually haven't logged in there in a while. I'm not a huge discord user.
You've got me very nostalgic, though. I might login to the muck this weekend and wander around
Rae
You've got me very nostalgic, though. I might login to the muck this weekend and wander around
Rae
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