There was this lil show called X-Files and I was a touch involved with the fandom.

We had debil mice who started out as a friendly list and ended up being a review site for fanfic. They were fanfic authors who didn’t want to dirty up their own name. As were the Wicked Witches that followed them years later.

There were flame wars, cat fights, threads where more than half of the people on the thread were the same person – in other words romanceland feels just like home at time.

Two big events that stick out in my mind would be Evie’s death and Wavedancer being sent off to war. Evie was a young woman around 23 with three kids who started posting in the fandom folder I moderate.

She was around, I want to say for a year or so but it may have been longer, before she got sick. The community rallied around her. They followed along as she got better, as she got sick and would get better again. As with many online communities, people cared. They wanted to help. They wanted to do something even if it was just lend a supportive ear.

Evie took a turn for the worst. She ended up in the hospital and it seemed like it would be a long stay. Her sister brought her a laptop so she could keep in touch. And then she suddenly died.

It wasn’t expected. She had been getting better. People were shocked and so very sad. They were worried about her kids. Members started to raise money to send flowers, start a college fund and someone was even talking about going to the funneral.

To be honest… I pretty much thought she was full of shit when the husband posted right after she died – you know – RIGHT after. When money and figures started to get tossed around we (the moderators of the forum) really started too look into it.

After the first member posted saying this sounds odd, was soundly beaten into the ground for being a soulless whore, Evie’s whole family came out of the woodwork. I can’t remember all the details but it was fucking nuts.

Anyhoo… evie ended up not existing. She was posting under about 15 or so names by the time all the IP’s, email addys and such were ran to the ground (by a man who is just so fucking wicked smart it amazes me what he can do with a computer).

And it turned out tons of people had more than one identity on the board. We started a no ‘sock’ rule and killed the dup accounts. Her ‘death’ and lies were covered in a newspaper article that I can’t for the life of me find. Since the great computer crash of 2005 I have lost all that stuff.

It hurt a lot of people. Online communities can end up pretty tight. I know some people say reader blogs are cliquish. And they can be – as can message boards, yahoo groups, clubs and the like. But they are also generally very welcoming.

To be here all you have to do is read a book. Or talk about wanting to read a book. And we want you. We like to hear other opinions. We want to know about new books or old ones we missed. Or just hear about something in a different way.

I do believe people are basically good people. But when socks come up or even something that LOOKS like a it could be a sock… I always remember Evie. I would like to say she was fucknuts and just one of those things that happen.

Over a year later, maybe even longer, it happened again. On a much smaller scale when a guy sent himself off to war. I think he only had 10 or so accounts before he was ran down. Because people wanted to send him things… the comforts of home and all that. Hard for people to do without an address.

I really don’t have a point with all this other than to explain where I am coming from when I get completely bent out of shape over socks and such. We can’t ‘see’ each other and people can let the freedom that comes with the net go to their head.

I have met some of the most amazing people online, who have done amazing things for me. A person who was at my wedding reception was an old longtime prexfiles ‘net friend. My apartment was finally unpacked after my divorce and I was a touch… ‘out of it’ by two philes. And some of you here have supported me in more ways than I could put into words.

I always remember that but there are always the others as well. And really some people are just fucknuts.