local internet
From Interdex, the community-edited guide to the local internet.
The local internet encompasses a group of communities related to and including the ABS Forums, and influenced by several larger external communities. While local internet communities have their own diverse populations, assets and goals, a significant proportion of their activities still involve ABS. This section of the internet is the primary subject of Interdex, and an area of ongoing research.
[edit] History
During 2003 and early 2004, local internet activity was mostly confined to the ABS Forums and, to a much lesser extent, #albinoblacksheep. However, actions taken by cythrawll and mrWoot in the spring of 2004 prompted mtxchimera to leave the forums and LCIRC, and create the LuniticFringe IRC network. In June, rmuser became dissatisfied with how cythrawll and mrWoot were managing the forums, and left to start Framework (now 17chan). He also moved EMPTV's channel from LCIRC to LuniticFringe, and a substantial group of ABS members began to regularly visit Framework and #emptv. This marked the beginning of a trend of increasing decentralization in the local internet.
After Overlord_45's August 22, 2004 ABS Forums takeover, Melindhra left ABS, and she and cythrawll created the CultureStorm forums and an IRC channel on the Relicnet IRC network. In early 2005, Keridwen and JugglingWolves left ABS after the supermods refused to remove Jaur for perceived abuses of power. They created Equivocal Haven (EQH) as a place for other disaffected ABS members like themselves to congregate, not realizing that "equivocal" doesn't mean "equivalent". cythrawll and Melindhra eventually left RelicNet due to their own paranoia, since Overlord_45 made a habit of joining a couple of channels on there and occasionally playing in a trivia channel. They founded a network called Cythnet, and Equivocal Haven's IRC channel migrated there as well. EMPTV/17chan enjoyed a burst of renewed popularity following the April 2, 2005 ABS Forums takeover, and EQH and CultureStorm faded into irrelevance following the death of Melindhra. In late 2005, Jaur briefly took over 17chan in response to rmuser's disregard of the established administration model. He then left, along with jski and Zeshin, to join Overlord_45's destroyman.com and #destroyman. While these communities never rose to prominence in the local internet, those who left have not returned since.
In late 2005, 13lackjack created an InvisionFree forum named Future History for no apparent reason. This community, consisting mostly of ABS members, had great success for an InvisionFree forum, which continued until 13lackjack disappeared. The Stone created Waste of Pixels as a successor in early 2006, and it is currently one of the more popular communities in the local internet. Its role is not entirely certain, as most of its members still attend the ABS Forums, and generally coexist peacefully with them.
[edit] Reunification
In 2005, 13lackjack presented a proposal to rmuser and Tenebrae Vision that ABS, 17chan and Equivocal Haven merge into one all-encompassing forum. He was ridiculed at length by all of these communities, and the prospect of local internet reunification is not seriously considered due to the many varying and even conflicting goals and purposes of its communities.