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You're looking at the last static copy (1999) of Acheron.org, more recent but partial copies exist in the wayback machine. This site is online out of nostalgia and because of it's historic content, an up to date ANSI/ASCII art archive is available from 16colo.rs

  interviews
acheron.org > interviews > regular interviews

  neofish

Lets start with a little background info on who you are.

Q. How Long you been in the scene?

About 5 years, give or take

Q. What got you started in the scene?

I started as a bbs courier in the 360. I eventually worked my way up to the coveted co-sysop position, and like any good co-sysop I did absolutely nothing. Eventually, I ended up on irc, got into the whole #warez950 trading thing, got tired of that, and then formed a courier group. That sort of ended when I went to college but I spent a lot of time idling on irc anyway. I don't remember exactly what I did, just sort of hung out in scene channels and kept up on what was happening. I got tired of idling, so I decided to do something. I think it took me about 6 months finally settle on scenelink, which started out as an offer channel, then a magazine, then a few other things, and finally the cooperative project that it is today.

Q. What would you say that most poeple would remember you by.

I don't think they do. I was never a big person in the scene, I just got this idea and started doing it. If anyone does remember me it's because I've sent them letters asking them to become coop groups...

Q. Who has been your greatest influences?

RCN probably. They really opened my eyes to what you could do with a large audience. RCN was a scene emag that used to publish bi weekly, they had at least 10,000 avid readers but who knows what the real number was.

RCN's content was usually poor. Most of the articles were either just log files or biased reports. It would have been fine in a smaller magazine, but as a scene institution I think they should have shown a lot more journalistic integrity. The issues were large, but who wants to read articles that 13 year olds wrote so they could get ops in the channel? They were a great magazine, but only because they pushed the boundaries of audience sizes. They got to the point where they could really connect people with the scene and build a community. Then they squandered it with ego trips.

Q. Why Did you Start Scenelink?

Because I'm really into magazines first off. I'm a designer/writer on two other publications, and I like the cooperative spirit that a magazine has.

I saw the potential in RCN and the way it was wasted, so I thought it was worth starting something that didn't end up the way RCN did. I also just wanted to experiment with a cooperative project, to see how far we could go with something that required input from a lot of people to produce.

Q. What do you think scenelinks role will be in the next few months or even years?

I think we'll hit saturation in a few months, where just about everyone in the scenes who is still into the scenes will know about the project. Once we get the audience, we'll be able to serve as a clearinghouse for scene information, which is the biggest goal we have. Making it possible for people to communicate is going to go a long way towards creating a community in and between scenes.

We'll also be able to make it easier for groups to communicate with one another, which should change a lot of the way things are done now. Hopefully it'll be less about power and more about reasoned discourse... that's usually the way freer communication works.

Q. Your site Covers alot of areas, everything from Warez to Art, Do you have any predictions on the scene in months to come?

Warez is going to change a lot because of the NET act. Now that the US can prosecute copyright infringement even when no profit is made, everyone's going to have to be a lot more careful. I don't really know what's going to happen, it's all going to depend on how aggressively they go after people and how lenient the courts are. The bottom feeders (I think) are going to have a much more difficult time getting files, and the bottom feeder websites and irc channels may end up disappearing completely. I think it would be terrible if the warez scene disappeared, but I really doubt that could or would happen. 13 year olds are going to have to buy quake 2, but the warez scene should survive.

Art is crazy, at times it looks like nothing is going on. I think ansi could die pretty easily if people don't start making an effort to keep it alive, and I'm not even sure people really care that much about it anyway. People like talking about how ansi is dying, but I don't know if people really wish things were different.

I think the art scene needs more "things to do." People just don't have the incentive to put out packs, or even draw anymore as a part of the art scene. People will keep producing art, like they have for millennia, but I don't know if the art group / art scene is going to last if things continue as they have been. The art scene is just one big question mark.

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