_Since Phish will take home the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s Jammys, we decided to look back for our 2004 spotlight on Phish.net.
Here are the thoughts of co-webmaster Rob Johnson…_
Perhaps the longest running Phish web site, Phish.Net began in early 1990 in
the form of a small email alias/distribution list formed by Matt Laurence.
As interest in the band grew so did the email list, which by this time had
grown such that it was necessary to collect messages and send them out
together in daily-or-so batches, known at the time as the Phish Digest. In
March 1992 came the formation of rec.music.phish, an unmoderated usenet
newsgroup dedicated to the band which in its original form, mirrored the
contents of the Phish Digest. The original Phish Digest came to an end in
1995, though rec.music.phish has thrived and currently exists to this day.
In the time since, there have also been a number of mailing lists hosted by
the Phish.Net to serve different interests. These have included Rosemary’s
Digest and Benjy’s Digest, a pair of mailing lists offering filtered content
from rec.music.phish, moderated by Rosemary Dean McKintosh and Benjy
Eisen respectively, Phish-News, and the current Phish Digest, another list offering
Filtered content from a number of moderators rather than by individuals. Also of
note, offering Phish discussion in more specific areas are the Phish-Women’s
list and Digiphish.
Even the initial email network provided a cadre of online fans among whom a
small culture began to take shape by the fall of 1990. Throughout, several
resources had been created which served (and still do) as collective memory
and guidance. The first Helping Phriendly Book emerged in mid-1991, and the
first FAQ Phile was posted 11/19/91, by Lee Silverman. These early resources
were passed via email (first manually, then automatically), then available
for download via gopher and ftp, and finally (?) via the World Wide Web.
During the early years these resources were housed at Brown University by
Lee Silverman, first on the Brown Mainframe; then to fringe.cis.brown.edu, a
Unix machine; then to a NeXt workstation. On April 3, 1994, Lee Silverman
proposed to the Phish.Net community that money was pooled by Phish.Netters
from all over the globe to buy a machine to house the Phish.Net archives and
through which to route the community’s messaging; the NetSpace machine
debuted June 8, 1994.
Once NetSpace was established, Lee Silverman and Ben Tanen turned their
attention to the creation and maintenance of the Phish.Net web site while
Keith Martin, Michael Weitzman, and Dan Shoop took the Helping Phriendly
Book from ASCII to HTML and Ellis Godard did the same for the FAQ. After a
number of months, the Phish.Net web site was turned over to Rosemary
Dean McKintosh, who had proven herself through her work on Rosemary’s
Digest. After a few years, Rosemary stepped down and turned the web site
over to a pair of co-webmasters in early 1997, Eddie Dinel and Rob Johnson.
After Eddie stepped down to focus on other interests, Dan Hantman was
recruited as co-webmaster in addition to maintaining the Helping Phriendly
Book. Currently, Phish.Net is maintained by a triumvirate of co-webmasters
consisting of Ellis Godard, Dan Hantman and Rob Johnson with the assistance
of a number of volunteers.
Though the time of Phish as a band is drawing to a close, through
collaboration with the Mockingbird Foundation, it is our intention that
Phish.Net will continue in its goal to provide accurate information
regarding the individual members of Phish and their future endeavors in
addition to providing discussion and other services to the Phish Community.
Fan Sites 1
Phish.net
News
Archive- Gwen Stefani, blink-182 to Headline Inaugural South Star Festival
- Woodsist Festival Unveils 2024 Artist Lineup: Yo La Tengo, Real Estate, Jessica Pratt, Woods and More
- Dogfish Head Brewery Details Record Fair at New York’s Brooklyn Bowl
- David Gilmour Outlines ‘Luck and Strange,’ First Full-Length Drop in Nearly a Decade, Shares Video Preview
- Listen: John Oates Covers John Prine’s “Long Monday” with Sierra Hull for Upcoming Album ‘Reunion’
- Latest Installment of Jerry Garcia Live Series, ‘February 13th, 1976 Keystone Berkeley’ Receives Release Date
- Borderland Festival Plots 2024 Return with The Black Crowes, CAAMP, Marcus King, Dark Star Orchestra and More
- Dr. Dog Preview First New LP in Six Years with Feel-Good Single “Talk Is Cheap” and Official Music Video
Most Popular
- Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band Announce Fall 2024 Tour Dates
- Warren Haynes, Bill Kreutzmann, Devon Allman and More Share Tributes to Dickey Betts
- Duane Betts Responds to Outpouring of Support Following Father Dickey Betts’ Passing, Shares Tour Update
- Lettuce Expand 2024 Tour Schedule: John Scofield, Ziggy Marley, BISCOLAND and More
- Phish Dive Deep for Night Two at Las Vegas’ Sphere
- Phish Change Forms for Final Sphere Performance
- Phil Lesh & Friends to Perform at San Francisco’s The Warfield in May
- Brooklyn Bowl to Host Benefit for Bad Brains’ HR, with Members of Bad Brains, Fishbone, Living Colour and More
No Comments comments associated with this post