Newsgroups: alt.music.hardcore alt.music.alternative alt.music.ska alt.punk alt.skinheads alt.zines
It's been a while now since this appeared in MRR. I'd like to update it. Please send your comments to noel@ncmusic.com
Many of you are probably asking yourselves "What's the Internet", or maybe "what does punk have to do with the Internet," so I'll start with a description of just what the Internet is, what it has to do with punk, and why I thought a scene report from it was a good idea.
The Internet is basically a global computer network which ANYONE can access. It started a few years ago when the US Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation, and various other slightly dubious organizations realized that technology had progressed to the point where the major research institutions needed a common network with which to communicate. The groups combined their networks, including elements of the defense network (ARPANET), educational network (CSNET), and the BITNET (Because It's There network) into the Internet. Now the Internet connects virtually all of the major universities, computer companies, government institutions, and on-line computer services (Prodigy, CompuServe, etc.), and it spans the planet, even reaching into places like Moscow and San Fransisco (read that with the sarcasm intended). And for a lot of people, Internet access is totally free!
So now that you know what the Internet is, what can you do with it? Basically, you can communicate with millions of people around the world, at incredible speeds and incredibly low cost. Here are some examples of what you can do. First, you can send electronic mail. It's just like regular mail, except you use a computer, and it gets there in anywhere from a few seconds to a day or two. Second, you can talk to other people over the Internet. It's just like calling them on the phone, except you type back and forth instead of talk. Third, you can participate in multi-person conversations (like 900 numbers), and multi-person discussions (like writing letters to MRR, and then reading the responses). You can join mailing lists and get fanzines over the Internet too. There are lots of ways to do all of these things, and I won't bore you too much with the technical details, but here's a brief explanation of what you can do to get hooked up.
To access the Internet, you need to access a computer which is connected to it. The computer might be a terminal at a University, or it might be an online service that you connect to from home using a modem, which lets your home computer talk to other computers over phone lines. A lot of places have "freenets" now, which are public on-line services that anyone can use for free, using a modem and making a local phone call. If you don't have a freenet near you, you can try one of the big "Internet providers" which have reasonable rates and toll-free numbers. I don't want to advertise any of them here-- let them pay MRR for the space, but if you have trouble finding one, ask at your local public library or a nearby university.
OK. I've said enough about the computers, now for the details. Why do a scene report? Because the Internet is a "virtual" space, just like any other place, and there are plenty of punks there. I'll start with some of the big places to go, and then give details of how to find out more places to go to suit your personal tastes. The best places to start are the "mailing lists," and the "Usenet" newsgroups. The "punk-list" is a world-wide mailing list that deals with everything punk. To get mail from the punk-list, you send an electronic mail message to "subscribe" to it. Then you start getting mail from people all over the world. To send mail to everyone on the list, you just send mail to the punk-list's address. Imagine a big mailing office where whenever a letter comes in, it gets copied and mailed out to people all over the world. People read it, and then send in their responses, which are in turn copied and mailed all over the world. That's how the punk-list works. At the end of this report, I'll include the addresses of a few lists. You can start with them, and then ask the readers of those lists about more.
Usenet Newsgroups are the next place to go. Usenet is one of the purest examples of anarcy I've ever seen, because it is a virtually uncensored bulletin-board-like place where literally thousands of topics are discussed. Usenet works like this. You run a program to read news, and then pick out the topics you want to read. Topics are broken down into groups of similar interests. Some of the punk places are named "alt.punk", "alt.music.hardcore" and "alt.skinheads". Once you choose the groups you want to read, you see a listing of "articles" written by people all over the world. Each article has a subject heading, and you pick out the ones you want to read. Just imagine a big bulletin board with lots of sections, and little articles posted all over the place. You can read whetever you want, and post your own article on a new topic or in reponse to someone else's article. The coolest thing is that once you read an article, you don't have to see it again, so the next time you come by the bulletin board, the only things you see are new articles. Old articles also get automatically removed after a week or so. So it's easy to keep up with a huge amount of information. It's not unusual for the alt.hardcore group to have a hundred or so articles, all less that a week old. In all of the groups, it's not unusual to see well over 200,000 articles available at any given time, on as many as 5,000 topics.
Other places you can go include file libraries where you can find lyrics, discographies, photos, fanzines, etc. To use these, you run a program called "ftp", short for "file transfer protocol", which lets you copy the files from the libraries to your own computer. It's just like the public library, except you get to keep the books.
All of the mailing lists, newsgroups, and file libraries have stuff like tour dates, record reviews, discussions or bands, ideaologies, politics, gossip, etc. There are even a few art exhibits, fanzines, and books out there for the asking.
Well, that's it for now. I hope someone will follow up on this with more details about each specific "scene" on the Internet. Something like a "Scene report from the punk-list". I'll conclude with the details on some of the stuff for people who are interested. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this, and to all the punks who have made the Internet such an interesting place to be.
alt.music.hardcore alt.music.alternative alt.music.ska alt.punk alt.skinheads alt.zines
Mailing lists:
Anarchy List >From Jack.Jansen@cwi.nl Ukn Aug 10 10:08:00 1993 the anarchy-list is a mailing list discussing topics of interest to anarchists. The list tends to be a bit more philosophically-oriented than lists like ACTIV-L, but there's also quite a bit of announcements and stuff. There are about 200 people subscribed in about 10 countries. Average is about 3 messages/day (100Kb/month). Subscribe by sending mail to anarchy-list-request@cwi.nl.
Punk List >From edholz@ac.wfunet.wfu.edu Send mail to punk-list-request@cpac.washington.edu.
Riot Girl List >From md3n+@andrew.cmu.edu The riot grrrl mailing list, an all-woman space on the net. To subsrcibe, send a resuest to trooper@u.washington.edu.
Straight Edge List >From ellisorr@craft.camp.clarkson.edu The sXe list has 46 people on it right now, and has people from 6 countries (Including the US). Sending mail ellisorr@craft.camp.clarkson.edu or the list sxex@sun.soe.clarkson.edu will get you on it.
File transfer site:
From: Greg Hankins
Bulletin Boards:
>From dhagel@subrec.mn.org A punk rock Bulleten Board (BBS) that carries Usenet news and mail (in case you are not familiar with Usenet, it is like an off shoot of the Internet - mail and news only). Many of the users take advantage of this access to the Internet system too. Use a modem to call (612) 729-2948 or (612) 729-3063
>From corsbria@student.msu.edu Ukn Sep 7 11:55:00 1993 There's a really cool internet bbs at: bbs.isca.uiowa.edu that can hold up to 400 users at one time.. There are about 150 different "rooms" that you can read up on various topics posted by other users ranging from transsexualism to the religious right. The ones I usually read are Underground (hacking/phreaking/what have you), "Alternative" Music (there are actually SOME punks there), Hair Cult and Body Art (a room dedicated to tats, piercings, and getting info on both), Macintosh (for all of my programming emergencies) and tons more.
Fanzines:
From jerod23@well.sf.ca.us Factsheet Five is available over the Internet as follows: ftp to etext.archive.umich.edu in /pub/Factsheet.Five gopher server gopher.well.sf.ca.us
A conference The WELL is dedicated to F5 and zines (go f5) and the Usenet newsgroup of alt.zines
And the files are available on a subscription basis-- send mail to jerod23@well.sf.ca.us.
Factsheet Five has a list of other paper zines, and some e-zines, and it accepts reviews by e-mail.
From sokay@cyclone.mitre.org A small e-zine(approx. 60-80K each issue) called Armadillo Culture(AC). Its sort of a combination geek/punk 'zine and has lots of stuff on geek/net culture as well as music reviews, interviews, band and scene clips. I've even got my own directory on uglymouse for back issues and GIFs. Musically I tend to cover mostly the DC punk/indie scene, w/an occasional dip into the industrial realm. Armadillo Culture comes out approximately once every 4 months or so. So, to get AC write to one of the following: Net:sokay@cyclone.mitre.org
Snail: Armadillo Headquarters 2857 Foxmill Rd. Herndon, Va. 22071 Cost for hardcopy is $1 or a trade.