Jerod Poore

Retired curmudgeon. Former mad overlord of CrazyMeds, Fringe & SciFi editor for FactSheet5, big iron coder, and zine publisher.

Last Notes

2025-08-08 13:53:39 GMT

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As I have become even more introverted and asocial I have no skin in the game of people getting together. So I have no idea what the next step would be.
Unless someone came up with a distributed, peer-based networking and communication system that was completely independent of the Internet. A worldwide network of desktop PCs that talked to each other over landlines.
Know anyone crazy enough to put something like that together?

2025-08-08 13:50:27 GMT

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The "third space" discourse. Combined with parents complaining about too much screen time when there is literally no place for kids to hang out outside.
The true fanzines were a big part of the infrastructure of conventions/concerts/festivals. Other zines were part of political organizing. And, you're right, why bother when it is easier, faster, and cheaper to do it all online.

2025-08-05 16:09:12 GMT

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And going way, way back to the days before home computers and printers were ubiquitous and the overwhelming majority of non-comic-based zines were created on typewriters: you really didn't want to redo an entire page to edit a couple of words.
The first couple of issues of MRR were done on a typewriter. Then an electric typewriter with about a paragraph's worth of memory. The first Mac didn't arrive until the second year of publication.

2025-08-05 16:02:38 GMT

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How many of your blog posts were about whether or not piss hardons were a real thing? That seems to be the secret.

2025-08-05 14:03:30 GMT

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However, I do get the point. The enshittification of the Internet in general and social media in particular has lead to a resurgence of zine publishing.
Mark Dery already wrote about how some of the Internet's Golden Age spaces mapped to zines in his 1996 book "Escape Velocity". Although that was how things were when zine culture was on the verge of going into hibernation and the Internet on the verge of infiltrating everyone's lives.

2025-08-05 13:58:23 GMT

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Beavis and Butthead already did a paper on the mystery of morning wood.

2025-08-05 13:41:28 GMT

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The best example I remember is the "piss hardon" discourse that lasted for about five years of consecutive issues in MaximumRockNRoll. N.b.: it was not a band, but the mystery of morning wood.
USENET and Listservs were much closer to the dynamic of articles & LoCs of old-school fanzines than any sort of social media.
And the nearest thing to APA culture? Tumblr.

2025-08-05 13:37:23 GMT

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Way back in the day fanzines were very much iterative, many-to-many communications. It just took months for a reply to be published and distributed. Sending a letter of comment (LoC) used to be good for a copy of the issue in which the letter was printed. Threads of replies would go on for years in some zines.

2025-08-04 15:23:36 GMT

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They were called Amateur Press Associations (APAs). APAs were extremely popular in SF fandom, gaming, and mail art. The individual contributions were called "sub-zines".
Edited to add: and the final product was an APAzine.

2025-06-01 19:58:46 GMT

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Stencils. No programming required and applies much faster than writing/printing.

2025-04-28 11:56:10 GMT

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I should have specified *generative* AI. Expert systems are fantastic.

2025-04-27 15:56:27 GMT

OK, I've changed my mind about AI. I think some people absolutely should use it for important things. Like legal briefs...
https://newrepublic.com/post/194427/mypillow-ceo-mike-lindell-ai-generated-legal-filing

2024-12-07 17:43:39 GMT

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Dave was a good friend of mine. He also made no-budget movies. I played a crack-addicted Sherlock Holmes in his "Sherlock Holmes vs. Doctor M'Abuse". Featuring Eve Libertine as the Welsh-speaking damsel in distress.