I was busy finishing up a project that would debut on the internets the next day. A little something I was doing at the cajoling of my buds on the Bronze posting board. January 1, 1999 was the debut of my website, All Things Philosophical on BtVS. Just BtVS, at the time, there was no AtS, yet. And I only had episode analyses up through the middle of season 2 of BtVS at the time. The discussion board wasn’t even a twinkle in my eye yet, and wouldn’t be for another year and a half.
OMG, people–tell me where the last decade has gone? It just flew by. And I know you can tell me–many of you were there right alongside me for most of it.
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Published by Nancy E. Shaffer
NANCY E. SHAFFER has been an experimental psychologist (M.A., Cognitive Psychology, Rice University), a philosopher (Ph.D., History and Philosophy of Science, University of California, Davis), and software developer. She taught history and philosophy of science at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec and the University of Nebraska Omaha.
Her philosophical work has appeared in the journal Philosophy of Science and her pop-culture philosophy website, All Things Philosophical on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series.
Dis/inhbition is her first novel.
She currently resides in Tempe, Arizona.
View all posts by Nancy E. Shaffer
Author Nancy E. Shaffer 
Nice ride
I was just thinking the other day, about how long ago it actually was that BTVS began. Sigh.
I found the website in 2001, so I consider myself second generation 😉 But I am glad I did. Found the board a little after that but didn’t post for what now seems like a very long time.
Congratulations. You changed our world.
Re: Nice ride
It was already the middle of season 3 when the ATPo website went live. Wow, and the summer between seasons 4 and 5 when the board went up.
I was fortunate to discover the show before it even aired. That was rare for me, because my interest in TV as a whole was already waning by that point.
Quite a ride, indeed. I love that we’re all still friends.
And it’s six or seven years since I discovered ATPO and five years since I joined LJ. In which time I got an extra degree and a much better job, but had to move back in with my parents due to the shitty property market.
I’ve bought two homes, sold one, had three different jobs, lived in three different states. I’ve gained a niece, nephew, and SIL and lost a father. Gained a lot of good friends, visited Alaska, France, Spain, Italy, Monaco, and the British Isles. And Canada, of course, more than once.
And spent a lot of time on the internets!
I must have seen it very early in 1999. I was in the process of getting ready to move to Arizona, and had a few spare moments to try the internet which was mostly new to me. As a lark I used Altavista to look up Buffy sites and found ATPo. I already had seen the Bronze. (I’d also discovered in those early days that Buffy.com was a porno site!) While the Bronze did have some practical info, ATPo looked a lot better thought out! ;o)
I occasionally looked in. I was nothing like a regular, not even a regular lurker until Buffy’s death in season five made me want talk to someone else about the show. I didn’t even know that ATPo didn’t always have a discussion board, but by that time I had read quite a few threads.
Re: Nice ride
Me too!
Was thinking when I found Buffy. I know what episode, but I don’t remember exactly when, on rerun presumably, and the fog of infancy. Viper was a baby, and I was up feeding him and watched the midnight showing on the Fox feed. So latish ’99 or very early ’00.
At the time I first created it, it was sort of my “auxiliary personal page” for the Bronze. I wasn’t a big Bronzer or anything, but if you were one of the theorizers or list-makers at the Bronze, you created a web page (a page, really, not a site) to keep your lists or your theories so if people asked you could point them there.
I kept a “list” of all the philosophical references I saw on the show. As with everything I write, it sort of…ballooned into a thyroid case.
; D
I was a late bloomer: I didn’t discover the show until late 2002, when I devoured six-and-a-bit seasons in five weeks. I started poking around the Internet, eager to discuss the show with people other than the online friends who’d initially piqued my interest (they hated the characters I loved, and showed no interest in deeper analysis). That’s how I discovered LJ and ATPo.
But I was terrified of all you smart people, so more of a reader than a poster.
But I was terrified of all you smart people
Why is it the smartest ones are the ones who are terrified of other smart people? I guess they’re smart enough to know a smart person when they see one.
It’s why, to this day, I never date fellow PhD’s or doctoral students. ‘Cause *they’re* smart and I’m not, and they’ll discover I’m a fraud!
Hee!
Well, okay, to be painfully honest, I have two types of reactions (these hold in contexts from smart discussion boards to academic conferences):
– OMG, these people are so smart! I had better not open my mouth/keyboard, or at least not without VERY CAREFUL consideration, making sure I’m saying something worthwhile to avoid being called out as the TOTAL FRAUD I really am;
– OMG, are you serious? You think what xyz said was “brilliant” and “insightful”? I say it’s a big duh. The only reason I didn’t mention it myself was that it seemed so obvious, I figured everyone already saw/realized/knew it, and I didn’t want to waste people’s time.
So, you see, it can go either way. 😉
The person who always verbalizes the unspoken obvious that every one in the room already knows like he’s making a major revelation (and in my experience, it’s usually a ‘he’) always annoys me.
Because everybody already KNOWS that, and it’s been an unspoken assumption underlying every other sentence uttered that day.
But that stupid schmuck had to say it outloud and get all the props for it, and if I’d known people would react that way, *I* would have stated the obvious a lot sooner.
“But that stupid schmuck had to say it outloud and get all the props for it, and if I’d known people would react that way, *I* would have stated the obvious a lot sooner.”
Yes! Exactly.
Although in fandom, it’s often a she, just because of the way the numbers fall.
And usually, the props are ritual props only, because whatever it is they said *WAS* painfully obvious to everyone else. And I avoided saying it to look stupid. “What page are you on, Wes? ‘Cause we already got there.”
Congratulations! Wow, that’s a LONG time to have a website! Especially one as awesome as ATP! I have no idea when I discovered the site… It feels like forever ago and it had been an invaluable resource for the fics I’ve written over the years.
It was a LONG time ago, and a very different fandom world for me back then. Long before I had all these great friends ATPo brought me, and long, long before I dipped a toe in the world of fanfic.
it had been an invaluable resource for the fics I’ve written over the years
Besides the pals I have netted, that has been my biggest joy with the site. That people go there like they would an encyclopedia–maybe one with a bit more depth–to help them understand the show and create their own fannish contributions.
Congratulations! I only hit the on-line community two years ago and have tried to read everything I could on your site. Thank you for all the hard work over the years.
Thanks for reading!
The site and my fic.
; D
Time flies when you’re having fun, they say.
I can’t imagine what I would be doing if I hadn’t found Buffy and then ATPo..because those two things prompted me to buy a computer and go on teh interwebs. Without that, I would have missed out on meeting some of the greatest people ever, and my world would have been a lonelier place.
I feel like I owe you a big debt of gratitude for ATPO. Thanks, Masq, and Happy New Year!
ATPo was rec’d to me in 2001 or 2002, just as I was getting involved with online BtVS/AtS fandom, and became a source of inspiration, entertainment, and encouragement from then on. Some really great stuff –and really great folks, too.
Uhmm, ATPo? Never heard of it.
It’s just this funny prefix that LJ made me put in front of my nick because someone else here copped the “OnM” part first, and they didn’t even have a car I betcha, let alone a side-view mirror.
Oh, and who’s this Buffy character?
Happy birthday of your site, Masq!! 10 years, wow! I 1st found it just after the 5th season ended & the show was going to move from WB to UPN. I was trying to find the reruns, because none had been shown in the 1st 2 weeks. I Googled “Buffy” (or maybe the show’s full name) & “reruns,” & ATPo was the 2nd link I tried. I read the main site before I checked out the discussion board. Didn’t find out about the reruns, but what–& who–I did find was so much better!
I’m so glad you did!
You found ATPo before you bought a computer? I’d say you were doing just fine.
But we’re glad you came along for the ride!
“2001 or 2002”–feels like yesterday, doesn’t it? It was yesterday.
Thanks!
OnM who?
Me too!
I know I did an awful lot of chewing. LOL.
At least I (now) know to say it “Oh en em” and not “On em”!!
I spent a lot of time at work (during my breaks, of course!) catching up with ATPO for the first few months..I found the site because a fellow Buffy fan told me about it.
Happy 10 Years!!
Oh wow, I missed this post yesterday! I didn’t know it’d been 10 years for you. Congratulations and good job, Masq! What would we have ever done without? Certainly my last year of university would’ve been a hell of a lot more boring 😉
You don’t get those results when you google that now….
; (
Re: Happy 10 Years!!
I don’t know what made me remember it *had* been ten years. Sorta snuck up on me!
Thanks!
No, but when I started to type “buffy philosophy” in, I got to “ph” & “philosophy” was the 1st suggested completion that dropped down, w/1,240,000 results–& ATPo was the 1st one! @>)
Exactly!