5 replies to this topic

[LaFleur]

Hey, so, my mom and dad are cleaning out my childhood home to sell it and come across some of my old nerf guns.  I tell my wife a few hazy stories about the Nerflist, she looks up some stuff on her phone, and I see an article snippet that made me feel insane.

 

" The Sharpshooter II was the main blaster of infamous early Nerfer, Spoon1, who..."

 

Also people just call them Stefans?  Like, an aftermarket nerf ammo company exists that calls short darts Stefans? (somewhat wrongly?)  I feel slightly ill...but in a good way?

 

Anyway, I've been looking for a way to get in touch with Spoon1 again, or any of the guys.  Hell, I can't even remember if I had a nickname on the old list.  I was the one who would never, ever, even one time use a swear.  

 

Jeremy

 

 

 

[Silly]

[pmed] you some pertinent info.

[Ice Nine]

Welcome back to the fold. The horizons closed in and the monopolies and siloization of technologies and networks and that means you're looking at us on a dead expanse, hollowed shells of information and people that used to exist but no longer. If you're looking for Spoon, he's mostly reachable by way of the other old hands on Facebook. Last time I saw him was at, like, Armageddon 2018? 2019?

 

And, yeah, the "stefan" stuff being the common nomenclature for any stock dart is psycho wild. Language transfer across national borders and international waters.

 

PM'd you some pertinent info.

 

Why would you send it in a direct message instead of posting it in public.

[Silly]

I sent them a link to the History of Nerf Modding discord, where we have access to some backups of old nerf lists, but they are not publicly released yet. Didn't want to "advertise" in public. They have joined and we have been going through modern nerf with them and getting him up to speed. In turn, we have gotten some nice pictures of period correct mods and some pictures and info on original Stefans. 

[Ice Nine]

I sent them a link to the History of Nerf Modding discord, where we have access to some backups of old nerf lists, but they are not publicly released yet. Didn't want to "advertise" in public. They have joined and we have been going through modern nerf with them and getting him up to speed. In turn, we have gotten some nice pictures of period correct mods and some pictures and info on original Stefans. 

 

The whole issue is that using a place like Discord (privately owned servers, closed off from public archive and search) will fundamentally run into the same issue that services like Facebook Groups, Ning (completely dead and with it a decade-plus of SoCal Nerf photos/history/archival stuff), and other walled-off ecosystems is that it fails the point of archiving anything. Keeping information out in public where it can be accessed and stored (e.g. by Internet Archive) makes it way less likely that you run into the issue that you are currently trying to fix, that is, that a bunch of the early parts of the history of this hobby got lost due to profit-searching machinations of private companies.

[Silly]

I understand, and have from the start of the project. The Discord is used mainly for communication, while most/all info is put into a Google Drive and Youtube channel, with scheduled updates to the project on r/Nerf and r/HistoryOfNerfModding on Reddit. We also backup the Discord on a regular basis and export it as HTML (Or on request, TXT, JSON, or CSV) files that can be downloaded and opened by anyone without access to the Discord or who want to look back at previous things that happened on the Discord (https://drive.google...2KRqI4q_y81wXFL). The end goal is to have a proper system/site set up, but that is not in the current timeline or cost scale of the project. 

 

In specific to the old Nerf list data, that is currently under lock and key for the vast majority of people, as those boards were used not only for Nerf, but many other things, such as personal info. The files are also not organized whatsoever and in a non-viewing-friendly format. We (Me and my partner in the project, RylehYachtClub) are going through the files and data, making note of personal data, organizing into a linear time scale, making files easier to read, and talking to people from the time when pertinent issues or info come up. This all takes time and careful consideration for each issue that comes up.

 

Since the making of this thread, LaFleur (Blakhawk on the Discord now, matching their name from the 90's) has helped us with this goal. We also consult Vaccallica, DanielBGoo, and Spoon with any questions pertinent to the specific person/communication tool (NerfOnline, ListServ, Yahoo Groups, etc).

Edited by Silly, 19 February 2020 - 09:16 PM.