AVEN forum's 20th anniversary

[michaeld]

UPDATE! We are having a livestream at 1100 Eastern time / 1600 UK time on Sunday 29 May 2022! Here is the link:

 

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Hi all!

A week today, Monday 30 May, is the 20th anniversary of the AVEN forums! Here is the very first post:

(AVEN itself was founded in 2001, before the forums, and there was a separate celebration last year for the anniversary.)

 

Anyway, we'd like to celebrate the 20th birthday of the forums! But I thought I'd open it up to y'all for ideas on how to do this!

 

One idea we have is to have a livestream with various people from AVEN's history, reminiscing about the past and talking about the future of AVEN. This is still a possibility but we've had difficulty finding people to take part. If you know anyone particularly influential in AVEN's history who might wanna participate, please ping them! I hope we can confirm in the next few days whether we do a livestream, and I guess it'd probably be the day before, 29 May, because that's a Sunday. (And in fact, I think in DJ's timezone, Pacific, that first post *was* actually made on 29 May....)

 

Otherwise we can just make a thread for y'all to share memories of AVEN over the years, and celebrate in any way you see fit!

 

How you can help:

• Start collecting up some of your favourite threads or parts of AVEN's history.
• If there is someone particularly influential you knew and remember from AVEN's past, this would be a good time to PM them to see if they'd be interested in the anniversary.
• Any further ideas for how to celebrate the AVEN forum's birthday would be greatly appreciated!

 

Best,

Michael

 

[Piotrek]

I was actually wondering about the 20th anniversary celebration thing, but not being versed in the AVEN history, wasn't sure what year the actual anniversary fell (would fall) in, '21 or '22. I'll be waiting anxiously.  

If the videostream doesn't pan out, how about a podcast? You could just ask various people to send in recordings and stitch them together or conduct separate calls and record them. That's what we did on a different forum that I'm a part of for an anniversary/reminiscing event.

[Lord Revan]

Happy AVENirsary!

[Snao Cone]

As the creator of the AVEN-specific meme thread, which has been around for four years (and active for three of those!) I think I would have a fair bit to contribute to discussing some ways in which AVEN has provided a sense of community for satirist, shitposters, and Kimmies (well, at least one Kimmie). I also have the third highest post count, facilitated planning for the biggest international meetup, and was on staff for the better part of three years, but that's not as important as the memes.

[SpirallingSnowy]

For this, I’m collating a list of Avenites we lost over the years ( @Kez @Shockwave and more recently @Shaggy, but I’m sure there are others ) so I’d like to start a In Memoriam thread. If you know of another Avenite who has passed away, have something personal you want to say about one I’ve mentioned above , or know of another I haven’t mentioned, please send me a PM. I’d particularly like if someone has something to say about Shockwave, (as Kez and Shaggy were Aussie Ace friends of mine) or other Aces no longer with us. I want to make a post with their names, a small paragraph about them, and link to their profile so other Avenites can see the impact they have had on AVEN 💜

 

thanks all!!

[michaeld]

17 hours ago, SpirallingSnowy said:

For this, I’m collating a list of Avenites we lost over the years

Excellent idea - thanks!

 

On 5/23/2022 at 4:00 PM, Snao Cone said:

As the creator of the AVEN-specific meme thread, which has been around for four years (and active for three of those!) I think I would have a fair bit to contribute to discussing some ways in which AVEN has provided a sense of community for satirist, shitposters, and Kimmies (well, at least one Kimmie). I also have the third highest post count, facilitated planning for the biggest international meetup, and was on staff for the better part of three years, but that's not as important as the memes.

OK great! I think @Kelly is down too if we do a livestream? It'll be pretty relaxed and not really planned, but that's fine. I'm still trying to find other people, but haven't heard back from many yet...

[Kelly]

Yes, I can participate in a live stream.

 

We did an article on Kez (Kerry) in AVENues. I think that we did something for Shockwave (Jeremy), too, somewhere.

[Snao Cone]

I'm fine with a livestream too.

[michaeld]

Shall we say 8am Pacific, 11am Eastern time, 4pm UK time Sunday 29 May for the livestream? If so let's spread the word!

[Kelly]

That sounds good.

[Calliers]

Happy anniversary AVEN! I might be newish here, but I LOVE this site.  🎂 🥳 🎊

[Acing It]

Here's some nostalgia before the event: 

 

What Aven looked like in 2002...: https://web.archive.org/web/20020601164243/http://www.asexuality.org/Theory/asexuality.htm

and 2004: https://web.archive.org/web/20040614142635/http://www.asexuality.org/discussion/ 

 

There was even an Aven Store back then, remember that?: https://web.archive.org/web/20041016030010/http://www.cafepress.com/asexualityshop 

 

From: https://web.archive.org/web/*/asexuality.org 

[michaeld]

Great idea using pics from archive.org, @Acing It! We should certainly do that!

[Acing It]

The first link in my post looks like the start of the definition debate(s) 😅

[Alienated Asexual]

3 hours ago, Acing It said:

The first link in my post looks like the start of the definition debate(s) 😅

AVEN may have popularised the triangle, and maybe independently conceived of the concept, but they weren't the first to conceive it; asexuality has also been described as a sexual orientation based on lack of sexual attraction -- and considered a point on a triangle -- in online conversations going back as much as a decade before AVEN even existed, but that's kinda off topic for this thread.  

AVEN certainly did a lot to help popularise the definition and the triangle concept, though, for which they deserve appreciation and thanks IMO.

 

[michaeld]

47 minutes ago, Alienated Asexual said:

AVEN may have popularised the triangle, and maybe independently conceived of the concept, but they weren't the first to conceive it; asexuality has also been described as a sexual orientation based on lack of sexual attraction -- and considered a point on a triangle -- in online conversations going back as much as a decade before AVEN even existed, but that's kinda off topic for this thread.  

AVEN certainly did a lot to help popularise the definition and the triangle concept, though, for which they deserve appreciation and thanks IMO.

 

That's pretty interesting! Do you have a ref for that? I wasn't aware of much coverage of asexuality online before 1997, when the My Life as an Amoeba article came out (excatly 25 years ago tomorrow!) This is certainly before AVEN was founded, but nothing like a decade prior.

 

You might also be referring to Storms' Model, which I believe goes back to the 70s (and wasn't about asexuality per se), though that's more like a 2-d graph than a triangle iirc?

[Alienated Asexual]

1 hour ago, michaeld said:

That's pretty interesting! Do you have a ref for that? I wasn't aware of much coverage of asexuality online before 1997, when the My Life as an Amoeba article came out (excatly 25 years ago tomorrow!) This is certainly before AVEN was founded, but nothing like a decade prior.

@AcesArosEnbies over on Twitter has done some amazing work on this, digging through Usenet archives, and they have found conversations going back to the early 1990s about asexuality (mainly on a newsgroup called soc.bi).  Here's a post about the triangle:
 

Here's a post from the same group, defining asexuality in terms of sexual attraction:
 

I can't recall if or where else I've heard asexuality being defined as an edge of a triangle other than the above and AVEN, but it's interesting at least one other person had already conceived of the idea (and discussed it online).  Not in any way suggesting David Jay was aware of the above post, though, and I suspect very few others have seen it before now; it's fair to say DJ and AVEN likely independently conceived of and popularised the model of the triangle.

[michaeld]

That's very interesting! It would be good to look more into those usenet archives to see what else there is!

 

7 minutes ago, Alienated Asexual said:

I can't recall if or where else I've heard asexuality being defined as an edge of a triangle other than the above and AVEN, but it's interesting at least one other person had already conceived of the idea (and discussed it online).  Not in any way suggesting David Jay was aware of the above post, though, and I suspect very few others have seen it before it, so it's fair to say DJ and AVEN independently conceived of the model and popularised the model of the triangle, but the fact at least one person thought of it previously shows it's a logical concept, and one that anyone could come up with on their own.

I definitely agree with that. Also Storms' model isn't really that different - it's pretty well a rotation of the triangle by 45 degrees, with a bit of label jiggling. It has exactly the same strengths (in particular taking into account the continuum / grey-area aspect) and the same limitations (gender binary, unclear status of romantic attraction).

 

I bet several others came up with similar things. I was (privately) calling myself asexual in the 90s, and don't remember exactly but I think I visualised it more like Storms' model.

[michaeld]

Just under 1/2 hr till we're off!

 

[michaeld]

Starting any minute!

[LeChat]

My thanks, to everyone who's involved in the livestream. It's an interesting conversation.

 

I agree, with what others have said; besides asexuality, I've appreciated getting a chance to experience what it's like to help run a forum, on the technical/IT side.

[Acing It]

3 hours ago, Alienated Asexual said:

@AcesArosEnbies over on Twitter has done some amazing work on this, digging through Usenet archives, and they have found conversations going back to the early 1990s about asexuality (mainly on a newsgroup called soc.bi).  Here's a post about the triangle:
 

Here's a post from the same group, defining asexuality in terms of sexual attraction:
 

I can't recall if or where else I've heard asexuality being defined as an edge of a triangle other than the above and AVEN, but it's interesting at least one other person had already conceived of the idea (and discussed it online).  Not in any way suggesting David Jay was aware of the above post, though, and I suspect very few others have seen it before now; it's fair to say DJ and AVEN likely independently conceived of and popularised the model of the triangle.

I notice the Ace flag is there as well in full colour! 

[michaeld]

We're now on AirMeet:

https://www.airmeet.com/event/b295b130-df5d-11ec-8eeb-3b6a67ee1107

[daveb]

Thank you to all of the participants! It was good to see your faces, hear your voices, learn about some of the history, and hear some of your stories. 20 more years indeed!   

[SilenceRadio]

In the livestream, some people wondered why purple was the chosen color and who created the term "queerplatonic". Meloukhia did the latter in 2010 (coined the term here, full story of the term "queerplatonic" here). The word spread in Dreamwidth and Tumblr communities. As for purple, it's explained in the article shown in the livestream:

 

Quote

David Jay, the founder of AVEN, used purple because of an obscure legend about how amethyst could prevent a person from being drunk. But not many people knew that, so to most people, purple was just loosely associated with AVEN.

[Calliers]

Great stuff! Shout out to all who participated in the livestream, I skipped through and enjoyed what I saw!  🍰

[Purple Red Panda]

3 hours ago, michaeld said:

We're now on AirMeet:

https://www.airmeet.com/event/b295b130-df5d-11ec-8eeb-3b6a67ee1107

It was really nice to see and interact with people on the AirMeet, I have anxiety issues so a big thank you for how relaxed and friendly it was 🙂

[Alienated Asexual]

2 hours ago, SilenceRadio said:

In the livestream, some people wondered why purple was the chosen color and who created the term "queerplatonic". Meloukhia did the latter in 2010 (coined the term here, full story of the term "queerplatonic" here). The word spread in Dreamwidth and Tumblr communities. As for purple, it's explained in the article shown in the livestream:

 

The original 2010 post by Meloukhia can be found here [the above link you reference appears to be a post from 2011].   

Also worth noting that the term queerplatonic was born in the asexual community.  Some bad faith, and some misinformed people, have sought to weaponise discussions around this term by claiming aces are "stealing aro terminology." as if we appropriated the term, or it somehow shouldn't be used by aces.  Yet the pair behind the term have made clear they resent this revisionist misrepresentation of the term's history, with kazaera pointing out they [singular] don't identify as aromantic, and their [plural] confusion around romantic orientation was part of why that terms was coined to begin with:
 

Quote

kazaera said: fwiw, I have zero context here at all but I object to even the narrative that the people who came up with the word were aro-ace. It actually got coined on my blog in a conversation with me back in 2010, and although I don’t know what s.e. smith who came up with the term IDs as these days I don’t consider myself aro (and my/our difficulties with romantic orientation were the whole point of the gd conversation.)

Unfortunately, such revisionism and attempts to mischacterise aspec history to somehow score points against people of certain identities in our community aren't anything new in the ace or aro (or aspec) communities, but this ace antagonism is one of the reasons this aroace has historically felt deeply uncomfortable participating in certain aro spaces.  I see so much of this kind of thing and as an aroace it just hurts to be caught in the cross-fire.

[Clowel]

Hi, everyone, was the livestream recorded? 

[Missing]

9 minutes ago, Clowel said:

Hi, everyone, was the livestream recorded? 

Yep! And conveniently the same link for the livestream now just takes you to the recording.