Mu* and history and time

[Thionoxial]

So this is a bit of an odd topic, hopefully not too melancholy for most people.

Mushing, as we all know, is an artifact of a particular time and place. It had its heyday when people were largely paid better, had more freetime and less stress, and were more accustomed to an internet without sound and graphics and video.

This is not a ‘mushing is on the decline’ post.

We’ve - some of us - been doing this hobby for decades, literally decades. Some of our writings we may log, others vanish when the mush goes down, or simply with time. Most of my ‘very well known’ characters are 100% forgotten today. Entire mushes/mux have been forgotten. The internet isn’t really a fixed, permanent thing.

So what will remain of mushing when we are gone? Will historians even know this hobby existed in a hundred years? How will these stories persist - or not - for time? Will anyone care?

I’ve spent a lot of time lately looking into ‘little ordinary bits of history’ from past centuries, and its struck me how much of ordinary life is just…lost, to time. I’ve probably spent, of my 43 years…34, 35 of them doing this?

Is there anything that CAN be done so mushing is remembered as ‘having been a thing’ in a century? Should we even care? Should games take better means to preserve all of the stories that have been created, or is their only utility/virtue in the creation of them?

And lastly, for those of us looking back on our lives and all the time we spent in this hobby, do you think that was time well spent?

[MisterBoring]

@Thionoxial said:

Is there anything that CAN be done so mushing is remembered as ‘having been a thing’ in a century?

If nothing else, we can upload our dead wikis and game sites to electronic archives, like archive.org.

[Juniper]

In general we keep much fewer long-term records in this paperless era. It’s not like we’re writing letters that get shoved in a box somewhere, we’re writing stories that eventually get wiped the next time we replace our device and when we’re gone, our data is gone.

This applies outside of this hobby as well, but maybe as a society we should be thinking more about being deliberate about the records we keep and where we can place them where they’ll be maintained after we’re gone.

[Big Chungus]

It’s sad but MUSHes are in the same boat as most online services. When they end they end. All we can really do is keep some exceptional logs when it’s all said and done

[Eranna]

Y’know, I’ve been a lurker on this site (and the predecessor) for a long time now. I never really felt like taking a side, or voicing an opinion with any discussion, but this one caught my eye. Then again, perhaps I’m just getting so old I need to start putting my two cents in. So, here is my opinion, take it, burn it, throw shade at it, or move along.

As someone who’s been around since nearly the dawn of MU*ing (1995 at the tender age of 23), the idea of archiving old sites, logs, and games that have long since passed is not something that I have ever really considered before. The games I played within have lived, breathed, they have had a life, and then they died, and you move on to the next one. The logs that I enjoyed, I kept, I archived for my own perusal, though even those I can honestly say I have never read over again, and were the first to be deleted as space was needed. (In older computers, kids, you use to have to worry about that!)

I am not one to get sentimental over things, and as a result the idea of a kind of archaeological repository for future generations to find and enjoy isn’t something that I have ever thought of, or about. You are correct in the fact that history tends to forget about the every day life and focus more on the grandeur scheme of things. I guess, for those that really want to have this world, this environment, that we have created to remain, for those that have children, teach them about it. It’s always upon the next generation to learn, and keep it all going for future generations to discover and rediscover.

As far as the last question? If this hobby didn’t exist, if I hadn’t started gaming, I would never have met my husband, gotten married, and enjoyed thirty (plus) years of cooperative story-telling. So, yes, it has been worth while, the good, the bad, the ugly.

Right. My two cents.

[Gashlycrumb]

Archive.org may have already captured some of your game’s wiki, but it’s not terribly clever about which bits it records.

Login-only stuff like the old WORA and SWOFA are probably just gone if the one or two people who made captures don’t share them or lost them.

I lament the loss of a collection of scanned drawings I had, from back when the internet barely had pictures on it and we used FTP to exchange character art. I still have the drive they’re on, somewhere, but no way to open it myself.

From a professional archivist sort of standpoint, this has always been a problem. People don’t record a lot of everyday life, and what they do produce is often the shit we call ephemera, and gets thrown away shortly after it’s used. TTRPGs produce a shitload of it. Researchers and museum goers love it. Inexplicably, my brother has managed to keep every concert ticket stub from every show he’s ever been to since Mötley Crüe in 1986 or something. In keeping with her character, a friend has every birthday card she have ever received. You know you wanna look at that shit. Alas, digital environments make it even more ephemeral.

[Prototart]

@Gashlycrumb said:

Archive.org may have already captured some of your game’s wiki, but it’s not terribly clever about which bits it records.

Login-only stuff like the old WORA and SWOFA are probably just gone if the one or two people who made captures don’t share them or lost them.

i don’t think anybody even like peripherally involved with WORA MUSHes anymore and last I heard Spider was creeping on Tumblr or something

edit: Im pretty sure at one time there was an actual WORA Wiki but as best i can remember it was deleted by somebody who hostile takeovered the site or something like that?

[Pavel]

@Prototart said:

an actual WORA Wiki

OH BOY WAS THERE

Thenomain’s still around, but I think he’s the last person of admin-level around from that era. Lord knows if he’s kept anything.

[Jennkryst]

I have, on occasion, wanted to do video essay deep dives into THE CULTURE, if for no other reason than to have it compiled and learn about some of the history (and maybe serve as advertising for the community?)

But oh god do I not know where to even start.

[Muscle Car]

@Jennkryst Do a video about Jill in the style of those Jeff the Killer or Slenderman videos. 🤭

[Faraday]

@Jennkryst You should.

Lol now I kind of want to write a book about the history of MUSHes, even though it would basically only appeal to the tiniest of audiences.