Ive been (very) gradually going through my office and doing some purging, motivated by my dwindling bookshelf space. Anyway, one of the things I couldnt bring myself to throw out: the crystal award shown in the first of the photos below, which I received for Inkspot. Inkspot was one of the first websites for writers on the Web back in 1995 (some of you out there helped me with the original site, like Moira Allen, Sal Towse and Noah Chinn -- please do speak up if you should be added to this list). How many of you remember Inkspot and Inklings? Im curious. Inkspot began as a resource for childrens writers but after getting a ton of great press, I decided to expand it to include other genres. I began it as a way of finding others interested in writing for young people but ironically, the site became so successful that I had less and less time for working on my novel and spent more and more time on managing and administration. I have since vowed never to do this again, so have purposely kept my online projects small and avoid getting involved in the management/admin of other sites. Anyway, I eventually decided to sell Inkspot. Later, this inspired a thread in my semi-autobiographical comic starting here, where you can also read a summary of what happened: debbieohi/nutshell/the-phonecall.html). I remember being completely shocked when I received the 1998 Mecklermedia Internet World World Impact Award by snailmail. It struck me as so odd, getting a physical award (made from Belgian crystal via Tiffanys, no less...it was HEAVY) for something I had created out of bits and pixels in my tiny home office. Nowadays, of course, people are used to the idea. I kept the award shoved back on a top shelf because it always brought back bittersweet memories: although I had tons of fun with Inkspot early on, my experiences in the corporate world immediately afterward were not the greatest. One-page summary: debbieohi/debbies-woodpile-philosophy/ Now, though, I find that I can look back at that time with greater objectivity and am better able to remember the good bits...and there were many good bits. None of the entities named on the award exist any longer. Mecklermedia was acquired by Penton Media which became Jupitermedia which became WebMediaBrands which evolved into Mediabistro, whose publishing assets were acquired by Prometheus. Hm, according to Wikipedia, Mecklermedia still represents the companys trade show operations. Interesting. Internet World used to be a popular magazine back in Inkspots days. You can browse an old issue online here: https://archive.org/details/05Kahle001885 Inkspot is now shut down and the domain sold as traffic funnel into Writing. You can read Inkspots Epilogue here: electricpenguin/inkspot/ Anyway, Im sooooo much happier with my career now than I was back then. As much as I enjoyed running Inkspot in the beginning, Im having SO MUCH MORE FUN NOW. :-) --------- EDIT: I really didnt mean to write so much! Ive decided to archive this post on my personal blog at debbieohi/blatherings/2014/7/18/office-purging-inkspot-award-and-reminiscing.html
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 12:34:19 +0000
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