The Foresmutters Project

The Foresmutters Project is a bibliography and collection of some stories from the very earliest days of recorded slash, principally Kirk/Spock from the mid-1970s. The archive contains several stories by Leslie Fish, including the famous "This Deadly Innocence, or The End of the Hurt/Comfort Syndrome."
In 1999, the project was described as "an anarchic effort to put material from the earliest days of slash on-line." From Mary Ellen Curtin's bio at Media in Transition: An International Conference October 8–10, 1999, Massachusetts Institute of Technology] which was in turn taken from the header for the original posting of the first Foresmutters Project story, NEW2ASC: Freedom Is Standing in the Light (TOS, PG) 1/3 (May 9, 1999) When the project was initially proposed, some fans expressed misgivings about digital preservation of older print fanworks, and frustrations with "the burden of history" in fandom.
The Foresmutters Project was also the first site preserved by the Organization for Transformative Works' Open Doors initiative.
==Original Manifestos==
==Initial Reaction to the Project==
Initial reactions to "Foresmutters Project," at alt.startrek.creative (one of the first online Star Trek discussion communities) was very mixed and very heated.
Topics included warnings, BNFs and battles for status and control, the value and "burden of history", the value and use of feedback, how to preserve stories, fannish organization, posting and talking about old fanworks as being a waste of bandwidth and people's time, and antagonism towards print zines. One analogy employed: reading an old print zine fic was like getting an "upset stomach from eating a cocktail wienie with sauce" and wanting desperately to save all other fans from the same dreadful fate.
Comments included an early use of the term squick.
The antagonism towards print zines as "history" and of no interest to current fans was a fairly new opinion; online fiction was still very recent and for many fans, the "Foresmutters Project" illustrated the battle between online fandom and print fandom. This rift illustrates how quickly fannish opinion can change, as well as the divide between many fans over technology and what it could provide.
See some of those comments at Fan Reactions.
=="Open Doors'" First Test Case==
When M.E. Curtin was on the verge of losing the domain name, the archive was preserved by the Open Doors project of the Organization for Transformative Works, who purchased the foresmutters.org domain name and also mirrored the project on the OTW website.
From the August 5, 2010 description at Open Doors:
Two other similar Open Doors 2010 projects: Missed the Saturday Dance (a multimedia World War II Stargate: Atlantis AU) and the Star Trek: TOS print zines Demeter and Kista.
==Fanworks Hosted==
On main page:
* Afterglow, Leslie Fish, poem (originally in Naked Times #1)
* A Bibliography of Early K/S, compiled by Mary Ellen Curtin
* Freedom is Standing in the Light, name withheld on "Foresmutters Project," fiction
* Song of the Unwilling Bride, Leslie Fish, poem (originally in Thrust)
* This Deadly Innocence, Or The End of the Hurt/Comfort Syndrome, Leslie Fish, fiction (originally in Naked Times #3)
* Thataway, Leslie Fish, poem (originally in Naked Times #4/5, part one)
On the "I'm legal button":
* Poses, Leslie Fish, fiction
* The Prize, Ray Newton, fiction
* Shelter, Leslie Fish, fiction
* Terminus, Judith Gran, fiction
==The Proposal==
Posted May 9, 1999:
==Fan Reactions==
===1999: general===
From Sandy Herrold: 
A fan's response to Sandy Herrold's comment:
From an October 1999 interview with the fan PB Wrapper: 
=== May 1999: alt.startrek.creative (the burden of history, access, control, status, and cocktail wienies...) ===
When the "Foresmutter's Project" was first proposed, there was a flurry of comments from fans. Some of those comments, included below, were made during a six-day time period in May 1999 to alt.startrek.creative The Foresmutters Project, comments at alt.startrek.creative] and Foresmutters: remaining concerns shortly after the first story Freedom is Standing in the Light was posted to the newsgroup.
This first story posted included a "header," something print zine fans did not utilize. Netfans objected not only to the story itself, but to the statement, "name withheld by author's request." They may have thought that withholding the name meant the author had something to hide. Because the author was Syn Ferguson, there was some truth to this last thought due to Ferguson's involvement with Courts of Honor.
They also objected to the the author's desire to remain anonymous, stating that this meant she was not part of their community and did not want to interact with them which meant she was wasting precious bandwidth for nothing. Not wanting feedback was considered an very rude: 
After this story was posted, fans discussed many subjects, including warnings, BNFs and status and control, the value and "burden of history", how to preserve stories, fannish organization, antagonism towards print zines, posting old stories as a waste of bandwidth and of people's attention, the dubious value of paying attention to old fans who were no longer active, and the value and use of feedback. The comments include an early use of the term squick.
The first comment was from Jungle Kitty: 
Comment by UKJess: 
From Raku:
Comment by Fizzbin:
Comment by Mary Ellen Curtin:
Comment by Sydvick:
Comment by Jungle Kitty:
Comment by Wildcat:
Comment by Greywolf the Wanderer:
From Kattz:
Comment by Jungle Kitty:
Mary Ellen Curtin commented:
Jungle Kitty commented:
T'Kae commented:
Nesabj commented:
Fizzbin commented:
Raku commented:
Jungle Kitty commented:
Katie Redshoes commented, regarding the suggestion of not archiving these stories:
Joyce Harmon commented:
Fizzbin commented:
Joyce Harmon commented:
Jungle Kitty commented:
Sydvick commented:
Laura Taylor commented:
Fizzbin commented:
Jungle Kitty commented:
Laura Jacquez Valentine commented:
Joyce Harmon commented:
Fizzbin commented:
Fizzbin commented:
Karen commented:
Joyce Harmon commented:
Gamin Davis commented:
 
Jungle Kitty commented:
Mary Ellen Curtin commented:
Stephen Ratliff commented:
Randy Landers commented:
Wildcat commented:
[Raku2u]:
[Joyce Harmon]:
[Jungle Kitty]:
==Notes==
==References==
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