Timeline of The Professionals Fandom

This timeline of The Professionals fandom is from a crowd-sourcing project begun by byslantedlight on Live Journal.
It is based on information compiled by, but not limited to, byslantedlight and volunteers, including Whitehills, HG, O Yardley, Felicity M. Parkinson, Hestia, NNWest, Jay Trent, LH, and other Pros fans. 
 
Each one of these posts above builds on the previous one and includes their own comments; the last main post is the final version.
* Pros Fandom History - post the one: Pros-y history…; archive link (October 15, 2009) 
* Pros Fandom History - post the two: Pros-y history continued - a new thread! ; archive link (October 16, 2009) 
* Pros Fandom History - post the third; archive link (October 18, 2009) 
* Pros Fandom History - post the fourth; archive link (October 21, 2009)
==1977==
* The first series aired in the UK between 30th December 1977-17th March 1978.
==1978==
* The second series aired in the UK between 7th October-9th December 1978. 
* The Professionals first aired in Australia on BTQ 7 (Brisbane) on Tuesday 27 June, 1978, almost six months to the day after its UK debut. Other AUS states followed later. source: research by kiwisue and constant_muse, 2011. 
==1979==
* The third season aired in the UK between 27th October-15th December 1979. 
* The Professionals was airing in Australia in late 1979. source: "I first saw the show late in 1979. It had been screening in Australia a wee while before I was even aware of its existence, but I had cause to tune into an episode..." JJ, editor of "Stop The Presses! a media archive 1977-1991" published by Nut Hatch Press, 2001.
* Between 1979 to 1981, viewers in Brisbane, Australia saw some episodes before they were shown in the UK, including "Servant of Two Masters," "Stopover," "Mixed Doubles," "Fugitive," "Operation Susie" and "The Untouchables."source:research by kiwisue and constant_muse, 2011.
==1980==
* The fourth series aired in the UK between 7th September-27th December 1980.
==1981==
* The first UK Pros slash story (written late 1980 or early 1981) was Power Play by Stuartsky. It was soon followed by the first batch of hatstands including: Deathgame, The End of an Illusion, Coldwater Morning, Two Crazy Lovers all by Stuartsky, Consequences by Tarot and A.N. Other, and The Poofessionals by an unknown author. These are their current pseudonyms for use on internet - source: 1981 listing of stories, article originally written 1990 by Felicity M. Parkinson and distributed to attendees at the twentieth anniversary of the Nattercon convention in 2009, comments from Stuartsky; comments by inamac and lil-shepard here. 
* These stories were quickly followed by Masquerade written by Tarot and Cause for Concern by Stuartsky.
* Enigma a multifandom zine series published by Blue Jay Press in the UK began in 1981.
* The first Pros slash zine published for sale in the UK was the long story: Remember Angola.source: article written by Felicity Parkinson, and distributed to attendees at the twentieth anniversary of the Nattercon convention, 2009; comments by inamac and lil-shepard here. The existence of an informal circuit library blurs many dates in Pros history; this means that some fans do not consider Remember Angola to be a fanzine as it was not easily available, had to photocopied and was passed fan to fan. Contrast krisserci5's definition of what continues a "published zine" with byslantedlight's definition here. Source: krisserci5's info gathering for early air dates and zine publishers and stuff dated June 2010. 
*In 1981/82, inamac (Ina MacAllan) and lil_shepherd (Lil Shepherd) wrote character studies of both Bodie and Doyle, based on evidence they took from the episodes. They were were meant to prompt discussion. These fanworks can now be found here at this post (Bodie) and here at this post (Doyle).source: the two posts themselves - please follow the links!; comments from Felicity Parkinson quoted by metabolick). These studies were presented for discussion at the A Weekend in the Country (UK) minicon.
==1982==
*"Enigma" fanzine, published by Blue Jay Press in the UK contains Pros fic Bad Apple and Booby Trap - later reprinted by Blue Jay Press in Best of the Professionals source: article written by Felicity Parkinson, and distributed to attendees at the twentieth anniversary of the Nattercon convention, 2009; comments by inamac and lil-shepard here.
*Blue Jay Press published two long Pros stories in a single zine Dead Beat in the UK. One story, Just a Singer features an early RPF crossover with Bodie and Doyle and the rock musicians from The Moody Blues.source: article written by Felicity Parkinson, and distributed to attendees at the twentieth anniversary of the Nattercon convention, 2009; comments by inamac and lil-shepard here.
* A privately printed and circulated zine in the UK was Changing the Rules/Security Risk. source: article written by Felicity Parkinson, and distributed to attendees at the twentieth anniversary of the Nattercon convention, 2009); further information about Changing the Rules/Security Risk from publisher here in comment thread.
* The mini-con, A Weekend in the Country (UK), was held at the Ashcroft Hotel on the weekend of 5th-7th March in York, England. They were "basically get-togethers for a small number of fans to watch episodes and discuss stories and characterisations. Ken Bulmer attended the first one" source: article written by Felicity Parkinson, and distributed to attendees at the twentieth anniversary of the Nattercon convention, 2009; comments by inamac and lil-shepard here); comment thread here from lil_shepherd; comment on thread here, quoting Felicity Parkinson by metabolick). At least one of the cons seems have been held at the Ashecroft Hotel in Yorksource: a con programme [described here http://metabolick.livejournal.com/22488.html]); and see also here for another memory of the Weekend in the Country minicons.
*7th November 1982 - 6th February 1983 - Series Five first aired in UKsource: Dave Matthew's Official Pros Website.
*Sebastian became involved in Pros fandom in 1982. Shortly after this sh,e met ET and ten other women at a weekend gathering, all of whom at some point wrote at least one Pros fic, including some of the "classic" Pros fics. source: prelude to a story at Sebastian's website: Foxhole on the Roof.
==1983==
*Blue Jay Press published Pros stories in Impact 1 in the UKsource: article written by Felicity Parkinson, and distributed to attendees at the twentieth anniversary of the Nattercon convention, 2009; comments by inamac and lil-shepard here.
*Second mini-con A Weekend in the Country (UK) was held at the Ashcroft Hotel on the 4th-6th February in York, England - "basically get-togethers for a small number of fans to watch episodes and discuss stories and characterisations." source: article written by Felicity Parkinson, and distributed to attendees at the twentieth anniversary of the Nattercon convention, 2009; comments by inamac and lil-shepard here. At least one of the cons seems have been held at the Ashecroft Hotel in York. source: a con programme described here. 
*A character study of George Cowley, by inamac and lil_shepherd was presented for discussion at the 1983 Weekend in the Country UK minicon. source: comments from Felicity Parkinson quoted by metabolick, and also see comments here by one of the authors, inamac.
* O Yardley’s weekends began sometime 1983 – the first one was Pros and Star Trek and was attended by Jay Trent, NNWest and another Trek fan. Also there were HG, Rob, Pom, Sebastian, and ET.source: HG.
* At the first weekend, it is thought Sebastian brought Just a Kiss with her, which she had just written and HG was writing Rediscovered in a Graveyard by hand (though some was typed out). This is when a copy of “Man Without a Past” was obtained. (HG swapped her copy of “Cream in My Coffee” for it - and never regretted it!) Later on, birthday stories etc. were written for members of the group.source: HG.
* Sebastian and HG wrote Two in a Bunk at one of O Yardley’s weekends while waiting lying on bunks for the loo - around twelve women, one bathroom! She had the upper bunk.source: HG.
* Much of the very early fan fiction was sent out by a northern fan as photocopies of stories - mainly by Tarot, Stuartsky and herself. When you wrote your first Hatstand you received a coloured enamel frog badge from PD - a frog because of the reference in “Wild Justice”, as follows: “DOYLE: I’ll tell you what. I’ll bet you a fiver that if you took me home with you tonight, put me on your pillow, when we woke up in the morning, I’d’ve turned back into a frog.” The frog brooches are confirmed by NNWest and Jay Trent.source: NNWest. When stories were sent to PD, they were photocopied and they were circuit stories, not zines. Some of the later, longer stories were put on stencil rather than just being photocopied but were still not zinessources: HG and Felicity M. Parkinson.
* Sometime in 1983, HG started sending UK stories to AC who was sending stories around a US circuit of Pros fans, which included Lainie Stone. This fan sent HG photocopies of US stories, which she shared out and the circuit grew, amoeba-like. HG is fairly sure she was introduced to her by Sebastian and/or ET, who didn't have access to copying facilities. source: HG.
* At this time a lot of the stories coming from US were real Mary Sues, i.e. author or author’s friend’s real name and one of the Professionals.source: HG.
==1984==
*Blue Jay Press published Pros stories in Impact 2 in the UK.source: article written by Felicity Parkinson, and distributed to attendees at the twentieth anniversary of the Nattercon convention, 2009; comments by inamac and lil-shepard here.
*Third mini-con A Weekend in the Country (UK) was held at the Ashcroft Hotel on the weekend of 5th-7th March in York, England.source: article written by Felicity Parkinson, and distributed to attendees at the twentieth anniversary of the Nattercon convention, 2009; comments by inamac and lil-shepard here). (source: a con programme described here .
*"Australian fiction included the story 'Deadly Ribbons' and the 'straight' fiction zine Mixed Doubles 1 (1984). source: article written by Felicity Parkinson, and distributed to attendees at the twentieth anniversary of the Nattercon convention, 2009.
*The Hatstand Express (T.H.E.) first published in Australia, 1984 - "It consisted of letters of comment on the episodes, characters and fan fiction, as well as short stories, poetry and artwork." source: article written by Felicity Parkinson, and distributed to attendees at the twentieth anniversary of the Nattercon convention, 2009. After eight issues, the letterzine moved to America. There were twenty-two issues plus fiction supplements which came out twice a year.(source: LH).
*"Mixed Doubles was a British Professionals/Starsky & Hutch letterzine which was produced from 1984 to 1989 along much the same format as T.H.E. but also included newscuttings about the actors." source: article written by Felicity Parkinson, and distributed to attendees at the twentieth anniversary of the Nattercon convention, 2009.
* Sometime in 1984/1985, HG got to know Meg Lewtan, and swapped stories with her for sharing around on their respective circuits and the US.source: HG.
* Because HG worked in London, she got to meet a lot of Americans when they visited England and they would swap big brown envelopes of Hatstands. She also carried on snail-mail correspondence with some and swapped stories.source: HG.
==1985==
*The Small Print zines came about because a northern fan had rejected a couple of gen stories which our group considered worth distributing. O Yardley had bought a photocopier and taken over copying of all stories. Gui Mauve wrote to Brian Clemens and got his permission to bring out this non-profit making gen zine. The zine was also sent to the library at the British Library for legal deposit purposes by Gui Mauve under the publishing name of The Small Printers. There were 4 issues.source: HG, O Yardley and Felicity M. Parkinson.
==1986==
*(Pre-1986 but not defined by date): "From the U.S. came the early stories 'Victorian Bed', 'Doyle's Dream' and 'Rules of the Game'. Zines were slower to follow but have included Teo Torriate (1986) and various issues of In the Public Interest. These have all been slash fiction. The U.S. zine British Takeaway remains one of the few mainly 'straight' fiction zines to be produced." source: article written by Felicity Parkinson, and distributed to attendees at the twentieth anniversary of the Nattercon convention, 2009.
==1987==
* 10th-12th April 1987, A Weekend in the Country (US) convention in Baltimore, USA, run by Laura Peck and Tacs source: programme booklet owned by Towerbridge2006 as described here); comment here by pxr5.
==1988==
*Oblique Publications founded (1988-2003).source: Oblique Publications - About page.
==1989==
* A British Con called T'hy'la, for fans interested in slash relationship zines, was held in Birmingham in July. The con covered such fandoms as Trek, Blake’s 7, Starsky & Hutch and Pros with fans giving short talks, which included video clips, about each of the fandoms. Whitehills gave the talk about The Professionals and as a result, a number of interested fans talked with her and the idea of a library and a con were first mooted. source: a British Pros fan.
* In November of that year, the British/European Circuit library was started by Whitehills and continues to this day with fans from England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and the Irish Republic. France, Germany and Italy were also subscribers during this time.source: Whitehills posting via londonronnie at this thread.
==1990==
*In Felicity Parkinson's article on Pros history, written in 1990, she says: "Fandom has also developed in Australia and the United States of America. Australian fandom had early contacts with British fans and later also through the U.S. United States fandom was slower to evolve, possibly because the series has not been so widely shown there. However, Zebracon, a U.S. convention for Starsky and Hutch fans, now also embraces Professionals fandom."source: article written by Felicity Parkinson, and distributed to attendees at the twentieth anniversary of the Nattercon convention, 2009.
*"Short Circuit letterzine began publication in Britain in 1990, but "is now under U.S. editorship, again with a mixture of letters and fiction." source: article written by Felicity Parkinson, and distributed to attendees at the twentieth anniversary of the Nattercon convention, 2009.
* The first Nattercon (known as Zircon for the first two years) was on the weekend of October 26th, 1990, at the Wayfarer Hotel in Milton Keynes, England. The programme was a mix of The Professionals and Starsky and Hutch It included showings of fanvids, discussion panels including discussion "on all aspects of zines", auctions, and a raffle. Discussions were led by Felicity Parkinson, Helen Raven, HG, Jane Carnall, and various other people whose lj/internet names (if any!) are unknownsource: copy of original Zircon programme, copied and distributed to attendees at the twentieth anniversary of the Nattercon convention, 2009; lj pseudonyms are by byslantedlight and are mostly not the names listed in the programme); (source: whitehills posting via londonronnie here.
*"Pear Tree Press started in 1990 with Professional Insight which is also still in print and has sold hundreds of copies worldwide."source: whitehills here.
==1991==
*From D. Ramsey, of ProsLib, on the origins of ProsLib in the USA: "Tracy (can't remember her last name, sorry) was the first one to start typing in circuit stories and sharing with a circle of her friends. This was about 1991-92. Late 1992, her circle was up to about 20, myself included. She was wanting to concentrate more on her writing, so asked me if I'd like to takeover effort of taking the hardcopy circuit stories and typing/scanning them and sharing them. So I did! Tracy and I talked and decided to start calling it The Professionals Library or Proslib, as it was no longer just a circle of friends, but fans from all over". source: comment by hagsrus here.
*First "Writeshop" held, 7th-9th June 1991 in Milton Keynes, based around writing Prosfic and co-organised by Whitehills and Helen Raven. The arrangement was (and still is) that the con is organised by two/three people. Whitehills does the bookings, deals with the hotel, and produces the Con zine of stories to be discussed and the co-organiser(s) deals with the programme, arranges the session leaders and chairs the con. The co-organiser has the right to change the name of the con if she wishes and it has been known by several different names over the years, but now seems settled on WriteTime. This year (2010) is the twentieth year that the Con has been held. Originally the theme was Pros only. However, as some fans wanted to try their hand at writing in other fandoms, the scope was widened which made it not wholly Pros related.source: whitehills here.
==1992==
*"The first Gryphon Press zine - was Unprofessional Conduct 1 an anthology which included: HG, O Yardley, Rhiannon, Sebastian, Felicity M. Parkinson and Kitty Fisher. There have been nearly 40 zines from Gryphon Press over the ensuing years, all of which remain in print." Paper Flowers by Kitty Fisher also came out in 1992.source: Whitehills here.
*Virgule-L mailing list was created in October 1992. It was the first slash mailing list and one of its main focuses was discussions of The Lads, Pros zines and and Pros fandom. It was also a main source for Alexfandra's recruitment of volunteers to type up circuit stories.
*Sandy Herrold and Megan Kent with the help of many Virgule-L list members wrote the Pros Primers] and the Pros Slash FAQ. While they were initially distributed to members of the Virgule-L mailing list, the eventually were posted online at Sandy's website.
*Fans in the US began retyping faded circuit stories. Many of the circuit stories came from the UK and had been printed on A4 size paper. As the pages were copied over and over again, the top and bottom lines were often missing as they were transferred to smaller sized US paper. These stories would later form the basis of the US electronic circuit library and online circuit archive.
*The third Nattercon was held in May at the Wayfarer Hotel in Milton Keynes.
*Cold Fish and Stale Chips was the brainchild of, and produced by, an American fan, KN. It was a quarterly letterzine to encourage writers to finish abandoned stories or help with plots and ideas, and where readers could suggest ideas they’d like to see written. The writer would offer up a story or portion thereof and some questions, i.e. if she had got stuck on plot/characterisation/and had stopped writing. Issue 1 is not dated but contains adverts for Virgule convention in October 1992 and also for the Gryphon Press zines Peerless Pair and Unprofessional Conduct 1, together with Pear Tree Press’s Professional Insight and the UK letterzine Be Gentle With Us. The last issue was #23 - editorial dated May 1997. The quarterly schedule often fell by the wayside and the zine appeared when circumstances permitted.source: HG.
==1993==
*By April 1993 there were reports of fans in the US typing Pros circuit stories for email distribution.Source: September 19, 1994 email from Alexfandra to the Virgule-L [[mailing list. According to recollections: "Fans started to make electronic copies of Pros fanfic for email, floppy-disk and ultimately the ProsLib CD distribution" source: Circuit Archive - About page and msmoat.
*From D. Ramsey, of ProsLib, on the origins of ProsLib in the USA: "During 1993, I enlisted [Meri] to help me get people to help type, to talk to authors who were shy of having their stories in e-format. Seems funny now, but back then, this was all new. Lots of people were suspicious of the new medium. It opened up all kinds of questions about who controlled stories. Meri thought it would be a good idea to store proslib on this new thing called The World Wide Web and created a web site called the Pros Online Circuit Archive to reach even more fans. Meanwhile, I bought up boxes of the hardcopy circuit from Karen B and sent them to fans in the US, England, Germany and Australia to type up for Proslib. It was a fun, active time. Everything was so new and there was so much energy. By the time I was up to 32 diskettes, thankfully burnable cds were in vogue and so was yahoo. I chose yahoo as the easiest way to send out weekly stories to the over 200 who were in Proslib. Up to that time, I just had an addressee list I maintained in my email."source: comment by hagsrus here. Other fans remember the origins of the circuit story mailing list differently: In 1993, the story mailing list was a simple e-mail distribution list maintained by Alexfandra. Alex kept a list of circuit stories that were being typed into electronic format and coordinated typists, so that no one typed a story twice. By early '93, the assembled set of stories was known as "Alex's electronic Pros library." When a typist sent Alex a new story, Alex sent the story out to everyone on the Professionals story e-mail distribution list. It was not until May 1995, that Alex handed off the distribution of the stories to D. Ramsey. Source:1993 Virgule-L emails discussing the addition of new circuit stories, accessed March 29, 2012; Virgule-L emails from May 1995 announcing the hand-off to D. Ramsey, accessed March 29, 2012.
*The exact composition of the paper circuit library and whether stories were placed 'on the circuit' with authorial permission remained a source of debate. According to one fan: "Stories have often been wrongly attributed because many of the early circuit stories did not carry the author’s name. The name at the top of paper copy from which the computer copy was made was the name of the person receiving the copy, and this has been misinterpreted as being the author’s name. It should be added that some of the early stories have ended up in computer format without the agreement of the authors, since little or no effort seems to have been made to track them down."source: Felicity M. Parkinson. Of course, since most circuit stories lacked names and most US fans had no way of contacting UK writers even if they had the correct names, few fans considered obtaining permission to re-type faded circuit stories necessary or even feasible. 
*In May 1993, the maintainer of the US paper circuit library sent the following note to subscribers about the contents of the library:
:"There's been a lot of talk lately about zine pirating, and the Library has been mentioned unfavorably. So this is a good time to re-state policy - it is not and has never been Library policy to distribute stories taken from in-print zines. That doesn't mean it never happens; as I no longer buy Pros zines I'm not always aware that a story sent to me - sometimes with no name and no indication where it came from - might not be "eligible." If any of you see a title in the Library that doesn't belong there, because it's still in print in a zine, please let me know! It will be immediately removed - but someone has to tell me about it.
:I've also heard that the Library might be banned from MediaWest Con—this is very strange, as the Library hasn't officially been at Media West for some years. The only official appearance of the Library (in terms of selling off excess copies of stories) is at ZCon. No exceptions. What people choose to do with their own individual copies of stories, whether obtained from the Library or not, is their own business." Source: Library Update #2 dated May 1993, accessed March 29, 2012. A year later, this ongoing debate would spill over to the electronic circuit library, coming to a head in 1996 when several UK authors pulled their fiction from the electronic circuit.
*The fourth Nattercon was held in May at the Wayfarer Hotel in Milton Keynes.
==1994==
*The fifth Nattercon was held in May at the Wayfarer Hotel in Milton Keynes.
*The electronic circuit library addressed concerns about whether they had permission to retype and redistribute circuit stories. In September 1994, Alexfandra sent an email to the Virgule-L mailing list assuring members that "All stories are Pros, and all are either from the circuit, or are non-circuit stories for which the author's permission has been received." Absent from this email was the requirement that typists obtain permission from circuit authors, presumably because many of the circuit stories lacked authors, or if there were names there was no way to contact them. Requests to type and circulate out of print fanzine stories, on the other hand, could at least be funneled theoretically through zine publishers. Source: Alexfandra's September 19, 1994 Virgule-L email, accessed March 29, 2012.
*On September 19, 1994 Alexfandra emailed an update about the Pros Online Library to members of the Virgule-L mailing list: "Since Spring of '93, various Pros fans on the List have been retyping circuit stories on their computers, then sending them to me for central storage and distribution. I've established a little "sub-list" of fans who have asked to receive these stories via e-mail whenever new ones are done. Everyone on the sub-list comes from the Slashlist......There are currently 116 stories typed in and available, with new ones being worked on. Most are short stories, though a couple longer works have been scanned in, proofed, and made available, with more planned. If you would like a list of the Pros stories currently available, let me know. I'll zap any or all that you want through email to you. If you also want to join the sub-list to receive any new stories as they're finished, just let me know. (Also let me know if your mail system can handle large files; if not, the really long stories can be sent in parts.)"Source: Alexfandra's September 19, 1994 email, accessed March 29, 2012.
==1995==
*May 1995, Alexfandra hands over the circuit library email distribution list to D. Ramsey. It will later become the ProsLib.
*In June 1995, D. Ramsey sent an email to the Virgule-L mailing list describing her plans for the future of the Pros Online Circuit Library: "One of the first things I did was to send to the subscribers a survey, asking their opinions on the goals and changes....The Pros online library, aside from giving subscribers clean, readable copies of circuit stories, is a way of preserving those stories. The circuit library has been around for over ten years now and many of the stories are definitely showing wear. Clean copies will be made available to Karen B, to use as she sees fit, in the circuit. Also the online library is a wonderful way for new fans to get an immediate influx of stories, without having to wait for the circuit ones to come around." She also proposed that the stories be accessed via a secure FTP site to ease the burden of administering an email distribution list.Source: D. Ramsey's email "Pros online library" dated June 5, 1995, accessed March 29, 2012. The proposal was met with vigorous debate with opponents claiming the FTP storage method was unethical and immoral, others supporting the plan thought this might be a practical solution to distribution. A few members attempted to use D. Ramsey's email to start a debate over whether retyping circuit stories without tracking down the original writers was an acceptable practice.This was an interesting tactic as the question of permissions had not been raised before in the two years that Alexfandra had been maintaining - and advertising - the existence of the online circuit library. One presumes that the change in ownership, along with the genuine discomfort over FTP archiving, led some fans to revisit the concept of the electronic circuit archive altogether. This last effort was not wholly successful as many fans saw no difference from handing photocopies person to person vs e-mailing copies person to person. Others pointed out that if the US and UK paper librarians were not required to track down the authors and obtain their consent before "circulating" (often anonymous) stories, why should the electronic circuit. The debate threatened to derail the 10+ year tradition of the paper circuit, so the FTP proposal was quickly dropped. Source: Morgan Dawn's personal notes, accessed March 29, 2012.
*PFL begins writing in Pros fandom.source: msmoat, in comment thread here.
*October 1995 Morgan Dawn brought the Pros Online Library on her laptop to Zebracon to allow fans to copy the circuit stories on site. In her flyer to the Virgule-L mailing list, she mentioned that "there are about 10 MB worth of stories, so if you want them all, bring enough 3 1/2 inch floppies." Source: Morgan Dawn's personal notes accessed March 29, 2012.
*The sixth Nattercon was held in May at the Wayfarer Hotel in Milton Keynes.
*In December 1995, fans began debating on Virgule-L whether the novel Master of the Revels could be considered part of the circuit library and was therefore eligible to be retyped electronically. Confusing matters was that there were two different versions of the novel: one published in fanzine format in the US with color art and another version published in the UK without art and which was part of the UK circuit library. Even after fans confirm that the novel was typed and released chapter by chapter to the UK circuit and then, only later, was it put into a more legible zine format with color art, other fans insisted that the story should not be returned to the circuit. Complicating matters is the fact that the US publisher announced the zine would remain out of print (although she would sell photocopies at full price). The matter was finally resolved in early 1996 when the UK circuit librarian announced that she pulled the story from circulation after it was published in zine format. This exchange once again illustrated that the debate over who defined "circuit stories" could not be easily resolved. Source: Morgan Dawn's personal notes, accessed March 29, 2012.
==1996==
*In January 1996, several UK Pros writers including HG, O Yardley, and ET pulled their stories from the email circuit library. They may have been confused over how the electronic circuit worked, not understanding that stories were only being shared by email or mailed via floppy diskettes. The fact that few of the UK writers had access to email or the Internet made communication difficult and rife for misunderstandings. D. Ramsey promptly removed the stories from the electronic circuit and with the help of a long-time fan who knew the UK authors, sent them a paper letter introducing herself, outlining the now two year old project and answering any questions and concerns. Over the next few years, most of the UK writers relented as more and more fans began interacting directly with one another online and the stories were restored to the electronic circuit. Later, with permission, some stories were posted the Circuit Archive.Source: Morgan Dawn's personal notes; D. Ramsey's message to fandom re the status of the online circuit dated January 26, 1996, accessed April 12, 2012.
*In February of '96, Morgan Dawn brought the Pros Online Library to Escapade for people to copy for themselves. There were roughly 200 stories, and they fit on 11 formatted IBM diskettes. From ProsLib: "In 1996 I got 11 or 16 three and a quarter inch floppies (can't remember exactly), so it would have been after 1996 that the library was up to 32 disks, though I believe it was growing very quickly by then."source: memories in comment thread here by copracat.
*August 1996 the first Pros specific mailing list, the CI5 listserv, is founded by Lorelei. At the time it was simply referred to as the "Pros list" and it was based on the membership of the Pros On-Line Library e-mail distribution list. By September 1996, membership in the CI5 Listserv reached 59 people.Source: CI5 Listserv email dated August 15, 1996, accessed March 29, 2012.Other fans remember a different start date, taking place one year earlier, which may due to confusion with the electronic circuit library email distribution list. source: msmoat, in comment thread here.
*Online Circuit Archive founded by Meri (archivist).source: Circuit Archive - About page.
*Dave Matthew's Official Professionals Website founded on 24th June 1996source: Dave's Pros page.
*The seventh Nattercon was held in May at the Wayfarer Hotel in Milton Keynes.
==1997==
*Yahoo Mail begins in 1997, and so it is presumably post-1997 that D. Ramsey moves the ProsLib mailing list to Yahoo Groups: "Yahoo mail wasn't around until 1997, so D. Ramsey would have moved the mailing list to Yahoo in 97 or later." source: memories in comment thread here by copracat.
* Steve Alder (Murphy) died in March 1997. He was in seven episodes of The Professionals.source: Whitehills and IMDb).
* Around twelve British Pros fans went to Chicago, Illinois in October/November to take part in ZebraCon 13. Gryphon Press had a table in the dealers’ rooms. This trip was open to any fans who wanted to join in. Source: Whitehills.
* The eighth Nattercon was held in May at the Wayfarer Hotel in Milton Keynes.
* Discovered in a Letterbox was a British letterzine which began in March 1997. The editor was Hestia and it was quarterly. The letterzine changed hands after issue 14 and was then edited by lucadreaming. After issue 24, DIAL was taken over by a fan in America but despite many promises, no other issues were ever produced.
==1998==
*The ninth Nattercon was held in May at the Wayfarer Hotel in Milton Keynes.
==1999==
* Around fourteen British Pros fans went to Zebracon 14 in Chicago, Illinois in October. Gryphon Press had a table in the dealers’ rooms. This trip was open to any fans who wanted to join in. 
* Nattercon held in May in at the Wayfarer Hotel in Milton Keynes, was the tenth anniversary of this British con. To celebrate both this event and the Millennium, a quilt was created consisting of 64 squares, each sewn or painted by a fan. Fans who had died had squares sewn in memory of them. American, Australian and European fans were represented and there were also squares for the hotel in which the con was held and other icons specific to Pros such as the Capris. The quilt was put together by one talented fan and raffled for charity. The quilt found a home in Scotland. A small zine with photos of all the squares, with comments by their designers, was also produced. Source: Whitehills.
==2000==
*ProsLib Yahoo Group (mailing list) founded 1st March 2000.source: ProsLib Yahoo Group front page.
*CI5alltheway Yahoo Group mailing list founded 22nd May 2000.source: this thread.
*ProsSims Yahoo Group founded 20th August 2000.source: this thread.
* Around twelve British Pros fans went to MountainMedia Con in Denver, Colorado in July to take part in the con. This trip was open to any fans who wanted to join in (Pros fans have had holidays together in manor houses every year since 2000 but since these holidays cannot, because of the limited number of bedrooms, be open to everyone, they are not listed here). source: Whitehills.
* The eleventh Nattercon was held in May at the Wayfarer Hotel in Milton Keynes.
==2001==
*Pros-Lit Yahoo Group mailing list founded 19th August 2001. Cassie Ingaben and Istia are listed as co-moderators. By November 2001, additional moderators are formally named and include: "Amanda, Cassie, Jan, Jess, and Silvia." source: Pros-Lit Yahoo Group main page; Pros-Lit FAQ dated November 2001, accessed March 29, 2012.
*From hagsrus (Frances), of ProsLib, on the origins of ProsLib in the USA: "I started actively helping with Proslib a year or so later [2001] when I acquired a scanner and essentially took over as other demands on D. Ramsey's time and energy became prohibitive. She was one of the very first people to whom I was introduced in the fandom by my original "pimp" and wonderfully generous in lending me stacks of zines as well as offering encouragement to write".source: comment by hagsrus here.
*The twelfth Nattercon was held in May at the Quality Inn Hotel in Milton Keynes.
==2002==
*Lewis Collins Yahoo Group founded on 3rd March 2002. source: Lewis Collins Yahoo Group front page.
*Martin's Place Yahoo Group founded on 18th August 2002 (source: Martin's Place Yahoo Group front page)
*The first Christmas Bash at the Scarsdale pub in London, England was held in 2002.source: comment on thread here by londonronnie.
*The thirteenth Nattercon was held in May at the Quality Hotel in Milton Keynes.
==2003==
*ProsStoryfinders Yahoo group founded 30th January, 2003.source: comment by hagsrus.
*Bodiesannao82347 Yahoo Group (Photo Archive only) founded 19th July 2003.source: comment by hagsrus.
*AngelFishFanFic Yahoo Group founded 25th August 2003.source: AngelFishFanFic Yahoo Group front page.
*The Hatstand Archive, an online archive founded September 2003 by Istia.source: taverymate recollection and saved posts here.
*Alijot's Professionals Recs website begun 2003/2004?source: comment here by alicambs founder of Alijot's Recs. 
*Pros stories are regularly recced (recommended) by posters at crack_van from 2003 - 2007, and although they were taken off the "Major fandoms" list after this, they are still recced.source: Crack_Van's Memories page and comment on thread here by hagsrus.
*The fourteenth Nattercon was held in May at the Campanile Hotel in Milton Keynes.
==2004==
*the_safehouse LJ community founded 7th March 2004 by phantomas.source the_safehouse user info page and phantomas's LJ.
*Online Circuit Archive taken over by Justacat (archivist)source: Circuit Archive - About page
*Pros Language Yahoo Group founded on 23rd November 2004 source: Pros Language Yahoo Group front page
*The fifteenth Nattercon was held in May at the Campanile Hotel in Milton Keynes.
==2005==
*Bodiesanna082347_2 Yahoo Group founded 29th January 2005 - please be aware that the group seems to be abandoned, and messages visible to non-members are of the relatively pornographic-junk-spam type, rather than anything relevant to Pros.source: comment by hagsrus.
*On 23 March 2005 the safehouse moderator adds queenbamfie (later goodnightlady) as co-moderator. Another co-moderator, blktauna was also added. On 11 April 2005 goodnightlady announced that she was now the 'owner' of the_safehouse with blktauna remaining co-mod. Some fans express unhappiness with both the change as well as how the community is moderated. Source:kiwisue's Some Pros on lj history dated June 9, 2010: "Warning - personal opinion follows..the mod can delete anything she doesn't like at any time. Also, only the mod is allowed to write sharply worded critiques of member behaviour...
*ProsSlash Yahoo Group founded 24th June 2005source: ProsSlash Yahoo Group front page
*LJ community santa_pros founded 13th August 2005 by queenbamfie (user name since changed several times) for one-off Christmas fic exchange source: santa_pros.
*LJ community summer_of_78 founded on 11th December 2005 by queenbamfie (user name since changed several times) for one-off Christmas fic exchange source: summer_of_78.
*The sixteenth Nattercon was held in May at the Campanile Hotel in Milton Keynes.
==2006==
*On 24 January 2006 goodnightlady advertises a community for fanfiction reviews that she has started. It is called: "unnaturalcauses." According to one fan, the new community is supposed to be "....a place for Pros story discussion in all forms. There's no limit on what can be discussed (fics out there, how characters are written in fic, what you prefer to see in fic, the possitibilities (sic) are limitless) as long as the discussion has some relevance to Pros. I'd like to keep the_safehouse as the newbie friendly place it has developed into. It's honest but it's a light environment. unnaturalcauses will be a place for those members that choose to air negative opinions in a forum targeted towards honest discussion." Source: kiwisue's Some Pros on lj history dated June 9, 2010. By June 2010 (or possibly earlier), the community was deleted. 
*On 16 Feb 2006 goodnightlady announced that she would be stepping away (but not resigning) from modding the_safehouse and that londonronnie would be stepping in. However goodnightlady retained the role of approving new memberships and setting policy for the comm. Source: kiwisue's Some Pros on lj history dated June 9, 2010.
*Around this time, Pros dropped off the active fandom recommending and review list at crack_van. Source: kiwisue's Some Pros on lj history dated June 9, 2010.
*LJ community ci5hq founded 23rd April by empty_mirrors and przed source: ci5hq user info page] According to empty_mirrors in the community's Introduction post on 25 March: "The_safehouse seems to be more about introducing new work, whereas ci5hq is aiming to fill the gap left by the crack_van's [dropping Pros fandom from their rec lis]. Plus, because ci5hq allows story/vid recs, any discussion will primarily arise from those ..." Another fan notes that "Unlike the_safehouse, ci5hq allowed commenting by non-members. The rules were more relaxed and simply expressed (e.g. "Flames are bad").....No warnings policy, discussion of cut-tags...." On June 22, 2006, byslantedlight is invited to become a co-moderator. Source: kiwisue's Some Pros on lj history dated June 9, 2010.
*Nattercon 2006 - UK-based Pros convention, May 2006, Milton Keynes, UK. 
*discoveredinalj founded 13th July 2006 by empty_mirrors and byslantedlight source: discoveredinalj user info page According to one fan, the community was founded because the safehouse discontinued Challenges.The fan quotes empty mirrors: "So byslantedlight and I have been missing the the_safehouse Challenges recently, and so we decided to play on our own while they're getting back on their feet. This week we challenged each other, and I was given bellydance, a candle and snow as my things to include. These are my results. We're going to play again on Wednesday – if anyone else would like to join in, please comment on empty_mirrors lj on Wednesday. Non-fandom specific, but we'd encourage everyone to post to their own ljs/comms!" Source: kiwisue's Some Pros on lj history dated June 9, 2010. The first challenge was announced on 15 March 2006 and it was "The National Curriculum Challenge - Geography". The challenge announcements alternated between empty_mirrors and byslantedlight's ljs.Source: kiwisue's Some Pros on lj history dated June 9, 2010.
*TV Lounge Forum founded some time around July 2006? source: TV Lounge Forum first introductions post.
*LJ community pros_pearl founded on 13th December 2006 by hisluvpet to celebrate 30 years of The Professionals.
*The seventeenth Nattercon was held in May at the Express By Holiday Inn in Milton Keynes.
==2007==
*pros_newsletter Livejournal community is founded on 3rd May 2007 by paris7am source: pros_newsletter user info page, and first pros_newsletter entry. Like many newsletters appearing on LJ at the time, the pros_newsletter's goal is to provide fans with a centralized fandom specific resource to offset Livejournal's lack of search capability.
*The eighteenth Nattercon was held in May at the Express By Holiday Inn in Milton Keynes, England.
*LJ community prosfinder founded 18th June 2007 by probodie source: prosfinder user info page
*First Close Quarters 2007 - USA-based Pros convention, July (?) 2007, Laurel Lakes, Maryland (Washington DC), USA. source: comment here hagsrus
*2007 CI5mas/Scarsdale Bash at The Scarsdale pub (used in Fall Girl), London, December 2007
==2008==
*The nineteenth Nattercon was held in May at the Express By Holiday Inn in Milton Keynes, England.
*In late March 2008 it comes to londonronnie's attention that people are having problems getting their membership to the_safehouse approved. This prompts her to take a greater moderator role, and she immediately approves everyone who had applied, "as they were all known to her as Pros fen. She also revamped the user info and took away most of the old restrictions. At some point (not sure when) goodnightlady's name was taken off the list of maintainers".Source: kiwisue's Some Pros on lj history dated June 9, 2010. She goes on to explain that she feels that this was a positive change: "This is why some of us who have been kicking around (LJ) a while are more than a little protective of this comm (the safehouse). It was Pros first livejournal comm, it still is something of a flagship for the fandom, it's had its ups and downs but I believe that londonronnie has done a brilliant and even-handed job as maintainer since taking over. "
*The Automatic Hatstand archive is founded in August 2008 to allow Pros writers to submit and control their own story archives.Source: website. This is partially in response to the gafiating of the Online Circuit Archive maintainer.
*On 19 August 2008 paris7am announced that angel_ci5 would take over management of the pros_newsletter due to family commitments. Source: kiwisue's Some Pros on lj history dated June 9, 2010. This would be the first of several moderator changes as Livejournal newsletters are labor intensive and often manually prepared.
*LJ community pros_icontest founded 28th September 2008 by rochvelleth source: pros_icontest user info
*CI5mas/Scarsdale Bash at The Scarsdale pub (used in Fall Girl), London, December 2008
==2009==
*LJ community loiteringpalely 18th March 2009 founded by byslantedlight as a place to source Pros zines and Pros zine information source: loiteringpalely user info.
*teaandswissroll founded 24th March 2009 by draycevixen, mikes_grrl, norfolkdumpling and saintvic source: teaandswissroll user info page; comment here by hambelandjemima)
*The twentieth Nattercon was held in May at the Express By Holiday Inn in Milton Keynes, England. To mark this anniversary, British fans created a tablecloth in a design of leaves and which was raffled for a cancer charity. Every fan signed her name on a template – and fans who had died were also remembered - the signatures were transferred to the leaf design on the tablecloth and each name was embroidered by a talented needlework Pros fan source: Whitehills. 
*On 19 April 2009 angel_ci5 announced that birggitt would take over the pros_newsletter compiler's role. Birggitt's first newsletter post was on 4 May 2009.Source: kiwisue's Some Pros on lj history dated June 9, 2010. By June 2010 (or possibly earlier), the community was deleted. 
*The Millennium Quilt was returned to England for archive purposes source: NNWest.
*Close Quarters 2009 - USA-based Pros convention, July 2009, Washington DC, USA. 
*Pros Writing Holiday 2009: Week/end in the Country - Derbyshire, UK.
*CI5mas/Scarsdale Bash at The Scarsdale pub (used in Fall Girl), London, December 2009
==2010==
*ProsSlashBash March 2010 on Reminder Sailing Barge, Maldon, UK - a Pros minicon gathering
*By early 2010, the various Pros LJ communities began to grapple with the question of whether to include warnings and spoiler alerts on member posts. The debate tracked discussions decades earlier over whether to include warnings on fanzines and later mailing list posts. On June 7, 2010, przed resigned as co-moderator of ci5hq. Among the reasons cited: her co-moderator had, without consulting her, instituted a new rule requiring writers posting new fic to the ci5hq community to join a seperate community to post warnings and spoilers for each story and then add the link to the warnings/spoilers to their story. This, she felt was an "unworkable and onerous" burden on writers. Around the same time the safehouse community adopted a similar policy; however a later poll showed that only 15% of that community supported the change.In contrast, the discussion on the ci5hq about creating a seperate warning/spoiler community had been more mixed. Source: Warnings - but hopefully not the same old debate dated February 26, 2009; Prosfic Spoilers - up for discussion again - with a shiny new idea... dated May 27, 2010. This then led the moderator of the safehouse to resign. Because the relationships between the various Pros LJ communities were complex and somewhat confusing, Kiwisue set forth a detailed history of Pros on lj. Source: ci5hq Resignation; New Header policy for CI5hq dated June 1, 2010; Changes to Fic Header Guidelines at the_safehouse dated June 5, 2010;Changes to Fic Header Guidelines - A Followup dated June 8, 2010; Amin Post dated June 9, 2010. 
*September 2010, the Pros LJ community hosts its first Big Bang Challenge at CI5 Box of Tricks. Over 20 stories are written with accompanying art and vids.Source: CI5 Box of Tricks LJ community.
==2011==
*October 2011, the Pros LJ community hosts its second Big Bang Challenge at CI5 Box of Tricks. Roughly 15 stories are written with accompanying art and vids.Source: CI5 Box of Tricks LJ community.
==2012==
==References==
==Static Links Archive==
* Crack_Van's Memories page
*Weeekend in the Country program book mentioned in metabolick's journal, dated August 20, 2008
*kiwisue's Warnings - but hopefully not the same old debate dated February 26, 2009
*The Dreck wRECk - Reviewing Prosdom's Earliest Stories, blueamaranthe, dated Sept. 11, 2009
*Thread discussing first Pros story in blueamaranthe The Dreck wRECk - Reviewing Prosdom's Earliest Stories, blueamaranthe, dated Sept. 11, 2009
*Byslantedlight Pros-y history..., dated October 15, 2009
*inamac and lil_shepherd's thread discussing the first Pros story in By Slanted Light - Pros-y history, dated October 15, 2009
* msmoat's comment regarding the first Pros story in By Slanted Light - Pros-y history, dated October 15, 2009 
* Byslantedlight Pros History, dated October 16, 2009
*Byslantedlight Pros Timeline 3rd Post, dated October 18, 2009
*comments from Felicity Parkinson as quoted by metabolick in Byslantedlight Pros Timeline 3rd Post, dated October 18, 2009
*B&D Character Studies - #1 - Bodie, dated October 18, 2009
* B&D Character Studies - #2 - Doyle, dated October 19, 2009
* Byslantedlight Pros Fandom History - post the fourth, dated October 21, 2009
* krisserci5's info gathering for early air dates and zine publishers and stuff dated April 16, 2010
*byslantedlightly's Prosfic Spoilers - up for discussion again - with a shiny new idea... dated May 27, 2010.
*byslantedlightly's New Header policy for CI5hq dated May 31, 2010
*londonronnie's Changes to Fic Header Guidelines at the_safehouse dated June 5, 2010
*przed's ci5hq Resignation dated June 7, 2010
*londonronnie's Changes to Fic Header Guidelines - A Followup dated June 8, 2010
*kiwisue's Some Pros on lj history dated June 9, 2010
* londonronnie's Admin Post at the_safehouse, dated June 9 2010
==References==
Category:The Professionals
The Professionals Fandom