Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Emotional Resonance & Rocket Launchers:

The Buffyverse Online: Let It, Too, Not Fade Away

"Historians would be wise to remember would be wise to remember BUFFY, a show that would come to expemplify the dot com era..."

When historians look back to write the story of the late 1990s Internet boom, they would be wise to remember a little TV show that would come to exemplify the dot com era nearly as much as AOL itself: BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER.

BUFFY and the World Wide Web, in some sense, debuted together. Sure, the Internet technically existed for decades before BUFFY, but the Web just began to take off for most average people just about the time the Chosen One hit the airwaves early in 1997.

Fans of other series such as BABYLON 5 and X-FILES had been already making use of the ’Net. BUFFY fans, however, showed up online at the right time, though, just as fan sites exploded onto the scene and community-building services such as Onelist and eGroups mailing lists began to proliferate.

Legions of BUFFY fans made good use of these new tools that simply created a scale of online fandom that would make the show unique. And it wasn’t just the fans using the ’Net. The folks behind the scenes of BUFFY were as eager as the viewers to embrace the new medium. In the process, they created a nearly real-time, ongoing, worldwide conversation with the fans. Series creator Joss Whedon and his writers and producers practically lived on websites like the Bronze (now the Bronze Beta) posting board.

Whedon learned just what power the Internet had when, after network executives delayed broadcast of the BUFFY episodes "Earshot" and "Graduation" following the Columbine school massacre, he joklingly suggested that fans "bootleg that puppy" when the episode aired in Canada, and the quote was picked up by national newspaper USA Today.

Since the BUFFY phenomenon and the dot.com boom converged so well, the Web would become the primary home for the series fandom.

Interested in fanfiction? Try going to the dealer’s room at a decent scifi convention. A TREK fan? They’ll be plenty of fanzines to choose from, no matter if you’re looking for classic, NEXT GEN, DS9, or VOYAGER.

"Joss Whedon learned the power the Internet had when network executives delayed broadcast of ’Earshot’..." But you’re looking for Buffyverse fanzines, you say? Good luck. The pickin’ will be slim. That’s the Internet again. Most BUFFY and ANGEL fanfic started online, so there’s been little reason to actually print it up.

The designers and owners of BUFFY and ANGEL fan sites are second only to Joss & Co. in the amount of love and sweat they pour into this thing we call the Buffyverse. These Web mavens design and develop the best sites they can, hunt for the most unique and up-to-date content for their sites-all while fussing over balky servers and bandwidth limits.

In addition to the all the fanfiction, fans create and post their own BUFFY artwork, digital renderings, sorting spoiler fact from fiction, and so much more.

Many have gone to heroic lengths on behalf of making the Web an ever-friendlier BUFFY environment-or at least try. Frank Sewald, who goes by the online name Tensai and runs the famous site, The Spoiler Slayer, said that last year, in observance of the BUFFY series finale, he kicked around the idea of doing a live webcast of the final episode with running commentary. In the end, he decided against it because he doubted his site could handle the bandwidth demand of such a venture.

For some, like Bec Donnison, it came naturally since the Web was their day jobs, anyway.

"Being a web developer in my professional life I spent a lot of time online and naturally scoured the Internet for more BUFFY. Apart from the wonderful Buffyguide.com the only sites I can across were heavy on the graphics and repeated the same tired old bios of the main cast," Donnison, Webmaster of Slayage.com, recently told me.

"I didn’t care about Sarah Michelle Gellar’s career on the stage! I wanted BUFFY!" she explained. "What’s happening with the show, what the cast a doing next, will it be picked up next season? I wanted to know that kind of information.

"A light bulb went on over my head in true cartoon style. I’m a web developer I could put all my skills to work and do one myself. I started doing it in a very basic format without a domain name for about six months. During ... the BUFFY episode ’Out of Mind, Out of Sight’ (Season 1) the word Slayage just popped out at me. Buffy says, ’It’s all part of the glamorous world of vampire slayage.’ I thought ’That’s it, that’s what my site covers as such: The glamorous world of vampire slayage.’ So in January 2000 I registered the domain name and went from there."

But now, with BUFFY already history and ANGEL preparing to make its decidedly premature departure this week, how do these keepers of the "BUFFY Web" feel about all their efforts?

City of Angel, one of the largest fan sites devoted exclusively to the L.A. fang gang, plans a few touches to send the series on to a fond farewell.

"We’ll we have a few Spotlight features that will follow the ending of ANGEL, and we may do an End of the Series special feature and give-away," said Lillian Holden, the site’s public relations manager.

"But we rather feel it’s a pause in the action, Joss will be back in one way or another I’m sure," she added.

Look for changes at City of Angel, as well, once the series ends.

"Well, we’re certainly going to make some changes," Holden said. "We’ll wrap up all the episodes and characters. We can’t maintain a 12-person staff with no series to support, so a lot of the interactive pages will become static, meaning more of a resource page.

"There are still countries who have not gotten to the final season, so we want to be there for them," she added. "But we hope to continue bringing special features and interview, although not as frequent, throughout the next year. After that, we’ll have to wait and see."

"With the Buffyverse as we know it getting sucked into a Hollywood Hellmouth will the thousands of fan sites get taken with it?" "Being a part of the BUFFY online community and helping to make it as renowned as it is has been invaluable part of my life," said Donnison.

Tensai said, "Running the Spoiler Slayer has probably been one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had in a very long time, and something that I will always remember. The people, fans, and sources that I have talked with have been both interesting and enlightening.

"There are some great people out there, who are extremely devoted to the shows and the characters, who go above and beyond the call of duty in keeping the fans informed about the show," he added.

With the Buffyverse as we know it potentially getting permanently sucked into a Hellmouth of Hollywood’s making, will the thousands of BUFFY/ANGEL fan sites get taken with it?

"That’s the big money question! As ’Once More With Feeling’ questioned, ’Where do we go from here?’" observed Mitchel "Vlad" Mote, the self-described "arch-technopagan" of the Soulful Spike Society.

Dedicated, obviously, to the character Spike, the Soulful Spike Society started about 18 months ago merely as a message thread on ScoopMe!, a now-defunct but once very popular, message board. It eventually grew to become a major presence on its own at soulfulspike.com.

Its members were already just starting to create their own site when the operators of ScoopMe! announced their site was closing.

"At first we looked for other sites similar to ScoopMe! to which we could graft ourselves. But, there seemed to be a severe drought of any intelligent, pro-Spike, friendly places to discuss Whedonverse topics," Mote explained.

"So, it became obvious to me: we needed to start our own. We already had the seed in our tiny website and I thought we could possibly use that as a springboard. I assembled a council of 12, including myself, that quietly, behind the scenes, donated funds to pay for the necessary web space and also spent massive time searching out a feasible new message board system," he added. "During this, we kept our members happy and busy archiving all the posts from ScoopMe! and we actively sought like-minded new members that were distraught that ScoopMe! was closing. Somewhere in the midst of this we learned that Spike would be transferring over to ANGEL. Things actually appeared to be going our way."

The fans of the Soulful Spike Society have persevered before, and the end of ANGEL won’t change that, Mote said.

"The fans have persevered before and the end of ANGEL won’t change that..." "We will stay online as long as there is an interest in our folk for staying online," he assured. "Or, as I reassured the folk at the end of BtVS and then again at the announcement of the end of ANGEL, ’Don’t worry folks, we ain’t goin’ nowhere.’"

But some change is inevitable, Mote admitted.

"As far as [the site] staying like it is, no, that can’t possibly happen," he said. "For one thing, discussion of the new episodes is a huge part of our talks. ... Obviously with no new episodes or a new season coming, there will be no new speculation."

Mote said his site is blessed with a number of talented writers who will continue to churn out original stories for those looking to stay within the Buffyverse.

"Not only do we have Nan Dibble writing original and very, very good BtVS fanfiction, we have a newcomer named Rob Sorenson who never wrote before joining us," he said. "He has now turned out three excellent novels and is in the middle of the forth in an alternate universe setting of BtVS that pretty much veered in the middle of Season 7. He is quite good, quite popular and very prolific, putting out one or two full chapters a week. It’s almost like we have our own BtVS writer working solely for us."

Tensai is equally resolute about the future of SpoilerSlayer.

"The site will always be around in one form or another, even if it becomes nothing more than a memorial to the shows," he said.