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A cautionary tale: http://pixelscapes.com/anachronauts/anachronauts03.html

And any of Stephen Gagne's mods. The Penultima and Elegia series were excellently written and fun to play.
http://www.pixelscapes.com/twoflower/

How about big and red and convey a sense of discomfiture and insecurity, providing the user with a sense of failure and desolation when pushed? http://www.pixelscapes.com/spatulacity/button.htm

Only if we include Red Paddle!

DONT CLICK THIS LINK!!
Please God No!!

I got hit with the lameness filter! How appropriate.

What, this one?

*clicky*

'The Really Big Button That Doesn't Do Anything'.

Maybe you had to be there, but this was when Mosaic was fading away and the first Netscape was available. Web pages were fairly new and most were grainy and gray. You found your way around by browsing, as Yahoo was just starting out.

I can't even remember what we were looking for at the time, I only remember somehow ending up at a Korean car dealer, then ending up at the button.

My husband, a friend and I had been drinking, and to come across that site back then, was just hysterical. There weren't too many other fads -- nothing else to goof on. I think the infamous Coffee Pot and the Door were about it.

The site up above is not the same, just a copy as the original went down years ago, so it doesn't have the same flair. The guy got so many hits and responses he couldn't handle it!! If only he had grasped he could probably make money on it!

Or at least if you were bored on the web circa 1994, you may recall the The Really Big Button That Doesn't Do Anything! I think that was the earliest web fad that I was privy to.
-DaveR

http://www.pixelscapes.com/spatulacity/button.htm
^here
just push the button.

You call that a large button? THIS is a large button!

Been around for awhile.

just learn to speak in Al-Bhed.

What about the Big Red Button that doesn't do anything?

Truly a timeless classic.

Can we just assume for a minute that George Lucas is correct about the power of myth? There are really a finite number of themes and stories to be told, because really as humans we don't have much beyond the small cache of stories we find compelling to see in a movie theater, and the cache of movies that hollywood churns out is even a smaller subset of that.

So, while people can expulse such gems as From Davey and Goliath to Homer and Ned Humorous(?) Matrix Fan Fiction, it would appear that these people are smart enough to take an idea and run with it, but not to come up with something original.

Also, isn't the overanalization of things like the Matrix a little dangerous? If you give creedence to the spiritual and intellectual properties of this movie and give it value above and beyond it's pure entertainment qualities, doesn't that open the door for the validation of critical analysis and admit that there's more than meets the eye?

The more you try to read into something, the more likely you're going to see what you want to see.

I just like bullet-time kung-fu and things blowing up. I don't feel any violent urges after seeing Reloaded, Neo isn't Christ, and I still have a firm grip on my reality filteres to allow me to know what's spiritually meaningful, and what's 2 hours of entertainment.

I highly recommend the Shadowlords series, followed by it's sequel Dreamcatcher.

Penultima is also quite fun.

And when you're done with them, Neverwinter Vault is the place to look for more modules.

reminds me of the internet in its infancy, where we allready had the really big button that doesn't do anything

I believe you are talking about The Really Big Button That Doesn't Do Anything.

A novel concept in its time, it was a strangely addictive big red button on a website. Established in 1994, and linking back to itsef, it was more repetitive than Taco's story postings.

As interest in it waned, though, they added a message board-ish thing that let people comment on the button. As it was quickly misused, the best comments were left and the worst deleted.

There, the very first MS bashing in large amounts began with comments like, "Huh? A button that does nothing? Must be a new Microsoft product..."

Although dead at the age of 5, its final resting place is in its original home, Spatula City.

I believe you are talking about The Really Big Button That Doesn't Do Anything.

A novel concept in its time, it was a strangely addictive big red button on a website. Established in 1994, and linking back to itsef, it was more repetitive than Taco's story postings.

As interest in it waned, though, they added a message board-ish thing that let people comment on the button. As it was quickly misused, the best comments were left and the worst deleted.

There, the very first MS bashing in large amounts began with comments like, "Huh? A button that does nothing? Must be a new Microsoft product..."

Although dead at the age of 5, its final resting place is in its original home, Spatula City.

the patent claims as Ameritech's original idea the concept of having elements on a web page that don't change, yet apply directly to other parts of the page that do change.

Prior art? Now here's a button that doesn't do anything! (and I believe this came out around late 94/95)

Does anyone remember 'the really big button that doesn't do anything' web page? That was hilarious.

That was one of the first sites I ever visited when I got my first internet account. Good memories.

Back in my day, the internet had only one hyperlink, and it worked... and we liked it that way.

And here it is, still alive since 1994!

Most people do not like to attract negative attention to themselves, therefore they do not push big red buttons.
Some do.

Online publishing isn't always intended to be one's primary source of revenue. I think this example and the Stephen King experiments show that at least for now, we don't have a workable system that will allow someone to live off what they're writing online. (Closest I've seen are extremely popular webcomics like Penny and 8-bit, but they also have side businesses and advertising and sometimes don't meet their goals.) It's not time for pro writing online yet. I have faith that a workable formula will be found, but until then, it's not a bet I'd wanna take.

For folks like me who are just publishing because they like to write and something compells them so that they HAVE to write, with the end result being freely available, it's much easier. I've got a day job that pays the bills so I can come home and write. Works pretty well in terms of keeping me in the black...

The problem then becomes 'Death by Popularity'. As much as we love the internet as a bastion of free speech and free expression and so on and so forth, bandwidth is decidedly NOT free. The slashdot effect can pretty much wipe out your website -- and then your ISP will cheerfully charge you for all that traffic brought on by thousands of happy readers enjoying your work.

Even pro sites and webcomics have this problem, where they start small, get popular, and get crushed by bandwidth costs from so many people simply digging their stuff. It's even worse for aspiring independent bands; the RIAA can afford to pipe thousands of MP3s off a website (even if they don't wanna), but Joe Q. Guitar Player might not be able to.

I really hope someone comes up with a technology or a revnue model that works. I'll keep writing regardless of whether or not it turns a penny, but it'd be one less headache if I didn't have to worry about my work costing me an arm and a leg to get out there.

Obligatory whoring plug for said work: Unreal Estate, a scifi comedy. It's got open source reality innit. Whee! Now let's see if it survives the link being posted to slashdot. (Probably will since nobody reads comments, right? *EL WINK*)

Putting aside Katzbashing, he has a point: the Internet is giving hobbyists and individual enterprenuers new avenues for getting their work out there.

Writing is one of the best examples, even better than musicians or possibly game creators, since the web is at heart a text based medium. The traditional publishing method (submissions, rejections, contracts, printings, promotions, sales, yadda) is laborious and iffy... online, you just post your webpage and you're done. Advertising to subcultural niches that would find your work interesting can be very effective; success/popularity can be found in modest amounts while completely bypassing the traditional channels.

But something Katz isn't seeing here is that online grassroots success != bigtime financial success. If someone wants to make it as a mainstream author on the NYT best seller list, putting your work on a website and grassrooting is not going to do that. Selling anything online, particularly with the 'I Want It Free' mentality, is difficult at best. If you're fine with 'smalltime' work or hobbyist tinkering, though, that's probably okay for you (assuming you can afford the bandwidth to make it happen; webcomic authors have this problem in spades).

Case example, which I swear is not a plug. Myself, everything I've ever written is out there for free. The majority of it fits into the niche subculture of 'anime fanfiction', so that works perfectly; I couldn't make money off it anyway, and grassroots hype and advertising makes perfect sense. Plus, using the audience I build from that, I can branch off into things like my original works which I CAN market. But being the next John Grisham by my internet doodlings? No. Even if I was at that level of writing quality (frankly, I think I am...) I know this is not the road to that goal.

So yes, new doors are opened by the potential of online promotion and distribution. But they're not the SAME doors you could open going the usual way.

Putting aside Katzbashing, he has a point: the Internet is giving hobbyists and individual enterprenuers new avenues for getting their work out there.

Writing is one of the best examples, even better than musicians or possibly game creators, since the web is at heart a text based medium. The traditional publishing method (submissions, rejections, contracts, printings, promotions, sales, yadda) is laborious and iffy... online, you just post your webpage and you're done. Advertising to subcultural niches that would find your work interesting can be very effective; success/popularity can be found in modest amounts while completely bypassing the traditional channels.

But something Katz isn't seeing here is that online grassroots success != bigtime financial success. If someone wants to make it as a mainstream author on the NYT best seller list, putting your work on a website and grassrooting is not going to do that. Selling anything online, particularly with the 'I Want It Free' mentality, is difficult at best. If you're fine with 'smalltime' work or hobbyist tinkering, though, that's probably okay for you (assuming you can afford the bandwidth to make it happen; webcomic authors have this problem in spades).

Case example, which I swear is not a plug. Myself, everything I've ever written is out there for free. The majority of it fits into the niche subculture of 'anime fanfiction', so that works perfectly; I couldn't make money off it anyway, and grassroots hype and advertising makes perfect sense. Plus, using the audience I build from that, I can branch off into things like my original works which I CAN market. But being the next John Grisham by my internet doodlings? No. Even if I was at that level of writing quality (frankly, I think I am...) I know this is not the road to that goal.

So yes, new doors are opened by the potential of online promotion and distribution. But they're not the SAME doors you could open going the usual way.

If the Internet is supposed to free musicians to produce without the middlemen of publishers with unfair contracts, just imagine what it can do to writers to avoid contracts like these.

I've been an online-only amateur author for the last ten years (here's my current project, in fact). I do all my work on the web, which gives me huge advantages in terms of reader feedback, online draft publishing to get comments and criticism, and as much graphical/multimedia extras as I feel are appropriate to each product. I haven't felt the need to seek out a publisher yet -- the Internet gives me a much richer experience as an author in every respect except for money and mass-audience exposure.

It makes good sense. Writing is a form of content that's perfect for a text based web medium, and it runs up lower bandwidth charges than indie musicians manage with MP3 libraries. There are no distribution costs whatsoever except for bandwidth; all you really need to spend major money on is promotional muscle. The cons are the typical "I want a real solid paper thing in my hands" attitudes, but print on demand services would take care of that.

I'll admit, right now, there is no economic model to make it happen. Gotta be practical about it; I couldn't start making the kind of money off my work that I could be by publishing traditionally. But I see the potential there, and once a good system is developed, this could be the way to free authors from the constraints of publishers once and for all.

I thought big red buttons were supposed not to do anything.

A) Because I want to quit my day job.
B) Because I PREFER reading off a screen.

Why quit my day job? I'm an author by night and a webmonkey by day. I publish online, distributing my work for free in text or HTML format (even though my peers balk at HTML, it's infinitely more flexible than 72 column formatted ASCII). I have little interest in traditional publishing models and all the rigamarole that comes with them; if I could self-publish, go indie with it online and make my work a complete user experience rather than just a long text string, I would. (And I do. But I can't do it for money beyond donations, because the tech and business methods haven't clicked yet.)

Why do I prefer reading off a screen? I don't care about the tactile paper and holding-a-real-object and such. It smacks of meaningless nostalgia to me. The refresh rate of reality and all the usual stuff people toss up to attack the idea of digital reading becomes a tired arguement with the same catch-phrase dismissals. The advantages to having books in digital form outweigh these conventions. I'd like to think I'm not the only person on earth who PREFERS reading from a screen, even if it seems that way at times.

If anything, online reading is far easier for me than normal reading; I have a physical disability (diastrophic dwarfism) which results in some hand deformity, making the act of holding up a book for a long period of time and reading from it very difficult. If I could download a small library to my PocketPC and browse it there nice and portable, I'd be in hog heaven. Instead, I have to handle huge, clunky hardbound books if I want to read the latest releases, which strain more than my eyes.

I've done my best to support eBooks, and support them the right way (no draconican digital rights management books exist on my computer, and yes, I want Dimitri free.) I've purchased and downloaded copies of Harlan Ellison's work and a few of the thousands of Star Trek books dumped to .LIT. I really want this to work; if I was a coder I'd lend a hand, if I was an economist I'd figure something out, but being an author the best I can do is hope for a good system to come along and keep an eye on things.

the Really Big Button That Doesn't Do Anything (est 1994).

It's not like splicing is anything new - hell we've been making corn that poisons butterflys for a while now - it's not new. Why is this news? What is the nature of the chromosome, is that what makes it so special? What does it do? Anything?

It's not like splicing is anything new - hell we've been making corn that poisons butterflys for a while now - it's not new. Why is this news? What is the nature of the chromosome, is that what makes it so special? What does it do? Anything?

So I won't really give long recommendations, but if you want them, see: Rurouni Kenshin. Slayers. Lain. Bastard!!(I don't think I saw anyone mention this. It rules.) Ghost in the Shell. Etc.

Now, why did I post? If you like anime, odds are pretty good you'll get a kick out of some fanfiction. The best I have seen that has a lot of varied content is ImproFanfic, or round-robin style fiction. It is NOT like tradition round robins; for the most part, the quality level is high (especially on the newer ones. Older ones like Magical Girl Hunters don't have that.)

Alternatively, there's Twoflower's fics at Spoof Chase (Check MTCFF Beta.. hee hee) and his Slayers series.

For manga, there's ImproManga, although I'm not real fond of most of the stuff there.

So I won't really give long recommendations, but if you want them, see: Rurouni Kenshin. Slayers. Lain. Bastard!!(I don't think I saw anyone mention this. It rules.) Ghost in the Shell. Etc.

Now, why did I post? If you like anime, odds are pretty good you'll get a kick out of some fanfiction. The best I have seen that has a lot of varied content is ImproFanfic, or round-robin style fiction. It is NOT like tradition round robins; for the most part, the quality level is high (especially on the newer ones. Older ones like Magical Girl Hunters don't have that.)

Alternatively, there's Twoflower's fics at Spoof Chase (Check MTCFF Beta.. hee hee) and his Slayers series.

For manga, there's ImproManga, although I'm not real fond of most of the stuff there.