A brief history of the e-book scene
Published at www.searchlores.org in October 2004    ~    Back to the how to find books section

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[luring] piece of ebook scene culture  collected by Ronin, October 2004

~ Adapted from recent EEn NFO

Table of Contents:

I. A Brief History of the eBook Scene
II. Notes to Groups & Thanks
III. Reflections
IV. Recommendations for Scene Rules

I. A Brief History of the eBook Scene.

This is in no way complete or authoritative, nor does it pretend to be.
In fact, we would like this to be used as a springboard by others in the
creation of an official eBook scene history. Our apologies to any groups
if you were left out or if the dates were incorrectly referenced, we tried
our best with limited deep dupecheck resources :-)

This history focuses on the Ebook scene, thus ignoring 'bookware' or other
knowledgeware, usually grouped into the apps/iso scene. This will also not
include certification, comics, etc. Just eBooks and Mags :-)

Late 90's: The independent ebook 'scene', existing on certain IRC channels
and newsgroups, 'sprung up' in the late 90's with what became hundreds of
various books, with an emphasis on fiction (particularly sci-fi), and the
scanning thereof. While not released officially in the 'scene' as we know it,
these networks continue to blossom to this day, with many fine books that
unfortunately go overlooked, or are even snubbed by some in the 'scene.'

2000: The earliest ebook release we could scrounge up was ActiveX and VBS
Web Workshop by JGT from February (however, we believe there may have been
some official releases as early as '99). And so began (however unknowingly)
the eBook scene saga.

2001: The eBook waters remain calm, with only JGT forging bravely ahead,
with many-a-IT release.

2002: In March ROR begins releasing IT books. Two months later EEn joins the
fray for knowledge, becoming the first group to release magazines and non-IT
literature. Various 'one-shot', unfortunately shortlived groups such as OXiDE
also begin sporadically releasing ebooks. A hint of things to come in the
following years.

2003: LiBrary is Here! LiB arrives in April and instantly begins releasing
absurdly large amounts of IT literature :-P Various other short-lived groups
(LM, META, and so forth) also begin increasing in numbers, once again
foreshadowing the following year. (Groups with a focus in other areas, also
begin trying the waters of the eBook scene, EAT, and so forth :-) In late '03,
DEMENTiA appears with some awesome magazine & comic scans, and eventually eBooks ;-

2004: In January DDU appears, with the amounts of IT releases rivaling LiB. By now,
the eBook scene has reached at least some maturity, with five full-time English
groups (JGT, EEn, LiB, DEMENTiA, & DDU) working hard to bring a cornucopia of ebook
to the scene. More groups pop-up devoted to periodical distribution, including
iNFOSEC, NEWSTAND, iNTENSiTY, and so forth. Towards the late first quarter of '04,
DEMENTiA unfortunately retires, and a sprinkling of groups with sub par releases
appear: bibliophile immediately come to mind. Deciding to exploit the title appenda
of '.eBook' these morons begin releasing individual articles marked as ebooks, and
engage in other such douchebaggery. However, with more and more sites accepting eBo
(even though a large number still only accept IT material--you idiots) the eBook
scene continues to grow, and online book mills begin adding 'due to apparent copyri
violations we've been forced to change policy' notices to their databases :-P. In l
August, EEn takes an indefinite hiatus from the scene, wishing everyone out there l
and with nothing but gerontological optimism for the future :-)

II. Notes to Groups & Thanks:

JGT: Thanks for introducing ebooks into the scene. You guys were the
first ones to release ebooks. You paved the way for all of us to come :-)

DDU/LiB/CAUDEX/ROR: Thanks for your millions of IT books :-D, we're sure an
exuberant amount of folk have benefited.

DEMENTiA: Thanks for your kickass variety! Who else can release
Harold.Schechter.The.Serial.Killer.Files.The.Worlds.Most.Terrifying.Murderers.200
;-) Terrific stuff!

MEDiSO: Thanks for bringing something completely original to the scene. You're the
perfect example of what's needed more in the scene: KNOWLEDGEware. Never stop
what you're doing, and don't get discouraged from dumbfuck nukers/siteops who
think they have the fucking right to control the flow of information.

Bibliophile: Thanks for embarrassing yourselves with your shitass article rips
posin' as ebooks, your weak zno releases, dupes, or any of your other shit.
The '.eBook' tag is a privilege not a right. May mighty Cthulhu smite thee,
you foul sheep-stomach byproducts. Fuck off and die.

Nukers: And to all the sites that nuked our releases: what the fuck are you
cunts doing? Who the fuck are to say what's acceptable and what's not? What,
'cause most of our material wasn't IT related, or a few years old it's
suddenly not good enough? Fuck off and die.

Suppliers: Thanks for all your hard work, especially the scanners/coders, ya'll
know who ya are, no names, no names :-P

Affils: Thanks for taking a chance with us, and helping to spread information.
To all sites that accept knowledge: you keep the essence of free information
alive!

Fans & Moral Supporters: Thank /you/ for all your thanks :-), your kind words
have always kept our spirits up.

Everyone Else: Thanks to everyone else who has ever released quality KNOWLEDGEware!
Too many to mention :-)

III. Reflections

What a long, strange trip it's been. We like to think we've come a long way
since we first started back in 2002. Truly it's been very good to see so
much interest in the ebook scene as of late. Sadly, we as a group have come
to the mutal conclusion that we can no longer continue to provide ebooks
to the scene. We hope that our releases have inspired others to follow in
our footsteps. Looking back it's been an interesting 2 years. If we've
provided just one person somewhere with knowledge they used to become a
better person, then we like to think our work is done. Hopefully we've
done a lot more.

Shortly after our debut release in 2002 we discovered many sites didn't
want us because we were doing non-IT releases. It was us, you see, that
introduced magazine piracy to the scene (search waxy.org for EEn). We
also introduced non-IT books into the mainstream scene. Early on there
were a few affils who were willing to take a chance on us, and we sincerely
thank them. We became the spurn spores that grew on the scene. No one
else was, or /is/ for that matter, providing you with releases such as
Thornhill.and.Palmer.A.Natural.History.of.Rape.eBook-EEn,
Coryell.Jazz.Guitar.Creative.Comping.Soloing.and.Improv.eBook-EEn,
or Dark.Object.The.Worlds.Only.Documented.UFO.Crash.eBook-EEn. Non-IT
releases were simply non-existant.

We'll no doubt be lurking in the dark corners of the internet,
scouring the its depths for ebooks, and when we do, we expect to find some good
ones!

* We were like a fungi growing on the scene; unwanted by mainstream siteops,
but beloved by the witchdoctors, yay those superstitions peasants with faith,
untamed and freespirted as the winds of gentle Lemuria. For the fungi that grow
on the land are beneficial, with many a breed posessing hallucinogenic properti

Iv. Recommendations for Scene Rules

One of the pitfalls of the eBook scene is it's lack
of standardization. Nukers don't know what's acceptable
and what's not. Moreover, book groups seem to think
they can get away with whatever they want. EEn
has tried to live up to it's own (high) quality
standards, so of course we were upset time and time
again when we saw groups releasing poor quality rips.

With that in mind we would like to propose some
rules for future book release groups. We hope
the scene takes our recommendations to heart.

1. 0-day packing rules apply, 1.44mb, 3.00mb,
5.00mb, 15mb disk sizes.

2. No freeware unless marked as FREE.READ.NFO with
an explanation as to why you're releasing freeware.
Presstexts, press books (see www.movieweb.com),
and books that are no longer under copyright (e.g.
Kama Sutra) are all considered freeware.

3. No incomplete journal articles.

4. No max eBook size.

5. Publisher.Author.Title.eBook-GRP and Publisher.Title.eBook-GRP
are usually too long. We recommend Title.eBook-GRP as a
naming convention.

6. Publication date doesn't matter, as long as it doesn't conflict
with (2).

V. Complete Release History

This is the only official EEn release history. It's taken directly from
our archives, which we've been keeping since day one.

ronin

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