History of AncientWorlds
by Heraklia Aelius

In January, 1997, the small-but-faithful group following the online adventures of S.P.Q.R. at Pathfinder’s “The Rostra” board started receiving inquiries from “Emperor Hadrianus” regarding what they would like to see in an online “community” based on ancient history. Hard to believe, but this was so early in the comparative development of online sites that the idea was new and thrilling! The Cybergods were interested in developing “cities” to follow the games; obviously, Rome (for the S.P.Q.R. chapters), but also Athens (as work was proceeding on an online mystery set in the time of Pericles’ Athens) as well as old Nieu Amsterdam (yet a third online mystery was developing set in 17th century New York). These three cities, it was agreed, would be founding community areas in the new “community” of AncientSites; but what others? By April, 1997, when beta-testing was launched on AncientSites, the communities included Rome, Egypt and Athens; Babylon and New York were quickly added. The Emperor Hadrianus morphed into “jot,” tired city builder of the new site, while Eden became “Decimus” and the Pathfinder Rostrafarians slowly and suspiciously checked out the bells and whistles of the new site. Founding members initally found a choice of about five ‘surnames’ per city and the thrills of jot’s special project, “Navichat,” in which avatars could actually stroll around Ancient Rome and interact with each other. There were rudimentary “domus” areas set up, but the energy of the site was still largely its simple bulletin board structure.

The first "invitation" to the Pathfinder Subrostrani was a post by Julia, an early developer at Cybersites, in April, 1997. Two new "games" in the mode of SPQR were offered - "Acropolis," set in Athens, and "Voyage to Neue Amsterdam", set in pre-colonial New York. Neither game was ever completely finished, as AncientSites itself began to take off. Amusing posts showing that the original Pathfinder group was deeply suspicious of the "new site" can be found on the Reconstructed Rostra.

In May, 1997, after jot returned from a long trip to Ireland, he brought up the idea of a Celtic community called “Tara.” By June, beta-versions of the adventures in Athens and New York began. Slowly, word filtered out and new members joined.

The nearest we have to a "Launch Date" for AncientSites can be found in a post by Decimus on July 10, 1997, inviting everyone at the Pathfinder Rostra to come check out the new place. The “Gold Launch” of AncientSites was set for August, 1997, and Cybersites, Inc. made every effort to get out word about it through major publications (it was featured in several magazine and newspaper articles, as the idea of a “community” based on ancient history lovers was considered so novel). Features in the simple version of AncientSites included individual domus homes for each “citizen” (together with their choice of profession and neighborhood), a community chat, private message boards, and instant-messaging capabilities, all of which were brand-new as far as AncientSites’ perhaps 375 “citizens” were aware.

From the official Gold Launch in August, events moved quickly. The infamous “great disk crash” on September 26, 1996, when street construction accidentally cut through AncientSites’ primary cables. Much original information from the site was lost, but a working replacement was rushed online on Monday, September 29. All posts from the site’s earlier days could not be recovered.

On the same day, 9-29, the old “Pathfinder” site rushed a new interface onto all its sites which was instantly detested by all. Members of The Rostra moved over to AncientSites en masse but, more critically, the “Roofer Invasion” occurred. Other Pathfinder groups, including science fiction fans from “Babylon5" and home-improvement fans from “ThisOldHouse.com,” not to mention political fanatics of all stripes from “The People Speak,” contacted AncientSites and asked if they could move their bulletin boards there from Pathfinder. Happy at the thought of so many new members, the Cybergods agreed - only to have civil war break out in the streets! The new members, indifferent to ancient history, immediately moved in and took over long-popular threads developed from the original Pathfinder topics, to discuss tax proposals and bathroom renovation. “War” and arguments broke out all over the place. While the Cybergods frantically created discrete communities for these new members (at “Fixerupper” and elsewhere), the conflicts between the beleaguered lovers of ancient history, those who wished to discuss roof repair, and those who wanted to argue about politics, led this period to be called “The Sack of Rome” or “The Roofer Invasion” by older Romans.

Finally peace was restored. The idea of “groups” devoted to individual subjects became popular, and “The Rostra” was the first group offered at Ancientsites in the first week of October, 1997. It was quickly followed by Campus Martius (December), developed to creative fiction in war-gaming, and “Britannia” (February, 1998), among many others. At the same time, Julilla Sempronius agreed to be the first “demigoddess” to assist in meeting and greeting newcomers, soon joined by Callistra Atrebas, the second “remote staffer.”

In January, 1998, an article about AncientSites appeared in Archeology magazine and an instantaneous influx of new members energized the entire site. With the addition of Machu Picchu, for those interested in native American cultures, and Tara for Celtic enthusiasts (created in March, 1998), the site now had well-established cities in Rome, Athens, Babylon, Egypt, Machu Picchu, New York, and Tara. In June, 1998, the site (which was already over 50,000 members in the books) was running out of money and space. The need for increased staffing and support income led to imposition of a voluntary patron subscription system, with special “patron” features such as private gardens in their homes, private chats, and other perks. Most site features, however, remained free.

The first “IRL” meeting of AncientSites members was held on August 8-9, 1998, in Chicago for a two-day convention. In December, 1998, the now-increasing demigods (including a redhead named Cornellia Cornelius, not yet with her signature chainsaw) helped celebrate the first-ever all-site festival of Saturnalia. By now, outside shareholders continued to provide money for research, development, and new programs, but it was determined to continue fast expansion of multiple other communities besides the AncientSites “flagship” model. Hence, several new communities based on the AncientSites software RAGE engine opened, including: 3-Dnation (later, merged with The Computer Vine); The People Speak; FixerUpper (later, maerged with the Home and Garden Vine), the Game Vine, Travel Vine, Money Vine, Sports Vine, Health Vine, Auto Vine, TeleVine, Outdoors Vine, and The History Vine. Many more remote staffers were hired to administer this explosion of communities under the CyberSites banner. Julilla, Cornellia, Callista and other lead remote administrators were reassigned to oversee the new communities in development.

The first “official” AncientSites convention was held in New Orleans from April 13-16, 1999, with guest speaker and famous author of the “Roma Sub Rosa” novels, Steven Saylor, and Heraklia Aelius and Zig ApilSin as party organizers. Eden came to New Orleans and also spoke on the development of AncientSites and the challenges the company faced in terms of development with its small financial support base. The first-ever “Avatar Ball” (in which prizes were awarded for Best Costume representing the citizen’s online avatar) and multiple party events created strong bonds among the citizens, and smaller conventions were held in several parts of the country thereafter, including conventions in Chicago and a meeting in Las Vegas, among others. By now, long-established members had met, fell in love, married, and produced families all due to their online involvement in AncientSites.

By this time, Cybersites maintained a fully-staffed corporate office in New York’s “Silicone Alley,” and promoted its various sites at events such as the New York Is Books Fair. The site now boasted over 100,000 official citizens in its AncientSites area alone, although multiple personalities probably meant between 5,000 - 10,000 actual citizens had registered. There was a “Lindsey Davis” week, multiple other events, chats with Caesar and Cleopatra, the “staging” of Caesar’s murder, “live,” on the Ides of March, 2000, and dozens of active and semi-active groups devoted both to history, socializing, and “role playing” or creative historical fiction. At the same time, many members were being drawn to write in the competitive atmosphere of “The Vines,” where prizes for best historical and other posts were regularly awarded. But by August, 2000, financial concerns began to cause laybacks in volunteer and paid staff. Rumors in late 2000 first raised the awful possibility that the founding flagship, AncientSites, could not financially survive because of insufficient income. This was, of course, also the year in which dot-coms all over the world began to unravel.

The rumors were, alas, too true. After a dark autumn, in January, 2001, the site announced that its last day of virtual existence would be March 30, 2001. All citizens were given two months to transfer their web pages and all necessary information before the site went dark for good. The response from citizens was amazing - genuine grief and concern, recriminations and wishful thinking, please for time and desperate, if hopeful, suggestions, filled the boards. As March proceeded inexorably to its conclusion, friends who for three years had met daily online tried to accept the demise of AncientSites and find other niches online in which to keep their friendships and groups intact.

On March 30, 2001, at precisely 1 PM Eastern Standard Time, the URL for AncientSites suddenly showed “File not Found.” Those of us who were there to the last gasp were in tears all over the world. We felt like a family member had died. The very last post, by M. Didius, literally preceded the lights going off by seconds - it said, merely, “Click.”

What no one expected is that, with the demise of AncientSites, the story was yet far from ending.

On March 31, 2001, hundreds of ancient history enthusiasts world-wide woke up to an Internet without AncientSites and had to figure out what to do with themselves. The “AncientSites Diaspora” began from the final “lights-out” of the site the day before. In the next few months, AncientSites members were instrumental in founding or helping develop Pan Historia, Historywalker, Ancient Domains, AncientSites Alliance, Ancient Times, and literally dozens of Yahoo and Community Zero groups throughout the web, all devoted more or less to ancient history, all hoping to recreate the AS community. It was my personal experience - being involved in a “Britannia,” a “Rostra,” and a site devoted to Julius Caesar, and almost all of the others at various times - that although there were many options out there, the largely-standard bulletin board format lacked something . . . even though I couldn’t put my finger on just what. With all this now-free time on my hands, without an online home to visit, I began working on a web site on Julius Caesar and frequently mourned the passing of the community and camaraderie of AncientSites. You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. We all tried to keep in touch by e-mail, although people began to drift away as new sites became established.

Jot had largely disappeared after AS went down, and Decimus, perhaps joking, said he would take his grief and disappointment to a genuine Aegean island for a vacation. So I was surprised, sometime in late summer, 2001, to get an e-mail from Jot. To my astonishment, he asked if I thought anyone would be interested in rebuilding AncientSites from the ground up.

Many of us had invested so much emotionally in the community at AS that, at first, all I could think of was, “can we do it?” Without a central place to keep track of former members - although AncientSites Alliance did its best - I’d lost track with 80% of the people I had known in the six months since AS went down. Second, I had learned that it can take big bucks to run a site. Right after AS closed, I’d spent time at writing sites like ThemeStream, only to find them begin to wink out, one after another, because “free sites” were becoming a thing of the past. How could Jot finance it? Wouldn’t we need offices, developers, staff, all the things that AncientSites had? But from the instant he mentioned it, the idea took root and I realized how very much I missed what had been, even if I hardly believed anything would come of his e-mail. And he was determined that, this time, no fancy office, no suits developing ideas, this would be his “baby” the way he’d originally thought about AncientSites. It seemed worth a try, but I hardly dared believe anything would come of it.

However, Jot didn’t give up. By very early January, 2002, I received a sworn-secret invitation to come alpha-test the new site, along with Julilla, Cornellia, JoJo, and a few others who agreed to beta-test. Due to copyright problems, we couldn’t call it “AncientSites,” but “AncientWorlds” seemed appropriate. I realized Jot was single-handedly writing every bit of the software himself in his spare time. Slowly, January crawled by with three or four of us doing bug-hunts, seldom online at the same time - and grams didn’t work yet! There wasn’t much more than a domus and a few boards, but from the second I saw the long-familiar black-and-gold logo and the graphics, I had the oddest feeling of homecoming. But that left out one critical element - the community itself.

Somehow, and I’ve never known just how, in early February a wave of people trooped back, all former AS citizens, and each one having heard from word of mouth that “AS is coming back!” in spite of Jot’s hope of secrecy until everything was ready. Instead of no one online when I went on to test, suddenly familiar faces, not seen for 10 months, seemed everywhere! The newly-recreated grams flew, with people happily greeting familiar faces and asking a million questions. There was a kind of delerium about that period . . . people were so ecstatic to find their “home” had returned that we all got rather soppy and thoroughly happy. Drinking parties were everywhere as, every day it seemed, former friends regathered and once-familiar names reappeared on the CommPanel.

So we came up with the idea of a Beta Launch on the very anniversary of AncientSites’ demise, March 30, 2002, and the developing citizens of Machu Picchu, Rome, Athens, Tara, and Babylon got involved in trying to plan something appropriate to welcome our citizens home. After much thought, it had been decided NOT to bring back New York (always rather an historical anomaly at AncientSites), so there were just the five cities - Germania’s development, and the morphing of Tara into Celtia, were months in the future.

From the very beginning, Jot knew that, to survive, the site would require subscription. Too many online communities had gone bust in the year AS was down to leave any doubt that free sites were an endangered species. But it was agreed not to pursue subscriptions until we found out the level of interest. Right up to the Beta launch and well beyond, there was no certainty that there would be enough interest, or financial support, for the new site to survive. I often thought about the early days of AncientSites, when Jot and Decimus were creating S.P.Q.R. in their living rooms, and wondered how Jot found time for all the programming after a full work day. But almost weekly, new features rolled out and the constant stream of “homecomers” continued.

The Beta-Launch occupied the days leading up to March 30 with a “Olympic” ceremony, lighting the old AncientSites torch on Mt. Olympus itself, with runners from all the cities then carrying it proudly through every corner of our ancient world. Finally, on March 30, the last runners brought the torch into Rome itself, founding city of the community. We’d all agreed that the torch would be lit precisely at 10 PM EST . . . we only overlooked one problem, that the fragile system buckled under an unprecedented 44 people online!! Trying to get those last posts up felt like doing so in the midst of a divinely technical hurricane, with grams disappearing and posts disappearing, but finally Jot managed to “light” the AncientWorlds torch that we now see everyday at log-in - and AncientWorlds was “unofficially” open!

Almost immediately, planning began for a genuine “official” Launch. Slowly, ideas developed for a new community, Germania - while our Celts worked to extend the borders of their community and became Celtia. We agreed to work on a “Gold Launch” program based on the cruise of an ancient sailing vessel, The Golden Phoenix, with cruise stops at all our ancient communities, each proudly displaying their history and culture as well as offering plenty of virtual food and wine.

The Cruise of the Golden Phoenix was an unqualified triumph for each city, as newly-inaugurated scribes worked their fingers (almost literally) to the bone and thousands of posts celebrated the official return of AncientWorlds. Jot worked overtime trying to make sure a new server would support the increased numbers at the site, unveiling new features almost daily. What struck me, as the celebrations went on from October 18 until the “official” birthday of November 2, was the good nature of everyone involved. It was as if, having “lost” our prior community, everyone was working particularly hard to bring positive contributions and good will to the new community. A system of subscription memberships was inaugurated at the same time as the Launch and people ponied up with relatively little complaint. Perhaps losing, and then refinding, our world of shared interests had focused us all on keeping what we had this time around!

The thrill of having AncientWorlds “back” makes me realize how many old friends I had missed and how many new ones I’ve made in the past 18 months. Jot views this community as a chance to do some of the creative programming never possible at AncientSites, and his ideas show me that “the sky’s the limit” for what he wants this site to be. But I will not forget what makes AncientWorlds (and AS before it) so special - that quality of community, as I saw old neighbors returning and creating life, interest, and humor where there had been only empty cities. Here’s to AncientWorlds . . . and long may our new incarnation survive!