These Are My Views.
If you don't agree, deal with it. Flaming does nothing. I ignore Flames
because, well, they are stupid, plain and simple. Don't scream at me because
this page is here and you read it. If you think you will be offended, read no further.
You can return to the Main page by clicking here.
No one is making you look at this page....
It was 1995. I had just recently gained Internet Access, and one of the
first things I looked up Online was "Lion King". I came across The Early
Lion King WWW Archive/The Unofficial Lion King Page. It had a clouds background
with an Adult Simba looking at an Image map (That might not be right but that is the
way I remember it). Anyway, I didn't know there was such a Lion King following already.
Afterall, the movie had just come out last summer...
Well, I visited some other Lion King pages, and after a while,
I started reading stories based on the movie called "Fan-Fiction". These
people were good writers. Like Chris Boyce, Brian Tiemann, Jeff Dearman, John Burkitt, and
David Morris. They were sort of like Celebrities in the Fandom.
More and more pages were cropping up, but I stayed in the quiet background,
not getting involved with everything.
I wish I had stayed that way.
Enter 1998: The Begginning Of The Fall of the TLK Fandom.
I joined The Lion King Mailing List (aka TLK-L) and got more involved.
I also started Simba's Pride discussion at The Lion King WWW Archive's "Rumor Mill".
All was great, everyone got along just fine, and we were all excited about this new sequel.
It was the first new TLK-related thing we'd heard in a long time.
Everytime one of us took a trip to The Disney Store, we'd come back and report
any signs of new merchandise we saw. We guessed plots and such, some of us were right, too.
We shared many common interests, and the few times where our Views were vastly different,
we simply stayed away from those topics, we knew flaming was stupid
and only hurt people.
It was getting closer and closer to October, and TLK-L was tensing up.
We had more members than ever. The "Veterans" that had been around for a long
time began to talk about the "Good old days". This sometimes offended the "newbies"
and several fights would arise. I would not get involved with the fights,
I would just flood the place with Lion King poetry to try and get everyone back on track.
Sometimes it worked, often, it did not.
The Mailing List was just getting too childish and immature. Everytime
I came Online my Mailbox would be flodded with at least 40 stupid, pointless
hate mails to each other. I knew it was time to go. I unsubsribed from TLK-L
in February 1999.
The Rumor Mill had changed long before that. Just before Simba's Pride was
released, we had a huge flood of new people suddenly coming in. Brian, the maintainer
of the Unofficial Lion King Page, turned his Rumor Mill into a CGI Based Forum.
That's when the Chaos began.
Everything was alright for a while, until the people there began treating the thing
as if it were their own. When Brian would change the Layout a little, people would get angry.
This stumped me. I felt like screaming, "This is HIS site, and he'll do whatever he damn well pleases,
and you'll be grateful he puts up with all the crap." I kept my mouth shut.
Eventually people started "Role-Playing" there, forcing Brian to make a Role Playing Forum for them.
Simba's Pride had sunken into the Fans now and they felt that the Fanfiction they had written
needed to be changed to go with Simba's Pride. Everything was Simba's Pride this, Simba's Pride that.
Before, people liked the Pridelands and Simba and everything was alright. But then there was this sudden trend of
"The Outlanders rule, Simba should die." It was one after the other starting this trend, like
a herd of sheep. Anyone who opposed Simba's Pride should not be making such comments! Simba's Pride was great, in their
eyes, and NO ONE should hate it. Well, guess what? I HATE SIMBA'S PRIDE. Do I Care what you think? No....
The whole Fandom had turned into a Popularity Contest at this point, and I just couldn't take it anymore. Everything
was making me hate The Lion King. And everytime I saw or heard anything pertaining to TLK, I would
automatically think of them.
So I knew that was the end. I didn't want to hate The Lion King, and I no longer enjoyed
being around the Fandom. So I did what was for the best: I totally disconnected myself, silently
and unattended. No big Goodbyes..
Of course, I still have many many very good TLK Friends on the Internet that I still talk to,
and who I don't want to lose touch with. But, I am leaving what started out so small and humble,
but ended up a hellish nightmare, behind. Shenzi's Domain, of course, will still stick around. And I'll hold
in good memory the old days when TLK was new, and the old pages I once adored. Some of them are gone too, or haven't been
updated in a while.....I guess they ran away from it all, too.
