Happy deca-Foundation Day!

[Scott of Hyperborea]

Today is Foundation Day. Not just any Foundation Day. The tenth Foundation Day. The tenth anniversary of Audentior and the Apollo Sector.

It also marks ten years in micronationalism for those of us who were there at the very beginning, and by very beginning I mean Apolyton Independent Nation, before it was even Audentior. Me. Ari. Jason, I think. Maybe Gman. It's hard to remember. Happy tenth micronational birthday to us.

Wow. Ten years. That really brings me back...

Okay, so when I was young and stupid, say, fourteen years old, I was really into this computer game called Civilization II. I talked about it on this website called Apolyton, where there was an off-topic forum full of people who would talk about politics and music and TV and religion and stuff.

I had a website. It was about squid, mostly. It was on Geocities, which organized their sites into "neighborhoods" so you could make friends with the sites "next" to yours or something. I wanted to see who my "neighbors" were, and for some reason I was next to a site on micronations. It was an alliance between Reunion and someone else. I was really into history and politics at the time, and kind of an egomaniac (if you think I am now, I was moreso then), so I wanted to found a micronation.

So on the night of August 6th 1999, I called a chat on Apolyton and told everyone about this micronationalism thing. The most interested person was Evan von Christoph, the forum troll (although I don't know if we used that word at the time). He and I founded the Apolyton Independent Nation and told all our friends from Apolyton to come over. About a hundred or so of them did, of whom about thirty stuck around for any period of time. Harvey (then named Jason and nicknamed "Jasonian22"), Ari (then nicknamed "LightEning"), and maybe Greg (then nicknamed "Pinky") were among them (full disclosure: I was nicknamed "Giant Squid" at the time). It was very poorly planned and the system of government was Evan and I making stuff up as we went along. There were going to be elections, but I went on vacation and when I came back everyone had lost interest and it was inactive.

A few months later, in November, we decided to try again. This time, in order to avoid legal issues, we called the country Audentior instead of Apolyton. Citizens of Audentior spawned off countries called United Demesos and Jasonia, and citizens of United Demesos and Jasonia spawned off a country called Shireroth. And the rest is history.

So now I've been in micronations ten years. As Harvey once said, someone needs to assassinate me or something. Greatest congratulations, love, cheer, and good tiding to all who have been a part of this last decade.

[Erik Mortis]

meh


I could get indigent about how this makes it sound like the Founding of SHireroth was in some way a result of Jasonia, when it wasn't... but ...well. I am gonna. Cause it's not. But I'm tired of people just saying crap about me when I try to set it straight... So I'll leave it as this, Shireroth was not founded as a branch or extension of what I saw as a decrepit and stagnant group of nations. But sadly I couldn't get a new source of people till years later.

[Scott of Hyperborea]

*hands Erik a party hat and some balloons*

Happy Glorious Founder Day, by the way.

[Kaiseress Anandja I]

This is also my tenth anniversary in this hobby as well. I remember back in 1999 when I joined a micronation called the Virtual Commonwealth of Cyberia. I was very active in the Province of Bava where I authored several laws. I was also elected to the Senate. Later I became inactive and returned quite a while later to the hobby, but that time to the Kingdom of Morovia.

[Andreas the Wise]

Happy birthday Apollo!

[Erik Mortis]

Thanks Scott. (no sarcasm)

[Jonas]

Happy Founder Day

[Shyriath]

Happy Foundation Day, and Happy Glorious Founder Day!

[H4773r 3lfs0n]

*does a dance*

[Jacobus Loki]

(Rushes in, breathless, panting.........)

Oh.

Missed it!

L'histoire de ma vie.

C'est a guerre. (shrugs in a Gallic fashion)

Audentoir was very important, and at one time all mortals feared it. The Sector was/is important and should be honored.

Erik is right tho'. Shireroth is a different beast. Influenced by the sector, but not bourne of it.

I would like to take a moment to mention in honor Ken Kerns, founder of the Virtual Commonwealth of Cyberia. Whatever my conflicts with what some did to/with his creation, it was, in my humble opinion, an influence on a par with the Apollo Sector in the creation of modern micronationry.

Wherever you are, Ken, Salute!

[Gman Russell]

Yes, Scott, I was there for Apolyton. I Was there for Audentior. I was there for MAGIGARP! And MyNation, and the UD, and countless others I myself have forgotten about. I called myself Pinky, because back on Apolyton, my best friend nicknamed himself, "The Brain". Get it? Pinky and the Brain? Meh, I was young, leave me alone.


I especially remember Jasonia and Shireroth, though. I also remember the terrible fueds between them, and How I had to choose (I chose Jasonia, for the record...). Long time later, Jasonia collapsed and Shireroth was the only nation in the game. I came back to micronationalism after the terrible events in Menalmacar (I KNOW I spelled that wrong...), and i've been here ever since. With the exception of about 1-2 years, I have been here since it's birth. I've literally forgotten more than you'll ever know, you young whippersnappers! And I wouldn't change it for the world. It's been tragedy and brilliance, love and hate, with many actors coming and going. And it's been wonderfull.

Viva la Apollo Sector!

Viva la Shireroth!

Happy birthday Erik! I look forward to many l ong nights of bitter rebellion with you.

[Ari Rahikkala]

Menalmacar (I KNOW I spelled that wrong...)

Well, you were close. For whatever reason I used to spell it as Menemalcar for a looong time.

Also, I'm terrible at remembering stuff that happened to me, and I have to leave in a couple of minutes, but I might as well speak up and say... Good times, good times. I'd been a registered user at the AIN for a while before I had any idea about any of this micronationalism stuff that was going on in there, and it wasn't until pretty far into the FIoJ times that I'm confident anyone actually had any idea what I was saying behind my terrible English. And it really wasn't that much fun to be around back then.

But Erik knows that no matter what his reasons for founding Shireroth were, the early Apollo sector did define what micronationalism is for us, and maybe in another world we could have ended up with something completely different completely by accident. So we're stuck with the arbitrary choices a couple of random people were when they were young and stupid. But I guess they were a very unique set of choices, and I don't particularly mind being defined by them.

[dr-spangle]

The 10th birthday of the apollo sector is just a few weeks after the 40th birthday of the apollo project's greatest achievement

nice

one day the apollo projects greatest achievement will be only twice the age of the apollo sector instead of 4 times the age as it is now... that will be the year...
2(10+X) = 40+X
20 + 2X = 40+X
2X-X = 40-20
X = 20

2009+20 = 2029

[Aurangzeb Khan]

As Harvey once said, someone needs to assassinate me or something.

I sympathise, and at the same time, I volunteer.

[Gman Russell]

That's our Ardy...

[Harvey Steffke]

If we're telling micronational entry stories, here's mine. I was posting at the Apolyton site for a while, mostly hanging around in the SMAC forums but also a bit in Off Topic. A guy named Mao started a coffee shop thread that was about people coming in and talking about their day at work and sipping coffee. Imran started a competing topic called Imran's Bar. Soon everyone and their mother was making these little "business" topics. I dubed the group of threads "Apolytown," which I am happy to say is still on the MCS map today. I also started my own topic - the Apolyton Stock Exchange, the ASTEX. My idea was that every post someone made in a topic would get them money, and they could invest the money in various businesses for more money. That has economic chaos written all over it but I never had to cross that bridge because the site owners shut the whole thing down the next day.

Scott came to Apolyton to advertise, saying something along the lines of "the owners of Apolyton don't want your buisness topics, but we at Audentior do! Come check out our website and move right in!" So I did. And the rest is history. Highly fictionalized history involving aliens, time travel, parallel worlds, magic, love stories, and the fate of the universe, but history none-the-less.

Good times.

Micronations taught me about politics and it taught me about people. It taught me how to make small things into big deals. I've met some friends, flown to New York and California, created my own little world, and for a time fell in love.

Still though, at the moment, I feel like I have now what I came into the hobby with; that is, not much, other than memories perhaps. My generation is scattered and busy. I don't hear from much of you anymore, not that I've been the best at keeping in contact myself. I myself have a job in Florida and am trying to build a life. I don't have much time for staying up all night doing long chats or whipping up another dungeon in an RPG or just reading old laws, wondering if there's a better way to do things. I sometimes wonder, as I have wondered for years, what the point of our little hobby is. We're never going to reach our pipe dreams of websites with thousands of members and a chance at making a difference in the world - a single year of Apollo mcironationalism taught me that, let alone ten. Shireroth may have the intended goal of existing forever, but is it ever really going to be anything more than an increasingly strained social network of old friends that are finding less and less time to be involved and even less new ideas on what to participate? We used to think anything was possible. Were we really just dumb and stupid, or have we merely decided to settle for less?

I don't mean to be downer here, but looking back over so long does make me wonder if the future will be any different.

meh

I could get indigent about how this makes it sound like the Founding of SHireroth was in some way a result of Jasonia, when it wasn't... but ...well. I am gonna. Cause it's not. But I'm tired of people just saying crap about me when I try to set it straight... So I'll leave it as this, Shireroth was not founded as a branch or extension of what I saw as a decrepit and stagnant group of nations. But sadly I couldn't get a new source of people till years later.

I very specifically remember you telling me after founding Shireroth that you did it because JDS convinced you that Jasonia was evil and you should leave it and form your own country to fight against Jasonia. But almost immediately after founding Shireroth, like a day at most, you came to your senses, realized that JDS was crazy and that Jasonia wasn't all that evil after all, but decided to stick with Shireroth anyway cuz, hey, why not.

I'm not sure if that counts as founding the country as a result of Jasonia per se, and clearly Jasonia had very little influence on the development of Shireroth even early on, but you WERE a citizen of Jasonia at the time and I have always thought it's a little silly to pretend things exist in a vacuum and ignore the circumstances around events.

Not trying to dig up old sore topics, just sayin'. Clearly, your vision did far far better than any of mine.

[dr-spangle]

If you say this hobby will amount to nothing you must also look at other hobbies, note that a shit load of them will not amount to anything useful. miniature ship building inside jars stuff like this, the goal is to make other people interested in the hobby happy and if you have time, to make yourself happy too. hell, what's the definition of hobby?
"avocation: an auxiliary activity", "A hobby is a spare-time recreational pursuit.", "A hobby is a fairly small, very swift falcon with long, narrow wings. There are four birds called hobby, and some others which, although termed ..." oh wait, not that last one. but the first two are a valid point.