The internet makes following tangential thoughts that much more fun....

To start:

Sunday night, I was reading Halagad's latest blog post about the Star Wars Fanboy Association. He had a lot of entertaining links, like the Wilhelm scream.

Then:

At the bottom of his post, he included a link to "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Glove of Darth Vader, but Were Afraid to Ask". I stayed up too late reading this fantastically amusing shredding of the Glove of Darth Vader. If you have ever suffered through this early-'90s children's book series, you owe it to yourself to read "Everything..." to help heal the scars. If you have never read the book, DON'T. Read "Everything..." instead. You'll still get the story line and have lot more fun.

Next:

As I read the article, I was reminded of my own online rantings about the book, back in the days of the Fidonet Star Wars Echo. That brought back some memories. I hadn't thought about it in years (fortunately for the book, unfortunately for the Echo).

The Star Wars Echo was the main source of new Star Wars information you could fine online in the pre-internet '90s. It was part of Fidonet, which was (is) a network of computers that relayed messages from one BBS to another via dailup. Following a thread could be confusing because many messages reached your system out of order time wise, but it was a fantastic source of Star Wars info of every kind. The discussions were generally good and often spirited. They also had some early EU VIPs on it.

I was pretty active on the Echo for awhile - reading every day and posting when I could. Eventually, though, the sheer volume of messages (hundreds per day) became too much to keep up with. Then I left the country for school. When I came back, either the BSS I previously used was gone, or the Echo was gone, I can't remember which. Probably the former.

Later:

I began to wonder what became of the Echo, and started the obligitory Google search. I soon ran across this post on TheForce.net reviewing the history of the Echo:

http://www.theforce.net/jedicouncil/editorials/050901.asp

It starts with the line "Many fans will be unfamiliar with the name Skip Shayotovich."

Even later:

Skip Shayotovich? Another blast from the past. I remember that name very well. What is he doing now? TheForce.net article doesn't know. Too late to find out tonight....

Early this evening:

Google search on Skip's name and variations of Fidonet Star Wars Echo. There's the occasional Out of the Maw (SW Echo newsletter) link, but surprisingly little on both Skip and the Echo..

Finally:

A Yahoo search turns up a blog entry from last year:
http://www.gamerfeed.com/gf/blogs/shayotovich/3

So Skip has a blog on Gamerfeed. He seems to have dropped "Skip", at least online. Looks like he's reporting on games for a few websites. Here's the link to his regular blog:
http://www.gamerfeed.com/gf/blogs/shayotovich

Thanks, Skip. The Echo was great.

Tonight:
This might make a good a blog entry...

Late Tonight:
Almost done....hmm I never did find out what closed the Echo. Too many posts? The Internet?

Too late...


Edit 10/09/06: The gamerfeed links seem to be dead these days...I don't know what happened to it.