I will also note that there was some online fanfic happening in the early 1980s on PLATO (a mainframe system out of CERL and University of Illinois). Our University of Delaware PLATO instance had several parodic SW and ST fanfic notesfiles (including my own). I don't recall more serious fanfic notesfiles, but our local UDel community was a) relatively small and b) mostly male. Not much in the way of ficcers.
I do remember chatting with Michael Okuda, one of the set designers for ST:TNG, on one of the broader PLATO notesfiles, one that spanned multiple instances across the country, and there was much fannination there -- we had early set information and character descriptions for ST:TNG before it went on the air, and I wouldn't be surprised if there had been similar SW fandom stuff that I just didn't get into, even though I was active on PLATO from 1981 through 1989.
no subject
I will also note that there was some online fanfic happening in the early 1980s on PLATO (a mainframe system out of CERL and University of Illinois). Our University of Delaware PLATO instance had several parodic SW and ST fanfic notesfiles (including my own). I don't recall more serious fanfic notesfiles, but our local UDel community was a) relatively small and b) mostly male. Not much in the way of ficcers.
I do remember chatting with Michael Okuda, one of the set designers for ST:TNG, on one of the broader PLATO notesfiles, one that spanned multiple instances across the country, and there was much fannination there -- we had early set information and character descriptions for ST:TNG before it went on the air, and I wouldn't be surprised if there had been similar SW fandom stuff that I just didn't get into, even though I was active on PLATO from 1981 through 1989.