Quote:
Originally Posted by SisterNightroad
I already know I'll regret it, but what't the "Black Ledge"?
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Lets see.. I think it was around 1998. Summer-ish? It was before I left Connecticut and that was June 1998, So before that.
Anyhow, the way I remember it was that there were two "Factions" The Stevie Poopin', Pro-PeterGreen crowd, and the Stevie lovers. It was not that the ANti Stevie were all that Anti or the Pro were all that Pro. It was like it is now. One would and could say mean things like Discuss her alleged Abortions and how Street Angel sucked and the other would have none of it. Same story as now. Same musical, different cast.
The Anti-Stevies got to the point they were being nasty to some of the Stevie people. There were Clicks for sure. This was at the same time we were mailing Dubbed cassettes (remember those!?) between members for access to Bootlegs before MP3. Im not sure who started it, but the meanness and nastiness resulted in some Bans and some people getting upset. So one of the the members created another BBS (Ebullition Board System) identical to the Ledge at the time. Their Mascot was a Troll doll, and the name was Black Ledge. (Back in those days each Ledge had its own color scheme)
Someone who was a "spy" in the Black Ledge group gave the secret link to someone on the regular Ledge and posted it on the Main Ledge So everyone could read all the mean things being said. The Black Ledge was less an "alternate" ledge for discussion about Fleetwood Mac and was more a place to dig and poo on people on the Regular Ledge. I took screen shots of some of it before it was suddenly taken down when the Black Ledge owner realized people had found it. The things being said were making fun of people Body, Weight, Face, Spelling, there were "impersonations" with names similar to the Ledge user names and lots of meanness. It was BAD. I was 18 at the time, the Internet was "New" to a lot of us, and this was before CyberBullying was a "Thing" in the news. But it was cyberbullying. What was said really hurt a few people.
Back on the Main Ledge the owner Shut it down a while, I think a couple weeks, and the Black Ledge was taken down, moved or whatever when they realized they had a Spy playing both sides.
It was a different time for me for sure. I was a loner in High School and moved a lot, The Ledge and the Talk to Me Chat Room was a hangout and past time for me. It was really ALL I had for a while. That incident changed me and my outlook on life. I took it WAY too seriously, and learned that the Internet is NOT real life, and that the Anonymous nature of it all is dangerous. People say things they would not say in real life. Same holds true today, and perhaps even more so. Thing is there was NO excuse for what went down and the way the Black Ledge people behaved. ZERO excuse.
Happily, I the person who I think was more "hurt" found happiness and love and got a real life, meeting someone from the Ledge, sharing their common love for Stevie and Fleetwood Mac, and got married. Last I heard they had kids and farm and dont come here much, if at all. The other girl, who I had a crush on, left around 1998-99 and I lost track of completely.
A few years later, around 2002? I think. There was another big Blow up, some of the same people were involved. I think that after that I just stopped posting for many years, unless it was a big year. But I also went to College, found Sports, and friends, and didn't need to use The Internet as a crutch for not having a life.
Anyhow. This place does go in Cycles. It has for 20 years. Keeping it up and running is important though. There is a community here, and the historical aspect of searching for threads and Info help new fans discover things. We didnt have MP3s back then, and now if you want to know about the 2001 "My Heart", for example", you can find it here on the Ledge and learn about it, or "Call on me For Magic". If not for the Ledge we wouldnt know about those songs existence at all.