Pan Historia:
The First Decade
Three years ago for an issue of the PanHistorian Celebrating Pan, I wrote an article based on Wyatt’s blog documenting the beginning of PanHistoria. The determination of Wyatt and his partners, the skills of the Mysterious Programming Dude, and the faith of the founders who put their money on the line cannot be over-estimated. If you have some time, do check out the article and Wyatt’s blog.
However, from then to now, great changes have occurred at Pan—the development of blogs for examples. Old novels have passed away, but new novels have replaced them. The magazine format has been introduced in Reference which enables all member of PanHistoria to post on a topic without becoming a member of the Magazine. Colors have changed, layouts have changed, super dailies have been introduced, but the essentials of the site have remained the same. What are the essentials? The people who make up this community.
This sense of community was very apparent on the dailies in May when Wyatt encouraged members to post their memories. Yes, a number of people admitted that they had drifted over from Ancient Sites and the Vines, but some stumbled across PanHistoria while doing online searches for various topics. Recently, we have gained new members via postings on Facebook and My Space.
We have grown up and grown older on PanHistoria. For Marius, “Pan sustained me through 9 years of college, four major cities, two girlfriends, a wife, and (recently) a child. I have accessed this site as young college student, a professional, a husband and a father. I have accessed this site while looking out from my room in my parents’ house in Michigan, my first college dorm in Detroit, accessed it while looking out into East River in Manhattan, the Atlantic Ocean in Miami, and Lake Michigan in Chicago. I have even accessed it in Europe.” Neferneferuaten Nefertiti notes that Ankhesenpaaten who writes as her daughter has grown from a teenager to a young woman, and Nefernefruaten feels almost a mother-like pride in her “daughter’s” accomplishments.
In the reference section of PanHistoria, we share our questions about plants and animals. What is happening to our basil? We know that Zoe and snakes are not a good match. We delight in our animals—some of whom have been known to take over the keyboard and create characters of their own. We talk about our travels, share our photographs and now are definitely discussing TV at great lengths!
We celebrate the comeback of Pan from the great Meltdown in the Phoenix Rising Parade. We make each other laugh and groan with our puns—and proudly display our Stinking Rose badges. We search for lost puppies, we write poetry for fun, we even have been known to create interesting and unusual Hawaiian shirts. Now that we have our new trophy rooms, we will be seeing how we can collect more trophies to fill those empty spaces.
Over the past 10 years, we have met friends virtually and in real life, marriages have been celebrated as well as births of children. We held our breath after 9/11 knowing that Liaus worked in that area of the city, and we worried about his safety. We have grieved when our friends here have lost family members; we have also suffered the loss of our own colleagues over the past 10 years. We are family.
Destiny said it best in her comment, “All the time I have been here at Pan something always new is happening, being created, added, it is always changing. One thing that doesn't change here are the people.” Tank Girl agreed when she wrote, “Pan Historia is People. Sure, we are all writers in our fashion, but always there is a person there behind the writing… some one who is ready, willing and able to be the sort of person that we all need in our lives.”
The idea that Pan Historia is a community of warm and caring individuals was repeated over and over again in the recollections of the past ten years. However, the writing still goes on, and ten years from we will continue to celebrate the creativity of the site, the dedication of all those who keep Pan Historia going, and our friendships that have been engendered by the site.
To Pan Historia! It has been a great ten years….now on to the next decade!