Out of the Bottle
Celebrating Pan's Magical Staff

by Belle Starr

You may have found yourself wondering just how on earth a bunch of magical creatures ended up championing the genres at the library-themed Pan Historia. Well, it turns out that Calliope, a Fantasy Genre co-genie herself at one time who would later become our fabulous genie coordinator under the guise of Djinni, economically coined the term from the wordy “genre name + genre editor”. The term stuck and as the job has evolved in keeping with Wyatt’s original intention that the genres would function as smaller enclaves within the larger Pan community, so did the unique personalities of successive genies to take over their respective lamps. Each has left an indelible stamp on the genres and happily that continues today.

After Wyatt cleverly instituted the genres back in November, 2002, existing Agents and Editors were recruited to man them with their main roles were to create and update the various genre pages providing novel and reference book news and related content of interest. At that time Wyatt himself was an Agent as he continued making advancements to Pan but as everything progressed with the help and dedication of the volunteer staff he was then free to step into his role as Publisher.

The genres are continually evolving and recent major changes to Pan have set them on a much more focused and member-friendly course. With the addition of zone novels intended as social hubs for the genres, zone dailies where members may find targeted information such as daily genre posts, featured genre characters, novels, and reference books, the focus is on each genre like a laser beam. Zone novels and dailies work in perfect conjunction with the existing genre pages to complete the triangle of interest in each area giving members a much richer experience and better navigation from the main dailies to their chosen genres instead of searching the longer novel list dailies and reference book dailies. All the specific genre information and the daily posts to it are available with one click of the mouse.

"I think Genies are a great addition to the fun of the site and I can't wait to see how vital their role is next year, and the year after." --Wyatt Earp

Another fabulous addition has been the new Pandame Awards, or Pandas for short. These light-hearted awards are member and staff suggested on the genre zones as well as The Pan Millionaire’s Club and are voted on by the newly instituted Pandame Academy Of Arts And Sciences. After discussing the various nominations and the final tallies are made Pandas are ceremoniously handed out by the genies and celebrations are held in the zones for the recipients. Recent winners include Taniko for Best Steamed Nude, Al Swearengen for Best Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing, and Calamity Jane for Funniest Drunk In The West. Each round of Pandas is announced personally by Wyatt on the main dailies and each promises to be more enjoyable than the last.

All in all Pan’s genies have a fairly heavy volunteer workload but it is truly a labor of love for the benefit of all members of Pan Historia. They are part mentor, part html guru, and part party coordinator, with a dash of pep squad leader thrown in for good measure. As we all celebrate Pan’s rise from the ashes we can rest assured that as this wonderful place continues to grow and change so will the genres and the genies who love them. Each is a representation of the collective will of all Pan’s members as well as those dedicated to specific areas of interest.