Brian Wrigley, Sysop (systems operator) of Hairless Girls BBS wrote the Introduction to Scribble 2, which appeared in Summer (Southern Hemisphere) 1995. This Foreward throws further light on the idea of the Bulletin Board, the Echo, and Fidonet.

 
BACKGROUND AND ORIGIN
      A year ago, a slim volume of poetry was printed under the title "Scribble" - Poetic Dandruff Combed from Cyberspace".  Now - coincidentally justin time for Christmas - here's volume II. Equally coincidentally, here am I, to tell you a little of the background and origin of this anthology. 
      Scribble is more than just a book. It is an 'echo' on the Fidonet network of bulletin boards throughout New Zealand. It is part of 'Cyberspace', the world of electronic bulletin boards, where people write messages - and poems = to each other using computers, with modems plugged into their telephone lines. 
      On a computer bulletin board, messages are usually arranged by topic, so that callers can read, and write in, only the areas they are interested in. When a message area is shared by more than one bulletin board, it is called an 'echo', and the BBSs themselves call each other by modem to echo the messages posted on one board to all the others participating in the echo. That is the origin of the poems in this book" they were posted on bulletin boards in the Scribble echo. Many have never been written or printed on paper before. 

ELECTRONIC CAFE
      The aim of Scribble is to promote New Zealand poetry, and encourage New Zealand poets. As well as a way for poets to publish their poems, both on the network and in anthologies like this, it provides access to other poets for feedback and advice on polishing a work, in terms of both technical factors and the feelings it evokes in readers. It's also a place where they can meet other poets, to encourage and inspire each other - or, simply, to chat. Christine Schiff, the moderator of scribble, refers to it as 'An electronic cafe, where poets meet on the screen initially". 
       This book is a projection of that electronic cafe onto the printed page. Since our last volume, Scribble also  projected itself into another medium: live performance. Earlier this year, a poetry reading evening was held at an Auckland pub, where poems, mostly read by their own authors, were interspersed with and accompanied by the music of a local band. The performances were videotaped for posterity, and for poets and audience to enjoy over and over again. 

ELECTRONIC INFLUENCES
      Often, when I mention Scribble to people unfamiliar with BBSs they assume that poems written and transmitted using computers must also be about computers. As you will see, however, this is not 'computer poetry", but the thoughts and feelings of the poets - on all themes - just like any poetry. The computer is not the focus but is the tool, the medium, through which we share out insights and observation. 
     Of course, the poetry is  influenced by special characteristics of the medium. Its interactivity and immediacy, its ability to bring widely disparate people together on an equal footing - there is no admission fee, no requirement to be in a certain place at a certain time, no need to be of particular age, race, sex, political or religious belief or stratum of society. Needing to use computers doesn't even have the effect of restricting access to Scribble to those with computer skills- many of the writers have no technical knowledge of computers, knowing them just as the household appliances they are - rather, it enables people to intersperse their poetry with their everyday life; and after all, that is where poetry belongs. 
      This interactivity, immediacy and accessibility livens the poetry in Scribble producing poems which change and mutate as the poet gathers reaction from readers; poems which contain the errors and abbreviations of a hasty modern world, and the typographical conventions of a net where conversations are without facial expressions and tones of voice. 

A GLIMPSE OF SCRIBBLE
      Through this book we offer readers merely a glimpse, through a narrow window, of Scribble. To experience its full vitality and exuberance, you'll need a modem and terminal, the phone number of a BBS that's connected to Fidonet, and a love of poetry. We hope you'll join us one day.  Until then - enjoy the book !

RESOURCES INDEX

• MORE SCRIBBLE 2: ALICE THORPE