Guestbook

Synonyms:	Dreambook
See also:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Guestbooks were an element of older websites and blogs. Some fans referred to guestbooks as "dreambooks," a reference to a popular blogging platform of the time of the same name.

While not fannish in origin, fans embraced the use of them on their websites where they had options to "read the guestbook" or "sign the guestbook." In this way, they operated as a message board.

Guestbooks predate online journals, such as LiveJournal, and those types of platforms' comment sections.

Guestbooks were a way for fans to leave feedback and comments, promote their own fanworks and sites, and interact with fandom in other ways.

For fans in the late 1990s, the internet was wildly intoxicating, and the guestbook comments reflected this new technology. From a Beauty and the Beast (TV) fan in May 1998:

Nan! Yeow--- there'll be no stopping you now! I'm so tickled to see you out here on the infobahn! It's a strange place, true... but it can't be all bad. It actually kinda reminds me of the Tunnels: dark and mysterious, somewhat hazy, anarchic, interesting and odd characters in plenty, and a new system of "pipes" to communicate with. :o) Congrats you Newbie, you! Love, Sandie

Guestbooks could be hard to navigate, as there was only one per website. This meant that if fans were not specific in what that were commenting upon, other fans had to use context and dates to figure out what they were referring to. This differs from forums that had specific topic areas, from Usenet where fans could reply to a specific post, and later, from online journals where fans comment on a specific post AND could tag and link to other entries. Think of a guestbook on a LiveJournal site or a Tumblr page where fans commented and left messages on the ENTIRE account.

It is unknown how much editing/removal/censoring the owners of guestbooks practiced, it appears to be minimal. This, added to a guestbook's visibility, mean that they could be a minefield of blunt comments, emotions and included hurt feelings; for fans of the time, it was comparable to opening letters sent to your home and posting them live, and permanently for all to see. At least one guestbook in 2002, however, appears to have had the option of private messaging to the site's owner.

Finally, guestbooks were susceptible to spam, which means they were often overrun with unrelated comments, links, and profanity.

Despite all these drawbacks, and the primitive nature of guestbooks, for fans newly online, they often offered a glorious ability to read instantaneous feedback.

a "Dreambook" form: Many fans used a blogging service called "Dreambook." It embedded a template at the top of pages that said: "Welcome to Dreambook, a nifty new free service from: New Dream Network, Dreamhost, and Webring! If you have a minute, please sign my Dreambook too!"

Generally Not Editable

Sandy Hereld commented about editing a guestbook:

To remove her name, I had to do a lot of fiddling with the guestbook responses (guestbooks are non-editable in their normal state). I didn't mind helping her out, but now, I can't get a new guestbook working.

From a notice at the top of a guestbook:

If this is your guestbook, you may selectively delete entries from it. Other users cannot delete entries from this guestbook.

New Technologies Meant New Privacy Issues to Navigate

a guestbook entry form at the X-Files site, In Our Humble Opinion, this one through a service provider ("guestGEAR") that offered the option of only allowing the owner of the site to see one's comment; it is unknown if this was a common feature

From Sandy Hereld in 1997, who commented about editing a guestbook:

...a couple of days ago someone signed her name to her guestbook entry without realizing it would show up on the page (then asked me to delete her name).

In 1999, a fan described a privacy issue and visibility for slash fans due to an inclusion in a guestbook:

The point to this is that this slasher included her website addy when she signed the guestbook. The reaction was immediate and in some cases very paranoid - or so I thought at first. One list I'm on went into an uproar. The basic feeling was that she had outed slash to the whole world. Because her website belonged to a webring and had an extensive links page, a surfer could get anywhere in the slash world simply by clicking on that guestbook link.

On January 3, 1999, a fan posted, with no warnings, an explicit BDSM fic. Thirteen minutes later, author posted and asked for it to be deleted, but this request was ignored:

By the way, Heather--when you get back, delete this message, the Wild Nights one, and the one that repeated itself to infinity. I'd prefer it if future visitors didn't see how twisted I truly am. ---Jen, a sister of slash and a proud perv

At the Mercy of Technology and Changing Platforms

Like with all platforms, fans' content were at the mercy of for-profit platforms and their changing priorities.

In 2000, a fan, MacGeorge provided an old link to archived guestbook entries (1998-2000) at MacGeorge Madness Old Guest Page, with the note:

This is the older guestbook for this website: "Note: Geocities/Yahoo discontinued my old guestbook connection as of November 30, 2000. My old guestbook entries can, however, be seen thru the above link.

From a 2014 post from the owners of a blogging, and prominent guestbook, platform:

We're sad today to say farewell to an old and dear friend. DreamBook was one of the first projects created [in 1997] ... At one time hosting over a half million guestbooks, it was the second largest guestbook server in the world at its peak and helped to introduce thousands of people to our services. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and the function guestbooks provided has been replaced by shiny new toys like Facebook and WordPress. As a result, we made the difficult decision to retire DreamBook once and for all — our hosting of DreamBooks ended on March 31st, 2014.

We do understand that many users have become attached to their DreamBooks so, as a courtesy, we've made archives of your DreamBooks available from the DreamBook management page. Those downloads will be available until July 2014.

Some Guestbooks Preceded Forums and Message Boards

SpaceBattles.com is a message board, an offshoot of SpaceBattles, a site created in 1996 by Johan Alm to display CGI fan movies, generally involving conflict between spaceships from various science fiction franchises. An original guestbook feature meant to allow viewers to provide feedback soon was overwhelmed by arguments and debates about the accuracy of the battles depicted in said fan movies. As a result of this, 1998 saw the creation of a forum that remains in operation to this day, and which over the years has become a major hub for several fandoms.

In May 1999, a fan asked:

Well... So many issues to address so little time! The staff here at GAFF might just need to invest in a message board. LOL

The Differences Between Message Boards and Guestbooks

In 1999, the GeoCities site explained how it worked for fans who used that service :

What's the difference between a Guestbook and a Message Board?

Both allow visitors to leave messages on your site.

The primary difference between the two is in the level of customization that you can do and the type of navigation that visitors will experience when they come to your site.

With Guestbooks, you can:

Customize the background of your Guestbook

Show several messages at once

Choose what questions you would like to ask

Add images to Guestbook posts

With Message Boards, you can:

Choose from a pre-formatted template

Show one message at a time

Add up to four Message Boards

Add HTML to Message Board posts

Comments from Guestbook Owners

A guestbook's visibility could be a minefield of emotions and that included hurt feelings, on the behalf of the site owner (not to mention fans mentioned) in the comments.

From a fan in late 1997:

People ask me, they say, "JoAnne, people say mean things about you in your guestbook. Doesn’t that get you down?" Well there's no easy answer. Sure, sometimes I think, ‘wow, they hate me. They really hate me.’ But other times I am amused by the inherent contradiction in their comments.

From the owner of Fandom Whore Hates You All:

Fandom Whore rather likes her guestbook. It makes her feel all warm and squishy inside knowing that there are people who feel the need to write in it.

From the owners of Primal Screamers:

Q: Can I join [Primal Screamers]? No. <g>

The Screamers developed a realistic fear that, what with so many fanfic-adorers who were just dying to discuss the scintillating issues of good Mulder-hair episodes with us <snort>, our mailboxes would explode and the pieces of e-mail would fly up in the air, conk us all out on the head, and get Rachel in trouble with her mom because some mail screaming SMUT! would fall out on the floor. So at a certain point...we became big ole meanies and closed our Official Screamer doors. <sniff> BUT, you can be an Honorary Screamer with a nifty Screamer badge and everything! All you have to do is sign our guestbook!

[...]

Q: How do I become an Honorary Primal Screamer?

Just by being here!<g> Please sign our guestbook so we know who you are. Then we'll be able to email you when we send out mail to all our honoraries.

From the owners of The Badfanfiction Terror Squad, some 2000 comments:

As you can see, this is the new, shinier, calmer, more tastefull [sic] BTS. We have learned the error of our ways and from now on will be kinder to puppies, kittens, budding fanfic writers and... if you believe that, then you are obviously as gullible as the rest of the people who stamped their tiny feet in our guestbook. They were appealing to our better natures. *snigger* I still have no idea why they told us to hit the delete key instead of actually reading the daily flood of crap that clogs up our inboxes. What fun would that be?

A fan in 2001 states she doesn't like her own guestbook anymore:

I'm not sure I should be signing this thing. My own Guestbook has turned into this frightening collection of Netspeak and stupid questions, and if the same happens here... I'm not sure I want my name associated with it! -- Rose Argent

Fannish Uses of a Guestbook

Connecting with Fans and Fandom

People "surfing the web" would leave general messages about shows or books, often simply wanting to be part of a conversation. Some of these commenters, while genuinely interested, were not looking to connect with fandom, but simply excited about being able to see their comments show up on the internet.

From a fan in 1999:

My son just got this computer and the first thing I did was to see if anyone out there still remembered Beauty and the Beast. Thank god that there still are those of us who appreciate love, romance, truth and beauty.

From a fan in 2000:

HI! i decided to sign this again because no i do have sumtin to say! I think that the best character in all the books that take place in tortall! Shes da bomb! And no offence to anyone who likes her but Daine is a BRAT!!!! Sumtin about her is just really irritating, and shes livin with a guy twice her age!!! Ahhh! so anyway, is Page any good yall? I ordered it but it didn't come in! (weep weep) so im still waiting. If anyone ever wants to e-mail me or chat w/ me, my address is here, and my AOL IM name is Autumn6012! BIBI!

Meeting Friends

From a fan in 1998-99:

How did you meet Amber?

Probably the same way you found out about me... from the INAP guestbook. It's true! I didn't know Amber before then, even though we have mutual friends. Through the guestbook, we became friends. =)

From a fan in 2007:

... its nice to find people as crazy and as cool as me

From a fan in 2009:

This site has changed my life in so many ways. I've met so many loving and caring people, and made so many friends, which will last a life time. I know that, whenever life looks bleak, I can always run to LE and I'll have the whole community to cheer me up :] Not only that, but I met the love of my life here, on this very site. Dantes_inferno and I thank you, Lavender Eyes, and more importantly, Rivka, for breathing life into LE for all of us to enjoy :] ~Lindsey

Memorials

Some fans used a guestbook to collect responses and memorial comments about deceased fan.

A 2004 memorial guestbook for "Nightlady," a Forever Knight fan: Memories and Tributes from Friends of Marci Cheeseman (1952-2004)

A 2011 memorial guestbook for Sandy Chandler Shelton, a Beauty and the Beast (TV) fan: Our beloved Chan Guest book.

Messaging Celebrities

Some fans directly addressed the objects of their admiration, assuming or hoping their idols read guestbooks on fan sites about them.

These idols included celebrities, but also BNF fans. BNFs sometimes added replies to comments in their own guestbooks, but this was fairly rare.

Celebrities were thin on the ground in guestbooks, but lo, one in 1997 did reply. There are several messages at Frohike Liberation Organization by Tom Braidwood, the actor who portrayed Frohike, aka "Frickster" in The X-Files, see Guestbook.

While pro actors, authors, and other TPTB did not interact in these fan spaces, it didn't stop fans from addressing them personally.

A fan in 2001 named Rachel sent Tamora Pierce a message:

i love your books so much and I want you to make tons and tons more! I heard that you are on a new book series. If you want to e-mail then you can any time that would be so cool. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep writing you have inspired me to read books for fun and not just school. thank you and i love your books more then any thing!

From a 2002 message by Lizz to Cassandra Claire:

HEY! ME AGAIN. I WAS SURFING THE NET TODAY AND I FOUND SOME "DIARIES" THAT TRIED TO BE AS FUNNY AS YOURS AND GOD WERE THEY HORRID! THEY WERE SO....... NOT...... GOOD!!! EVERY FUNNY LINE THEY PUT IN WAS FROM YOUR DIARIES. THEY DIDN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE! YOURS ON THE OTHER HAND, YOURS ARE ABSOLUTELY GREAT! MY FAVORITES ARE DEFINETLY MERRY'S BECAUSE EVERY1 KEEPS CONFUSING HIM WITH PIPPIN AND GOLLUMS BECAUSE HE'S MAKING FUN OF LEGOLAS' COMPLAINING AND WHEN GANDALF PUTS THE PIECE OF GUM IN LEGALOS' HAIR!!! OH MAN! SOOOOOOO VERY FUNNY. :) ANYWAYS I LOVE THEM AND GREAT WORK. NO ONE CAN COMPARE AT ALL.

An Anne Rice fan in 2005 addresses Rice:

Have very nice site, good job! Please contact me, want to aks some questiosn..

A Place for Fanwork Recs

Many of the early rec pages had guestbooks for visitors to leave their own recs.

One example is Jan & June's Slash Recommendations page, which started on February 8, 1998, with the earliest recs in the associated guestbook starting just a day later. Another 1998 example is Rachael's Fanfic Recommendations.

Feedback

Site Feedback

An example of positive site feedback left on Tales From the South, a Gambit/Rogue X-Men page from the late 1990s:

An absolutely lovely page with awesome organization.

Beautiful fonts and backgrounds, and very sweet, tasteful uses of clip art and comic book art.

I'm so envious;)

Thank you for your time!

Monday, October 4th 1999 - 04:05:19 PM

Another example of site feedback for Poison Ivy's Greenhouse a Batman site from 1999, this one giving a list of suggestions to improve the site:

Poison Ivy deserves a lot more recognition than she's gotten over the years, even with the recent visibility in the Animated Series and that lame excuse for a movie (altho' Uma & her Ivy was the best thing in it, comparatively speaking). Your page could definitely use some more pics of Ivy from the comics, and maybe even some synopses of her key appearances (i.e. BATMAN #181 -- does anyone know the plot of that book??). I would also suggest a visual timeline gallery -- a la "Ivy through the years" -- with various artists' depictions of our favorite femme fatale from her early apperances to the present. Are there writers who have done some intruiging takes on the femme fatale story in Ivy's history? (As much fun as it is, every story can't just be "she commits a crime, tries to seduce Batman, fails at both, the end." Paul Dini had a good idea with his comic book Batman Animated story where she seduces Robin and succeeds in making him her henchman for a good long while. John Francis Moore & P. Craig Russell's "Hothouse" story back in LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT a few years back had some exceptional class and quality, as did the Brian Apthorp-illustrated BATMAN: YEAR ONE Annual featuring Ivy a few years ago. I feel like there's got to be more Ivy stories yet to be told that are interesting variations and expansions on the ones we've seen. She's got more potential than they're using. Or maybe it's just that I think she's a great character and deserves more!! You know what was a fun little story? Ivy tormenting Harvey Bullock (illustrated by Steve Liehola) in BATMAN 400 or 500 --- interesting mix of characters, and a particularly tense "cat playing with mouse" scene fraught with sexual tension. Those are the notable Ivy stories that come to mind (and, course, "The Harley and the Ivy" and the Christmas episode where they enslave Bruce and make him go shopping on the Animated Series). I tried to get onto that other woman's IvyPage (the Ivy Patio) and couldn't access the URL. By the way, the two Ivy pics on your fan art gallery are pretty good, especially the side view of her sitting on a bench or something. Compliments to the artist.

From a Beauty and the Beast (TV) fan in November 1998:

Hi Nan ---you don;t know me, but I had to send a message on the pipes to tell you what a great job I think you're doing of keeping BATB alive :) ----- I always loved Beauty And The Beast myself , it was such a literate ,poetic, magical show, full of warmth and romance ,wasn't it , -it just couldn't fail !!!! And it's wonderful to think that there are so many Beasties out there ,in cyberspace and elsewhere ,that still treasure the series ,and the principles it expressed -------- ably assisted by your marvellous news updates ,and now this web page . Well done Nan , you certainly are" keeping the dream alive " Beast Wishes from ROBERT (W GARDINER) PS -if there are any movie producers out there , it would be great to see a silver screen treatment of the show hit our cinemas ---SOON . Ron Koslow ,please take note LOL

From a Gundam Wing fan in 2000:

Damn! This site is the best GW fic site I've even seen on the net!! (And that sure as hell is a lot.....my parents are getting "worried" (they think i'm insane)) I must spend about 5 hours a day or more reading Gundam Wing fanfiction!! ^_^ I read the ones on your page obsessively until I read (almost) all of em! I decided to sign your guestbook now rather than wait, and read the rest of the fics soon.

A 2001 post by Alicia about a Marvel website:

What can I say? :) I love it, from the history to the perfectly chosen quotes to the kick-ass captions on the images. Although I must admit I lingered wistfully on the Churchill pics... oh, for the good old days... :) Great job, great page, I'm wearing a great big grin.

From X-Files fans in 2002, commenting on Whispers of X:

[Miranda Meeks]: This is a really great site for shippers and I love it. I have read almost every fic here, keep up the good work Jamie. X-phile forever

[Milly]: I am so addicted to this site. Thankyou thankyou thankyou guys for the amount of work you put into this site to keep it running. Mulder and Scully smut......bring it on!!!!!!!!!

A rude but succinct comment in 2002:

everythings great. the drawings suk

Specific Post or Fanwork Feeback

An example of a fan leaving love for the writer's fanfiction on their guestbook, this one left at AdmralCleo's Xena and Ares Page in 2000:

I absolutely LUVED the fanfiction you have posted! It is really great. I hope you get some Ares/Xena fanfic links soon. Keep it up:) *~LeXa~*

Two 1998 comments left by two different fans for a Highlander fic by MacGeorge:

[Sara]: I'm not sure how I originally got your url, possibly through Maygra. At any rate, every now and then I check for further writings of yours. I very much enjoy your writings in general both because of how you stay well in the characters we know and because of your unique ideas, such as those which led to the Immortal Nations, the conclusion of which, by the way, I'm *very* eagerly anticipating. I enjoyed your newest story. You may not choose to do slash very often, but you definitely do it very well.

[Celina]: I know you have to write what your muse tells you (I'm a writer too, so I know...) but I wish you would write more non-slash for those of us who don't like slash. You have an amazing talent, but, no offense, you waste it when you write slash, which I fe l is non-Highlander-like. Just my opinion...

Promoting Their Own Fanworks or Site

Driving traffic to their own sites, promoting their own fanworks, and clawing their way to attention on guestbooks was one way fans interacted with other fans. This is different than out-an-out spamming.

From a fan in 2001:

Friday 12/21/2001 3:22:53pm

Name: Nikki

E-Mail: [email protected]

Homepage Title: QueerYouth.net

Homepage URL: http://www.queeryouth.fsnet.co.uk/

Referred By: Search Engine

Location: England UK

Comments: hi my new website is online www.queeryouth.fsnet.co.uk and sign the guestbook, also send us any comments or suggestions. Also send us your top 100 men, women, films, songs and tv shows.

Also from 2001:

hey everyone its me again!! *by now you all groaning and thinking not her again. LOL. this time i really have something serious to say so please read! WILD MAGELETS RPG CLUB IS FANTASTIC IVE GOT A CHAR THERE ITs A GREAT CLUB WITH NICE PEOPLE AND A FANTASTIC PLOT WE HAVE REALLY TALENTED WRITERS WHO MAKE THE PLACE INTERESTING. BUT WE NEED MORE MEMBERS SOME OF THE PEOPLE HAVE LEFT AND WE HAVE A QUEST GOING IN ITS PLOT AND NOW NEED PEOPLE TO TAKE THEIR PLACE SO PLEASE COME TO OUR CLUB IT RULES!!!!!!!!!!!! k so like now that i got your attention the address is http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/the2ndgeneration come look youll love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!:):):):):):):):):):):)

From a very brave Anne Rice fan, posting to her official site in 2004:

To the Immortal roleplayers, wherever you be:

We at Carpe Noctem are in dire need of canons to fill our fledgling community at Avidgamers.com. It is a fan-generated plot, set before The Body-Thief, and after Queen of the Damned.

The administration here, that is, my good friend Seraphim and I, are looking to fill the place up, canons first hopefully. Since this is a highly distinguished site, I invite you to come and take a look, and I applaud you at your own very well established site.

*waves* It rocks.

Guestbooks as Weapons

Guestbooks were a place for people to harvest personal information about fans. Some of this was due to things they said in their messages, and some of this information was in the email and website addresses they freely shared. Most of this visibility was used for personal promotion, for fans connecting with each other, and for generally (though not always!) benign reasons.

Social and Legal Harassment

Not all fans benefited from sharing this information. Fans also used addresses to locate and harass each other. as did pro authors and other TPTB and objects of idolization.

Anne Rice was one of the pro authors who used information gleaned from message boards to bring the hammer down on fans who created fanworks based on her books. On April 7, 2000, Anne Rice posted on her webpage: "I do not allow fan fiction. The characters are copyrighted. It upsets me terribly to even think about fan fiction with my characters. I advise my readers to write your own original stories with your own characters. It is absolutely essential that you respect my wishes."

This statement was then followed up by attacks on Anne Rice fanfic authors. The attacks consisted of, amongst other things, e-mailed threats regarding not only the writing of fanfiction but any writing that any fanfic author attempted to engage in (regardless of who owned the copyright), attacks on businesses that the fanfic authors owned and weeks of harassing personal letters sent to fanfic author's e-mail addresses and guestbooks. Personal information about fanfic authors was also dug up by Anne Rice employees and used as part of the harassment. Suffice it to say, Anne Rice made her displeasure clear.

Disrupting Fan Communication

Guestbooks as a way for fans to connect with each other could also be used for evil. In preparation for 2007 Strikethrough attack on LiveJournal fan pages, TPTB shut down various guestbooks:

To add insult to injury, they did that very quietly after a planned outage, and they shut the guestbooks down a few months beforehand, presumably in anticipation of backlash.

Directly Posting Fanworks

The guestbook was once treated as a message board when people posted their perverted stories. This, thankfully, has stopped.

One example of a guestbook that was used as a platform for fiction itself was in January 3, 1999 when a fan posted, without warning, a startling Star Trek: Deep Space Nine explicit, BDSM story. Thirteen minutes later, author posted and asked for it to be deleted, but this request was ignored:

Geez, I hope Heather doesn't kill me for this one but here it is: WILD NIGHTS--slightly edited for guestbook publication.... Jen Wild Nights By JA Chapman NC-17, DS9 May '98 mild BDSM, same-sex partners A Companion Piece to Q-mulous by Cam Burnell And Tagged by Robin Lawrey...

By the way, Heather--when you get back, delete this message, the Wild Nights one, and the one that repeated itself to infinity. I'd prefer it if future visitors didn't see how twisted I truly am. ---Jen, a sister of slash and a proud perv

"Cybersex" Hookups and Role-play

Statement at the guestbook for I'm Not A Playa I Just Crush A Lot, a 1998-99 Hanson story:

At one point, the guestbook became a meeting place for cybersex partners.

Some samples in 1999, from a Star Trek: DS9 at Cardassia Sutra in which fans role-played as Pinky, Brain, Jake Sisko, Major Kira, Tom Paris, characters from The Simpsons and other characters :

Name: Kira Nerys [...] Comments: Marge, or should I say Mrs. Simpson, you are so lovely with that blue hair. And you have such a glow, especially when you get passionate about protecting children from the Internet. You really need to get away from that dullard husband of yours and live every once in a while - such beauty, intelligence, and stimulating personality should not be wasted. Tom, I haven't heard back from you in a while. I'm starting to wonder if a woman like me scares you.

Name: Marge Simpson [...]

Comments: Reverend Lovejoy, I am shocked! And that's Mrs. Homer Simpson to you. Have you forgotten your wedding vows? What would Helen say if she read this filth? Oh, I knew this internet was a bad thing; I would hate to walk in and find one of my children surfing this site. I don't know what this Garak/Bashir group is exactly, but I definitely think they have a responsibility to the children of this nation. Think of the children, reverend! Won't somebody PLEASE think of the children??

Often Glitchy

Eeep...sorry, did not mean to leave three entries in there.

Oops! Sorry about the double posting. I thought that something had gone wrong with the first - I got booted off the net partway through the send, and then it didn't show up on the board until after I posted the second (and I mean *right* after). Now I feel dumb. Please feel free to delete one of them (and this, too). I know how annoying clutter is.

Trolling

Guestbooks were a ripe target for trolling, either by non-fans poking at fandom and fanworks, or by fans hoping to start a flame war or rile other fans up.

An example of a Gargoyles fan in 2000 maybe trying to rile up the site's creator on their guestbook, with the commenter praising the Goliath/Eliza ship on a Goliath/Demona site:

I love Damona and I love Goliath but just not together. Love and Hate Just don't mix.But I won't bug you about that But I just have to say this Goliath and Elisa are just more romantic than Damona and Goliath. Sure Damona's Very Beautiful but not the woma for Goliath.

Another attempt at shipping trolling, this one in 2001:

you should make new fanfic about heero and relena okay. just a comment.

From a fan in 2003:

here i am, leaving my "mark" like a fackin dog pissing on a tree!

Spam

Spam wasn't that much different in the olden days, and guestbooks were often overrun with it.

These spam messages were different than fans promoting fanworks, sites, and fandom to other fans.

May guestbooks had comments by "fans" who were actually spammers there to drive traffic to their non-fannish sites. Some made an effort to appear to be a fan, or at least a human. An example is this generic comment, with a link to a management company:

This site is a great resource, thanks, it's a pleasure to sign your guestbook!

Some spammers didn't even bother to try to "fit in. An example of a 2003 spam guestbook comment on the Highlander website Rory's No Holds Barred Fan Fix Dojo:

Really cool site...great effort...well done..Why not check out my links:)zingy ringtones

v60 ring tones
tones
sprint free ring tones
sms text messages
sms fun
send to phone tones
samsung ringing tones bollywood
rtttl ringtones....

Tuesday, February 4th 2003 - 12:28:36 PM

Some Examples of Guestbooks

Archived guestbooks can be hard to navigate, so make sure you use all the tools and links at the Wayback Machine.

• Alternate Universe: Guestbook #1 (Jan-June 1996); Alternate Universe: Guestbook #2 (July-Dec 1996); Alternate Universe: Guestbook #3 (Jan-June 1997); Alternate Universe: Guestbook #4 (July 1997-Jan 1998) (Babylon 5)
• Guestbook a focus of Frohike, contains several messages by Tom Braidwood, the actor who portrayed Frohike, aka "Frickster") (The X-Files) (1997)
• the flambeau factory (the flambeau factory) (multifandom) (1997-?)
• View/Sign Guestbook (Nan Dibble) (Beauty and the Beast (TV)) (1998-)
• Tokyo Crazy Paradise Guestbook - 1998; 1999; 2000; 2000-01: 2001; 2001-02; 2004 (Tokyo Crazy Paradise)
• MacGeorge Madness Old Guest Page (Highlander) (1998-2000)
• Torch's Buttons (multifandom) (1998-2000)
• Ode to the Guestbook was the guestbook for the story I'm Not A Playa I Just Crush A Lot, a 1998-99 fanfic The story was said to have gone through thirteen guestbooks, filling the maximum number of entries allowed in each, for a total of 3000 comments. (Hanson)
• Fox and Dana's Guestbook (The X-Files) (1999)
• Man from Uncle (appears to have 61 pages, but not archived well, and lotsa spam) (Man from U.N.C.L.E.) (1999-?)
• Kardasi Caresses (comments at kira-nerys's site) (Star Trek: Voyager) (1999)
• Jade's Guestbook (focus: a notorious plagiarism scandal) (Gundam Wing (1999)
• FK Fan Fiction Guestbook Log #1 (1996), FK Fan Fiction Guestbook Log #2 (1997) Fan Fiction Guestbook Log #3 (1997) Fan Fiction Guestbook Log #4 (Forever Knight) (2000)
• Mary Sue Whipple's Really Cool Webpage! (Star Trek) (2000-01)

• Ten Buck Fucks - HCL Slash Archive (Hard Core Logo)
• Boys in Chains (multifandom) (2001)
• Steelsings Tamora Pierce Guest Scrolls (1998-99) and The Steelsings Tamora Pierce Page (Tamora Pierce) (2001)
• The Very Secret Guestbook (comments at Cassandra Claire's for The Very Secret Diaries, there are many, many other pages, [so utilize the archive links at the top) (Lord of the Rings) (2002)
• Defense Against the Dark Arts (Harry Potter) (2001-05)
• Days of Our Unlives (Buffy) (2003)

• Sublime Requiem (kinda measly) (Anne Rice) (2005)
• Lavender Eyes (Drizzt Do'urden and the other characters of R.A. Salvatore's "The Legend of Drizzt" books, for the website Lavender Eyes (Forgotten Realms) (?-at least 2011)

• 
  www.fkfanfic.com (1996)
• 

References

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