Hi, I just finished reading the tribute pamphlet...Great representation--and it led me to a question. Sorry in advance if this is located in the wrong place..

Though a fan since maybe 81-82...?? I I didn't find the org until maybe 8 ??years ago. I joined maybe in 2009/2010 and I certainly don't knos so much nor the history.

Can some of you shed light on the beginnings of the org and how it all started and how you were able to keep it 'alive' with all of the restrictions over the years? How did he let you guys stay afloat yet seems most all else was shut down.

Also, besides being respectful, how did you gain respect from those in his inner circle--it seems you have a good relationship.

Thanks! I was just curious!

From prince.org site FAQ:

Long ago (early 1990s), there was an e-mail list called the PML, (the Prince Mailing List), which changed ownership to became the PPML (the Paisley Park Mailing List).

Eventually, a website was set up by a couple of volunteers to "archive" the past PPML mailings. In May, 1998, the archive site had a major harddisk crash, and went down. While recovering the data, the entire site was re-architected, and prince.org "v1.0" was publicly born on January 1st, 1999, offering much more than just archives of past PPMLs.

"Version 2.0" was launched in February 2002, and added message boards and much more.

"Version 3.0" came online in February 2004, with numerous enhancements and better web standards compliance.

I will save your main questions to be answered by the mods.

You can, however, go to the internet archives and see some of the old org...


https://web.archive.org/web/*/prince.org

Prior to that, there might be some old USENET groups on Google that have some old files.

So glad to be a part of the fam.

vandeluca said:

Hi, I just finished reading the tribute pamphlet...Great representation--and it led me to a question. Sorry in advance if this is located in the wrong place..

Though a fan since maybe 81-82...?? I I didn't find the org until maybe 8 ??years ago. I joined maybe in 2009/2010 and I certainly don't knos so much nor the history.

Can some of you shed light on the beginnings of the org and how it all started and how you were able to keep it 'alive' with all of the restrictions over the years? How did he let you guys stay afloat yet seems most all else was shut down.

Also, besides being respectful, how did you gain respect from those in his inner circle--it seems you have a good relationship.

Thanks! I was just curious!

As I understand it, Ben did a fantastic job negotiating with Prince's people when Prince decided to go after fan sites. An agreement was reached regarding what could and couldn't be posted here. Ben and the mods have held faithful to that agreement, and the site has survived and (at times) flourished.

RodeoSchro said:

vandeluca said:

Hi, I just finished reading the tribute pamphlet...Great representation--and it led me to a question. Sorry in advance if this is located in the wrong place..

Though a fan since maybe 81-82...?? I I didn't find the org until maybe 8 ??years ago. I joined maybe in 2009/2010 and I certainly don't knos so much nor the history.

Can some of you shed light on the beginnings of the org and how it all started and how you were able to keep it 'alive' with all of the restrictions over the years? How did he let you guys stay afloat yet seems most all else was shut down.

Also, besides being respectful, how did you gain respect from those in his inner circle--it seems you have a good relationship.

Thanks! I was just curious!

As I understand it, Ben did a fantastic job negotiating with Prince's people when Prince decided to go after fan sites. An agreement was reached regarding what could and couldn't be posted here. Ben and the mods have held faithful to that agreement, and the site has survived and (at times) flourished.

I recall some of this. This was the time the mods cracked down on any talk of bootlegs and booted people who used copyright photos. At the time, a lot of members complained, but the rules set in place let the org survive. We all had to play nice quickly or this site was over. The cool part is Prince probably could have just tossed a couple million toward buying the domain, but I think Ben and the mods stood their ground for the fans. There is probably a lot more that happened behind the scenes with lawyers and such, but the site survived, which is a good thing.

Thanks Mods and Ben!

Out of curiosity, can we talk of boots NOW? Or will Tyka go after us or something...?

domainator2010 said:

Out of curiosity, can we talk of boots NOW? Or will Tyka go after us or something...?

Please see here: http://prince.org/msg/3/425418

Thank you all..