TNZ

The Neutral Zone

Christian: It was the dawn of the second age of the TrekBBS, ten weeks after the Miscellanious Flame Wars. The Neutral Zone was a dream given form. Its goal: to prevent another war by creating a place where liberals and conservatives could work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call, home away from home for capitalists, communists, fascists, and anarchists. Liberals and conservatives wrapped in an unmoderated forum, all alone in the night. It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last, best hope for peace. This is the story of the first of the Neutral Zones. The year is 2000. The name of the place is The Neutral Zone.

Borgminister: The Neutral Zone, best hope for peace, a self-contained forum located in now moderated territory, a place of discussion and debate for a quarter of a thousand liberals and conservatives, a shining beacon in cyberspace, all alone in the night. It was the dawn of the third age of mankind, the year the fifth series and 9/11 came upon us all. This is the story of the countdown to division. The year is 2001. The name of the place is The Neutral Zone.

T'Bonz: The Neutral Zone was our last, best hope for intelligent debate. It failed. But in the year of the TrollKingdom it became something greater: our last, best hope for cyber warriors. The year is 2004. The place - The Briar Patch.

KIRK1ADM: It was the year of fire,

garamet: The year of destruction,

Spatialdude: The year we took back what was ours.

DarthTom: It was the year of rebirth,

Assimilated Tom: The year of great sadness,

Neopeius: The year of pain,

J Allen: And a year of joy.

Tarantulas: It was a new age.

CYOTI: It was the end of history.

Videodrome/Autechre: It was the year everything changed.

Garak: The year is 2006.

Frontline: The place, TNZ.

Alpha Romeo: A shining beacon in space. . . all alone in the night.

apostle83: The conservatives were beating the piss out of the liberals, intellectually, and God was smiling.

CaptainKit: Then a wondrous thing occurred: the Democratic Party won control of both houses of Congress. Huzzah! Humanity is saved from the Bush Bozos!

Tarantulas: It was the end of the Earth year 2006, and the war had paused, suddenly and unexpectedly. All around us, it was as if the universe were holding its breath. . . waiting. All of life can be broken down into moments of transition or moments of revelation. This had the feeling of both.

Baba: The year of the Spam wars.

Karl Rove wrote, ''There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities – it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender.''

The future is all around us, waiting in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future, or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.