Before There Was The Veronica Mars Kickstarter Fund Drive

There was the Beauty and the Beast Video Campaign. Not as successful, but it shows you how much has changed in 23 years.

BTW, if anyone has a moment to spare to add more info about the Veronica Mars Kickstarter project to Fanlore, the Veronica Mars page is here And the blank , ready to edit Kickstarter page is here

The Year Is 1995 And Let Me Explain This Thing Called A Website

In 1995, a fan decided to set up a Beauty and the Beast website. But first he had to explain the concept to people who had never seen a "page".

"I guess I will talk a bit about what my concept behind this page is, so perhaps you all can tell me what I can do better if I've missed the mark:

What I'm trying to do with this page is to combine the static nature of an archive with the dynamic nature of a zine or newsletter. That is, there is "archive" material there now, such as back issues of OLAH and HNG, as well as certain images. These things will probably be there as long as the page itself is up.

Then there are also things at the page that you might find in a "zine," such as poetry and fiction (and someday, art). The collection of poetry and fiction that you may find at the page at any given time will rotate, meaning as I run out of room at the page, I'll begin to delete the older material. I don't think this is a bad thing. In fact, I think it makes  the page more like a periodical publication. Two visits to the page, spaced apart by six months or a year or whatever, could yield completely different collections of fiction and poetry, just like two different issues of a zine would have different things in them.

Lastly, I hope the page will remain up-to-date with regard to current events. This is where I hope the page acts like a newsletter. For example, the page currently has in it registration info for the '96 con, an order form for the ADS video, info on the SciFi Channel's story on ADS, and Robert Sigman's address, in case you want to write him regarding your opinions on a possible new film. This is all info that will change (sometimes weekly!) as all of  you send me updates and corrections. I hope that the page will become the defacto "place to look" for the latest on-line info about BATB and its fandom.

There's info on the show there too, but honestly, there's not much. Our episode guide is rudimentary at best, and we have no faq. But, I don't really  see this page as being dedicated to just the tv show, as so many other tv show pages are. Few shows have such an elaborate and creative fandom built up around them. I want this page to serve *all* of BATB: the show, but more importantly (in my mind), the fandom. This page is for you guys, all of you.

I know that not everyone can browse the Web yet, but the ability is getting more and more common. AOL even offers a Web browser to their customers, which I think is fabulous! For those of you who can browse, I really do hope you like the page. To my knowledge, it's the only page for this show in the world, so help me to make it the page you want it to be: give me your feedback, updates and changes."

You can see the 1998 version of the website as it evolved here.

Edited to add: A month later the website owner wrote: ''From August 1 to August 30, the page was hit **2,979 times**, with a total thruput of 69,857,296 bytes! YOWZA!!"