Odd title, but bear with me.

I've been around the various incarnations of the cyberworld for quite a while now, going back to the days as a grad student at MIT where I discovered the wonders of ArpaNet, email, gopher, telnet, ftp, and other letter-combinations that fade with the years. Later that grew into modem-based services and bulletin boards, and growing into the fledgling web (first using Lynx on a UNIX system - oh the pain!!!!). Suffice it to say I've been staring at computer screens communicating with other beings/intelligences for going on 30 years.

One of the great surprises to me, even in those very early years, was that when 3 or more folks got together in cyberspace, a culture grew. On arpanet, it was easier than most - we were mostly techies, academics and scientist/engineer types. We were too busy for polite discourse and elegant prose. We communicated what we had to say as economically and as expeditiously as we could using the same courtesies and social mores that existed in a face to face world meeting. Ever been to a scientific conference where some point of contention is being hashed out? It gets emotional. It gets frenzied. IT GETS LOUD! And out of that little real life interchange, grew the convention that writing in all capitals in cyberspace is yelling. Okay where appropriate, but impolite in the course of normal communications.

So, to paraphrase some long forgotten wise person, culture happens. And when I say culture, I mean the shared beliefs, values, tools and expectations that define a collective group that can be both self-identified and externally recognized. And violating any of those shared aspects of a culture can have serious repercussions - against someone outside the culture, but often even worse when the offender is perceived to be "one of us." Then it can be perceived as betrayal, even treason, and the reaction of those in the culture against the 'violator' can be swift and protective.

Every place I have ever visited in the virtual world has its own unique culture. The Power Exchange (tpe.com) had one, Alice's Restaurant (alices.com) had one, Fictionmania has one and Big Closet has one. I learned (yes, the hard way) to be on my best behavior when I first started nosing around a new venu, and to keep my fingers easy on the keyboard and my eye glued to the screen (the cyber equivalent of keeping your mouth shut and your ears open). That way I could learn 'the rules' and not violate one in my ignorance. This is a cultural thing, too - the newbie learning at the cyber-feet of the wise(?) old ones so that you know and earn your place 'the right way'.

All of these things ran through my mind when Sephrena Lynn approached me about archiving my Seasons House/Aunt Jane stories here at Big Closet. It's not that I'm in any way ashamed of those stories. They represent some of my best work, and I am pleased with how they present the message I was attempting to convey. However they are based on a story that was copyrighted in 1989, when a great deal of cross dressing and transvestite story-telling in cyberspace was dominance&submission/fetish-based plots and themes. Personally, I saw more in Joel Lawrence's story, in large part because one of the femmed characters earned his way back to trousers. I thought, 'wow, I've never seen that before - That's not in character for your typical femdom-emasculating bitch of so much other Internet fiction.' And I asked myself 'what's really going on here?'

Out of that grew one 'true' sequel and then a bunch of 'alternative universe' stories about Aunt Jane and her boys. The Jane Thompson Seasons House Winsome Girl's School for Wayward Boys. They are, at their core, Female Dominant, Male Submissive, Forced Feminization stories with a serious humiliation factor. Granted. I think they are more than that, and that they tell stories of growth, maturation and character. And, I think they are pretty good stories that might bring a tear or a laugh along the way.

But that's me, and this is, ultimately, about Big Closet. I had no compunction at all about posting my stories to Fictionmania. Mindy's culture was one of 'if it's fiction and it's about CD/TV/TG, it has a place here.' The early adopters knew that and accepted that. Big Closet has developed a different culture along a different path. Neither culture is better than the other - they are different, and both should be respected for what they do for the readership and for their members.

So, in closing, my hesitation was not about the stories, but rather that BCTS is a special place for a lot of special people, and I would not want to be perceived as having contributed to making it even an iota less special.

Thank you for your patience.

Oh, yeah, and I hope you enjoy the stories.

warm furry hugs,

Tiggs