roam/20200721011317-the_phoenix_inquisitor.org

:PROPERTIES:
:ID:       a54fc4a6-4496-4f99-9c9d-c85481b65452
:END:
#+title: The Phoenix Inquisitor

* The Name
My original online moniker, or handle. I came up with this in the late 90s while
spending time in the Lycos role-playing chat room "The Mysic Tavern". In it I
had a male character, whose name I've long forgotten, and a female character by
the name of Sadie. Both of them shared this title. Sadie was depicted as a shy,
cloaked young woman with auburn hair, often situated at a table in the tavern
with a book, observing the goings-on. Presenting as this character online could
be interpreted as an early sign of my [[id:5dddbae0-ddc1-4fa8-b824-113731ca9d64][Being transgender]].

While I was essentially just picking a couple of words that sounded cool
together, they do carry meaning. [[id:c3ef9323-5108-4fc1-a9a4-0899369d0c44][The Phoenix]] being a powerful, ever-changing,
effectively immortal creature, and the Inquisitor, a seeker of knowledge.

#+begin_quote
phoe·nix also phe·nix ( P ) Pronunciation Key (fnks)
n.

1. Mythology. A bird in Egyptian mythology that lived in the desert for 500 years and then consumed itself by fire, later to rise renewed from its ashes.
2. A person or thing of unsurpassed excellence or beauty; a paragon.
3. Phoenix A constellation in the Southern Hemisphere near Tucana and Sculptor.

in·quis·i·tor ( P ) Pronunciation Key (n-kwz-tr)
n.

One who inquires or makes an inquisition, especially a questioner who is excessively rigorous or harsh.
#+end_quote

#+begin_quote
[2003-09-17 Wed 07:34]

To be honest, I first stumbled across this "name" when I was involved in Lycos'
Mystic Tavern RPG chatroom, and I decided to take two cool-sounding words and
smash them together. Over time though, they've grown on me, and I like to think
they represent the concept of an immortal, powerful urge to seek knowledge and
information. In the case of the website, Network was added to infer a group
gathering and sharing information with each other.
#+end_quote

* The Website :ATTACH:
:PROPERTIES:
:ID:       a35b11b1-3518-4be0-a9f0-2734d7792bde
:END:

This name lived on when I built my console gaming website, Phoenix Inquisitor
dot net, originally hosted on Tripod. I'd drafted a logo on an index card, which
would adorn the site. The wings represent [[id:c3ef9323-5108-4fc1-a9a4-0899369d0c44][The Phoenix]], the eye inquisition, and
the element of the ring was introduced to represent a community around them.
** History
- 1999 :: Site opens on pi.net.tripod.com
- 2001 :: After bouncing around a few free webhosts, the site moves to a paid
  host and gets its domain name, phoenixinquis.net Forums are started in October
  using phpBB 1.4
- 2002 :: In May, phpBB 2 comes out. The site is upgraded on June 4. After some
  additional work, the various site sections are combined with the forum and the
  overall look and feel of the site is unified thanks to a fresh new layout,
  Istari by Anabel Martinez, aka Aelice.
- 2003 :: An ad run on megatokyo elevates the forum from a small, quiet group of
  friends to a full, active board Also, Istari gets two major upgrades, bringing
  mods and extra functionality with them
- 2004 :: The site continues to boom for a while, though activity dwindles near
  the end of the year There were a few hosting company moves this year, hopping
  through a few nasty ones and eventually landing on the host still used today.
- 2005-2006 :: With a steady decline in time and energy to maintain and update
  the site, it slowly declines to it's current state of disuse. phpBB2 being
  five years old now, it has become a huge target for spammers
- 2007 :: Site was upgraded to phpBB3
- 2008 :: The forums were hacked, and were eventually taken offline due to
inactivity. The main page was configured to redirect to my personal blog at
https://correl.phoenixinquis.net/.
** Tripod
#+CAPTION: The original rotating logo
[[attachment:_20200721_012031pi.gif]]

I did not build the website with the intent to maintain it alone. I built it
because I wanted to connect with people and do something /together/.

#+ATTR_ORG: :width 400
#+CAPTION: The website at http://pi.net.tripod.com/
[[attachment:_20200721_012003screenshot.png]]

** The Forums

I eventually graduated the site to its own domain (=phoenixinquis.net=), and
gave it life as a forum built upon [[https://www.phpbb.com/][phpBB]].

*** Istari :ATTACH:
#+ATTR_ORG: :width 400
#+CAPTION: The phpBB2 "Istari" theme
[[attachment:_20200723_212300screenshot.png]]

*** Kainen :ATTACH:
#+ATTR_ORG: :width 400
#+CAPTION: The phpBB3 "Kainen" theme
[[attachment:_20200723_212429screenshot.png]]


* Artist Depictions
:PROPERTIES:
:ID:       c997c5b9-31f4-444b-a240-33ed294396be
:END:
** Enki, by Anabel Martinez :ATTACH:
#+ATTR_ORG: :width 400
[[attachment:pi_mascot_design___enki.jpg]]
** Phoenix, by Jon Bliss :ATTACH:
#+ATTR_ORG: :width 400
#+CAPTION: [2017-11-06 Mon]
[[attachment:catgirl-final.jpg]]

#+ATTR_ORG: :width 400
#+CAPTION: [2017-11-24 Fri]
[[attachment:Phoenix-final.png]]
** Phoenix, by Bee :ATTACH:
#+ATTR_ORG: :width 400
[[attachment:IMG_3666.jpg]]