OK. I know some who watch/follow me came from that site, or know of it. But a fair bit may not. So I’ll try to explain to the best I remember/know what it is and why its a big deal:
In 2002, I was going to my second college (NADC) and one day a friend of mine by the name of ChillyMouse poked me on AIM and said she wanted me to meet someone (I cant remember just for the heck of it, or if they had a problem she thought I could maybe solve for them) and the person was :iconRubbertexRaccoon: . SO we started to chat and know the other some and he brought up a site he was an admin of, that was having a rough time on having a good home to host it from – The InflaioNation. I wasn’t into fat or inflation stuff then (Well, a NSFW inflation but not the kind this site is known for). I didn’t know anything about this kink/fetish/interest some in the fandom had for it be it from fattening, air, water, or the Blueberry thing from Willy Wonka. That kind of stuff more and more at the time were learning they liked or were trying to find more who also liked it.
I learned at the time the original site was on Geocities (back in 1999) which only had a couple megs of space on that free service… so they had no room to really host much else there besides some info and a couple of pics. They had a link to EZ-Board for their forums (free forum service), and they also had a version of the site I think on Furnation but don’t think was working at the time. So I offered to give them a spot on my server and could provide them much more space for their art and stories and movies, a forum, and a gallery engine to show said art and movies at least with. The owner of the site - :iconDupo: agreed to it as well as RubberTex and the move was done!
Once got Dupo all settled with his account on my server to upload and manage his inflation nation web page, got RT and Dupo set up with accounts on their new forum off my sirkain.net server, and accounts for them to upload and manage the Gallery Remote gallery program that handled showing all the art from artists AND animation/AVI files in another gallery related to inflation… the site REALLY took off. I had NO idea such a thing would have been that sought after or catch that many folks interest. A fair bit of those artists are (as of this journal) still around the furry fandom and drawing: Captain Furry, Phraggle, Blue, Rawr/Arin, Nemo/Benni, KitsuneZero, list goes on.
Fast forward to 2006, and FurAffinity had been up for a few months and with having the ability to sign up, have your own gallery you had full control to upload to and sort, a way to search and find other artists or themes and tags, a lot were moving from the IN to there to post their works. Stories too for the writers. By 2007, most of the IN was deserted or rarely checked by a lot who were once very active there. Dupo eventually decided he was done running the place and had the forums closed down (for a while anyway from what Wiki says), but by 2009 I believe he just went “poof” period from furry. No contact with anyone/nobody could get any contact from him, and now I’m left with this site I am hosting that isn't mine, that's abandoned, nobody else (that I recall) was wanting to (or allowed?) to take ownership and keep it going… so I decided to archive all the galleries that remained and video files into a zip (link to it is in my profile) and shut it down for good. Why? a. not mine, b. abandoned, c. didn’t feel like having forums, galleries and accounts left open as a potential security risk. Hosting many others off my server I didn’t care to increase my luck of having the site hacked and peoples stuff get wrecked.
So, fast forward to today (7/15/2021) a decade or more since it was officially shut down, I am learning since then I have met or ran into a heck of a lot who either were on the site but not caring to speak up, found out about it from the G4 show that pointed folks to the IN off my server, or artists that came from that have been a big inspiration for them to get into furry, or draw or write period. I still got the files from that zip file. I don’t care to revive it with forums or anything as I am NOT the creator of it. BUT. Should I make a web site again of the InflationNation with the archived files for folks to be able to see? Stories too if folks who made them back then want them re posted for either old times sake or for new folks who stumble upon the fandom that way? The sites a lot more special than I ever realized it was.
So, thoughts? From those who were on it, ran it, fans of it? Space, bandwidth and engines to put the art and videos in a gallery engine again aren't hard to do. But it isn't my baby. At this point it feels like its the community’s baby to decide what best to do with this.
Also if ANYTHING I typed up about the IN is wrong PLEASE let me know. This all happened a long time ago and I wasn’t that into the site or the kinks it hosted (was basically when Dupo decided to step away when I learned what forms of it I did like).
I mean, it's dicey from a copyright perspective (I doubt the site had a particularly rigorous ToS). If it's not an absurd number of people it might be worth reaching out to the artists asking what they want to do, otherwise it might not be worth it, especially if no one's really asked about it.
I mean, it's dicey from a copyright perspective (I doubt the site had a particularly rigorous ToS).
