freaks-l naq

Coming into Being

by ff, 25th of November 1994

On the 1st of April 1993, two subscribers of the North American mailing list Leri-l, as yet known to one another only from a few mails, got together and brought into cyber space being a German-speeking forum for psycho-active substances and drug-induced thinking.

They did this because they had become frustrated with their inability to succeed in the foreign forum named after Timothy Leary or Commander Leri. Nevertheless, the Leri folks were much appreciated, they have done it well. The freaks took the concept of cyber commune or virtual community from Leri-l.

At first the freaks didn't know whether freaks-l should be an open list, ie. automatically subscribing all comers, or whether subscription should be by invitation from existing members. Opinions varied.

In the end, freaks-l adopted the latter option, becoming a private community. This was because of the uneasy feeling they got from living in a state with antiquated legislation, where openly talking about psycho-active substances, the psychodelic experience and drug-induced reality could lead to legal problems.

And so it was that only personally known friends, or freaks who were recognised by their interesting mails, were invited to take part. Most subscribers of freaks-l are or were active in the German newsgroup "de.alt.drogen" or in "Leri-l".

A very exciting part of the cyber-commune experience is personal visits or the bigger meetings (Leri: fleshmeets), or in freakspeak, Flash!meets or f!ms.

That the freaks-l was founded on the 1st of April is one of many lucky "accidents"; similarly, the name "freaks" could not have been chosen differently. Freaks: in this name, liberty, passion, lust, and creativity can be found.

The cumulative freaks-l texts (the so-called "freaks epos") has now grown to contain several million words - some repeated in quotes. This will continue to swell, because thoughts, experiences and events have no end.

freaks-l Discurse

by Janko, 29th October 1994

The nature of the virtual community ensures that on freaks-l there is place for almost *everything* that also touches us in the real world. This includes drugs, of course, but also philosophy, literature, politics, music, life art, personal development, banalities, etc.

freaks-l Creed

by Michael, 4th November 1994

I identify a freak by his/her attitude, that is: Going into the world with an open mind and and open heart. Struggling against one's own prejudices, as well as those of others. No shyness when it comes to meta thoughts. Being ready to leave known paths, in order to discover and to realise.

Hey, a freaks creed! Oh, freaks, let's kneel down and internalize the paper of recognition to realize the creed of our hopeless overestimation of our own abilities.

freaks-l Poetic Figures and Poetic Characters

anon of ibid (Leri-l), doctress neutopia (Leri-l), cosmic bert's mail order, kosmickk, the voice out of the off, wolf, the plant's death with the withering hand, master woodrose, gnu, qbert, dagobert kowalski, ff, paul, er [he], der vater [the father], oilz, freakchen, q!, rider of the cyber, qbird, gusch, wormhole one

Administration and Technique

The freaks like to participate in administrative and technical courses, that's why most mails relating to this are sent to the commune. The sysop plays an active part.

All freaks texts are archived. Does one want the old texts? Send kind words to the Sysop via pgp-signed mail.

From time to time the Sysop publishes the subscriber list on freaks-l.

At the moment about 20 freaks are subscribed. The mail frequency is about ten per day.

Safety and Paranoia

Some freaks are pleased if their (anonymous) texts are forwared to other persons, other freaks insist on personal question. Dangerous texts shall be encoded.

Keywords

In the following you will hopefully find a representative selection of freaks-l subjects. The freaks welcome new subjects as well as repetitions, additions, variations, and linkings [po-ings] of old subjects.

Nothing bores everybody!