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As far as I’m concerned, there have been three eras of mooniedom with each corresponding to the three major events in the fandom. With that in mind, everything will be divided as such:
Then: Golden Age – 1994-1997. The years of the DiC dub.
Then: Silver Age – 1998-2002. The Moonie Renaissance. The remaining 17 episodes of the R dub were financed. Pioneer/Geneon started releasing the movies, S, and SuperS on DVD while CWi dubbed the two series for TV and ADV bought the video and DVD rights to Classic and R.
Now – 2003 to present. PGSM, baby.
Also, keep in mind that when the websites started was not necessarily when they were at their most popular. And in instances where there’s overlap, I’ve had to pick and choose where to stick them.
I’ve tried to link to websites where they still exist, however, that isn’t always possible. Also, I’m not covering mailing lists or usenet groups. Sorry alt.fan.sailormoon.
If I’ve managed to neglect anyone, well, unless it’s a glaring oversight on my part, please don’t bother correcting me. I worked up this list purely out of the power of my own brain and with the help of some fandom friends.
Then: Golden Age
Hitoshi Doi – Episode Summaries to live by. He is also well-known for his advocacy of milk drinking as a way to maintain healthy teeth and bones. Mmmm. Milk.
Castle in the Sky – Expanding Sailor Moon horizons for the dubbies. Provided the only Illustrated Episode Guide for the end of the R season as well as the complete S season. It’s little more than a fairly static info page, but it does get updated from time to time whenever new info is made available.
SOS – I’m going to laugh now. Excuse me. Sadly, though, a lot of people looked to that little ticker of theirs for information. I’ll be damned if I know why. However, giving credit where credit is due, they did a very good VA roundup for the dub cast. It finally finished its slow and painful death in September of 2004.
Then: Silver Age
The Sailor Senshi Page – Already a popular location on account of the sheer amount of info the page contained, the SSP took care of the primary coverage of the S and SuperS dub projects, complete with a fully detailed listing of edits and DVD reviews. If you wanted news, this was THE place to get it. It’s still around though the majority of the maintenance is no longer done by the owner of the website. And it's still a great place for media and info.
The Worst Sailormoon Pages Ever – Now officially retired, it not only reviewed bad websites, but also was where the fan went to vent their issues. It’s the website-based version of me but less amusing. Ah, bitchiness. The rants pages are (mostly) still relevant. Complete with special editions on fanfic, this page was everything that a fan could want. Having been run by a rotating Amazoness Quartet since 1996, the site officially went static in February of 2003.
Sailormoon.org – Apparently, it was the largest SM community on the net. I didn’t know anyone that actually visited there, but hey. 20,000 registered members do not lie. Unless it was only, like, 1000 registered members that were registered 20 times. Which is actually still pretty impressive, to be honest, but in a completely different way.
In Defense of SuperS – Um… pretty much what it sounds like.
Usagiandmamoru.com – The home of more character shrines than you can shake a stick at.
Troublemakers and All Things Naughty – THE definitive site for villains – with an overemphasis on Fisheye. 'Cause he's evil and gay and looks like a girl. Therefore, he is awesome. Also, the site owner had a great way of dealing with people who stole bandwidth.
NOW
Dies Gaudii – Essays and myths debunked. It’s the work of a person with WAY too much spare time on his hands. (Yeah, I’ll admit it. It’s a handy site to have around, but I have to wonder about anyone that spends that much time devoted to the linguistics of Sailor Moon. Also, one Saturn/Pluto article is enough. Really. We DO get the point.)
Genvid – The site to go for when you want PGSM coverage. And occasionally, where you go to watch Chibiusa take over the Internet with her magical Poor Grammar ATTACKU!
Shingetsu – The other BIG PGSM site. Unlike Genvid, it contains photo galleries, transcripts, and spoilers.
The Chibi Project – Opened in 1999, the Chibi Project subjected a PVC Chibiusa figure to a number of tortures to see if it would survive. The site continues on, however, they have moved on to a number of side projects such as soaking Gundam figures in rum and lighting them on fire as well as squishing Shinji Ikari by a train. I love this site. So. Much.
Then: Golden Age
Luna and Artemis’ Central Command Headquarters – ASMR back when Sailor Skuld ran it instead of Andrea. According to my source, they used to update in these batched .zip files that you’d have to download.
Then: Silver Age
A Sailor Moon Romance – Still dominating.
The Best Sailor Moon Fanfic on the Net – began in 1997. High quality fiction here, yo. It's also all pretty old fiction. Hasn't been updated in AGES. I'd stick it in Golden Age, but the time frame doesn't quite fit.
First Love – First Season Romances… ALL THE TIME. It was Alicia Blade’s site. It went down, changed ownership (several times - at least once by PuD), closed down for a while, and now I think it’s starting to resurrect itself. Again.
Love in the Springtime – Are you sensing a pattern here? Disappeared in 2001.
Destiny’s Gateway – Dude, this was PuD’s site. Back before we all found out just how batshit she was, it was considered okay to be in her archives. Well, not by me, but others, surprisingly enough, yes. Wild, man. Wild.
The Portal to Sailor Moon Stories – What amused me about this place is, well, the site was constantly down. It'd come back up for a short period and then pfft! Down again!
SMRFF – Sailor Moon Romance Fan Fiction is a huge UsaMamo mailing list. They have their own archive. It's not as big as it used to be, but it's still there in all of it's schmoopy glory. (Confession time: Back in the day, I was a member of the mailing list. Whenever one of them wanked, I used it as rant material. And oh, the wanking they had. It was glorious.)
Moonlit Eclipse – When this site opened, it had some massive hype. Which it proceeded to not live up to. They were picky. Fics were actually VOTED in. Judging by some of the fics in the archives, it was early proof that far too many fangirls had really bad taste in reading material. From what I understand, part of the reason that it's no longer being updated is because both of the owners lost the password. Brilliant, that.
Usamamo.com – The companion site to usagiandmamoru.com. Lots of UsaMamo. Duh.
Fanfiction.net - Home to poor grammar and spelling on the InternetS!
Now
A Sailor Moon Romance – Still here!
Aria’s Ink – I believe this was the first archive to automate itself. Also, to quote a friend, “The Spiritual Home of dumb UsaMamo fic”. Which makes sense. After UsaMamo.com shut down, it all had to go somewhere.
Sailormoonfiction.com - It shut down temporarily but it's back again!
Fanfiction.net – Let’s face it. It’s here for good.
Then: Golden Age
“Sailor Moon Season Title of Your Choice” – The old days was ALL ABOUT writing your own season of SM that took place after R. Sailor Moon V. Sailor Moon Q. Sailor Moon Cute and Cuddly. Sailor Moon Everyone Dies. Etc.
The Neptune/Uranus romance – Because who doesn’t love a good lesbian romance? Even Lynn Cheney loves lesbian erotica enough to write some of her own!
Then: Silver Age
America Ahoy! - Those fics where the senshi are all REALLY MEAN to Usagi so she runs away to America because no one cares about her and she learns how to kick ass and she ends up having to come back to Japan and all the senshi just BEG for her forgiveness.
The Neptune/Uranus romance – Because who doesn’t love a good lesbian romance? Even Lynn Cheney loves lesbian erotica enough to write some of her own!
Creation of Crystal Tokyo – Often done well, but still done often.
Aftermath of S – Apparently, Usagi had a REALLY hard time coming to terms with what happened to Hotaru against Pharaoh 90.
The First Season Romance – Some trends never die and they will plague us always.
The Doom Tree Romance – Oh my GOD! Darien doesn’t remember Serena! It’s like the First Season Romance but angstier!
The R Season Breakup Fics – Like the prior two but with angst overload!
I’m not mentioning the last three ever again. Just assume that they’re a staple of the fandom and they will never ever go away no matter how many times you shoot them with your elephant gun.
Now
The Character Drama – Dramatic character growth. The bastard love child of the character study and the epic. Only attempted by the truly ambitious.
The Manga/Anime/Live Action Rehash – Like the manga/anime/live action but not quite!
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