Our goal

scenelink exists to provide a single area with resources for individuals and groups in the Art, Demo, MP3, and Warez scenes. Our goal is to make accurate and important information available, and to make it possible to communicate easily with the scenes as a whole.

The aim of this is to establish a common ground between scenes which will help to bring about the kind of stability which we feel has been painfully absent. As anyone's who's been in a scene for more then a few years is aware, things are no longer like they used to be. Improved technology has made it easier for people to enter the scene, but with that has come an incredible boom in the population of lamers. It's now much, much easier for people to be in the scene without knowing anything about those who came before them, without being aware ofwhat's happening in their own scene, and certainly without knowing anything at all about what's going on in other scenes.

Much of this is due to a change in the way the scene operates; everything has moved from the bbses to the net, and the result has been total chaos. Most boards had a life span of several years, which allowed them to function as institutions; a board was a center for scene life which helped to inspire respect for the scene. Now of course, the board has been replaced by a mix of temporary ftp sites, various irc channels, and a few scattered and sporadically updated websites and newsgroups.

The chaos which greets people as an introduction to the scene inspires very little respect, and people without respect for the scene end up becoming irritating lamers. They never really get introduced to the scene, instead they just get dumped into#warez666 or a similar channel. They are uncivilized because they grew up without parents; scenelink can show people what they're missing. There will always be lamers, but lameness is a treatable disease.

If this all sounds unusual, that's because it is. People are always harping about unity in the scene, about getting things done rather than wasting energy fighting each other, but so far all this bitching has achieved very little. The reason for this is because up until now the ones calling for scene unity were either individuals, or groups within a specific scene. Individuals, and even groups, lack the resources to effectively promote scene unity; their main concern is putting out packs, couriering, etc. so that's where they spend their energy. While there have been small scale alliances like RIP or the SPA in the Warez scene, these alliances were not separate entities apart from the members themselves, which we feel is necessary to ensure the level of stability and impartiality we are striving for. These alliances were also almost always between groups of a single scene, because the members lacked interest or resources to expand their alliance. scenelink is the first group that is really capable of effectively promoting stability and a sense of community across scenes because as a group, that is where all of our resources go. And because scenelink belongs to no scene in particular, it can bridge the gap between all scenes.

Our agenda

"Promoting a sense of community" covers a huge range of possible things for scenelink to be doing, which is why we have decided to focus initially on just a few projects. With a small number we can be sure that what we do, we will do well.

1. Current scene news; very brief summaries of events that happened in the past month like group mergers/deaths/and startups, and any other major developments in the scene, on irc, or on the web.
2. A listing of groups in each scene which will be updated monthly to include more current information. The purpose of this listing is to record group deaths, mergers, and births, and to provide groups with a chance to make themselves known. To see what the index looks like, check it out.
3. A list of releases maintained by the release groups themselves, to provide up to the minute updates on who put what out, who duped it, who fixed it, etc.
4. A gallery of selections from current art packs.

Why we're looking for coop groups

The big question all of this raises is, "ok so you want to do a website with scene info, what does this have to do with my group?" What scenelink needs is cooperation. Maintaining group index and news sections which are as accurate, thorough, and current as what we're planning for simply cannot be done without support from the groups themselves. You have the most accurate information about your group, so you'rethe best ones to provide it.

To become a center for scene resources, we need more than just good content, we need good advertising as well. Advertising lets people know scenelink exists, and by getting our URL and nfo widely distributed we also show people that scenelink has the broad level of support that it does.

The final reason we need coop groups is for the input on how scenelink should develop. The scenes pride themselves on their sense of community, but the only community tie that actually exists for most scenes is that things take place on irc. Cooperating with scenelink creates a tie that can serve as a foundation. All coop groups receive a bi weekly mailing from scenelink, and the mailing will be a good way for groups to communicate with one another and to address issues in the scene.

What coop groups have to do

Being a coop group is as easy as you want to make it. Officially, the only thing that we ask coop groups to do is send in their index form once a month.. It can be done over the web, so it should take a max of about 5 minutes..

The index allows us to verify that your group is still alive, and to gather feedback from all corners of the scene. Were commend that your group assign one person to be responsible for sending in the info to make things easier. This person will receive a reminder from scenelink several days before the info is due.

While not required, help with advertising scenelink is greatly appreciated. The more people hear about www.scenelink.org the better. Here are some suggestions for ways you can help,

1. Adding our web address to your nfo
2. Adding a greet to "scenelink" in your group's nfo
3. Including an add for scenelink on your group's offer bots

The affiliation process

To sign up as a coop group, go here for more info.

The staff at scenelink would like to thank you once more for reading this entire file, we realize it takes a long time, but for something as complicated as scenelink, we feel it'snecessary for everyone to understand what they're getting involved with.