Just so you're aware, Seatails has been around forever.

[malinghi]

People probably don't give that site enough credit. It was one of, if not the earliest website devoted to mermaids. It's definitely the longest running, since it's been online more or less continuously since some time in the 90s. And back before Web 2.0 made it normal for websites to be filled with content that's submitted by users, everything on the site was put there by the site's owner.

Anyway, its kinda interesting to look back at the history of that site. It went through a ton of different forms over the years. In case you're wondering why the pages look weird and incomplete, its cause the wayback machine saves things imperfectly. Some of the formatting and images and stuff is screwed up.


Here's where I found this stuff if anyone wants to look for more: http://archive.org/web/web.php. Just search for seatails.org, or as it was a while ago, seatails.com.


http://web.archive.org/web/20000823090149/http://208.1.204.8/Seatails/
http://web.archive.org/web/20010503200156/http://216.173.206.88/seatails/
http://web.archive.org/web/20031213052858/http://12.208.179.64/~seatails/index.php
http://web.archive.org/web/20070106195521/http://24.108.197.22/~kurt/simplemachines/

[AniaR]

that's really cool. I do check out seatails from time to time, I guess I always avoided it because my impression seemed to be that a lot of the members were fetish oriented and that's not really my thing. I kinda get annoyed with how obsessed some people are on my fan page and commenting on my images, projecting their fetishes. I'm not bothered that people have them, but I do get bothered when they push them on me. I usually get some really creepy requests or comments and I've had to ban people from my page and block them on other websites. Anyway, that's what kept me from joining seatails years ago, now a days I don't see a whole lot of activity on the site. I do check it out from time to time and have found other mers because they feature them.

[Spindrift]

Yeah I used to go on Seatails way before mer.yuku/MerNetwork was a thing. Maybe it was a Ning site back then? Can't remember. I had a few of the same concerns as Raina though. I don't think I ever posted anything there.

[malinghi]

Yeah, Seatails' major weakness would probably be that it doesn't cultivate a very positive environment for women. But I think its pretty interesting to reflect on how long its been around, and on how much work went into the site, particularly in the days before all this new web development stuff.

As an aside. it also makes me wonder about the history of merfolk cosplay. As Raina has pointed out, Annette Kellerman was doing this decades ago. But that said, I'm not really aware of much recreational mermaid cosplay earlier than about 10 years ago. Foxmoon Productions was possibly the earliest tailmaker I remember seeing online.

[Alveric]

I check on them a couple of times a week. I occasionally post chapters there. I get plenty of views, but not much feedback, except for one female(?) who said I needed more graphic sex in my writing. :rolleyes:

[azaiya]

Malinghi, that's a perfect description of how I feel about Seatails. I used to poke in and out of there on occasion, but a lot of the crowd sort of creeped me out. I'll admit I find mer attractive on many levels, but they seemed very fixated on a very specific one, and nothing but that. It really bothered me. That said, it's been so great to see more proper online community of mers surface that is a bit more well-rounded in focus and intent. Interestingly enough, I don't think there is anyone from there that posts here?

POSITIVE TONE EDIT: But to be more positive, it was one of the first sites that was a dedicated place to talk about mer, and catalog the various appearances of mers in TV and movies, etc. And they made me feel not so weird about my obsession. Yay!

[Nate Walis]

Back in the day when Seatails was just about the only thing on the internet about mermaids which was not related to Disney, there was simply not the number of professional mermaid performers in the public eye as there are today thanks to the medium of Facebook and Twitter to promote themselves.

It seems to me that there has been - apologies for the use of such a term in this specific context - a sea change in the perception of mermaid forums and communities online in the space of the past few years.

Things are much more focussed these days around the more innocent and clean aspects of mermaids and if the opposite was putting so many people off for such a long time, then that can only be a good thing.

I often feel that in the current climate, Seatails is dying a slow and drawn out death as newcomers cannot understand why this kind of content was once the more common fodder of a mermaid-related site than people promoting a professional mermaid persona which appears at parties and social events and wonder if there can't be room for both in a modern world.

The man behind the site, Kurt Cagle, deserves to be mentioned as it was his hard work that made the place a reality and I will always owe him a personal debt as one of the first people to actually give me positive feedback and encouragement in my writing. Kurt wanted to print one of my first mermaid stories in a magazine version of Seatails that he was working on and though the project never got off the ground, he gave me a hint that there was something worth pursuing in that vein and I have not stopped writing since.

[AniaR]

Kurt is wonderful. He's been very supportive and respectful to me on all my sites.

[Alveric]

I would really miss Seatails ​if it went away.