Barbelith

Prior to contact with Barbelith, most characters undergo some sort of trauma or intensity- an alien abduction or shamanic initiation, for example.

The word first appeared on a sign post in House of Heart's Desire, a short story published in 1989 within the pages of A1, with art by Dom Regan.

As the forum's subject matter expanded, it was renamed Barbelith Underground and eventually moved to the front page of the barbelith.com domain.

[1] In Tom Coates' words: "Communities are hard-work to maintain, prone to spats and arguments, can spiral out of control and don't always want to move in the same direction as the people who consider themselves 'in charge'.

Increasing fear of "trolls", and the fact that one person had sole responsibility for the board, led to a prolonged period of decline in new material and membership.