Ship of Fools History
Doublethink
Admin, 8th Day Host
Introduction
The Ship has been sailing a long time and has been through many changes & challenges, some times have been more unrestful than others.
The Ship of Fools was first launched in 1977 as a studenty print magazine, but sank in 1983 after ten issues. It was raised again on April Fool’s Day 1998 as a website, and quickly grew into an online community as well as a webzine.
“We’re here for people who prefer their religion disorganized,” said the Ship’s editor and designer, Simon Jenkins. “Our aim is to help Christians be self-critical and honest about the failings of Christianity, as we believe honesty can only strengthen faith.”
To date the forums have been part of the webzine site, and a manifestation of the community that has grown around it.
History
In the beginning, there was one forum and one Editor. As the place began to grow, an Administrator was drafted and given the same the powers as the editor, but focused solely on the forum. When the forums didn't stop growing, it was clear that (a) one forum was not enough and (b) one Administrator couldn't handle everything. So the forum split into various discussion forums, and teams of Hosts were drafted to oversee the day-to-day running of each forum.
There used to be a tradition of H&A days. This was a day when Hosts & Admins got to enjoy themselves and anything could happen in the next 24 hours or so. Stories are still told of Heaven versus Hell wars and other shenanigans, but many records of them are lost to the entropy of the internet. We know of events held when certain posters passed 1000 posts, and in May 2009, on 12 Feb 2013 - the day the Pope resigned though the two events are probably not related and 18 Sept 2014 for Spike’s 50th birthday.
Penumbra
The Ship of Fools webzine has a Twitter account, as do many Shipmates. There is also an official Facebook page, and another unofficial Facebook group. Many Shipmates maintain blogs, and some have met each other in offline and online shipmeets - some have even married each other.
The Ship has been sailing a long time and has been through many changes & challenges, some times have been more unrestful than others.
The Ship of Fools was first launched in 1977 as a studenty print magazine, but sank in 1983 after ten issues. It was raised again on April Fool’s Day 1998 as a website, and quickly grew into an online community as well as a webzine.
“We’re here for people who prefer their religion disorganized,” said the Ship’s editor and designer, Simon Jenkins. “Our aim is to help Christians be self-critical and honest about the failings of Christianity, as we believe honesty can only strengthen faith.”
To date the forums have been part of the webzine site, and a manifestation of the community that has grown around it.
History
In the beginning, there was one forum and one Editor. As the place began to grow, an Administrator was drafted and given the same the powers as the editor, but focused solely on the forum. When the forums didn't stop growing, it was clear that (a) one forum was not enough and (b) one Administrator couldn't handle everything. So the forum split into various discussion forums, and teams of Hosts were drafted to oversee the day-to-day running of each forum.
There used to be a tradition of H&A days. This was a day when Hosts & Admins got to enjoy themselves and anything could happen in the next 24 hours or so. Stories are still told of Heaven versus Hell wars and other shenanigans, but many records of them are lost to the entropy of the internet. We know of events held when certain posters passed 1000 posts, and in May 2009, on 12 Feb 2013 - the day the Pope resigned though the two events are probably not related and 18 Sept 2014 for Spike’s 50th birthday.
Penumbra
The Ship of Fools webzine has a Twitter account, as do many Shipmates. There is also an official Facebook page, and another unofficial Facebook group. Many Shipmates maintain blogs, and some have met each other in offline and online shipmeets - some have even married each other.
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
1998
July: Ship of Fools letters page is discontinued in favor of a bulletin board
2 October: first draft of 10Cs composed
1999
January: Joanne's debut, which wreaks havoc on the board for two weeks and results in an emergency shutdown
February: board comes back online with a registration and subscription system in place
February: first Rudder Group is formed (Erin, David, Dyfrig, Stewart Brown, Suse, Rlee, Peter, Chris Goringe, Chris Bishop, Rachel)
2 February: first reallife crew meet in London.
April: Administrator (Erin) drafted to oversee the board
July: first cross-cultural war
2000
February: second cross-cultural war
March: plans to divide the board into six dedicated boards are proposed
2 May: debut of new boards with separate hosting teams.
Initial roster:
Heaven: clare, Wibblethorpe, 'frin
Purgatory: Laura, Chris Bishop, Steve Tomkins 2
Hell: David, Erin (anonymously)
All Saints: Lev, chalky
Styx: Simon, Chris Goringe
Rant of the Month: Erin
September: debut of Mystery Worshipper board hosted by Erin and Suse 2 November: debut of Small Fire board hosted by Wibblethorpe and steve collins and Urban Myths hosted by no one
2001
April: first major homosexuality argument, resulting in the first Host departure for misconduct
May: boards switched from NeoWorks to UBB and from paid subscription to free access
July: reached 1000 members
11th September 2001, the Twin Towers terrorist attacks - many Shipmates sought fellowship in the live chat cafe and prayer threads as events unfolded that would have a profound effect on all our futures.
2002
May: new administrative team takes over in wake of admin burnout.
September - December Miss Molly’s Fields of Gold thread, in which a dying Shipmate asked:
For many Shipmates this was a profound expression of ourselves as a community rather than just an abstract discussion space - that online relationships can be real and can matter.
Nativity Play
The online Ship of Fools Nativity Play: a fun and festive feast of frivolity
2003
The Ark
The Ark project was the Ship’s own biblical online reality show.
2004
The Church of Fools
This was a Ship of Fools project, an online 3d church - 7 years before anyone had even heard of Zoom, that ran to September of that 2004 but then took on a life of its own - evolving into St Pixel's.
2005
The Laugh Judgement
A special Ship of Fools project where we collected and debated religious jokes sent in to us from around the world. On the 29th August we announced our Top 10 of the jokes we'd received at the Greenbelt Festival in Cheltenham.
The Auction
The first Ship of Fools auction, where we invited bids for desirable membership numbers on our bulletin boards.
2006
The first Absent Friends Meet was held in London in January in memory of Gambit. It has been held annually (including online during the pandemic) ever since.
The Da Vinci Code
A temporary forum to debate the issues and share news about The Da Vinci Code - with quite a lot of comic conspiracy thrown in.
The Mystery Bullshipper !
A Shipmate filed a fictitious Mystery Worship report intended to counter the negative image that many in the Shipmate’s congregation had of the Shipmate as their vicar. This prompted an exodus of many long-standing Shipmates who felt that we had "outed" the Shipmate in question when in fact the "outing" was the Shipmate’s own doing.
Cybermunchausen’s
Our first encounter with this phenomenon, several of us were taken in by the story of a woman who had supposedly been involved in the Bosnian war, had been raped, was struggling and finally died of aggressive brain cancer. Her (supposed) broken hearted partner then posted. Finally it was all revealed as a scam.
The Credo Competition
Shipmates were challenged:
A prize was generously provided by IngoB.
2007
Amanda B. Reckondwyth assumes the role of Lead Editor of Mystery Worship, working hard to eliminate a backlog of over two months of unpublished reports and instituting a policy of publishing reports within days of their being filed.
2009
The Simmies
The first-ever awards for the Ship of Fools bulletin boards. Celebrating the most memorable, entertaining and unfortunate moments of the past year.
2010
Chapter & Worse
A Ship of Fools project where we are collected and debated the "worst" verses of the Bible, as sent in by readers from around the world. The Top 10 verses were announced in a spectacular Ship of Fools show at the UK's Greenbelt Festival at the end of August.
2011
Sadly, our Community Editor Erin died in this year – the loss had a major impact on the Ship’s community. Since this time, the forums have been supported by a shifting group of volunteer Admins and Hosts. Erin is, of course, not the only Shipmate we have lost over the years; and these people are remembered on the Glory forums on the old site and this website.
2014
The 8th Day experimental project forum was launched, originally steered by Ruth.
2018
The Ship of Fools moved to its current this website, Shipmates were generous in their financial support of the move and most people were pleased with the upgraded site that resulted.
This was also the year that European data legislation (GDPR) impacted on Ship of Fools – almost sinking it entirely at one point ! This led to further changes to the Admin team as non-European Admins could no longer legally carry out some functions.
2019
August this year Ship of Fools launched Epiphanies, as a replacement and evolution of the previous Dead Horses forum. A space for serious and sensitive discussion of contentious issues and a new manifestation of unrest; in the wake of me too, black lives matter and our observation of the dangerous, toxic dynamics widespread on social media.
2020
The onset of the covid-19 pandemic affected the entire world, many of us were isolated from friends and family – online communities became a yet more important source of support and social contact. The Ship of Fools revived the Church of Fools across 2020 on The 8th Day forum to share worship, when even the churches were shut to protect our societies.
Further to Simon Jenkins’ decision in June this year to relinquish ownership of the discussion forums, a consultation was held with registered shipmates in the 8th Day Forum on the future of the Ship of Fools Forums.
2023
As of 1st June 2023, Frolicking Leviathan Ltd (FL) became the new operator of these forums, having been granted a licence by Ship of Fools Ltd (SoF). SoF retained the copyright for the intellectual property associated with the design and name of the forums and remained the data controller for personal data on the previous UBB boards.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank @Simon for creating the Ship of Fools, and giving us this space to discuss a wide range of subjects and issues from the perspective of Christian Unrest.
@Simon continues to edit the Ship of Fools magazine, and the relationship between the forums and the magazine remains close.