identity issues

So, in the last week, two major media outlets have mentioned {fray} as an example in a story. Which, really, is great. Anything that helps spread the idea of personal storytelling and self expression on the web is okay in my book.

But they can't decide what {fray} is. TechTV thinks it's a good example of a webzine – a term I've never really liked, because the word "zine" conjures up images of 3am Kinko's runs and stacks of stapled paper, which is a fine image and one close to my heart. But that's not what it is, because {fray} is all about audience participation and immersive experiences. You can't do that with a Xerox machine.

On the other side of the spectrum, Reuters thinks {fray} is a great example of a weblog, which is just hysterical. If the reporter had returned my email, I could have told her what a weblog is and why {fray} is, most certainly, not one.

So all this begs a question that is, perhaps, only interesting to me. What is {fray}, anyway? And what are weblogs and webzines really?

For me, when pressed, I've always said that {fray} is, quite simply, a website. It's my idea of using the web in an interesting way, and it's always been my hope that it might help inspire others to form their own, different ideas, and make their own, different sites.

As for the rest of the questions, I'll leave it to saner heads to decide.

{ 7:32pm }

» If I may be so presumptuous as to answer your rhetorical question... ;-) (fray) is a new incarnation of old fashioned story-telling. Call and response. And that's what most of the good personal sites are.

That is it's allure, it's power. Good stories always inspire a response in the listener. In the oral tradition that may be an amen! or a story in return. When the listener has a ready channel, the response will be expressed. It's a deeply human trait and it's beautiful.

– christopher naze  { 6.28.01 @ 10:49pm }

» I think that it may be a community, or even an online poetry slam, sans the poetry. Whatever it is, after five years it's still captures and that's truly what the web's about.

Somewhat unrelated, I was watching an old episode of the cartoon Gargoyles, and one of the characters upon being asked his name says something to the effect, "you humans, you see to give names to things so that you can understand and control them ...."

fray doesn't need to be a category, it just is.

– ~A.  { 6.29.01 @ 9:35am }

» fray is like an oreo cookie, tasty chocolate on the outside, and delicious frosting on the inside ... mmm. yes, fray is definitely edible ... and it is good any time of the day.

– Jason  { 6.29.01 @ 9:46am }

» Fray is communication, an intimate and personal one at that. It's as simple as that.
Congrats on the nominations Derek!

– Steve  { 6.30.01 @ 8:15am }

» do you really need to find a definition to what (fray) is? does it really matter what some paper writes about it? it's something you've created, it's a part of you, and it's become a part of lots of other people.

I'll give you props for that.

– ohad  { 6.30.01 @ 1:08pm }

» it would seem that (fray) is something a little different to everyone.

like music. for some people a song is happiness, for others, sadness.

i would think that the best way to describe (fray) is that it's a little piece of all of us. and what that means to everyone is just a little different.

– christian  { 6.30.01 @ 11:05pm }

» ....and I'm soaking in it.

– Kevin-John  { 7.2.01 @ 12:47am }