Finding The Resort

(Word of warning: This is gonna be a nerdy one, so buckle in and bear with me please.)

Please indulge my tale of a trip I took to a place called The Resort. The Resort is not like other realms I have visited as it does not reside in my Blogger Kingdom. It exists in a kingdom locked in the past and is a testament to the ingenuity of the early internet users. Allow me to elaborate:

The Resort (http://www.resort.com) was founded in 1992. It was one of many infamous "Geek Houses" at the time, but it quickly became one of the most popular and beloved. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept of Geek Houses, it was a term given to communal homes inhabited by students of UCSC (University of California, Santa Cruz) who were computer enthusiasts. At the time, the internet was primarily populated by self-dubbed "computer geeks". And since there were several homes being occupied by geeky roommates, the various groups began starting their own webpages using their school's web hosting resource ("UCSCB"). (Here is an archive of the other Geek Houses for those of you interested in vintage websites: http://www.geek.org/geekhouse.html)

The Geek House known as The Resort began to take off in 1994 when the original seven house members began to create lots of interactive content and push the boundaries of the internet's capabilities. The site continued to grow in activity until it's disbandment in January of 1997 when some of the members moved out and left to start new Geek Houses. The site itself serves as an archive and is quite archaic, boasting a simple, white background and a basic set of links that lead to the main pages. Many pages are not able to be found with searches and are not linked within the site's main pages, leaving a more manual approach to browsing different directories necessary. Also, many aspects of the site suffer from serious link rot as all but two of the directories seem to be inaccessible.

But aesthetics aside, the site's content is unique and humorous. The Resort is portrayed as a sort of faux-cult complete with hierarchy, history, rituals, and a creatively cryptic way of relaying the events of their real lives. To simplify, it was a house full of nerdy college students who banded together and started a website that operated under the sardonic guise that their home was a cult inhabited by aliens. It's quite entertaining; not only for the humor but for the charm that the early internet had when it was so open, empty, and left to one's whimsy.

Since the website was published somewhat anonymously, I was determined to solve the mystery of the Resort's identity. I had concluded that in order to claim I had conquered the Resort, I must track down the location of either the house it was founded in or one of its members. This was going to be difficult for several reasons: First, the descriptions I found of the house were not enough for me to narrow down the search. Also, all the geeks of UCSC had pseudonyms that came complete with backstories, (resulting in greater difficulty tracking them out-of-character). I was at a loss; but I decided if I could just locate the founder of the Resort I could claim a victory.

The name of the Resort's founding father was Banshee. (You can see his 'lore' here: http://www.geek.org/login_lore/loginlore_book.html) Banshee's site directories were one of only two member's directories that still functioned. But through viewing the archived site usage I was able to find extensions that weren't accessible through other parts of the site. I eventually came across information that helped me track down the Resort's most prominent figure: John Michael Vinopal. From there, it was child's play to find out that Mr. Vinopal is now 50 years old and living comfortably in Berkeley, CA. I found more information, but I don't consider it to be worth sharing. What I will say is that I now possess the ability to contact Banshee. Perhaps I will make a follow-up post if I ever get an interview with him. Until then, I've cracked the mystery of The Resort. Thank you for tagging along on this uncharacteristically esoteric adventure.

Long live the King