Splosh copyright ?

[DungeonMasterOne]

Re Splosh and WAM, the version I remember (as is I think still stored on the archives of alt.config) is that in late 1994 or early 1995 someone proposed "alt.sex.fetish.messy-fun", but that was already the name of Rob Blaine's company, someone then proposed "alt.sex.fetish.sploshing", but someone else thought it was a bad idea (and breach of the relevant protocols) to name a newsgroup after what they thought was a commercial company name. So they came up with alt.sex.fetish.wet-and-messy instead, which usually got shortened to a.s.f.w-a-m or even just asfwam in conversations, with the generic term "wam" evolving from the newsgroup name.

There was also Mark Kelly's "WAMTEC" (Wet And Messy Tape Exchange Club) - not sure if this preceeded or came after the newsgroup formation.

TBH the wam name was unfortunate, as it was never clear that wam was about sploshing and not watersports or scat, with a series of misdirected posts ensuing as a result, even though IIRC they each had their own groups. Back then there was a strict divide between the different fetishes.

Of course the alt.sex groups on Usenet were long since lost to an ever-rising plague-tide of spam and villany, their ancient and rust-eaten portals bolted and welded shut behind the retreating survivors. You'd not get me back in there without cover from Ellen Ripley, a full platoon of Imperial Space Marines, and heavy armour - and that'd just be for a quick recce.

The survivors retreated to the safer confines of Ron and Chrissy's wamfanmail e-group (very rapidly assimilated into Yahoo!), and more or less remained there until the first version of the UMD made it's appearance.

asfwam - it was only 13 years ago, but it feels like half a lifetime. How the world changes!