You got the right stuff, baby. You're the reason why I sing this song.

June 27, 2014 8:48 AM

Prodigy, the New Kids On the Block, and fandom in an early online community.
posted by Chrysostom (12 comments total)

Reminds me of my days on alt.fan.hanson back in the day. Those were the days!!!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:07 AM on June 27, 2014

Oh. Not the Prodigy, just Prodigy-the-online-service. I was expecting to hear that ... I don't know, people were shipping Liam Howeltt and Donnie Wahlberg or something else equally bizarre.
posted by komara at 9:12 AM on June 27, 2014 [21 favorites]

I am so very glad that all my junior high TV fandom posts died with Prodigy.
posted by Flannery Culp at 9:20 AM on June 27, 2014

alt.music.nin or gtfo
posted by resurrexit at 9:29 AM on June 27, 2014 [2 favorites]

I'm suddenly happy that my squeeing fangirl times aren't memorialized online. (John Taylor of Duran Duran, call me!)

All fandom posts immediately made me think of a lightly commented Mefi post about the the twisted world of Leif Garrett fandom. I'll leave that for you in case you missed it.
posted by 26.2 at 9:36 AM on June 27, 2014

So, one of my college friends went to junior high with Jordan Knight. And one day during our junior year he got a call from these two girls in Pittsburgh who had tracked him down to ask whether a) Jordan Knight had signed his junior high yearbook, and b) whether he would sell it to them for $200. (He refused; he found the whole thing pretty unsettling.)

Somehow the fact that it was Prodigy that they may have used to track my friend down seems all the more impressive.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:06 AM on June 27, 2014

"fact that it was Prodigy that they may have used to track my friend down"

Now I'm picturing Keith Flint with his crazy clown mohawk running through tunnels in black and white, sniffing the air like an animal, smacking his head:

"I AM THE YEARBOOK FINDER /
SIGNATURE COLLECTOR /
I AM THE FIRESTARTER /
TWISTED FIRESTARTER"

"he found the whole thing pretty unsettling"

That goes without saying.
posted by komara at 10:15 AM on June 27, 2014 [6 favorites]

Actually, he briefly toyed with calling them back and upping the price (about $500, I think), but ultimately decided that'd be a real shitty move.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:27 AM on June 27, 2014 [1 favorite]

"Keep it dope funky fresh! - J Knight"
posted by ian1977 at 10:46 AM on June 27, 2014 [1 favorite]

One of my favorite communities was one for the Universal Monsters movie series on AOL. We had such amazing discussions about those movies, long into the night. I miss that.
posted by John Kennedy Toole Box at 10:54 AM on June 27, 2014 [1 favorite]

I don't recall ever using or hearing about Prodigy software. I thought it was that Prodigy, but hoped instead it somehow was Havoc's other half.
posted by cashman at 1:06 PM on June 27, 2014

I don't recall ever using or hearing about Prodigy software.

One of my favorite MetaFilter comments ever is about Prodigy (the online service).
posted by radwolf76 at 6:11 PM on June 28, 2014 [1 favorite]