15 December 1996: In the time of ancient warlords, kings and defective VCR
programming...a site was born..well sorta <g> Our tale, dear reader, goes back in the dim 1990's...actually 1996, on a hot and humid Saturday
Sydney night in the dying days of 1996. December 14, 1996 to be exact. I sat down to make sure that I would tape a show for a friend who missed the first episode of a show called "Xena: Warrior Princess".
Frankly I wasn't going to give her a tape with Australia's Funniest Home Videos on it since she really had her heart set on this show. My
intention was to sit for a minute, make sure the VCR was taping what it was supposed to be taping and move on to more important things...alas fate had other ideas and thus I began
this insane journey of creating a site dedicated to Xena: Warrior Princess, Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor. The site was called The Australian Xena Information Page at
http://www.zip.com.au/~kira That site were born December 15,
1996 when everything I did to get the idea out of my head failed and so in the true and trusted method of giving in to my ideas, I created the site. Originally the site were located under one address on the 5 mb space allocated to me by my ISP. I did a Bill Gates and said the immortal words...I don't think I'll need
more than 5 mb. You can stop laughing now :)
1997
Dec/January 1997 - The Bard's Corner is born and I start to add my favourite bards and their stories
The Weekend
Australian - Fan Clubs and The Web mentions AUSXIP!
April 1997 - moved ausxip to xenite.simplenet.com
July / August 1997
Cinescape Magazine July/August 1997
X-Siting - First she assaulted her enemies. Then she
invaded our living rooms. Now Xena: Warrior Princess has taken up
residence on the Internet. Just plug the name of Xena into a web search
and a flood of web-sites will scroll before you - proof that Lucy
Lawless is quickly becoming a cultural icon. Since there seem to be
hundreds of Xena-Oriented websites to choose from, we've decided to make
your search a little easier by compiling a list of some of the more
resourceful Xena Sites.
http://www.xenite.simplenet.com (AUSXIP before getting a doman)
This excellent Xena: Warrior Princess information page is packed with
easy-to-read episode, character and actor guides. The site also boasts
sound files, episode clips, a graphics gallery and fan fiction, in
addition to a cool section where transcripts to Xena articles from
newspapers, talk shows and mags have been compiled.
1998
April 1998
First contact with anyone associated with Xena: Message from
Steven L Sears(Co Executive
Producer) & Chris Manheim (Executive Story Editor) of Xena: Warrior
Princess about my montages including pic of Chris with montages!
April 1998
Adelaide
Advertiser Newspaper (Adelaide, Australia) - 28 April 1998 mentions
AUSXIP
December 1998 - AUSXIP celebrates it's 2nd
birthday!
1999
April 1999
April 1999 - Fan mobilise to get the Season 4
episode The Way back on TV after it was pulled because of concerns from
Hindus. AUSXIP joins in the battle.
Click here for more on this
battle and how the fans won 20
July 1999 The site changed to it's domain name of AUSXIP.COM and moves from Simplenet. Simplenet/Yahoo got a little tight with their size restrictions so ausxip had to move again. This time it
took up residence on hostingshop servers with a huge 10 gb hard drive (no one remind me about the 5 mb okay?). AUSXIP has undergone many changes;
design and content over the last 12 years. It's constantly evolving.
November 1999 - NET magazine (UK) had a write up
about the site -
click here
to read
December 1999 - AUSXIP turns 4
2001
12 January 2001 - AUSXIP Talking
Xena message board is born to find a safe place to chat about Xena after
the Official Net Forum closes
January 2001 - Mesh becomes chief AUSXIP
sidekick!
May 2001 - Xena bids farewell but
AUSXIP remains to chronicle the careers of Lucy Lawless and Renee
O'Connor and to keep the Xena dream alive.
August 2001 - Meeting the wonderful Mr Steven
Sears at Dragoncon and becoming mates with one of my favourite writers!
THAT blew my mind.
September 11, 2001 - AUSXIP (with
Redhead in charge while I'm on my US trip) carries news and information
from the tragedy.
December 2001 - AUSXIP turns 5!
2002
January 2002
- The last issue of the
Official
Xena Magazine listed AUSXIP in the Fan Run web sites under Xena
Magazine Guide to Life Xena Links
August 2002 - I was interviewed by The Age
newspaper for the series finale in Australia. The article appeared in
the paper -
The Age - 1 August 2002 - Xena gets chop in `unfitting' finale
December 2002 - AUSXIP turns 6!
December 2002 - The Australian NetGuide Magazine
is having a poll on favourite Australian web sites and Ausxip is listed
:) It was nominated and is in the finalist stage. So if you feel so
inclined - go and have a vote or two...or three
The link to vote for the site is on the top right hand side under
ausxip.com/index2.html
http://www.netguide.com.au/polls/readers_sites/
2003 April 2003 - "Xena: Warrior Princess and Lucy Lawless Print Media Articles and Images
from New Zealand" was merged into AUSXIP. That site was run by Liz/Sojourner. April 2003 - Split AUSXIP into three sites. AUSXIP Lucy Lawless Files and
AUSXIP Renee O'Connor Files domains were set up. December 2003 - AUSXIP grows up and get it's own dedicated server.
December 2003 - AUSXIP Turns 7!
2004 July 2004 - Forevaxena
is incorporated into AUSXIP - forevaxena is run by Cindy.
September 2004 - Judi's Creations merges
with AUSXIP - Judi's Creations was run by Carol Stephens. December 2004 - AUSXIP reached it's 8th birthday. Amazing. I never thought it was going to happen or I would keep my interest in
a tv show for that long but Xena has touched me like no other show. It's gone beyond being a tv show and more about the community built around it.
2005
January 2005 -
My first meeting with Lucy Lawless, Renee O'Connor and
Rob Tapert backstage at the 2005 Xena Convention (way cool that and
nearly blows my mind)
August 2005 - Hurricane Katrina hits and AUSXIP
launches Xenite Watch for fans to
locate fans in New Orleans and to raise money for Katrina Relief
September 2005 - We launch the A Friend In Need
Books, Cards & Toys Campaign Helping Hurricane Katrina Survivors One
Step At A Time to raise money and toys for the children.
Click here for details
December 2005 - AUSXIP reaches it's 9th Birthday!
2006
December 2006 - AUSXIP reaches it's 10th
Birthday! A huge milestone!
December 2006 -
AUSXIP Charity Auctions is born
to raise money for the Starship Children's Health and The Alissa Ann
Ruch Burn Foundation. First auction raises $8,150!
2007
January 2007 - KT Jorgensen joins the AUSXIP
sidekick team!
April 2007 - New site under AUSXIP Network -
Steven Sears Online! Dedicated
to one of my favourite writers
April 2007 - AUSXIP Interviews is resurrected
with one hell of a great interview - Renee agrees to be interviewed by
AUSXIP sidekick Christa for a video interview. First time a xena fan
site has got a Renee interview!
May 2007 - New site under AUSXIP Network -
Rob Tapert Online. Dedicated to Rob
Tapert!
May 2007 - New site under AUSXIP Network and not
Xena related - ARMY WIVES.
Show created and produced by Xena writer Katherine Fugate
September 6, 2007 - New Subsite dedicated to a
non Xena actor - Simone Lahbib! Launch of the
AUSXIP Simone Lahbib News and
Multimedia Fan Site
September 14, 2007 - The official Lucy Lawless
Fan Club fans launches Lucy Lawless Feel The Love Day and AUSXIP joins
in.
Click here for details
October 2007 - AUSXIP and
Talking Xena - after a
hiatus of a few years, Talking Xena Message Board once again becomes the
Official AUSXIP Forum and is now known as
Talking Xena - Official
Message Board for AUSXIP.
November 2007: AUSXIP mobilises to support the
WGA Strikers and in particular our Xena writers. Launch of the
Xena Refreshes
Campaign which raises money ($2005) to buy water, drinks, sun block
and other refreshements for the striking writers
December 2007 - AUSXIP reaches it's 11th
Birthday!
2008
January 2008: AUSXIP supports the WGA Xena Day
Strike! It rained, it hailed and the sun shone but we were out in force!
The strike ended several weeks later - Xena fans helped end the strike!
Click here
for pictures and video!
March 2008 - In honour of Lucy's 40th Birthday,
we hold our second HUGE Charity Auction to raise money for Starship, The
Alissa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation, Renee O'Connor Outreach Fund and WGA
fund. We raise $16,000!
March 2008 - AUSXIP gets a new design and logo!
March 18, 2008 - AUSXIP supports
Marissa Jaret Winokur on
Dancing With The Stars! Marissa goes on to the semi finals but then
misses out but the fans supported her!
April 2008 - AUSXIP gets another great interview with Renee at the
Burn Relay!
April 2008 - AUSXIP is honoured with a
Lucy
Lawless interview!. First time a Xena fan web site has been given an
interview with Lucy.
April 2008 - AUSXIP incorporates part of the
NutBread Brigade Website Xenite Tribute Page -
The Xenite Memorial to
remember and honour the fans we have lost.
April 8, 2008 - New AUSXIP subsite dedicated to
Adrienne Wilkinson!
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