The Acorn Cafe
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[edit] Introduction
The Acorn Cafe is was founded in 1998 as a message board for Rescue Rangers fans, so-called Rangerphiles; it actually received its name some time after its founding. Back then, its only alternative was the newsgroup alt.fan.disney.afternoon from which many Rangerphiles migrated to the more specialized Acorn Cafe, so it was bound to be successful. It established itself in the fandom so firmly that even ten years after, despite several crashes, migrations, and the launches of a few other Ranger-related forums of which the mixed Classic Chip 'n Dale/Rescue Rangers fan forum Chip 'n' Dale Online grew to be the biggest by far, the Cafe is still a large part of the fandom. Since June 2005, it is a phpBB bulletin board.
Not long after the launch of the Acorn Cafe and its Off-Topic Board, a Story Board was added, a forum on which Rangerphiles could post their fan fiction.
[edit] The Archivists
Due to the nature of the Acorn Cafe as a forum, there are no archivists. Instead, there are the same administrators and moderators as at the rest of the Cafe plus one moderator mostly for round robins. Written works which reach from fan fiction to song parodies and poems are posted by the users, as are comments by readers.
[edit] Archive Policies
The Acorn Cafe's story board is for Rescue Rangers-related fan fiction exclusively; all other fan fiction is to be posted on the off-topic board. Fan fiction to be published at the Acorn Cafe has to remain within PG limits. Drug and alcohol use, sexual actions, and graphic violence are prohibited. The Acorn Cafe's built-in word filter applies to the story board, too.
[edit] Archive History
[edit] 1998
February 8: Natasha Kashefipour launches the very first online meeting-place for Rangerphiles, a web forum called "Chip 'n Dale's Rescue Rangers," later renamed The Acorn Cafe. For about two and a half years, Natasha stays the main administrator.
[edit] 1999
[edit] 2000
December 24: InsideTheWeb proves to be highly unreliable again. After another crash, the Acorn Cafe is irreversibly reduced to the three letters gjk. A new Acorn Cafe is launched, and the R.O.A.R. board is turned into a new Acorn Cafe, so for a few days, there are two Acorn Cafes, both of which are hosted on InsideTheWeb.
December 29: After the all new Cafe is shut down, the former R.O.A.R. board remains the only Acorn Cafe.
[edit] 2001
February 28: InsideTheWeb announces its shutdown, and the so-called Great Migration takes place. The Acorn Cafe is moved to RPGBoard. However, the old databases cannot be moved and are lost on March 9 when InsideTheWeb finally shuts down.
[edit] 2002
December 29: First annual Golden Acorn Awards
[edit] 2003
January 12: A link to Of Mice and Mayhem appears at the Cafe.
December 29: Second annual Golden Acorn Awards
[edit] 2004
January 30: The Acorn Cafe changes its URL to www.theacorncafe.org.
December 29: Third annual Golden Acorn Awards
[edit] 2005
June 23: The Acorn Cafe converts from a traditional message board to a phpBB2 bulletin board. The old database is saved and remains readable.
[edit] 2006
January 5: Fourth annual Golden Acorn Awards
[edit] 2007
February 28: Fifth annual Golden Acorn Awards; the large number of users watching supposedly overloads the server.
August 21: The Acorn Cafe is upgraded to phpBB3.
[edit] 2008
February 29: Sixth annual Golden Acorn Awards
[edit] Archive Funding
Since the time that The Acorn Cafe moved from the free service of Inside the Web to a private server, it has been funded by the main administrator with no cost to the users, or advertising of any kind. However, starting in April of 2008, the administrator began asking for voluntary donations to help defray the cost of renting the server. The Cafe can still be used for free, but members have been quite willing to help cover the cost, and have yet to fail to meet the $60 monthly goal.
[edit] Archive Size
Some threads on the story board contain non-fan fiction material such as song parodies, poetry, requests, or fanfic-related discussions. Besides, some authors post their stories one chapter a thread. So counting the pieces of fan fiction posted at the Acorn Cafe is not feasible. Several hundred stories can be found, however. The archive itself reaches back as far as 2001. Fan fiction older than that can be found at other places such as the Rescue Ranger Database, as can other stories which have never been posted at the Cafe.
[edit] External Links
The Acorn Cafe Story Board (June 2005 to today)
The Acorn Cafe Story Board Archives (February 2001 to June 2005; locked)
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources
Below is a partial list of articles and academic sources to help you continue to learn about this fan fiction archive.
Ranger Wiki article about the Acorn Cafe with a more extensive history section
