Four Pillars and a Pair of Wings - Darci C.

So, who is the pair of wings? The person who helped the hobby begin flying and on a much grander scale than ever before?

Darci C.

When Nancy Kelly and I were chatting about her new book and the people in it,  I expressed my thoughts that Ellen, Simi, Linda, and Marney were the four pillars of the hobby, our foundation. Nancy countered that there was yet another one, Darci C. - the originator of Haynet.

Nancy wrote (and I quote her with her permission),

I also recognized another unsung hero who didn't want any recognition at first. In chapter 8 you will see that Darci C. was the software engineer that first started Haynet, before there even was an internet. She got permission to host it on her work server. I wasn't sure how to find her after all these years, but when I contacted the company that still has that server name there was a fellow there that knew her and he put us in touch. She was great to work with, and helped me get the facts straight on the middle part of chapter 8's text. If the other four were the pillars of the hobby, Darci provided the wings for it to really take off!

Nancy's right. Darci brought the world together to a spot where we could chat daily, no SASE or long distance phone calls needed. Darci is the originator of Haynet, the blockbuster Yahoo group (originally founded on Darci's UNIX work server in 1990 as a mail list) that was the place where hobbyists could chat nearly instantaneously with one another about our beloved hobby.

Still in existence today, Haynet was the place to read about hobby happenings and for general model horse chat, sales lists, show listings, customizing, etc. Eventually there began to be spin-off special interest groups due to the sheer size of Haynet which made it difficult to find certain threads. (Technology was so different back then and much more cumbersome.)

This is a screen shot of the number of messages posted on Haynet per month per year up through 2015. The previous photo shows them to 2019. (Sorry for the poor quality screen shots.)

The rest is history - groups multiplied online in Yahoo groups, which led to bulletin boards, Fallen Leaves, Blab, and now Facebook. We are connected better than ever before thanks to Darci who gave us our hobby wings.

So there you have it - the four pillars and the pair of wings. Ellen and Simi started the gathering of collectors through snail mail and photo shows, Marney made live shows a vital aspect of the hobby, Linda was our voice, and Darci let us fly.

Thank you, ladies.