Webmistresses

And -masters, too

I always used to consider my favorite web-mistresses and -masters as close to Gods. Literally. Their sites were works of genius that I could never come close to. They were far too important, too loved, too busy, to want to be bothered by the likes of me.

Then I started hanging out at the Dark Koushiro Board of Crap. I met Puppetmistress, and Clare, and Duch, and others whose sites I would love, once I found them. I discovered that they were actually people. I'm sure it sounds idiotic, but it's true. Yes, I still consider them brilliant imaginative people, but they're people. I always used to unconsciously assign the title of Webmaster or Webmistress to them, and that made them so special. The good ones, at any rate.

After that, I realized that, actually, without really thinking about it, I had been friends with quite a good webmistress all that time -- H4T. I'd kind of always taken her sites for granted... after all, we weren't friends because of it. Actually, we met because I reviewed one her fics, and then she IMed me... I remember one time when I discovered that she ran DigiDestined United, and I kinda freaked for a while, but that was it. Other than that, though, I was never in complete awe of her. She was always a person and a friend to me.

But, to get back to my point, the people that run the websites you see aren't great and mysterious creatures that are so above you that they don't want to hear from you. I used to think they resented my clumsy and awed praise. What finally made the last change in my mind about that was becoming a webmistress myself, and being on the receiving end. I loved it. It was so wonderful, knowing that people read what I was saying, and liked it. I felt like I'd just discovered a whole new world, somehow.

So, the next time you visit a site you love, don't be shy. The people there really do want to hear from you -- if they didn't, they wouldn't put their email addresses up, or set up guestbooks, now would they? So be nice to them, and say what you think. They really do appreciate it, even if they aren't always great about telling you that.