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MindVox was a famed early Internet service provider in New York City. A controversial sometime media darling — the service was referred to as "the Hells Angels of Cyberspace"〔(Hells Angels of Cyberspace, Vox Chapter )〕 — it was founded in 1991 by Bruce Fancher (Dead Lord) and Patrick Kroupa (Lord Digital), two former members of the legendary Legion of Doom hacker group.〔(MindVox: Urban Attitude Online, Wired Magazine )〕 The system was at least partially online by March 1992, and open to the public in November of that year. MindVox was the second ISP in New York City.〔(MindVox on the Rocks, Wired Magazine )〕 Some controversy over this latter statement exists;〔(MINDVOX was the oldest ISP in NYC, not Panix, Slashdot )〕 however, by the time the first MindVox test message was posted to Usenet in 1992,〔(MindVox usenet test message, 1992 )〕 customers of the rival service, Panix, had made nearly 6,000 posts.〔(Panix usenet messages )〕 The test message was apparently posted by the infamous Phiber Optik, who would have been waiting for a Manhattan grand jury indictment at the time for hacking activities. Another potential "start date" for the service would be the registration of the service's ''phantom.com'' domain, on 14 February 1992. ==Founding and early years== The distinctive logo shown to the left was the system's original ASCII art banner, appearing on the text-only service's dial-up login page. MindVox was originally accessible only through telnet, ftp and direct dial-up. Its existence predates the invention of SSH and widespread use of the World Wide Web by several years. In later years, MindVox was also accessible via the web.〔(MindVox Web Page, 1996 )〕 The parent company, Phantom Access Technologies, Inc. took its name from a hacking program written by Kroupa during his early teens, called Phantom Access.〔(Phantom Access Exhibit, Textfiles.com )〕 MindVox functioned both as a private BBS service, containing its own dedicated discussion groups, termed "conferences" — though usually referred to as "forums" by users — as well as a provider of internet and Usenet access. By 1994 the subscriber base was at around 3,000.〔(MindVox, Long a Haven for Hackers, Signs Off. NY Times )〕 In many ways MindVox was a harder, edgier, New York incarnation of the WELL,〔(Wiring the Planet: MindVox! AP )〕〔(Wired Flux: MindVox April Fools )〕〔(A Fortean's Guide To Computer Resources )〕 (a famous Northern Californian online community.) While users were drawn from all over the world, the majority lived in the New York City area, and members who met through the conferences often became acquainted in person, either on their own, or through what were termed "VoxMeats" (a formal gathering of members whose ''double entendre'' name was rumored to be well-earned.) Prominent MindVox "evangelists" included sci-fi author Charles Platt, who wrote about MindVox for Wired Magazine〔 and featured it within his book ''Anarchy Online''.〔(Anarchy Online, Charles Platt )〕 MindVox also attracted (sometimes with the aid of free accounts〔(Welcome Letter to VIP MindVox Members with comped accounts )〕) artists, writers, activists and luminaries such as Billy Idol, Wil Wheaton, Robert Altman, Douglas Rushkoff, John Perry Barlow, and Kurt Cobain. The level of hysteria and hype surrounding MindVox was so great that in 1993 executives at MTV who were using the system wanted to buy it outright and turn MindVox into a subsidiary of Viacom.〔(Former Viacom exec discussing MTV's possible acquisition of MindVox )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「MindVox」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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