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A Short History of Pendulum

This history of Pendulum was originally compiled by Joy Ikelman, who was one of the original members of the group. Later webmasters added important dates.

This history is presented on a timeline, beginning in August of 1992. A history of Pendulum must include a short introduction about the Walkers-in-Darkness mail list and other Internet events which have occurred during these years.

---> Walkers-In-Darkness Begins (August, 1992)
Walkers-in-Darkness was founded by Dave Harmon (bipolar) for people with unipolar and bipolar disorder. I believe he founded it in August of 1992.
By November 1992, when I joined Walkers, it had about 30 people. But it was growing fast. By January 1993, there were still less than 50 people on Walkers, but it seemed like a LOT! At that time, it was about 60% unipolar and 40% bipolar.

---> Pendulum Begins (March, 1993)
Pendulum was founded by Ed Arnold and Gordon Joly in March of 1993. Ed and Gordo met on a men's issues email list, and discovered commonalities and friendship. Ed, from the United States, has the list located on a computer in Boulder, Colorado. Gordo lives and works in England.
Gordo and Ed did not know about Walkers-in-Darkness. I believe I might have been the one to tell them. I belonged to both groups. By the end of March 1993, there were *six* members on Pendulum. Of these, only Ed, Gordo, and myself are still on the list (though I thought I saw Jim Lick on the list recently, too). Kristin Mowinckel of Norway joined shortly thereafter, and soon Pendulum was up to 15 people. I invited Dr. Ivan Goldberg to join both groups, and he became a wonderful source of information for all of us.
In May of 1993 there were discussions about whether to merge Walkers and Pendulum. It was an inter-group discussion. The logic was that there was hardly any activity at all on Pendulum. We decided to keep Pendulum separate.

---> a.s.d. Is Established (Summer, 1993)
Walkers-in-Darkness continued to grow, and grow, and grow. To provide another discussion outlet, the alt.support.depression group was founded by a member of Walkers (Kurt? Klaus?), in the summer of 1993.

---> Pendulum Takes Off (Summer/Autumn, 1993)
At this point, most bipolars belonged to both Walkers and Pendulum. However, the percentage of bipolars was going waaaaaaay down on Walkers, because the unipolar population on Walkers was exploding. My gosh, sometimes there were 10 messages a day on Walkers! (It seemed like a lot at the time.)
It wasn't long before the bipolar population was getting crowded out on Walkers by all those pesky unipolars. :-) Bipolars were only about 15% of the Walkers population. Also, all of us bipolars were cross-posting to Pendulum (there were about 20 Pendulees by then). So, several of us declared allegiance to Pendulum, and eventually, most of the rest of the bipolars on Walkers-in-Darkness followed.

---> SCHIZOPH Begins (Winter, 1993)
Chris Glover founded SCHIZOPH, a mail list for persons diagnosed with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders.

---> MADNESS Begins (January, 1994)
In January, 1994, Sylvia Caras founded MADNESS, a mail list for sharing mental health advocacy issues. (The original list was called "This-Is-Crazy." She had noted that Walkers and Pendulum did not generally focus on advocacy and consumer issues. MADNESS became an active forum for discussion for people with many psychiatric diagnoses, including people from the Walkers, Pendulum, and SCHIZOPH mail lists.

---> Pendulum Has a Growth Spurt (Summer/Autumn, 1994)
Between March of 1993 through about May of 1994, Pendulum grew very slowly, generally through word-of-email and personal recommendation. In June/July 1994 there was a big growth spurt, when American On-Line hooked up their e-mail gateway to the Internet. Other on-line companies followed. Pendulum mail went from approximately 20-40 messages a day, to well over a hundred per day.

---> Associated Resource Files Begun (Summer, 1994)
Several members of Pendulum began collecting resource files associated with bipolar disorder. For example, Wade Black and Eric Sladen began their archives, and I began the "famous living people" file and "media list." [Many of these, and other files compiled by Pendulum members, are now available on the Pendulum Web site or as links.]

---> Pendulum WWW Pages Begin (Summer, 1994)
Gordo started the Pendulum pages in 1994. It was one of the first sites on mental illness available in the world; most of us didn't even have Web capabilities yet on our work or home computers.

---> a.s.d.m Begins (January, 1995)
Scott Milliken founded alt.support.depression.manic just before he joined Pendulum (Jan/Feb 1995). When I saw that first post to a.s.d.m, I invited Scott to join us on Pendulum...because he was wondering where all the bipolars were. Scott began work on a Bipolar FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) shortly after he established a.s.d.m.

---> Ombudspersons (March, 1995)
With the growth and diversity of Pendulum, problems with flame wars, etc., would occasionally arise. This is typical of all mail groups, but it was important to keep the atmosphere safe on Pendulum. There were a few problems every 3-6 months, but these were managed by the membership. During early 1995, things got really bad, and Ed threatened to pull the plug on Pendulum. Jennifer Douglas and Ofra suggested a course of action was needed to prevent this from happening. After intense discussions (which included Ed), Ofra came up with the idea of Ombudspersons. In March of 1995, a peer group of 5 members was set up to moderate problems. Guidelines were written and included in the Pendulum "info" statement. The original Omsbudspersons were Wade, Jennifer, Leslie, Ineffabul, Ed, and Jen Belk.

---> The Bipolar Planet is founded (Spring, 1995)
In early 1995, two members of pendulum, with a lot of help from the list membership, started a web page called The Bipolar Playground. The Bipolar Church was added, and by May/June 1995 it had evolved into The Bipolar Planet. By 1998, an email list was begun with some of the more high-functioning members. The Bipolar Planet is still in operation.

---> s.s.d.m. Begins (Summer, 1995)
In the summer of 1995, the psychology news groups (originally created by John Grohol) were subdivided into more manageable groups. One of the groups is a discussion area for manic depression: soc.support.depression.manic.

---> BPSO Begins (Autumn, 1995)
BPSO began as an outgrowth of Pendulum. It is a "private mail list for those in a loving, intimate, or nurturing relationship with someone who is bipolar." No persons with bipolar disorder are allowed on this list, so that discussion may be frank and helpful to care providers. The idea originated with Jennifer D.; the list-owner is Andy Graves.

---> Pendulum Digest (January, 1996)
In February, 1996, Ed set up Pendulum to be in digest form. His purpose was to cut down on the administrative duties he had with bounced messages and bad accounts. [Pendulum is still available in single post form, but must be specially requested, with justification.] Marianne Cowley wrote an un-digest code for people on UNIX systems. Ed made it available via a "get" command to majordomo@ucar.edu. Andy G. created a Pendulum Digest-Buster list for those having trouble with the long digest format. Varda Reisner Bruhin began helping with administrivia.

---> Pendulum Grows Again (January-March, 1996)
The membership of Pendulum had stayed at a little more than 200 people up until early 1996. With more word-of-mouth, and mention on Web sites and newsgroups, Pendulum grew to approximately 500 members.

---> Web Pages Upgraded (March, 1996)
Doug Barlow took over the Pendulum Web pages in March of 1996, greatly expanding its offerings. A Pendulum Support Team was set up to answer questions which came in through the site, so that Doug wouldn't have to respond to each question personally. Original Support Team members included Doug, Wade, Joy, StarBright, Juli Lawrence, Laura Dickey, Lisa, and Karin Morgen. Doug Patton provided additional support, and Tomie Burke joined the Team shortly therafter.

---> The Bipolar FAQ (April/May 1996)
In April, 1996, Barry Campbell took on the work that Scott had begun, and completed a much more detailed FAQ, with the help of members from Pendulum, a.s.d.m., and s.s.d.m. This FAQ is now out-of-date, but plans to resurrect it are in the pipeline.

---> Pendulum Legal Statements, etc. (May, 1996)
By May, 1996, Pendulum guidelines and legal/copyright statements were updated. These, and all other parts of the Pendulum charter, may be obtained by writing to majordomo@ucar.edu. In the body of the message say: info pendulum

---> Pendulum Membership "Closed" (August, 1996)
In August of 1996, Pendulum's membership was closed; the list size had become unmanageable. The administrative upkeep of the list had become a nightmare. Ed hopes that with natural attrition, the list may be opened once again in the future.

---> Parents of Bipolar Children (Summer, 1996)
Tomie B. of Pendulum began collecting articles and names for a support group for parents of bipolar children.

---> Web Pages Move (November, 1996)
In November, 1996, Doug arranged for the Pendulum site to have its own domain: www.pendulum.org. At the same time, he upgraded the site with new features and information. By December, 1996, a book ordering service was available. Doug also began a Pendulum Forum so that people who are unable to get on the Pendulum list might still have discussions on the topic of bipolar disorder.

---> RosesAndThorns Begins (November, 1996)
A break-off group from Walkers-in-Darkness, called RosesAndThorns, was founded in November, 1996. Like Walkers, it is for unipolars and bipolars, but most of the membership seems to be unipolar.

---> Other Web Sites Become Available (December, 1996)
By December of 1996, other Web sites addressing the topic of bipolar disorder had been established. Many of these are sites were created by Pendulum members; other sites come from national and international mental health organizations. The best sites are linked from the Pendulum pages.

---> Web Pages Upgraded Again (May, 1999)
One of the original OBers, Leslie - using the pseudonym "daedalus" due to employment issues, took over the Pendulum Web pages in May of 1999. With her experience creating the Bipolar Planet, Leslie immediately went to work to improve the look-and-feel and ease of locating information on Pendulum Resources, resulting in a great boost in readership.

---> Pendulum Resources Forums Open (August, 2005)
daedalus opens public forums on the web page. The response was immediate and very positive.

---> Pendulum Resources reaches out (June 2006)
After several years as caretaker, daedalus finds that her emphasis is on staying functional rather than on staying CTTG and anhedonic on meds, and is ready to move on. Due to a lack of interest on the part of the list-at-large, daedalus is forced to consider non-members as prospective owners. She settles on Brian C. of Schizophrenia.com.

Modified August 3, 2006