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About Us
| August 17, 2008 |
| August 11, 2008 |
| August 1, 2008 |
| June 30, 2008 |
| May 29, 2008 |
M L V C . O R G is the official & original website for the Madonna Mailing Lists.
Site History
We originally created the site in March, 1995, after the Madonna Mailing List moved from MIT to the University of Michigan. The Internet was still fairly new to most people and there wasn't very much out there. Things proceeded along at a fair pace until October of 1996, when the Madonna Mailing list registered its own domain name, mlvc.org. Why MLVC? Those are Madonna's intials, and she seems to be very fond of them.
Madonna's brother, Christopher Ciccone, inspired the current site design with his understated, yet poignant interpretation of Madonna featured on the right side of every page. The original version features her intials over her halo and a falling P over her heart, representing her then-recent divorce from Sean Penn.
List History
The various lists are voluntary, free-form online forums for people worldwide to discuss everything about Madonna—the singer, the actress, the artist, the trailblazer, the symbol, the icon.
Nobody is quite sure when the list started, though most think it began circa 1990-1991, when Madonna was cavorting on screen in Truth or Dare and in the video Justify My Love.
In 1992, the list was called madonna@mit.edu, and it was run for the next three years by a student named Joe who saved it from being shut down. The message volume on the mailing list soon became a burden for some people as membership grew, so Joe created the Madonna Digest. In March, 1995, Joe left for graduate school, and turned the list over to Jim, then a student at the University of Michigan. He moved the mailing list to madonna@umich.edu—how appropriate, considering Madonna was once a student there. Automation of the lists finally came with the advent of mlvc.org, where we also added a trading list called MaterialWorld.
We started the Madonna Information Report (MIR) in 1997 at the behest of Alex Snell, and it is currently edited by Glenn Turner. It presents only the information gathered from the main list, sans discussion for those who do not have the time to read through the regular list. More information can be found on the lists page.
In December 2001, we added Zheng's MEMOS to our roster of lists.
In the summer of 2002, we closed the main list and digest because it had become too onerous to manage running a moderated forum with such excitable fans. It was compounded by a dearth of activity by Madonna, as her interests turned towards personal fulfillment through spirituality and family; in such a vacuum, people tend to drift away from the topic at hand, and the discussion tends toward personal insults. We also closed MaterialWorld because online shopping, business to consumer (those cool European sites where you can get those rare promos) and consumer to consumer (eBay) has rendered the need for a buy/sell/trade list nearly obsolete.
As of 2005, of the original mailing lists, only the MIR remains.
This isn't to say we won't be back...
The lists and site are run on volunteer-basis by Glenn, Zheng and Jim. Past alumni include:
- Joe Barco
- Alex Snell
- Emily Bell
- Jason Engel