Tales of Yore: H.O.P.E./HOPEorg
Dec. 7th, 2022 06:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lb_leeHere I am hours later, feeling like I sank to the bottom of a terrible well. So, here's a little thing about H.O.P.E. I feel like two quotes sums it up pretty well:
"Our purpose is to improve things for alternatives, by creating and providing resources for them, networking with both alternatives and mainstream society to improve relations, and to keep an eye out and get involved in activism when it is needed" (H.O.P.E., 2001, April 22b, paragraph 3).
"Below is a list of offenses which are against HOPE policy. [...]
5.) Failure to Destroy Paperwork
7.) Making Public Statements About HOPE without Authorization
14.) Unnecessary/Excessive Use of Violence
39.) Endangerment of Life" (2000, April 26)
Ostensibly a coalition group for various oddballs, including pagans, otherkin, queer people, plurals, polyamourous people, people with paranormal abilities, hackers, and goths, H.O.P.E. was noble wallpaper over a sketchy group. We first heard about them from their advertisements in Kinships magazine: "Need a Supportive [sic] word, or some time to relax with other nonjudgemental [sic] oddities? Need some tutoring in behavioral sciences, thaumaturgical potence, or how to survive in a conservative community? Longing for word of political activists looking out for your unique needs? Well that's just what H.O.P.E. is for! Visit us at: www.hopeorg.com" (Issue #5, pg. 16; Issue #4, pg. 5).
At first, I thought, how nice! So I trawled the website.
Guys. There was a LOT of website. Here are the main WBM archives I used:
- http://mypage.goplay.com/HOPEteam: 2000, Wayback Machine archive (major data loss)
- http://go.to/alternativenet: 2001-2003, Wayback Machine archive
- http://www.angelfire.com/weird/alternativenet*: 2001-2005, Wayback Machine archive
- http://www.hopeorg.com: 2001-2003 Wayback Machine archive (data loss minimal; sort by oldest first to sort through domain squatters)
- http://groups.msn.com/HOPEorg/: 2002-2003 Wayback Machine archive (data loss major)
At first, it didn't seem so bad! Little articles on glamourbombing, essays on awakening to one's nonhumanity, stuff like that. But then I dug through enough pages to start seeing some weird stuff.
Apparently H.O.P.E. accepted members younger than 13 years old (2000, November 3a). Members over the age of 13 (but not multiples, strangely, or certain other demographics) were required to also send their legal name and their membership numbers (which included zip codes) through extremely suspicious-sounding means to a strange email and I'm wondering if this was just some elaborate phishing scam (November 3b). Apparently it was also accused of being a cult, during a mysterious "November Incident" from 1999 which is not discussed (2000, April 22), and they also claim to have had a run-in with a "neighborhood fundie militia" in December 1999 (2000, August 24).
They were WEIRDLY overcomplicated; they had ten different membership levels, and eleven different "branches" which all contain various jobs (2000, May 20, Membership Info: Jobs) despite only having a membership of three dozen (2001, April 22b).
They continued until October 2001 or so (H.O.P.E., 2001, April 22b, paragraph 1), then claimed to have changed everything and remade itself (2002 February 27) and trudged on until sputtering out once again late that year, whereupon they apparently merged with another group called CORDE and sought nonprofit status in 2003 (2003, February 7). That's the last activity I find of them.
I am so relieved that all I had was a few web 1.0 websites, so I will never know more about them. That was enough. But seeing as it was in the Boston area, I wonder if anyone involved was involved with Pavilion Hall later? Or was there truly just two different super-overcomplicated super-serious "activist" "resource" groups involving plurals going on in town around the same time?
Sources Cited:
H.O.P.E. (2000, April 22). HOPE Intro: Index. http://hopeorg.com/about/hopeouting/ Wayback Machine archive. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20010504014732/http://hopeorg.com/about/hopeouting/
H.O.P.E. (2000, April 26). HOPE Org Info: Policies and Procedures. http://www.hopeorg.com/about/orginfo/policies.html Wayback Machine Archive. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20001001062532/http://www.hopeorg.com/about/orginfo/policies.html
H.O.P.E. (2000, May 20). Membership Info: Membership Types. http://hopeorg.com/about/membership/membtypes.html Wayback Machine archive. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20010308060531/http://www.hopeorg.com/membership/membtypes.html
H.O.P.E. (2000, May 20). Membership Info: Jobs. http://www.hopeorg.com/membership/membjobs.html Wayback Machine archive. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20010506112903/http://www.hopeorg.com/membership/membjobs.html
H.O.P.E. (2000, August 24). Contingency Prevention Core: Index. http://www.hopeorg.com/ccpc/ Wayback Machine Archive. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20000824171202/http://www.hopeorg.com/ccpc/
H.O.P.E. (2000, November 2). Membership Number Policy. http://www.hopeorg.com/membership/memnum.html Wayback Machine Archive. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20010309234548/http://www.hopeorg.com/membership/memnum.html
H.O.P.E. (2000, November 3a). HOPE Application Process FAQ. http://www.hopeorg.com/membership/appfaq.html Wayback Machine Archive. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20010506111506/http://www.hopeorg.com/membership/appfaq.html
H.O.P.E. (2000, November 3b). HOPE Application Instructions. http://www.hopeorg.com/membership/newapp.html Wayback Machine Archive. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20010308061209/http://www.hopeorg.com/membership/newapp.html
H.O.P.E. (2001, April 22a). Intro: Purpose. http://hopeorg.com/about/introfaq/purpose.html Wayback Machine archive. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20010628002034/http://hopeorg.com/about/introfaq/purpose.html
H.O.P.E. (2001, April 22b). ~Basic H.O.P.E. Introduction~. http://hopeorg.com/about/introfaq/hopeintro.html Wayback Machine archive. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20010628011551/http://hopeorg.com/about/introfaq/hopeintro.html
H.O.P.E. (2001, April 30). The Glamouring Campaigns: Introduction and Information. http://hopeorg.com/altresources/glamour2000/introreg.html Wayback Machine Archive. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20010721151745/http://hopeorg.com/altresources/glamour2000/introreg.html
H.O.P.E. (2001, July 24). Nonhuman/Otherkind Resources Directory. http://hopeorg.com/altresources/directory/kindir.html Wayback Machine archive. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20010724170120/http://hopeorg.com/altresources/directory/kindir.html
H.O.P.E. (2002, February 27). HOPE Org and/ Basic Alternative FAQ. http://pub3.bravenet.com/faq/show.php?usernum=225672038&password=&catid=1459&action=showcat Wayback Machine Archive. Retreieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20020227173949/http://pub3.bravenet.com/faq/show.php?usernum=225672038&password=&catid=1459&action=showcat
H.O.P.E. (2002, October 2). HOPEorg Main Index Page. http://www.hopeorg.com/p_index.html Wayback Machine Archive. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20021205094120/http://www.hopeorg.com/p_index.html
H.O.P.E. (2003, February 7). HOPEorg. http://groups.msn.com/HOPEorg/ Wayback Machine Archive. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20030207211520/http://groups.msn.com/HOPEorg/
Unknown. (2001, December A). Alternativenet - Multiple Information. http://www.angelfire.com/weird/alternativenet/anethost2.html Wayback Machine archive. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20021027203307/http://www.angelfire.com/weird/alternativenet/anethost2.html
Unknown. (2001, December B). Alternativenet - More Multiple Information. http://www.angelfire.com:80/weird/alternativenet/anethost3.html Wayback Machine archive. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20021105083949/http://www.angelfire.com:80/weird/alternativenet/anethost3.html
Unknown. (2004, April 4). Untitled image of glasses, used on the H.O.P.E. site. http://www.angelfire.com/weird/alternativenet/parchdisclmn.jpg Wayback Machine. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.angelfire.com/weird/alternativenet/parchdisclmn.jpg
Various. (2001, fall). Kinships Magazine Issue #4. Pentegram Komix and Graphix.
Various. (2001, winter). Kinships Magazine Issue #5. Pentegram Komix and Graphix.
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Date: 2022-12-11 04:14 pm (UTC)