UPNetwork  

Go Back   UPNetwork > General Forums > The Misc

Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 06-20-2014, 05:48 AM   #1
McSweeney
Soul Badge
 
McSweeney's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
Posts: 1,488
UPN Day topic: Did the Upnetwork invent the term "shipping"?

I was just thinking about something Chaosrocket once said, and I'm wondering if it's true or just a tall tale. She said that the first ever "ship" was Jesse x James of Team Rocket, and hence this pairing was given the convenient pun of "Rocketshipping" (get it huh?). Other Pokemon pairings soon followed, and the idea spread like wildfire across different anime and even stuff outside of anime, and now "shipping" is a term that can be found all over the Internet to describe the act of obsessing over love pairings between different characters.

That brings us to the big question: Was the Upnetwork the origin of this term? I myself had never seen it until I came to the Upnetwork (in late 1999? Something like that), and saw a subforum devoted to "shipping" and I had no idea wtf that meant. I thought it was for shipping Pokemon cards to each other or something. I don't know if the other big Pokemon boards also had forums dedicated to shipping, but it seems like all the big shipping organizations had set up shop in the Upnetwork first, and then went to other boards later (Archaic and his Pokeshippers, Chaosrocket and her Palletshippers etc.).

It might seem far fetched that our humble board gave birth to such a widespread term, but I think there IS some evidence in the name of the so called original ship, "Rocketshipping". To help get to the bottom of this, share your own memories. When was the first time you ever saw the term "shipping"? Was it Pokemon? What year was it? Do you remember how widespread this term was on Bulbagarden or Pokemasters circa 1999?
__________________


Smoking Gary sez:
"Stay in school kidz"
McSweeney is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-20-2014, 05:54 AM   #2
PikaGod
Marsh Badge
 
PikaGod's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 1,736
This mentions shipping, being used as early as 1996.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mcsweeney View Post
She said that the first ever "ship" was Jesse x James of Team Rocket,
Also unless this is exclusively referring to Pokemon, this is absolutely and hilariously wrong. Then again, if it's just referring to the word, then that could be a different story.
__________________
Fizzy Bubbles: Karmas
PikaGod is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-20-2014, 06:06 AM   #3
McSweeney
Soul Badge
 
McSweeney's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
Posts: 1,488
Aw man, how lame. Frickin X-FILES? What's even the point when there's only one pairing? Where's the tension and drama that comes from having different competing ships?
__________________


Smoking Gary sez:
"Stay in school kidz"
McSweeney is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-20-2014, 06:25 AM   #4
McSweeney
Soul Badge
 
McSweeney's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
Posts: 1,488
Yeah, I never doubted that there have been fans who wanted two characters in a TV show to hook up since time immemorial. However, I was holding out hope that the Upnetwork, or at the very least the Pokemon fandom had made it a "thing" as in, an acknowledged activity complete with a name, and different competing factions gathering and presenting evidence for their case.
__________________


Smoking Gary sez:
"Stay in school kidz"
McSweeney is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-23-2014, 05:26 PM   #5
ajnrules
Boulder Badge
 
ajnrules's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 117
I dunno, but I'm still credited with starting the PokeShippers community over at Bulbapedia in this article.

Quote:
It can be said that the PokéShippers community first truly started on a very long thread in the Pokémon Anime forum of UPN (Ultimate Pokémon Network). The topic was called "Do you Think Ash like misty" and was posted by AJNRules. Basically, the thread was a war between those who believed in Ash and Misty's love (often called PokéShipping) or AAML and the anti-PokéShippers.
That typo where I left out the "s" in "likes" still bothers me almost 15 years later.
__________________
ajnrules is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-23-2014, 05:34 PM   #6
Kindrindra
大事なのは自分らしいくある事
 
Kindrindra's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Determined
Posts: 5,840
From what I understand of internet law, the 'shipping' craze really started with X-something (why), where there where two 'factions', the 'relationshippers' (who did the shipping thing) and the 'noromos(sp)', who wanted their storys relationship-free, thank you very much. Rocketshipping (because pun) was how Jessie X James was referred to because pun, and then people subbed out 'Rocket' for other things because that's what humans do. So while Pokemon didn't start shipping (ahahahaha it's been around since before print), it likely brought about the convention of naming parings as ___shipping and referring to said pairing as 'ships', as well as related terms such as the verb 'shipping' and the noun 'shipper'.

Not sure which board it was that experienced the Rocketshipping wave, but it doesn't seem likely that it was UPN.
__________________
PASBL(TL: 4 RL: B-) --- FB (Kin Blackstone) --- WF (Adelie Fleur)
Quote:
Originally Posted by captainmisato View Post
People should watch what they enjoy regardless of what others think, even if it's a terribad guilty pleasure.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Doppleganger View Post
Though, I also dislike the concept of lamenting the current day while wishing to re-experience the past. At least, my modern attitude is to try and make each new day magical even if it's not, since exclusively reminiscing about the past is too pathetic.
Kindrindra is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Lower Navigation
Go Back   UPNetwork > General Forums > The Misc


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:49 PM.


Design By: Miner Skinz.com
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.