Micronational Internet Hall of Fame announces 2022 inductees

The Micronational Internet Hall of Fame has announced today the list of 3 members that have been inducted into the brand-new award for 2022. 

Zabëlle Skye, the founder of this list said: "I recall researching and writing about intermicronational history and finding all of these highly influential figures in the development of micronationalism on the Internet, yet saw that since most of them retired they were never talked about again. So, I created this as a way to simply say thanks and give recognition to their often selfless contributions to micronationalism.". 

The following individuals were inducted into the Hall of Fame:

• Pedro Aguiar

"Utilising his position as secretary general of a revived League of Secessionist States between October 1996 and July 1997, Aguiar turned the League into a ubiquitous intermicronational organisation in the early community - greatly advancing the diplomatic relations between the early micronationalists of an emerging GeoCities and late Usernet era. His documentation and archiving of micronational history are also noteworthy; we highlight the Portuguese Jéssica Encyclopedia (first officially published in November 1999; possibly the earliest micronational encyclopedia) and the League's English-Language Micronations Database (launched in 1997), which had 574 entries. His creation of the online Wikimicropdia wiki in February 2006, which consists of articles taken from various sources, including the two aforementioned, allows us to access their articles and provides us with a glimpse into the micronational community's cultural and social norms at the time; a truly valuable source of intermicronational history. Additionally, as a pioneer of the Lusophone sector, Aguiar helped develop the tenet of derivatism (secessionism) in October 1998 - which still remains popular in the said sector today - and also worked with many prominent Lusophone micronations such as the Holy Empire of Reunion and the Republic of Orange."

• Robert B. Madison

"Madison, the father of micronationalism on the internet, created the first micronational webpage for the Kingdom of Talossa in November 1995. Madison also launched the Micronations Page, the first webpage dedicated to micronationalism as a whole, the same year, hosted as a subdomain of the online service provider ExecPC BBS. The website, which was later hosted on GeoCities, provided a definition of a micronation, a brief overview of the subject, and eventually included a list of micronations by at least 1996, making it the first webpage to do so. Madison also resurrected his childhood organization, the League of Session States, and launched its first website in April 1996, which was also hosted on GeoCities. With the help of Portuguese micronationalist Pedro Aguiar (starting in September 1996), the League grew to become the largest intermicronational organization by early 1997, receiving member states through GeoCities, email, and the Usenet newsgroup alt.talk.hypothetical."

• Steven F. Scharff

"Beginning his interest in micronationalism in 1994, Scharff later launched a simple website for his micronation, the Principality of Nova Arcadia, on the web hosting service Angelfire. Included on the said website was a single page of links dedicated to other micronations , "new country projects", and other forms of government. However, through his interest in micronationalism and micropatriology, Scharff expanded the single page into the Microfreedom index. Listing 94 micronations by 5 October 1999, the Microfreedom Index was frequently used in micronational communities, including by well-known micronationalists and members of the MicroWiki community. It was active until around 2008 when updates to the website from Scharff became scarce. The Microfreedom index was eventually sold to a new owner on 8 October 2016 and continues to operate today under a new, modernised layout. More recently, Scharff gave a prerecorded keynote speech at MicroCon 2015 on 11 April."

The Hall of Fame honors and celebrates individuals who have made significant contributions to intermicronational history and micropatriology, both of which are underdeveloped fields with little written literature.