Dolphinformia

Dolphinformia was a bi-weekly newsletter that was sent by the Dozerfleet founder to Emily Brynne Kincare, a former romantic interest of his, between the years of 2001 and 2002. It was created in a similar spirit to Yo-Splaz!, but with a simpler format and less-exhaustive content.

History
Whenever current events were going on either in life or in politics, they were shared with Emily. Along with that were constant invitations for a more serious commitment, most of which went ignored. On occasion, she would write back. However, the replies were often of very little substance. The seeds began growing of realization that some things being shared in the newsletter were things the Dozerfleet founder would like to share with a much larger audience. Sharing them with only the current romantic interest would never suffice. Alas, postage was expensive even in 2001. But the desire would linger, until 2004 when the founder would join message boards through EZBoard.

By 2006, EZBoard was abandoned and Cormorant Entertainment was dead. The new Dozerfleet Productions that replaced it called for a very different approach, and one which would not be so exclusive and narrow in focus. The first venture into online marketing/journalism came with the acquisition of a Facebook page. This was soon followed by a MySpace page, and Dozerfleet Web was soon born. This led to social networking channels being used for contact with friends on personal matters and political ones, while project history was to be documented on a wiki. The first version of the Dozerfleet Database was then born, on Wikispaces. It moved to Wiki-Site a year after that, and then joined the Wikia network in 2011.

As romantic interests came and went, blooming and then fizzling out just as quickly as they came, Facebook became the de facto service for communication with would-be dates. And a place to find out what their values were, to get a good feel in advance of whether or not it was safe to proceed further in pursuit of them. This would lead to the discovery of a girl in the Philippines who broke the mold; who would prove more deserving of the founder's love than any of the potential dates he'd encountered previously.

As social networking took on the personal role, the quasi-professional role fell to The Dozerfleet Forum and later The Dozerfleet Blog. The Wiki remained home to documenting project history. Later, the blog was phased out also due to low demand. Remaining blog functions were moved to social media outlets.

Even so, Dolphinformia remains a historical predecessor to the modern Dozerfleet Network.

Cancellation
Dolphinformia soon came to an end in the summer of 2002, when Emily's mother advised the founder that Emily was dealing with some issues that were very serious. The mother didn't want the Dozerfleet founder ending up in harm's way, and encouraged him to break up with Emily for his own safety. Compliance was reluctant, but it happened. Only about one or two more issues of the newsletter were issued, before it was finally discontinued entirely.

Death of recipient
The Dozerfleet founder and Emily were in talks and considering meeting up in 2013 to talk about their lives, and what had happened since the breakup. They were good friends on Facebook in the mean time.

On Tuesday, April 2nd of 2013, Emily announced that she had recently been hired at a new job. However, she never got the chance to share details. She was found dead the following morning on Wednesday, April 3rd of 2013. Details of the case were kept scarce; though there were suspicions by some of a drug overdose.

Eulogies began appearing on her Facebook page around 4:30 PM EDT on April 3rd. Around 5:30 PM that same day, her brother Andrew confirmed that she was dead. He promised to reveal autopsy results as soon as he knew them. Results did, in fact, indicate that she had overdosed on heroin.

On April 6th of 2013, several friends of hers throughout different times in her life met at the Moores River Dr. fishing docks near Frances Park in Lansing, MI to hold a memorial service for her. The actual funeral was held on April 8th of 2013, and was a private affair for close family members only.

Her Facebook page was "memorialized" not long after her passing.

Development
The newsletter was conceived originally as a way for the founder and Emily to maintain contact on a regular basis without racking up huge phone bills. It would also be a way to keep touch with each other about what was going at one another's schools, since they had originally gone to the same school but she was being transferred elsewhere.

The two were originally both serious about it, though her interest waned over time. Initial writing began in the summer of 2001, after a long and friendly conversation at the founder's home led to budding interest.

Inspiration
The term "Dolphinformia" is actually a portmanteau of two very different sources. The first part, the dolphins, came from a line from "Every Other Time" by LFO:

"'Sometimes we swim around / like two dolphins in the ocean of our hearts.../'"

The line here was interpreted as: "When together, we are as carefree as dolphins. The happiness upon us in one another's company helps drown out the sorrow of life's struggles, if only for a moment."

Therefore, the founder made it into his and Emily's theme song.

The other inspiration was the term "Dezinformatsia," as used by The Patriot Post through e-mail circulations. Little did the founder know at the time that this section, which was a critique of the dishonesty in left-wing journalism, was actually in-turn a reference to Soviet propaganda programs that dated back to Stalin.

Soon thereafter, Dolphin+formatsia was shaped into the newsletter called Dolphinformia.

Rediscovery


When Emily was discovered dead on April 3rd of 2013, it sent shockwaves around the Lansing area and to everyone that had ever known her. At Dozerfleet Productions in particular, the Dozerfleet founder was overcome with emotion at the prospect of her passing. He immediately pried for details, and learned of when the memorial would be held. Several others that had known Emily throughout various points in her life also attended the memorial, each of them also in disbelief at her passing. Graphics were made for the wiki's coverage. The month of April in 2013 was also dedicated to her memory. The normal front page banner system was repurposed to bring attention to her obituary also.