Boosting the Signal
Originally posted by nerak_rose at FANDOM HISTORY PRESERVATION PROJECT
Sorry about that extremely pompous subject line, I just really wanted your attention.
Here's the thing: I would really like to GENTLY ENCOURAGE those who are able, to:
- back up their fest communities
- create and/or edit a fest community's page on fanlore
- create and/or edit their own fanlore page (or a page for another fandom person!)
- encourage their friends to do the same
Here's a handy link to the list of Harry Potter fests & exchanges. Those that show up with red links are pages that do not exist! Those need to be created! The pages that exist are most of them stubs, and could do with expanding. Some undoubtedly could also do with updating. Is there a fest missing from the list? Click the little 'edit' link in the appropriate section and add it to the list. I've added a bunch to the list myself today, but I don't know everything. Some information may need to be corrected too, like the runtime (some fests are no longer running.)
NB: New fanlore accounts cannot create new pages immediately (anti-spam measure) but can edit existing pages. Those who have the ability to create new pages can do so by clicking any given red link. If you are able to create pages, please do. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes. Those of us who can only edit until further notice, will be able to edit & add content.
What kind of information goes on a fanlore page?
ANYTHING.
For fests it would be cool to add links to masterlists, list the mods, give a brief overview of what kind of fest it is, maybe how it came to be (was it inspired by another fest, was it created in response to so and so event in fandom at the time, etc.) and, well, stuff. Anything relevant.
For your own pages, or pages for other creators, anything goes as well - when did you join fandom, links to all your fandom accounts across platforms, your blanket permission statement if you have one, what do you do in fandom, etc. put up your life story if you want! Just whatever's important to you. Have a look at other creators' fanlore pages for inspiration.
But Karen, you say, why?
BECAUSE NOTHING LASTS FOREVER.
hd_holidays have already imported their entire community to DW, which is smart of them. (On how to important a community to DW: check this faq). I'm sure there are other backup options as well (AO3 imports come to mind, though I wouldn't know where to even begin...)
And also because knowledge will inevitably be lost as people phase out of fandom. A lot of knowledge has no doubt already been lost, because the people who were around at the time aren't anymore. This makes me sad, and I'd like our fandom history to be preserved.
Of course fandom history isn't only fest pages on fanlore, or pages for creators, but this is my starting point as I'm attempting to back up the fests I've run as well as adding information about them (and myself) to fanlore.
Much as I'd like to have a shiny banner to spread and some kind of pledge form, I don't - but I do hope that you'll share this (link to this post if you'd like, it'll stay public on both DW and LJ) and encourage as many people as you can to put in a few minutes of work to create a new fanlore page or edit an existing one, or whatever else you can do to make sure that fandom content doesn't get lost and that history doesn't fade.
This entry was originally posted at http://nerakrose.dreamwidth.org/730314.html. Comments are welcome on both journals.
Sorry about that extremely pompous subject line, I just really wanted your attention.
Here's the thing: I would really like to GENTLY ENCOURAGE those who are able, to:
- back up their fest communities
- create and/or edit a fest community's page on fanlore
- create and/or edit their own fanlore page (or a page for another fandom person!)
- encourage their friends to do the same
Here's a handy link to the list of Harry Potter fests & exchanges. Those that show up with red links are pages that do not exist! Those need to be created! The pages that exist are most of them stubs, and could do with expanding. Some undoubtedly could also do with updating. Is there a fest missing from the list? Click the little 'edit' link in the appropriate section and add it to the list. I've added a bunch to the list myself today, but I don't know everything. Some information may need to be corrected too, like the runtime (some fests are no longer running.)
NB: New fanlore accounts cannot create new pages immediately (anti-spam measure) but can edit existing pages. Those who have the ability to create new pages can do so by clicking any given red link. If you are able to create pages, please do. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes. Those of us who can only edit until further notice, will be able to edit & add content.
What kind of information goes on a fanlore page?
ANYTHING.
For fests it would be cool to add links to masterlists, list the mods, give a brief overview of what kind of fest it is, maybe how it came to be (was it inspired by another fest, was it created in response to so and so event in fandom at the time, etc.) and, well, stuff. Anything relevant.
For your own pages, or pages for other creators, anything goes as well - when did you join fandom, links to all your fandom accounts across platforms, your blanket permission statement if you have one, what do you do in fandom, etc. put up your life story if you want! Just whatever's important to you. Have a look at other creators' fanlore pages for inspiration.
But Karen, you say, why?
BECAUSE NOTHING LASTS FOREVER.
hd_holidays have already imported their entire community to DW, which is smart of them. (On how to important a community to DW: check this faq). I'm sure there are other backup options as well (AO3 imports come to mind, though I wouldn't know where to even begin...)
And also because knowledge will inevitably be lost as people phase out of fandom. A lot of knowledge has no doubt already been lost, because the people who were around at the time aren't anymore. This makes me sad, and I'd like our fandom history to be preserved.
Of course fandom history isn't only fest pages on fanlore, or pages for creators, but this is my starting point as I'm attempting to back up the fests I've run as well as adding information about them (and myself) to fanlore.
Much as I'd like to have a shiny banner to spread and some kind of pledge form, I don't - but I do hope that you'll share this (link to this post if you'd like, it'll stay public on both DW and LJ) and encourage as many people as you can to put in a few minutes of work to create a new fanlore page or edit an existing one, or whatever else you can do to make sure that fandom content doesn't get lost and that history doesn't fade.
This entry was originally posted at http://nerakrose.dreamwidth.org/730314.html. Comments are welcome on both journals.