FanLib Fandom Fakery
Fandoms at FanLib are listed in order of "popularity," meaning fandoms represented by the most fanfiction appear first.
Browsing the fandoms this morning, I noticed something very interesting has happened.
As recently as July, only the first and second pages of fandoms (between 75 and 150 fandoms) had stories. There were about two thousand fandoms with no stories at all; as has been noted by many, FanLib lifted fanfiction.net's fandom list in its entirety.
But today 500 of those 2,000 formerly empty fandoms have 1 or 2 stories each.
Isn't that... convenient. Too convenient. I estimate FanLib has gained only two thousand stories (today's count is 6,730) since I last did a count in late July. How probable is it that a quarter would be in formerly unrepresented fandoms? Not. Very.
I took a look at the hundreds of fandoms now represented by a single story. What I found was even more interesting, but not particularly surprising. Most of the stories aren't new.
Most were uploaded in March, when FanLib was giving away valuable prizes to fanfiction authors in a desperate bid to get content.
So what has changed? Only the fandom categories assigned to the stories.
To pad fandom representation, FanLib volunteers or employees apparently have examined each story and re-categorized it in as many fandoms as possible.
For instance, a Teen Titan story was also categorized as a Batman Animated Series story and a DC Superheroes story. A Wonder Woman story was also categorized as Batman, DC Superheroes, and Justice League.
They really went to town on the crossovers. A 300 word story was squeezed into the CSI Miami and DC Superheroes fandom categories. Cannonball Run and Heroes? Sure!
Why would FanLib bother to do this? Three reasons. One, few people will browse more than three or four pages back in the fandom listing. Before the fakery, however, many would have gone to the second page and seen all the fandoms with zero stories. Two, FanLib can use its faked fandom participation data in marketing babble. "We had 200 active fandoms in July; now we have 700!" Or a similar lie. I mean spin. Three, to hide that they have been flatlining since they launched.
I was going to end this thoughtfully, with something like, "Once again, the Mimbo Brothers demonstrate their total disdain for consumers," but I think I will go with OMGWTF FANLIB SUX!!111!!!
Browsing the fandoms this morning, I noticed something very interesting has happened.
As recently as July, only the first and second pages of fandoms (between 75 and 150 fandoms) had stories. There were about two thousand fandoms with no stories at all; as has been noted by many, FanLib lifted fanfiction.net's fandom list in its entirety.
But today 500 of those 2,000 formerly empty fandoms have 1 or 2 stories each.
Isn't that... convenient. Too convenient. I estimate FanLib has gained only two thousand stories (today's count is 6,730) since I last did a count in late July. How probable is it that a quarter would be in formerly unrepresented fandoms? Not. Very.
I took a look at the hundreds of fandoms now represented by a single story. What I found was even more interesting, but not particularly surprising. Most of the stories aren't new.
Most were uploaded in March, when FanLib was giving away valuable prizes to fanfiction authors in a desperate bid to get content.
So what has changed? Only the fandom categories assigned to the stories.
To pad fandom representation, FanLib volunteers or employees apparently have examined each story and re-categorized it in as many fandoms as possible.
For instance, a Teen Titan story was also categorized as a Batman Animated Series story and a DC Superheroes story. A Wonder Woman story was also categorized as Batman, DC Superheroes, and Justice League.
They really went to town on the crossovers. A 300 word story was squeezed into the CSI Miami and DC Superheroes fandom categories. Cannonball Run and Heroes? Sure!
Why would FanLib bother to do this? Three reasons. One, few people will browse more than three or four pages back in the fandom listing. Before the fakery, however, many would have gone to the second page and seen all the fandoms with zero stories. Two, FanLib can use its faked fandom participation data in marketing babble. "We had 200 active fandoms in July; now we have 700!" Or a similar lie. I mean spin. Three, to hide that they have been flatlining since they launched.
I was going to end this thoughtfully, with something like, "Once again, the Mimbo Brothers demonstrate their total disdain for consumers," but I think I will go with OMGWTF FANLIB SUX!!111!!!