Article

[lavenderfrost]

Pawprints Of The Mind - FanLib Association-Chain
Exerpt:
Being blissfully ignorant of fanfic as a whole (besides the slash stereotypes), the fact that fanfic is a 'female space' with the associated politics and ethics has come as rather a shock. As has trying harder to wrap my head around what business would look like if the Old Boy networks of

Comments

[lttledvl]

And fanlib just slimed the most influential, well-connected, and well-respected people in fanfic. Now their users will mostly be newbies, who aren't likely to stick around if it's clear that being in the community means rejecting fanlib.That's not necessarily true; yah some may bail (I would hope) but others are going to stick around solely for the potiental promise of commerical publication (which I have no idea if fanlib is still throwing out there or not - I haven't seen it much recently

[scarah2]

fanlib is more active than places like FF

Active in what way?

[lttledvl]

Active in what way?

As far as communication between authors and updated stories.

Again, this may apply only to particular fandoms and it's not to say that it isn't active at all, but I've seen plenty of stories there that are not completed and haven't been updated in a year.

And FF's forums are a joke...

[scarah2]

Communication on the forums you mean? Yeah, I can see that. I'm not sure the mods are helping though, lol. FF.net forums certainly are made of WTF.

I have the luxury of being in the biggest fandom since Jesus, so it's good to get the other side.

[icarusancalion]

That's an interesting article with a completely different perspective.

Have you seen this one? Discusses the incompatibility of grassroots organization and corporate control.

[songfire3]

The problem was not in their delivery: they were crystal clear. The problem was in their content.

...and that's it in a nutshell! Thank you for posting this!

[sapphirecat]

I hadn't. Thank you.

[angelofsnow]

"And fanlib just slimed the most influential, well-connected, and well-respected people in fanfic. Now their users will mostly be newbies, who aren't likely to stick around if it's clear that being in the community means rejecting fanlib."

I don't know if LJ fandom, which is where I've seen most of the anti-FanLib sentiment, is the most influential people in fanfic. We're certainly one of the more influential areas in fandom. However there are other influential areas and I have no idea how fans who don't use LJ feel about FanLib. They may innocently sign up for FanLib without really looking into the site or knowing the history of it's stupidity launch.

Does anyone know how FF.net fans view FanLib? Or other fans on GreatestJournal, Fanworks, FanDomination, Yahoo Mailing Lists, Usenet, and fandom-specific archives?

[lttledvl]

Does anyone know how FF.net fans view FanLib? Or other fans on GreatestJournal, Fanworks, FanDomination, Yahoo Mailing Lists, Usenet, and fandom-specific archives?

I've only encountered a few writers from ff.net and honestly I haven't been on those other sites (I'm still kind of new to fanfiction as a whole). I can't even begin to guess if the ff.net authors know if fanlib exists (though I'm sure some do...)

[angelofsnow]

I was curious since FF.net tends to have younger fans if they would be more interested in joining FanLib and not have the same concerns and misgivings we have. A lot of FF.Net fans are aware of FanLib because back in March FanLib sent spam emails to everyone with a public email address.

I was going to post on my profile on FF.Net a little warning telling fans not to use FanLib, but then I realized that would be giving them a lot of free advertising and I didn't want that.

[lttledvl]

I can't say for certain; going by a quick glance of people that have hit my stories on ff.net, most of them have their email set to private.

I suppose I could attempt to ask one of them...