Meta: On FanFiction, FanLib, blah blah
My flist pretty much exploded with talk of [FanLib] today, so I thought I'd weigh in. Because it's me, and I'm opinionated.
I'm not willing to go to the site long enough to get a deeper insight on what's going on over there, but as usual, Fandom Wank has helped me out greatly with their own analysis and from what I can tell, a couple guys decided to partner with some publishers and corporations in an attempt to make money off of fandom via website ad revenue. Now, I'm not going to pretend to understand how this is legal; I suppose because the fanfic isn't being specifically SOLD, rather, that the money is ad-generated, they can claim that the website is the product rather than the fic? No, nevermind, I still don't understand it. Besides the obvious flaw, this goes against everything I've ever thought about fanfic, as well as seeming highly immoral to me.
Let's put aside all the feminist arguments and the fact that the owners of FanLib don't seem to think slash is a mainstream fandom phenomenon (hahaha, could they BE any farther from fandom consciousness) and just focus on the idea that this group of guys and corporations actually think it's somehow possible to control and take over fandom. The very idea is laughable. If they're not prepared to deal with questions about their motives in creating FanLib in the first place, how can they possibly hope to deal with the inevitable shipping wars and plagiarism wank and kink wank? I'm pretty sure these people leapt into this venture thinking they'd make some easy money by harnessing and "legitimizing" the power of fandom, and that's really going to bite them in the ass. Fandom will not be harnessed. It'll be fun watching them TRY. They're already complaining about how MEAN we are. Heeee.
As for the offer of legitimacy--and here, I suppose they mean the connection to real, live publishing companies, oh my!--I ask, since when is that something fandom has ever wanted or needed? We don't write fanfic or create fanart so that we can be recognized as worthy by the general public! We do it because we love the characters and the stories (or in my case, we think boys are pretty and want them to have lots of sex) and we want to share that with our friends and other fans. Fandom has never been about making money; it's never been about legitimacy or greater recognition in the outside world. In fact, I think the majority of fans would prefer that the outside world NOT know about their involvement in fandom!
Of course, most of this doesn't even apply to me because I write RPS almost exclusively at this point. Part of the reason I love SPN and Popslash is because, unlike other fandoms (*cough*Harry Potter!*cough*), RPS is seen as perfectly normal and legitimate within the fandoms. It's NOT the red-headed step-child, for once, and I love that. But not only does FanLib ignore RPF/RPS, it ignores SLASH. Looking through the SPN fic on that site, it's all gen or Mary Sue fic. I haven't checked out the Harry Potter selections, but I bet there's a lot more het, and certainly a far greater percentage of het than occurs in fandom at large.
And finally, the owners of FanLib seem to have missed a big point of fandom, which is--porn. I know people who literally will not read anything that doesn't have at least a blowjob in it. Because let's face it, sex is a HUGE draw to fanfic. And there's nothing wrong with that (in fact, I quite enjoy it), but it's simply another way in which these FanLib fuckwits have gotten it all wrong.
In conclusion: we created fandom as an underground movement, as our own society with its own rules and factions and language and so on. So it's really astounding to me, the arrogance of these people who think they can swoop in from the outside and create an archive to house "the world's greatest fanfiction by popular demand." No fan worth her weight would ever sign on to have her fic hosted there, and you can bet I won't be reading anyone who does, on general principle alone.
I'm not willing to go to the site long enough to get a deeper insight on what's going on over there, but as usual, Fandom Wank has helped me out greatly with their own analysis and from what I can tell, a couple guys decided to partner with some publishers and corporations in an attempt to make money off of fandom via website ad revenue. Now, I'm not going to pretend to understand how this is legal; I suppose because the fanfic isn't being specifically SOLD, rather, that the money is ad-generated, they can claim that the website is the product rather than the fic? No, nevermind, I still don't understand it. Besides the obvious flaw, this goes against everything I've ever thought about fanfic, as well as seeming highly immoral to me.
Let's put aside all the feminist arguments and the fact that the owners of FanLib don't seem to think slash is a mainstream fandom phenomenon (hahaha, could they BE any farther from fandom consciousness) and just focus on the idea that this group of guys and corporations actually think it's somehow possible to control and take over fandom. The very idea is laughable. If they're not prepared to deal with questions about their motives in creating FanLib in the first place, how can they possibly hope to deal with the inevitable shipping wars and plagiarism wank and kink wank? I'm pretty sure these people leapt into this venture thinking they'd make some easy money by harnessing and "legitimizing" the power of fandom, and that's really going to bite them in the ass. Fandom will not be harnessed. It'll be fun watching them TRY. They're already complaining about how MEAN we are. Heeee.
As for the offer of legitimacy--and here, I suppose they mean the connection to real, live publishing companies, oh my!--I ask, since when is that something fandom has ever wanted or needed? We don't write fanfic or create fanart so that we can be recognized as worthy by the general public! We do it because we love the characters and the stories (or in my case, we think boys are pretty and want them to have lots of sex) and we want to share that with our friends and other fans. Fandom has never been about making money; it's never been about legitimacy or greater recognition in the outside world. In fact, I think the majority of fans would prefer that the outside world NOT know about their involvement in fandom!
Of course, most of this doesn't even apply to me because I write RPS almost exclusively at this point. Part of the reason I love SPN and Popslash is because, unlike other fandoms (*cough*Harry Potter!*cough*), RPS is seen as perfectly normal and legitimate within the fandoms. It's NOT the red-headed step-child, for once, and I love that. But not only does FanLib ignore RPF/RPS, it ignores SLASH. Looking through the SPN fic on that site, it's all gen or Mary Sue fic. I haven't checked out the Harry Potter selections, but I bet there's a lot more het, and certainly a far greater percentage of het than occurs in fandom at large.
And finally, the owners of FanLib seem to have missed a big point of fandom, which is--porn. I know people who literally will not read anything that doesn't have at least a blowjob in it. Because let's face it, sex is a HUGE draw to fanfic. And there's nothing wrong with that (in fact, I quite enjoy it), but it's simply another way in which these FanLib fuckwits have gotten it all wrong.
In conclusion: we created fandom as an underground movement, as our own society with its own rules and factions and language and so on. So it's really astounding to me, the arrogance of these people who think they can swoop in from the outside and create an archive to house "the world's greatest fanfiction by popular demand." No fan worth her weight would ever sign on to have her fic hosted there, and you can bet I won't be reading anyone who does, on general principle alone.