February 2014

The Date Was 1996 And The Giant Maw of the Internet Was Opening In Front of Fandom

The Date: 1996

The Place: Mountain Media convention, a small slash friendly convention held in Colorado
The Panel:  “Paranoia, and The Net: Good or Bad for Fandom?

Conventions that held similar panels were
Mediawest 1994: Will the widespread use of computer networks have a negative effect on fandom? (The panel was believed to be popular enough to hold it 3 different times over the weekend)
Escapade 1996: The Internet. Will it eat your brain? Or  will it take you to the poor house? (at the time the cost of a computer + metered online access made the Net a pricey proposition)
Escapade 1997: NetFic vs Print Fic (panel discussed in the convention reports)
Escapade 1998: Crossing The Line (how to find print fan fic if you are a net fan, and vice versa)
Escapade 1999: Does print fandom have a future?
Eclecticon 1999: Fandom and the Internet, Writing and the Internet, Internet: Getting Connected

Helpful pages on Fanlore
Fandom and the Net
Slash and the Arrival of the Internet
Zines and the Internet
The first 10 issues of the KS Press (1996-1997) had many discussions of the impact of the Internet on fandom (ex: "DON’T POST YOUR STORIES ON THE INTERNET. Because zines will disappear. Posting your stories on the internet will eventually destroy K/S fandom.”)
FanFiction on the Net (a listing of fan sites from 1996-1999)

(links go to Fanlore, the fan run wiki about media fandom)

On The Invisibility of Fanzine Fic and The Loneliness of the FanFic Reccer

A Fanlore volunteer is adding comments from crack van (the fanfic rec community that recently shut down). Her focus is on fanfic that was originally published in fanzines. She shared some of her observations with me….

“I’m filling in zined story comments on Fanlore with comments from Crack Van.

First, the recs themselves are good, but there is almost nothing of value in the comments to them. Lack of substantial online comments, the pithy "that’s hot” or “thanks for reccing it” seem to be something that went along with the online journal culture, even early on. I don’t generally read comments at AO3, but I wonder if they (overall) have more meat to them?

Second, it’s no wonder many, many fans don’t know what zines were or what role they played in early fanfic, as the reccers very rarely listed the zine the stories were originally published in. Starksy and Hutch reccers were better than most, but more often that not (talking about older fandoms here), the zines are not even mentioned. It’s like the stories popped out of nowhere.

Third, regarding zines: when the story was posted online by the author, there is often no mentioned that it was in a zine first, or it it is mentioned, they don’t name the zine by title. No wonder zines are such a mystery to many.

Finally, reccing at Crack Van was a thankless task, no matter the fandom, no matter the year. It was lucky a rec got even a single comment, and when it did it was an aforementioned pithy thing, or a complaint that the link to the story was broken. Demoralizing. I’m amazed that people stuck with reccing there all those years….“

Permissions Optional: On The Digital Horizon

First up, as Rebecca Tushnet reports, Australia has recommended adopting a fair use exception to their copyright laws. She points out that “one reason to adopt fair use is that it provides greater protection for "musical compositions, new films, art works and fan fiction.”

Next: digitization efforts by libraries and museums are gaining greater acceptance worldwide. In the same Australian report, several sections focus on the need for libraries and collections to (a) be allowed to scan copyrighted materials,  and (b) to allow less restricted access to those materials (ex: no digital hobbling, forced anti-copying technology or onsite only access with limited days and hours). And last, they argue for the right to preserve material that was “born digitally” (work that was only distributed in electronic format. Think along the lines of the Internet Archive/Wayback Machine): “Aside from ‘legacy’ works—such as old manuscripts and films—libraries and archives must also preserve materials that are ‘born digital’ in the face of ‘technological obsolescence’. Best practice preservation principles in relation to digital material require numerous copies to be made in multiple formats.”

This is in line with the positions being adopted by US institutions. Not only do these institutions argue that fair use allows them to scan material for preservation and research purposes, but they also do not need to  conduct a due diligence search for  “orphaned works” (works where the copyright owner has vanished or cannot be determined.

“Because of these significant changes in the copyright landscape over the past seven years, we are convinced that libraries no longer need legislative reform in order to  make appropriate uses of orphan works. However, we understand that other communities may not feel comfortable relying on fair use and may find merit in an approach based on limiting remedies if the user performed a reasonably diligent search for the copyright owner prior to the use…..”

They go on to note that the less commercial an item is, the stronger the fair use argument:“….the fair use case for such uses will be even stronger where items to be digitized consist largely of works, such as personal photographs, correspondence, or ephemera,*  whose owners are not exploiting the material commercially and likely could not be located to seek permission for new uses.”  (Library Copyright Alliance, 2013)

*Ephemera interestingly can include both paper items as well as video.  Fanvids would probably fall with the definition of video ephemera.

Fanlore: The Sum Is Often Greater Than Its Parts

Because Fanlore is open to the public, we often get offbeat inquiries (“I have a copy of X zine. Where can I sell it?” or “I want a copy of X zine where can I buy it?” and “I read this story once - it involved a man and a dog. I think there may have been a parrot with one eye. Can you help me find it?).

Other questions are more on target: pointing out incorrect facts or offering to add images, art or new information. We also get emails from old fans who have found themselves on Fanlore and are thrilled someone is documenting fandom history (although we often hear: "OMG I can’t believe anyone would still be interested in what I wrote when I was in my 20s. Ack!” But thank you. Did I mention Ack?!)

In one case, we were contacted by a fanzine writer who noted that her Fanlore page said her well loved novel had never appeared online - and “did we know anyone who could help with that”? (We did..or rather I did, and with the help of  fans like Jan Levine One Way Mirror is now available online and as a PDF with the art here)

Then there was the president of one of the early Star Trek fan clubs who had kept all the club records and flyers and zines in a filing cabinet for 30+ years. He wanted to know if anyone would be interested in the material - and we were able to direct him to Open Doors which helps fans find permanent homes for their zines and other fandom memorabilia.

But on occasion, we get messages of a more personal nature, friends looking for lost friends. This week, a former cast member of a TV show who is seriously ill wrote to Fanlore hoping to reconnect with two friends. We of course had no information, but I was able to find a fandom mailing list and I forwarded his message to them. So far no one on the mailing list has responded to his request for help, but he sent me a lovely thank you email.

You never know what will pop up next. Fanlore is not just about documenting history - it is about helping make new connections and new history. And it is often the first point of contact for many of the older fans who are reaching out to the newer fandom communities and the various OTW (and non-OTW) fandom projects.

An Interview About The New Filk Collection At TAMU

An interview with Jeremy Brett and Lauren Schiller, archivists at Texas A&M University’s Cushing Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Collection. Last year, Cushing began collection filk materials.

About the specific filk collections they’ve received to date:
“….the first collection we’ve received as part of the new strategy has been from a New Hampshire-based filker who’s supplied us with a box full of audio cassettes from many different filkers, including some prominent ones like Leslie Fish and Meg Davis. He’s also given us some songbooks, including a copy of what’s often considered the very first filk songbook, STF & FSY Songbook, which dates from 1960. Together these two collections will form the nucleus of the larger filk collection we hope to build.”

How you can help?

Jeremy: Well, the most direct way people can help is to donate their materials to us! But since Lauren and I are only two people, we can’t be everywhere and so we rely on word-of-mouth to get the news out about us and about the collection. So please spread the good word.

Lauren: If you have any songbooks that say “you know how this one goes” and you know how that one goes? If you don’t know about any existing recordings, please make one and label it so we can know how that one goes too

(some links go to Fanlore, the fan run wiki about media fandom)

Viddler Deleting Free Accounts/Vids Going Away March 11, 2014

As of March 11, 2014, Viddler, the vidding streaming service used by Festivids and many other LJ based vidders, is closing free accounts and deleting all vids stored in those free accounts. Vidders can convert to paid accounts by paying a monthly fee. Festivids is not planning on keeping their account active beyond March 11, so if you are a Festivids vidder (or a gift recipient  or just a  Festivids fan), you have until March 11 to download and save the vids. For 2013 Festivids participants, this gives you only a few weeks to upload your vids to another server after reveals.

To give some context, I took a sampling of the older Fetsvids from 2011. Around 25% are stored only on the Festivids Viddler account and the vidder has no backup link or alternative download method.  Plus, many Festivids recipients and Festivids fans, along with non-Festivids vidders, are no longer  monitoring LJ or DW so they may remain unaware of the shut-down until it is to late.

Please help share the info on LJ/DW and on tumblr to get the word out to both vidders and fans of vids so they may have a chance to download the vids.