I've published the first issue of a newsletter about fandom, Fannish. If "fandom is my fandom" resonates with you, then this might be the zine for you!

The best way to get a sense of the content is probably to just read the thing, but expect each issue to contain:

• Links to (usually) recently-published fanac
• News, updates, and general links of interest to fans
• Pointers to academic research on fannish topics, along with a little commentary
• Statistics on fandoms that are growing on AO3

I project that I'll publish an issue like this every two weeks, and possibly something more in-depth on a fannish topic (likely history-related) on alternate weeks, as time and interest permits.

My goals are to highlight the variety to be found in fandom (link submissions and topic suggestions are welcome!), and to help connect fans with other corners of fandom and academia.

Even if you decide Fannish isn't your cup of tea, I'd love to hear any feedback on issue #1, especially the balance of commentary vs. plain links. Thanks in advance!

Hi all! I'm a PhD candidate collecting data for my doctoral dissertation, which studies attitudes towards generative AI (text and image generation tools) among fans/within fan communities. I'm recruiting research participants! I know it's not "historical" per se, but it's definitely timely.

If you're over 18, can speak/understand English, and are interested in participating you can learn more information and take the survey here. You can check out my twitter for a shareable flyer, and you can view more info on tumblr as well (and you can share those posts around if you like; I'm working on getting this up on Dreamwidth, but feel free to share it there if you're on that site! Discord is also helpful, as I don't have a way of reaching discord groups currently). This is not a paid study (since this is an unfunded project), but participants have the option to enter a raffle for a gift card.

Feel free to reach out via dm or email on any of the above platforms (email address is on the flyer!) with any questions! The study is anonymous and voluntary, and you'll be asked about your fandom background, attitudes towards generative AI, and demographic information. The survey should take about 15-20 minutes, and you can skip over any questions you want. You can also choose to participate in a follow up interview, if you want to. The full details (including the relevant info about data, ethical approvals, risk, etc) are on the consent form, which you'll be able to read in full before participating.

Feel free to share this with anyone in your networks (fandom or personal, including on other platforms) that you think would be interested in participating! The more folks this reaches, the better, so share as widely as you like. Thanks in advance!

Do we as a general community, have a name for an AU where we fuse multiple different shows/comics from the same franchise into 1 AU? For example, let's say My Little Pony, the comics are quite different from the show, but we want them to be all "canon" in this AU.

Since when

https://www.fandom.com/fancentral/home

If you seen posts on Mabel Pines hate or for any kind of character that’s not remotely normative in society, this number goes out to you.

There’s an... obsession with “consequences” for fictional characters in fandom that… troubles me. Like it feels like those like, say, Mabel Antis treat each story like those PSAs about behaving in society that ask, “What would you do in this situation?” When… nobody asks that.

It feels too much like the cop in the brain dictating how they should feel. That is, the viewer knows that an authority of any kind would not be so kind to them if they did what Mabel did and as such, they find themselves appauled that the character isn’t given at least a slap on the wrist.

And I don’t use the term “cops” fast and loose because had Mabel been a boy, the fandom would, at the bare minimum, recognize them as a kid who was just as much as Bill’s victim as anyone else. One trying this crap with genderbent Mabel would be quickly met with “Hey, take it easy. They’re just a kid.”

Or more accurately, “Boys will be boys.”

I have made posts regarding The Legend of Korra and RWBY where it seems like a lot of elements of teen/kid heroes like lying to authority when they’re unfair are suddenly bad because they don’t have a dick. Face it, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off would’ve been raked over the coals if they made Ferris a girl, black or all of the above. Yes, even in the 80s.

Much like how cops demonize black people for things white people wouldn’t nearly be as harshly reprimanded, fans have this cop in their head telling them to judge characters not white or male based on our equally biased judicial system. It’s subtle and insidious even among those who proclaim, “F*ck The Police” unironically.

Seriously, am I onto something or just crazy?

Interviewing speficially LGBT+ people in fandom for an article on my blog.

If you want to participate please message me on Reddit and we can set up an interview on discord!

I’m looking for around 3 interviewers as I already have 2 friends as participants

Thank you so much for reading!!

I'm not sure if this is the right place, but:

Is anyone noticing similarities between fandoms and religions or is it just me...?

Both have:

1. a huge dedicated amount of followers

2. they fight eachother for what they believe is the only true way of doing things

3. they have cults (in fandom many people who are ostracized by irl communities and seek approval from communities that accept them online get manipulated into joining groups that convince them they are the only ones who understand them and use them to mass harass other people with different beliefs (It's important to note: not always harmful beliefs))

Although they have important similarities, I don't think fandoms are the only ones who share similarities with religions as there are many other groups which are involved with spirituality or morality.

Hello, hello,
Do you write Fanfiction about the BBCs Merlin (2008) tv series, or have you written some a while ago? And have you – in the best case – published at least one of them on Archive of Our Own (AO3)?
And do you have at least 30 minutes of time and are interested in an interview?
My name is Kay, and at the moment I am writing my bachelor’s thesis for “Media Science B.A.” at the University of Bayreuth. As a topic I chose fanfiction and fan communities in the context of the tv series Merlin (2008) with a focus especially on fanfiction authors for this series. And this is why I want to interview a few of them.
It is not important whether you’ve been fan from the very first hour and wrote your first Merlin fanfiction back in 2008, or if you haven’t written any Merlin fanfiction at all for the last few years, or even just recently uploaded your very first one: Your impressions are still very interesting and important for me.
The interview should last about 30 minutes and would happen via Zoom. You need to be able to talk with me via microphone. It is not necessary for you to be on camera. And it can be held in English and German.
I do need to record the interview so I can transcribe it later. But nobody besides me will have access to the recording itself and all recordings will be deleted after transcribing. Within the transcript, any data that could be used to clearly identify a person will be anonymised. So you are able to stay anonymous and your data is protected.
Everything is in compliance with the european GDPR and the german BDSG (both are data protection guidelines) and participants will get full information regarding data protection beforehand.
Feel free to message me if you are interested. Also just ask here or via DM if you have any questions about this.
Thank you for reading and I am looking forward to messages from you!

Edit: You need to be 18+/of legal age to participate. Forgot to mention it earlier.

Well I don’t know if anyone is reading this but here I am, making a little thing explaining my own self made ideology/my personal way I think how a perfect culture and nation would work.

Well now you anonymous reader may be asking “well what is this fandomism you speak of?”. Well to answer that I most explain I’ve been in many fandoms who had their ups and downs when it comes to being a safe environment. This post is mostly exploring the good potential of a fandom and try to make into a tangible system/society/nation.

I must say that I think what makes fandoms toxic most of time is when they are not. It’s always some person who wants to speak loudly about their ship and has some people join their cause. Why this happens so easily is because most fandom activity is online and with it being digital it becomes very unorganized.

But if you want to see what a fandom culture would look like physically then just look at conventions. I think these often display how unique these cultures are and often when your at conventions most of that digital toxicity is non existent.

Why I’m so fixated with this fandom nation idea is because I think some fandom culture have postive things in them and honestly I think they are good escape from the main culture of the west.

It’s community based, there lots of art and creativity. People can associate with multiple fandoms and if you are thinking fandoms as a nation then this could translate to multi citizenship. Also I’m personally a socialist and I think an fan run economy that is organized like you see in conventions would be good.

I know I’m not an expert at statecraft or how this idea could be expanded on but this is post is more of and idea and a proposal. If anyone is willing to expand upon this little dream then please share

Some information about the project

This is for a project that you do at college in UK schools called an Extended Project Qualification, it counts as half an A-Level and can be helpful when applying to university.

My project is all about fandom and fanfiction, and I wanted to collect some primary data.

What the survey has in it

A couple identifying questions about age and gender, though all final information will be anonymous

A lot of questions about fanfiction, fandom and the attitudes towards it.

The actual form

[Now removed]

The final information will be entirely anonymous so answer as truthfully as possible, once i get the results i will also probably post them here because im sure people will be curious!

Edit - No longer taking responses, thank you for participating if you did :) results will be posted at some point!

Hi!

I'm new here. I just found out that exists a world of academic studies about fandom culture!! and I'm really happy about that bc sounds pretty cool.

However, I don't know where I can start if I start to read about it... Soo, I am here trying to find someone who can teach me more about it (and help me a lot)

I've been doing extensive research on particular subjects I find interesting lately and documenting it on various Wiki pages. I collect what I learn on my Dreamwidth, https://sobqjmv-sphinx.dreamwidth.org, and I would also appreciate any sources that can help expand my knowledge.

Submit work to Ephemera, a zine dedicated to fan studies and fandom culture! We are looking for: visual art, photography, analytical writing, personal essays, poetry, historical accounts, ethnographic interviews, straight-up trash, memories, collections, secrets both dark and cringe.... Send work to ephemerafanzine@gmail.com or submit through our form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdhTH_Zw1lBucFgs0gCXBxzdN35LyntVlhF6ySxhN1YdtBZ5w/viewform?usp=sf_link

If you have any questions, put them in the comments!

So I remember reading a YouTube video fanfiction for Alvin & the Chipmunks when I was in elementary/middle school, around 2009-2014, but I can't find it and I've looked for it multiple times scrolling thru fanfic.net and AO3 hoping maybe it was cross-posted. The format was on YouTube with black screen and white text, old MovieMaker / PowerPoint style, along with occasional fanart. I don't remember if it spanned multiple videos or not. The plot was mature/explicit (sex) that their 'intended' relationships are all mixed up. Theodore and Elanor's marriage was shaky, as well as the other pairs' relationships. I don't know the whole plot, but Alvin ends up sleeping with Elanor, drawn to her motherly instinct, and I think I remember a scene where their kid walked in on them, an accident on both parts. Meanwhile Brittany and Theodore and experimenting with BDSM and other non-vanilla stuff. Think there was a scene with Theo tied up while Brittany tries on different outfits and teases him. Simon was cross-dressing and going to a gay bar and on dates with other guys. Don't remember if it was in a drag queen way, sugar baby/princess way, or a trans way, as far as the reason why and his feelings about it. Jeanette was upset that he wasn't spending much time with her. I'm so sorry if this is not the right subreddit for this, I'm posting it on multiple, I just don't know which is most suitable because it's kind of an intersection of mystery and lost media and fandom. Please help! I just hope there's someone else who read this!

Not sure if this is off-topic or too base. I just learned this word this week and was trying to explain the concept to a friend but couldn't think of an example.

Do you know any good examples?

I'm just trying to understand if there are solid bases with agreed-upon head canon or if headcanon is actually more personal.

I been studying Antishippers vs Proshippers for months now and wanted some opinions from others what they think about this. This is just more of a quick timeline on how things got to the point that they are now.

Ghost Katolotl — I was wondering if people would be interested in a... (tumblr.com)

You know, when fans made fan-songs, uploaded musicals and short comedy sketches dressed as their characters, the animations, the parodies, the terrible music video covers, and did all that fun stuff.

And I am not afraid to say that I still look at notliterally productions, AVByte, Tessa netting, warp zone, random encounters, Itsonlyleigh stuff.

That generation of fandom culture between say, from post-Twilight to the Hunger Games, going through Doctor Who, Sherlock, Hetalia, RWBY, Hamilton and that's not to mention gaming, like brysi, JT Machinima, Machinima prime etc. to around sometime before The Last Jedi where fandom culture wars fully ruptured open, Steven universe and voltron's ending signalled the end and Game of Thrones buried it.

Now we're in this weird place where it's fully another front of the culture war, most fan productions are rants and video essays, and what you like/don't like about something is a statement of cultural or political belief.

Please take me back to those days of sketches and songs again...

From what I understand, the current era of fan fiction started due to Star Trek being so popular that fans published magazine containing Star Trek fan fiction.

But, Star Trek wasn't the first show to ever be popular. So, why didn't any earlier shows inspire fan fiction like Star Trek did?

Hello everyone, if this post is inappropriate somehow or badly done I'm sorry, I'm new to this. Something that has interested me for a very long time now when it comes to fandoms is that one infamous fanfic, comic, or some other fan work that EVERYBODY talks about at some point, sometimes it gets unearthed to new fans and everyone starts talking about it again, so i wonder which ones from which fandoms you guys know?

I do know a few already but I'm curious if this phenomenon exists in every fandom. Most of these works are usually infamous for a good reason but most are also just made to shock, still it's interesting.

Hi! I'm writing a character who was in several fandoms on Tumblr circa 2012-2016. He was in the Gravity Falls fandom, the Supernatural fandom, and the Harry Potter fandom. My character is trans, and I need information regarding how represented LGBT+ people were among these communities during this time so I can draw a guess on how educated he was on transness. If possible, please provide specific, detailed accounts of what these communities looked like.

If it helps, here's some additional information on my character:

- He was a Destiel shipper

- He related heavily to Dipper Pines and partook in the great Bill Cipher sexymanification

- He was really into the Marauders

Thanks!

Hi All! I'm a journalist at io9 who has been covering the new Interview With The Vampire show, but I also happen to be a fandom person with some knowledge of Anne Rice's impact on fandom at large. I'm looking to write up an oral history of the Vampires Chronicles fandom, good, bad, and ugly.

Specifically, if you were in the Vampire Chronicles fandom back when Anne Rice was litigious/anti-fanfic, and have personal anecdotes about how Rice’s actions affected your fanwork/site/personal life, please get in touch. I'd love to talk to you about your story.

Additionally, If you have a letter from Anne Rice OR Kith & Kin LLC, I would love to see it. I understand that AR was a complicated, contradictory person. And I'm interested in seeing both positive and less kind interactions. I know the negative correspondence has likely been deleted or lost, but anything you can find, I would love to see.

Please email me at lcodega@io9.com and we can set up a time to chat, or if you just want to tell me your story via email, that would also be appreciated.

((Links: Twitter |io9 Author Page | IWTV Coverage: Review, First Ep Recap, Sam Reid + Jacob Anderson Interviews ))

I've been looking for Fan Music Videos - specifically videos listed by title in OTW. Most of the missing FMV are from 1980-2000.
You Tube has recent works, but older works aren't archived. Any suggestion?

Hello there fellow fanfiction fans at r/FandomHistory

A few days ago I created the Sub r/SWFanfic, because the current Star Wars Subreddit needed moderation, and the only active mod did not have permission to do so. That mod has joined me and one other in creating the new Subreddit.

We hope to give every Star Wars Fanfic enthusiast out there, the platform that the fandom has been lacking for years. The Subreddit is still in the early stages, but once our personal schedules clear, we will make the necessary arrangements for everyone to have a pleasant time. Words can't describe how excited we are for the future, we have a lot planned once the sub gets big enough for activities. Hopefully, that will be very soon. We wish to give everyone a platform where they can discuss Star Wars, recommend and receive recommendations for good fanfictions to read, seek writing advice, and engage with others with similar interests. Even though it is new, I hope you will contribute to making this Subreddit an essential part of fandom history.

I sincerely hope that you will join us over at r/SWFanfic. We would love to have you.

Mod approved

Check out SWFanfic.

Anyone have other fandomy subs they'd like to make known?

Hello,

I'm doing a research project on how much more fanfiction was read/created during the pandemic and I was hoping y'all could please fill out this survey for it!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdUObeplMVAa0DwcEZcxUqCinYNVr9HLvtkJE-wXQkPw4GRwA/viewform

Its quite short (about 10 questions) and mostly multiple choice.

It would really help my project along if you could fill it out!!!

Thanks