This Week In Fandom History

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June 25, 2011: "Let's Get Gay Married!" Commentfic Meme Launched Jun 26, 2023

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I do! This week, Emily and V talk commentfic and comment memes back in the LJ days because the "Let's Get Gay Married!" Commentfic Meme started this week in fandom history as a celebration of marriage equality passing into law in New York state. Plus, a rundown on what commentfic and comment memes were like since they've mostly gone the way of the dinosaur -- largely extinct -- and they were a magical time in fannish collaboration. Did you participate in commentfic or comment memes? And how did you celebrate marriage equality?

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June 19, 2022: OTW Election Drama Digs Up the 227 Incident Jun 20, 2023

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Oil of Olay?! This week, V and Emily take a short trip through fandom history to 2022, when the most controversial OTW elections to date* announced its candidate roster. The controversy turned out less to be about the OTW than about the 227 Incident that got AO3 banned in China -- and holy moly, was it an incident. Your cohosts do not speak Mandarin, so apologies for ALL of the pronunciations in this episode. Have you ever had RPF drama in one of your fandoms? Have you ever bought a product because of the celeb who repped it?

* This episode was recorded two months ago, before the whistleblowing of the OTW's abuses of its volunteers, lack of TOS/COC framework, and absolute skirting of legality with regard to CSAM. The opinions expressed in this episode with regard to the OTW do not necessarily hold true today, the date of release. *

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June 17, 2009: The Great Trigger Warning Debate of 2009 Jun 14, 2023

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Warn when appropriate! This week, Emily and V trek back to the wild, tagless world of LiveJournal in 2009, and the Great Trigger Warning Debate. When does a warning constitute a spoiler? Can you over-warn? Are people who ask for warnings just whiners? These questions have apparently been eternal and we will never see the end of them. In this instance, Panic! at the Disco and bandom were the eye of the #tw storm. What are your thoughts on tagging? Do you ever read darkfic?

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June 2001: Cassandra Claire Sends Shockwaves Through Harry Potter Fandom Jun 06, 2023

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Draco Veritas? This week, V and Emily dig into just one of many messy threads in one of fandom's most famous wankfests: the drama of Cassandra Claire and her Harry Potter fic, The Draco Trilogy. When this fic was yanked from Fanfiction.net for allegations of plagiarism, reverberations echoed through fandom in ways that we're still feeling today -- from Fiction Alley all the way to Freeform. This is an episode in which we're pretty unrepentent li'l haters. Did you read the Draco Trilogy? Have you ever interacted with Cassandra Claire?

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May 29, 2007: Strikethrough May 29, 2023

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It's a big one, y'all! This week, V and Emily rage their way through the anniversary of Strikethrough, or a mass censorship event on LiveJournal that destroyed huge swaths of fannish history for no fucking reason. Or rather, because a Christian special-interest group that hates queer people said that things were icky and LJ caved. If you haven't heard of Strikethrough or need a refresher on why archives that aren't beholden to advertisers are essential to the survival of fandom and fanfiction, come take a ride with us and let your blood pressure hit the roof. Were any of your fandoms a victim of Strikethrough?

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May 20, 2000: The One With Sitcom Fandoms May 22, 2023

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We'll be there for you! This week, Emily and V take a trip back to a very different era: the time of Must-See TV. Once upon a time, television shows were written by full-time, on-set writers' rooms (SUPPORT THE WGA STRIKE) and sitcoms were filmed before a live studio audience. And people loved them. But sitcoms have never had a huge presence in transformative works fandom, despite their immense popularity. Why is that? How can the whole country ship a thing and there still be no fic for it?

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May 2007: FanLib Tries To Commercialize Fic and Everyone Has Big Feelings May 15, 2023

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Read the fine print! This week, Emily dug deep into why exactly we need an Archive Of Our Own and tells V all about FanLib, a short-lived for-profit, idea-mining fanfiction site partnered with TPTB of several semi-fannish TV shows. The idea? Get fans to write episodes for you for no pay, then profit because the episodes are "what fans wanted to see happen." Needless to say, fandom had a lot of feelings about FanLib and then the FanLib founders had a lot of feelings about those feelings. Did you ever enter a sanctioned fanfiction contest? Where did you read fic in the pre-AO3 world?

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May 2000: A Xena Fandom War Births "Born For War" May 07, 2023

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Alalaes! This week, V and Emily head back to the brand-new days of the internet and Xena: Warrior Princess fandom, where fandom wank has always been fandom wank. Although Xena/Gabrielle is a femslash fandom juggernaut, we're venturing into the world of Xena/Ares shipping and the close-knit community of people who a) hated Gabrielle and b) eventually all kind of hated each other. This was a masterclass in early-internet rarepair shipping and a nostalgic reminder of the era of single-author fic websites, messageboards, and e-mail groups. Don't do a Gab Drag, come along for the ride! Were you a Xenite? (Or, are you still?)

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May 4, 2010: Diana Gabaldon Fundamentally Misunderstands Fanfiction May 02, 2023

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Outlander, no! This week, Emily has another Big Topic as she and V try to understand the fundamentally twisted mind of Outlander author Diana Gabaldon and her spurious-yet-vicious hatred of fanfiction (and her own fans). Despite what Gabaldon -- and a weird number of writers -- believe, fictional characters do not actually have their own lives and writing fic, even badfic, about them cannot harm them. Discussion turns to the nature of fanfiction as art -- even bad fanfiction as art -- and the line where a creator's control over their art ends. Do you feel like characters "act without your permission" when you write? Do you think only "good" art has the right to exist?

P.S. Apologies for the late upload this week. Outside commitments reared their ugly heads.

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April 26, 2019: Avengers: Endgame Reminds Us That Fandom Can Lose Apr 23, 2023

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Avengers... Assemble! This week, a COVID-ravaged V and hardier Emily discuss a fannish, and mainstream, event they know all too well: the release of "the most ambitious crossover event in history," Avengers: Endgame. While living in a fandom bubble can make it feel like "the audience" wants one thing, big blockbusters like Endgame remind us all too harshly that fandom is still just a bunch of weirdo outliers, and as far as studios are concerned, "the audience" wants something that is -- often -- the opposite of what fandom wants. Does the thought of Steve's ending also fill you with unbridled rage? What blockbuster movie left you with a hole in your soul?

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