This Week In Fandom History

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February 1983: Groundhog Day Stories Published, Helping Create Slash As We Know It Feb 05, 2023

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All hail Punxatawney Phil! This week, Emily and V go back to the rad 1980s and learn about a fandom they'd never considered before: Starsky & Hutch. It turns out these two slashable dudes helped to forge fandom as we know it today, and the publication of the fic "February 2nd" by Alexis Rogers is a big part of why we all love it when a blond man and a brunet man who are a sunshine one and a grumpy one bone down. Have you considered how to trade slash zines when they were "obscene material"? And will you do your part to launch TWIFH's hip new meme?

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January-February 2010: Help_Haiti Auction... And Its Aftermath Jan 29, 2023

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Get out your pocketbooks! This week, V and Emily go back to one of fandom's highest highs and a pretty low low as they discuss the 2010 Help_Haiti charity auction... and the infamous J2 Haiti Fic. After the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti, fandom came together for one of its largest charity auctions ever, raising an unprecedented amount of money for aid on the ground. Unfortunately, nice things can't stay nice, and the same devastating loss of life was later used as fodder for J2 to fall in very white-boy love. Where is the line between inspiration and exploitation?

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January 24, 2016: One Direction Fans Discuss "Conchobar" Jan 22, 2023

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Congrats to the proud papa! Back in 2016, One Direction's Louis Tomlinson became a father (fact) and 1D fans everywhere decided that the baby's name was Conchobar (rumor). This week, V tells Emily the story of a fandom she was actually in, and may have had an accidental hand in turning into a shitshow, as the sordid saga of Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson shipping baffles Emily to her core. When does RPF (real-person fanfiction) turn from a hobby into a damaging force? Why did actual celebrity news sources pander to "Larries"? And how much fault actually lies at V's very sorry feet?

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January 1967: The First Star Trek Zine Is Distributed Jan 15, 2023

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Long live Strekdom and may it always prosper! This week, Emily and V are heading to the original frontier of fannish culture: Star Trek fan clubs of the 1960's. It's super emotional, and the women who created the groundwork of everything we love today deserve our utmost respect for their sheer ballsiness and bananas love of Leonard Nimoy. Join us as we learn about Vulcanalia, discuss ditto machines, and basically write RPF about how much we love the OG fangirls of yore. Have you paid your membership dues? Did you remember your Tupperware of snacks?

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January 11, 1994: The First X-Files Fanfiction Is Posted Jan 08, 2023

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We want to believe! In the second week of January, we're heading back thirty years (woof) to ye olde Web 1.0 and the very first online X-Files fanfiction. But to our surprise, it wasn't just an X-Files fic! Join V and Emily as they get to explore a whole new-to-them fandom as they learn about cult fave Forever Knight, talk alt-net servers and e-mail lists, and read the cutest author's note in fandom history. Are you MSR or NoRomo? More importantly, are you a Friend Of Don?

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January 4, 2005: LiveJournal Sold to SixApart Jan 01, 2023

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Happy New Year! It's the first week of January, and V and Emily are exploring the effects of LiveJournal's sale to SixApart Media on January 4, 2005. Fandom is an eternal wanderer, forever losing its homes on the internet. Was this sale the harbinger of things to come? How did updates to LJ's terms of use affect fandom and fanfiction? Will fandom ever find a forever-home online?

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This Week In Fandom History Podcast Trailer Jan 01, 2023

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A podcast about why fandom matters. This Week In Fandom History celebrates fandom culture's highest highs and weirdest lows. Lifelong fangirls V Arrow and Emily Jaye trade off some deep-internet research each week to learn and laugh (and sometimes rage) their way through the annals (heh) of fandom history, one week at a time. With which short-lived vampire cop drama was the very first X-Files fic crossed over? Who is Tara Gilesbie? How recently did the Starsky & Hutch Lending Library rent out its last zine? What were Strikethrough, Racefail, LGBTFansDeserveBetter, and Conchobar, anyway? Join Emily and V to learn about why these events, and many more, from fandom's past still resonate today.

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