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Fan Fiction Writers Balk at FanLib.com
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Wed May 30, 2007 05:02 PM
from the say-no-to-sploitz dept.
from the say-no-to-sploitz dept.
bill jackson writes "A couple of former Yahoo execs are trying to create the next MySpace by aggregating fanfiction on a website called FanLib. But the fanfic writers recognized that exploitation was written all over the idea and they've refused to participate. 'Instead of creating the Myspace of fanfic since the launch two weeks ago, FanLib.com sparked a white-hot Internet firestorm.The meltdown is a hard lesson in how not to conduct business on the Internet.But it's a firestorm of FanLib's own making because, in spite of the Yahoo pedigree (or maybe because of it), they plowed in like china shop bulls.'"
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Oh fuck (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oh fuck (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Why did you have to get my hopes up?
Before you flame me, be honest, who here wouldn't even PAY to see some execs being maimed and mauled?
Re:Oh fuck (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.my2centences.com/my2c_new/FanLib_info.
That is what we fanfic writers are upset about. The PDF is evidence and proof of their corporate ulterior motives and the first link explains a lot of this better than the given link and the connection between my2centences and fanlib.
Parent
Re:Oh fuck (Score:5, Informative)
Trust me, stories written collaboratively by a bunch of novices are *not* getting on the air, anywhere. A story written by one novice is bad enough. Many different novices? Don't be silly.
This concept is really a bit of daydream fantasy on the part of Kites Are Evil and other commenters that belies a complete misunderstanding of the publishing and screenwriting industries. These are ridiculously demand-driven industries. Supply is way, way, way too common. The vast majority of writers -- *good*, *established* writers -- make very little. Some book that you like, if it's not written by one of the "really big names", probably is written by an author who has second job that pays part of the bills. To find new writers, agents go through literally *thousands* of queries before they pick up a client, and even then, there's no guarantee that the agent will be able to sell the work.
Nobody wants to publish garbage. Sadly, they have to turn down a darned lot of stuff that isn't garbage at all, simply because there's too much supply.
When a famous/popular writer is overloaded, or wants to go on to other work, indeed, other writers will fill in for them. However, these are generally established writers. Oftentimes, they're written on contract. The publisher *approached them* with the idea.
The whole notion that publishers want a bunch of garbage written by amateurs -- even worse, by a bunch of amateurs working together -- when the market is already flooded, and there are plenty of writers who would gladly sell out for extra cash... it's just silly.
Anyways, keep writing your fanfic.
Parent
LJ (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:LJ (Score:5, Informative)
I don't know why slashdot hasn't picked it up. This place is so slow. Digg and Reddit already have stories about it which are getting voted up and should be on the front page by this evening
Parent
Re:LJ (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Though slashdot is well known for breaking sites that happen to have breaking news.
Re:LinuxJournal? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:LJ (Score:5, Interesting)
And not just fanfic communities, I've seen adult/fetish communities also suspended, and support sites for survivors of abuse may be at risk (since they list keywords such as "incest" or "rape"...).
LiveJournal has yet to make a statement, but I find the quote from Six Apart's CEO given in the article rather worrying:
"Our decision here was not based on pure legal issues. It was based on what community we want to build and what we think is appropriate within that community and what's not."
Righto, so Six Apart are saying it doesn't matter if it's entirely legal, they're going to start banning journals based on what they think is "appropriate".
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
"Our decision here was not based on pure legal issues. It was based on what community we want to build and what we think is appropriate within that community and what's not."
Righto, so Six Apart are saying it doesn't matter if it's entirely legal, they're going to start banning journals based on what they think is "appropriate".
No, they aren't saying "it doesn't matter if it's entirely legal". They're saying the decision was not based on legal issues, i.e., it wasn't just because they were afraid of being legally sued. In fact, they can legally ban journals based on what content they deem is "appropriate", as long as such a ban doesn't violate their stated Terms of Service.
This is why I don't have a journal... (Score:5, Insightful)
Invariably, when a site gets popular, it attracts the attention of people who would like to ruin your shit. Things like this happen.
Don't rely on third parties if you have speech you want to protect.
Parent
Bad fanfiction (Score:2, Funny)
It never ends.
It was a dark and stormy afternoon (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
I hope they write their fanfic... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I hope they write their fanfic... (meaning) (Score:3, Funny)
Why, Furries, of course. That plus Naruto.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I hope they write their fanfic... (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:I hope they write their fanfic... (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
I had no idea that most of that stuff was by women (Score:3, Interesting)
They tried to herd cats (Score:5, Insightful)
I suspect an awful lot of the negative reaction comes from three factors:
1. Membership in the site would certainly have a "We own your postings." clause in the Terms of Service.
2. *And* a "We reserve the right to censor anything you post we don't like." clause.
and the cherry on top:
3. An unwritten consequence of (1) would be: "If it's really good, we'll use it to make money. Thanks suckers." clause.
And just remember, in Hollywood, "Trust us." translates to "F**k you."
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:They tried to herd cats (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Correction (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:They tried to herd cats (Score:5, Informative)
"At FanLib, we expect you to post the content you create ("Your Content") on the website. You keep any and all rights to Your Content. FanLib does not own any rights to Your Content."
2. *And* a "We reserve the right to censor anything you post we don't like." clause.
"FanLib encourages and supports active and open publication of fan fiction in a lawful and civil manner. We do not monitor the FanLib Website for inappropriate content or conduct"
(The only "we reserve the right to remove..." they give as part of that applies to outright illegal content).
3. An unwritten consequence of (1) would be: "If it's really good, we'll use it to make money. Thanks suckers." clause.
"You authorize FanLib to make, reproduce, distribute, and display these summaries or descriptions on FanLib.com or through its services but not for any other purpose unrelated to FanLib.com. If you mark any of Your Content private, we will not promote and/or showcase Your Content."
I consider myself about as anti-corporate as they come, but I really can't see the fuss over FanLib's TOS. It pretty much addresses every concern you raised.
Parent
Re:They tried to herd cats (Score:5, Informative)
Check out the face they present to the publishers: http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/005131.html [scalzi.com]
Parent
I Don't Doubt the Story... (Score:3, Interesting)
The second quote links to someone's LiveJournal, and it's not the only one. This seems like a Cyber Sister storm to me.
Re:I Don't Doubt the Story... (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, that is quite a problem with bloggers in general. Most of them are stupid enough to think that you will give one tenth of one shit about a link to a blog that no one outside of their social circle cares about.
If I'm providing a link about tech, I don't send people to a fucking slashdot comment - unless it's full of good links.
Linking to some fanfic author's blog is roughly the precise antithesis of reputability. And I don't want to unduly hurt anyone's feelings here, but I have two major problems with fanfic in general. The first one is that most of it is shit. Most of the people writing that stuff clearly weren't paying attention in their English classes in grammar school. The second one is that these people should grow a fucking imagination. It's pathetic enough when you have a show that is so endlessly officially rehashed. Fanfic is way beyond the pale there. The primary example is Star Trek - that show ran out of ideas before the first series was even over, and you could detect ToS stories recycled in ToS!
But what the hell, I don't have a problem with the stuff existing - only with its self-importance. It's not important to anyone outside that particular social scene, except for various studios wishing they could leave a smoking hole in the ground where authors of slash fanfic once stood.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
All of fanfic is shit. Not most. Other than that, I agree whole-heartedly.
Consider this, none of those authors are now or will ever be published by a reputable publishing house (note, I say reputable, vanity presses will press any piece of shit).
Fan fiction is the realm of the third or fourth rate writer. They are neither well-versed in their native language to make it interesting nor imaginative enough to create original stories. That is why most fan fiction descends into softcore pornogra
Don't know about quality (Score:5, Interesting)
2500+ odd stories in 2 weeks certainly makes one wonder if some of the fanfictioners didn't get the memo that they were supposed to be ticked.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
2500+ odd stories in 2 weeks certainly makes one wonder if some of the fanfictioners didn't get the memo that they were supposed to be ticked.
That doesn't totally suck, I guess, but it's worth nothing that fanfiction.net has almost 300,000 stories -- in the Harry Potter category alone (granted, that's over many years).
I wonder how much advertising money they spent for that 2,500.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
NB: I'm not saying fanfic is all a copyright violation. There's plenty of well-known fanfic about characters whose copyrig
How is this "exploiting" exactly? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:How is this "exploiting" exactly? (Score:5, Interesting)
In other words, fans take something they love, write extensions to it for their own not-for-profit amusement, hand it to FanLib, and proceed to get completely exploited. Oh, but in return they'll maybe get a free t-shirt or something. No thanks. Clearly, they have no concept of what fanfic is and are completely out of touch with writers in general.
Parent
Where's that troll when you need it? (Score:2)
You used to get bizarre trolls around here that took our learned editor-folk and made them characters in short, absurdly pornographic fictitious literary scenes.
Guess that too counts as fan-fiction, right?
fanfic txt kiddies? (Score:2)
But...I doubt this site will go away anytime soon. I'd actually be more concerned with the scenario of publishers/content providers declaring this aggregator
We haven't heard from everyone... (Score:5, Funny)
Furries.
Without their unique insight into subjects like "Kirk romances a full sized Gadget from Chip n' Dale's Rescue Rangers" or "What would happen if the crew of the NX-01 were anthropomorphic animals and there's maybe a crossover with the X-Men why not?", we would have no way of knowing what we did and didn't like about the various trek series, and, by extension, an online repository of stories.
So count me out until the "Commander Troi as a sexy lemur" crowd weighs in, THEN I'll know what to think.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Troi attained the rank of Commander. Anyhoo, I'd like... no, I'm just curious to know what a "sexy lemur" is.
You see, I've seen a whole bunch of lemurs.
Mostly in captivity.
Not one of them turned me on.
I don't know what they're worried about... (Score:3, Funny)
Star Trek
The Search for Spock's Nipple
Getting One's Dose of Internet Fiction (Score:5, Informative)
Stories OnLine [storiesonline.net]
The Pendorwright Projects [pendorwright.com]
usenet:assm
And none of this is lining any corporation's pockets off the sweat of the authors.
Jaw droppingly bad marketing (Score:3, Insightful)
Other choice lines include:
I'm currently majoring in business marketing , and I can't believe the misanthropical tone and language of their marketing plan. It's as cynical and exploitive as I've ever read.