full offense but none of you would have ever survived fanfiction.net in 2009
*rocking back and forth on the porch, staring into the distance*
Or the webrings, and the Anne Rice purges…
…the disclaimers…
The Anne Rice stuff was even before that, I think. I started posting Arashikage in 2009. Hero was in 2007 and 2008 – I used to note how many hits it had to figure out how many more there was when I checked again (after an update) because it didn’t break the stats down by day back then.
True. The Anne Rice purges were, oh, around, 1997-2000?
God I remember the sassy ‘Posting this against tah RUUULLLEESSS’ not-disclaimers back when yaoi and yuri was still against the content rules of FF *AND* when you could give each individual chapter a content rating; so a mostly teen fic could randomly have a Mature chapter that was locked if you weren’t logged in and verified.
Oh, lord.
Songfics.
*grabs bottle of vodka
*snaps off top
@systlin bottoms up, cause do you also remember the page long interactive openings between the writer(s), their favorite characters and often their OC’s, complete with similar endings?
Fuck, I think several of my own early fics still have them.
*shares vodka
Oh, lord.
*slugs from bottle, wipes mouth*
Shit, I think I still have some absolutely awful Lord of the Rings fic with those author’s notes on a flash drive somewhere.
As well as the bits where you do more author’s notes. You know, where you arguing with you own OC’s for….???? Just midway through a chapter? Like this?
*AUTHOR’S NOTE*
HEE! Things are finally getting good! Get ready for some action coming up in…
…*OC #1 appears* Stop boring us and get on with it!
…HMPTH rude! OC you play nice!
…*OC #2* Yeah! Just let her get on with the story! Don’t be rude 😦
…Thank you OC #2. Welp, back to the story!
I don’t know it was just the thing back then.
*finishes bottle, gets a fresh one to share
I remember that; I know it was done to try and increase reader interactivity and therefore get more reviews but by the unknown depths did it chop up stories and destroy pacing.
Gods of the Abyss do I remember all the tribute to fanfic fanfic that was really just tribute to that original writer’s OC and it caused a downward spiral of thank you fic and more tribute fic; all about that OC or OC’s.
I also remember people treating the reviews section like it was a discussion forum, falsely increasing the review count. Or maybe that was just my personal annoyance.
ah… back in the day when the gundam wing fic was strong and the songfics glorious!
*pulls out the lemon & lime margaritas*
When the summers brought the feast of the summer break writers and updates happened faster then you could write them.
Ah… yes, such a thing as will never be had again.
*raises vodka
A toast! To a bygone era!
We were young, had no cares, and wrote 3 updates a week.
*toasts*
Ah, the Ann Rice purges.
*sips tea and stares out over the horizon*
I’d say they were simpler times, but honestly fandom has never been simple. There’s always been someone out there willing to piss in your cheerios. It’s more just other members of fandom these days than the actual authors and content creators themselves cause they can’t send you cease and desist notifications for splashing in their pool.
People actually take fic commissions now, for money and they don’t see the problem with it, and don’t understand why we never did it. I still get a flash of unholy terror going through me when I see those posts. There’s forever a part of me that’s ready to pack up all my fandom shit and run to the next hosting site should the need arise, because someone reported the site and Lawyers were coming to take it all down. Which is frankly what makes Ao3 such a wonderful thing to have with their legal team, but I still can’t shake the feeling that it’s too good to be true.
LORD
I still get a little crawling shiver of horror up my spine when I see people doing commissioned fic for money.
I know things are different now, but I remember the threats of lawsuits.
Fandom youngun’s, there is a REASON us old folk put a disclaimer on fic sometimes, and it’s because we had authors threaten to sue us for all we had plus some, and the only way to avoid it, possibly, was to plead that we are simply doing it for funsies, sirs, we aren’t making a penny, we swear, please have your goons put me down now please.
Anybody remember that glitch where I guess it tried to autocorrect and just flat-out erased any line with more than three of any character in a row or set of strung-together phrases?
I remember one of mine lost like ninety-odd percent of what little sense it made because the site erased the phrase “Ineedyoutogivemeaspankingtoproveapoint.”
tora42's nonsensne 