Fanlore:News/2019

December 30, 2019

PSA: 8tracks is shutting down

Popular fanmix and fan soundtrack website 8tracks recently announced that it will be shutting down on December 31, 2019. While the site might be available after this date, there's no guarantee it will stay up - so if you're a fanmix or fan soundtrack creator (or have created any type of playlist on 8tracks), now is a very good time to save the data from your playlists or make them available on another site.

What can I do to save my playlists?

If you've used 8tracks at any point, the site will be sending you an email with the playlist name, art, description and track list from your playlist(s), to help you recreate it/them on another site. It's a good idea to make sure that you can still access the email address you used to sign up to 8tracks. Be sure to also check your spam folder for the email if you can’t find it in your inbox.

You can also use the Download Tracklist button in the notes of any playlist to copy all of the information from that playlist, and the "Save playlist to Spotify" button on top of the mix art to save a playlist to Spotify. Note that some of the tracks may be unavailable or not matched to Spotify's catalog, particularly if they are older songs. Please also be aware that if you are saving someone else's playlist, the playlist will not be attributed to the correct author when saving to Spotify - it will be saved under your name.

Link your playlists on Fanlore!

Have you made a fanmix or fan soundtrack that you're really proud of? Do you want other fans to be able to enjoy the links to your favourite mixes and soundtracks? Please add the links to Fanlore! You can do this by finding the page for the fandom, ship, character, trope, fic, etc. that you made the mix for and adding it as an example fanwork. Anyone who has an account on Fanlore can edit the wiki - and it's completely free! Follow this link to sign up to Fanlore, and check out our New Visitor Portal to find out how to get started with editing.

Some examples of Fanlore pages that feature playlists and mixes:

Read our full post on Dreamwidth to find out more about how to preserve playlists from 8tracks.

November 24, 2019

50,000 page milestone

It's official! After much anticipation, Fanlore has reached our 50,000 page milestone - and the 50,000th page is Something in Common! A huge thank you goes out to all the dedicated, passionate editors from all parts of fandom who have helped us reach this milestone. Without you, Fanlore couldn't be the living, breathing record of fandom that it is today. We've come a long way since Fanlore's first ever page, Die Hard, in August 2008. Fanlore now has thousands of editors who have carried out more than 900,000 edits, big and small, on pages about every corner of fandom. Each one helps us to build a bigger picture of fandom's history, its experiences, its memories and communities. Our next milestone is one million edits - we hope you'll join us on the quest!

November 2, 2019

Introducing... Nomination November!

Fanlore is excited to introduce a new special event for November: Nomination November, or Nom-vember, which is all about Fanlore's Featured Article nominations.

Every week, we'll be awarding badges to everyone who nominates a new Featured Article, with a special additional badge for users who make a nomination four weeks in a row. There are also badges to be won for voting on Featured Articles, and for "adopting" a previously rejected Featured Article to work on.

For more information on how to take part, visit our Nomination November Help Page, and keep an eye on Fanlore's Twitter and Tumblr for tips on how to nominate and vote!

October 20, 2019

A PSA About Yahoo! Groups

On 16th October, it was revealed that Yahoo! is planning to shut off posting to Yahoo! Groups on 28th October, and permanently wipe all data from Groups on 14th December, in yet another instance of an internet space shutdown that will be hugely detrimental to fans and fan history.

If you are a member or admin of a Group and want to try and preserve its contents, there are some things you can do:

Contact the OTW's Open Doors project, which works to import at-risk fan archives, if you're the admin of a Yahoo! Group and want to import its fanworks to AO3. If you're not the admin of a Yahoo! Group, you can still publish your own fanworks to AO3 - but the permission of a group admin is needed in order to import all the fanworks associated with a Group.

Create a page for the Group on Fanlore. Anyone can edit Fanlore and it's completely free - you just need to sign up for an account first. Once you have, you'll need to wait four hours before you can create any new pages - this is a precaution against spam accounts. This tutorial will help you get started with editing, and this Help article will give you more information on how to start a new page.

For more about what you can do to preserve Yahoo! Groups, read the full announcement on Dreamwidth.

September 16, 2019

It's time for Stub September!

Fanlore is proud to announce the return of our regular event, Stub September, which is taking place from 16-29 September 2019.

For the next two weeks, we'll be all about stubs: finding them, expanding them, and creating them. And of course, there are some great badges to be won!

Want to know what a stub is and how you can take part in Stub September? Read more on our dedicated Help page: Participating in Stub September.

September 4, 2019

Coming Soon: Stub September is Back!

If you've done much browsing of Fanlore you've probably seen some pages marked as "Stubs."

There are currently more than 3300 pages on Fanlore marked as stubs, but with your help we think we can take that number down a bit.

From September 16th to 29th we'll be running Stub September, a two-week challenge aimed at adding just a little bit more information to some of those short or empty pages. You don't have to be a seasoned Fanlore editor to participate; everyone is welcome, and we'll have a how-to page up before the challenge begins to explain how to take part.

We'll also be giving out shiny new badges to participants, designed especially for this challenge by our talented graphic design team.

Watch this space for more details coming in the next weeks!

August 2, 2019

Fanlore is recruiting graphic designers!

Fanlore is recruiting for graphic designers! If you enjoy Fanlore's graphics on Twitter and Tumblr or our badges for events like the Fanlore Challenge and Bingo Challenge and would like to help us create more great graphics to promote fannish history, come and join the team! You don't need formal experience - just an interest in art or making graphics, an enthusiasm for fandom and a couple of hours free each week. For more information, read our blurb on the volunteering page and apply at this link!

June 2, 2019

Introducing... the Fanlore Bingo Challenge!

The Fanlore Bingo Challenge is a brand new, two-week editing challenge which will take place from Sunday, June 2 to Sunday, June 16 2019. As the name implies, the challenge centers around completing various different types of editing tasks on a 9-square bingo card.

To open the challenge up to both new and experienced Fanlore editors, there are two levels of bingo cards to complete: Beginner level and Expert level. There are badges to be won for getting Bingo! and Blackout! on each card - as well as an ultimate Total Blackout! for completing all 9 tasks across both cards.

Head on over to the Bingo Challenge Help Page to find out more and learn how to take part. Happy editing!

April 5, 2019

Your Support Helps the OTW Preserve Fanworks

The Organization for Transformative Works' central mission is to preserve and promote fanworks and fannish histories of all sorts. At a time when other platforms are restricting and hiding user-generated content, this mission is more important than ever, and we keep it alive through the work of our strong volunteer force and the support of your generous donations. As our recent budget post shows, our projects require funding for things like servers, software, and legal fees. Without your support, none of this would be possible.

Fanlore is just one of the projects organized by the OTW to preserve fanworks and fannish histories. To learn more about the April 2019 membership drive and the OTW's projects, check out our blog post.

Please donate today to support Fanlore and all of the OTW's projects!

February 21, 2019

Thanks for celebrating International Fanworks Day with us this year! During our second annual Fanlore Challenge, editors old and new were busy with daily editing challenges as they earned badges for their user pages and helped to preserve fannish history.

We’re especially excited to welcome all the new editors who joined us during the Fanlore Challenge. But if you weren’t able to participate in this year’s Fanlore Challenge, don’t worry – we’re here documenting fanworks and fan communities every day of the year! Create an account if you haven’t already, check out our resources for new editors, and share what you know about fans and fandom.

If we missed awarding one of your challenge badges, please let us know! You can leave a message on the 2019 Fanlore Challenge talk page, send us an email, or reach out on social media. We're on Tumblr, Twitter, and Dreamwidth.

To learn more about how the Organization for Transformative Works celebrated International Fanworks Day this year, read on!

February 11, 2019

In honor of International Fanworks Day this week, Fanlore is proud to present the 2nd annual week-long editing challenge: the IFD 2019 Fanlore Challenge! For the next seven days, there will be a different daily editing challenge to complete, with shiny badges available for anyone who participates.

Please help us spread the word by sharing the news on Twitter.

Follow this link to find out how to take part!