Review - Fanlore

Review in fandom has come to have two different usages, depending on the fan community and context.

Often it matches the mainstream meaning of "review," as in movie reviews or book reviews, especially in relation to the source texts, e.g. fan-written episode reviews. Similarly, fans may post opinions and evaluations of fanfic and other fanworks, and call this a "review", especially if it is longer and/or critical, to distinguish it from recs. While not always positive, reviews, like recs, are aimed at other fans rather than the fanwork creators, unlike feedback, which is for the creator.

However, in certain forums and fic archives, such as fanfiction.net, the public comments are called "reviews," though they are intended primarily as feedback for the authors (though not entirely, as such reviews are public, and may help readers select a story, especially since the comment numbers are displayed as a possible indicator of popularity.) In these communities, review has come to mean simply "comment", e.g. in the common plea to "please read & review" (or "R&R" for short).

In the Xenaverse there usually is no distinction between reviews and recs because generally only recommended stories get reviewed and therefore review sites are recommendation sites, like for example Lunacy's Fan Fiction Reviews, BLURB, or Cee's FanFic Reviews.

Controversy

As with concrit, critical reviews of fanworks can be a matter of contention in fandom. Some fans consider the practice discourteous to the fan creators unless permission for it has been clearly granted, while others believe discussion of fanworks to be an important aspect of fannish discourse, and the permission is implicit in posting a work publicly.^[1]

Review Zines

It was common practice to include a few reviews or letters of comment at the back of many fanzines. Sometimes the reviews would be for zines from entirely different fandoms than those appearing in the zine. Letterzines or APAs would also contain reviews (see Jundland Wastes and Southern Enclave).

Fanzines that focused primarily on fanzine reviews:

• The Fanzine Review Zine (1976)
• The Hologram (QL, 1994-2000)
• IMHO (Blake's 7 reviewzine) (B7, 1994)
• Psst... Hey Kid, Wanna Buy a Fanzine?
• Review Zine (Australian reviewzine) #1-47 (?-1997)
• Scuttlebutt (1970s)

Review mailing lists & websites

• Gen Fic Crit Mailing List
• Ishi72's Zine Recommendations and Reviews (2002)
• Raonaid's 'Zine Reviews (2000)
• Hatstand Fanzine Reviews (Professionals) (2010)
• Lynn's Zine Reviews (Blake's 7, Sentinel, MUNCLE, multi-media, Professionals, and X-Files) (2002)

Sample Reviews

This is still a draft section.

Public Consumption Reviews

1. Insert early Star Trek review from Mahko Root 2 (1970s)
2. insert Sandy and rache's 1995 review of a Pros zine
3. Need one more post 2000 zine review

Semi-Private Reviews - different tone? More candid? Impact that blogging has on turning 'public consumption' reviews into more personal musings. Do they still serve the same purpose or are they different?

References

1. ↑ "All of these conversations can be important parts of the fannish discourse." synecdochic in "Cult of nice" vs. "cult of mean", round 2847, fight, posted 23 July 2008 (Accessed 22 February 2009)