The Cost of Netfic
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| Title: | The Cost of Netfic |
| Creator: | Flamingo |
| Date(s): | May 5, 2002 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | |
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The Cost of Netfic is a 2002 essay by Flamingo
It was posted to the Starsky & Hutch mailing list VenicePlace and is used on Fanlore with Flamingo's permission.
The Essay
I know a lot of people share the feeling that net fiction is free. It's easy to feel that way since you don't have to fork over any money at the time you download it, but it's not free. It's the most expensive fiction produced of all. (Understand, everyone, I'm not griping about any of this, I do it out of choice, but the costs are real.)
My computer cost me more than my refrigerator, but my refrigerator will last 25 years (my last one lasted 30), but at 3 years, my computer is clearly reaching the end of its lifespan and will soon have to be replaced. I can't get to net fic without it. Even web TV, which is a more "inexpensive" form of net contact, isn't free. It costs, too. And yes, it is possible to access the net via public libraries, but they usually aren't crazy about you downloading tons of stuff *and* your taxes are paying for everything in that library, including the computer access, so you're *still* paying for it. And while most of us use our computers and web access for more than just fan activities, I know that at least 60% of the time I spend on-line is devoted to fannish activities (probably more if I were being really honest), so that at least 60% of the those expenses are relevant to fandom, fan fiction, etc. I don't know that I'd even need this thing if it weren't for fandom. Most everything else I do on it is work related and could be done legitimately through my work computer. (Of course, I work for the federal government, so we're all paying for that! ;-) )
The electricity used to power the computer costs money. It doesn't matter low "little" it costs, it still costs.
I pay close to $20 a month for web access (actually more since I have multiple addresses). (Again, maintaining the 60% fan usage rule. The other 40% I could probably do through my work access if I wanted to.) Yes, there are "free" services out there, but the amount of time they cost while you wade through ads costs again.
Since I run several fan fiction archives, I can tell you the time involved keeping web fiction up on the net is prodigious. I don't run those archives alone, so it's not just my time involved. And it's high-tech time, and far more time consuming that putting out a zine, since it's constant and ongoing. Just dealing with the mail the archives generates is a substantial time investment and often involves problems with the archives. Someone is paying for all that -- the archivist. My time costs *me*, so it's not free. The fact that it doesn't directly cost *you* doesn't make it free. Every hour I spend doing that is time I'm not turning out fiction, so if you consider my fiction to have any value, then it costs you. (Then again, some folks may consider that a blessing! :-D )
We are very, very fortunate that walter is willing to host everything I put up on his site for free, including this list. But it's not really *free* -- he's paying for it. He's supporting all the equipment and all the technological hassles, and I can't even imagine them, largely to support the fannish community. There are hundreds of fannish lists on his site and a ton of archives, all of which get to live there (at least now) for "free" -- but someone is paying for it -- him. The electricity alone is a major cost, as is all the technical equipment that must be maintained and constantly upgraded, and the software, too. Just moving to Sympa has cost him thousands of hours of work (never mind the *real* costs) as he responds to complaints about the software and works with the developers of the software to change it to please his "customers" even though none of them pay him any money. (I've offered, but he always says no.) He does all this as service to the fandom (everyone, hats off!) but none of it is *free* -- it's expensive as hell. If it weren't for walter, the archives would be costing me quite a lot, which they did before I found him, because I won't put fan fiction (especially slash) on a "free" website packed full of annoying ad banners and software that puts stuff in people's computers without their knowing it. (I consider that the most expensive web access of all. It's why we're not on yahoo.) Not to mention having to worry about someday the provider of the service discovering the true nature of the fiction and simply taking it down, which has happened to countless slash fan fiction sites. The last time I had to move the archives in a hurry, when geocities decided they owned everything I put on their "free" site, it cost me 36 straight hours of computing time.
Of course, a lot of these costs don't come directly out of your pocket, the same way the $5 -- $20 for a zine might, however just because some of those costs are "invisible" to you, doesn't mean they aren't there. There are still plenty of fans who can't afford web access of any kind and whose only contact with fandom is through snailmail and zines. The technological breakthroughs that allow us the privilege of accessing hundreds of archives and thousands of stories is marvelous, as are expensive electronic readers that allows us to take that fan fiction with us conveniently and privately, but it is still affordable only for some, which by global standards, is the affluent (considering that over half of the world has never even made a phone call). We are fortunate, absolutely blessed to be able to afford the access to fan fiction that we have these days. And we have a tendency to take it for granted. But it's expensive, if not directly to the consumer it is still expensive indirectly. Just because you don't have to plug in a credit card every time you access the S&H Archives, doesn't mean they're free.
And none of that is taking into account the time spent by the *writers* of all this fiction, time they, perhaps, might have spent doing something more financially profitable for themselves. When I'm writing fan fiction, I'm not writing pro fiction, for which I get paid. Lots of fans don't write pro fiction, of course, but they're also not working part time jobs, or doing anything else that is income-generating with that time. Of course, this is all in theory, but the fact is, time spent is time *spent*. When they say time is money, they're not kidding.
Even the storage media I use to keep it costs money (and space). And that storage media usually involves CDs or disks, which have to be read by a computer. Even if I printed it out on paper and turned it into a zine (which some of my friends do) it would cost for the printer, paper, toner, binding combs, binder, etc. that was used to do that. You want a friend to borrow it? If she photocopies it, that costs money, too.
I love net fiction myself, but I don't take it for granted. I treasure it. It is there now, but it might not be tomorrow. I hope it will be, but copyright laws are become very draconian, and web providers are becoming very antsy about what they're permitting (considering some copyright holders are taking *them* to court for hosting copyright-infringing material on their sites). But it's expense, and I never forget that. I can't. I'm paying for it. And so are you. ;-)