Masterlist - Fanlore

A masterlist (or master list) is a collected list of everything that falls into a particular category. The category can be broad or narrow, such as:

• "everything in the fandom", such as the Invisible Man Master List
• "all the fanworks in the fandom", such as the Dead Zone Masterlist
• "all of the fanworks on a specific theme across fandoms", such as the Issues of Consent link collection (via Wayback Machine)
• "all of the fanworks on a specific theme in a specific fandom", such as the McKay/Sheppard threesomes and moresomes master list
• "all of a specific type of fanwork in a fandom", such as the Kirk/Spock Zines list.
• "all of the fanworks in a specific challenge."

Unlike a recs list, a masterlist generally doesn't imply anything about the quality of the works it lists -- it simply notes their existence to make them easier to find. Sometimes the list creator also chooses to mark her/his favourites, though.

Some masterlists may involve a degree of quality control, but often that is limited to making sure that the author is competent at such basics as spelling and grammar or excluding WIP.

Masterlists may be simply titles, authors, and URLs, but many also provide other information, such as a summary, characters or pairing, warnings if relevant, and/or a rating. They rarely include reviews or quotes from the story.

Fandom Masterlists

• Bonanza
  • Bonanza Master Fan Fiction List
• Dead Zone
  • Dead Zone Masterlist
• Die Hard
  • Die Hard Master List
• Invisible Man
  • Invisible Man Master List
• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
  • Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Master List

Thematic Masterlists

Occasionally the term 'thematic list' is used to apply to lists of fics featuring a particular character or pairing, or of a certain era, style of writing, etc; however, its more accurate meaning is a list of stories which share a similar theme or plot.

• Due South
  • Due South master lists, covering roughly two dozen different themes.
• Harry Potter
  • Themed Lists, with dozens of themed Harry Potter fanfic lists.
  • List of Lists, a collection of links to dozens of Harry Potter thematic lists.
• Stargate Atlantis
  • Crossroads, a McKay/Sheppard thematic list index covering dozens of themes.
  • Stargate List of lists, a collection of links to dozens of Stargate thematic lists.
• Stargate SG-1
  • Stargate List of lists, a collection of links to dozens of Stargate thematic lists.
• The X-Files
  • The X-Files Lost and Found Category List
• Multifandom
  • The Listing -- Links centre for listings of fanfiction, a livejournal community that lists collections of links (for recs and thematic lists) to dozens of fandoms.
    • searchable delicious version of the LJ community

Guides to Creating Thematic Lists

• Guide to creating a thematic list in the Harry Potter fandom by painless_j
• The Guide rewritten for the Stargate fandoms by Lanta (should also be worth glancing through for thematic lists in other fandoms)