Virgule Convention - Fanlore

A virgule is a slash mark, /, used in slash fanfiction between character names, and giving a name to the entire genre.

History

Virgule, the convention, was a Seattle slash con held in 1992^[1], 1994 ^[2], and 1996^[3]; It was run during the even years to prevent a conflict with Zebracon, which was held during the odd years. The concom was headed by Deejay and staffed by a bunch of other Seattle-area fans. It was advertised as a do-it-yourself con:

"A slash con with with a 'how-to' attitude. Includes songvideo workshop, art panel, writing panel, song video contest, possible friday night pj party & dance, dealer's room, art show & Charity Auction, famous gay porn shop field trip, and other good stuff."^[4]

The Virgule Contapes

Contapes, once a standard way for distributing vids to interested fans, were also fading as more and more vidders (influenced, no doubt, by Deejay herself) were publishing their own collections and so withheld their permission to put copies of their premier vids on the con tapes. (Vid quality degraded for VCR vids depending on how frequently the tape was played and how many generations from the original source tape the current copy was.) By Virgule 3 in 1996, the con vid tape was published as "Virgule 1996 Orphan Vid Tape" with 18 vids by only three vidders (not including collaborators): Carol S, Wendy, and Morgan Dawn. About 2/3 of the vids on the tape were shown in the Virgule 3 vid show. The rest were 'bonus vids' such as "Send the Marines" which also appeared on the Media_Cannibals/Tape2

References

1. ↑ Sandy Herrold, Introduction to Virgule Mailing List, October, 1992
2. ↑ A Fire is Burning Vid Description on The Professionals Circuit Archive (accessed October 5, 2008)
3. ↑ Virgule 1996 Orphan Vid Tape liner notes
4. ↑ [post by Rachael Sabotini on the Virgule mailing list, Wed, 15 Jun 1994]