Bandom Big Bang

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Challenge
Name: Bandom Big Bang
Date(s): 2008-2019, 2021-
Moderator(s): akamine_chan, lucifuge5 (as of the 2016 challenge[1])
Founder: airgiodslv, foxxcub, jocondite, maleyka, and shoemaster [2]
Type: big bang
Fandom: Bandom
Associated Community: "livejournal". Archived from the original on 2017-05-09.
dreamwidth; tumblr; twitter
URL: AO3 collection
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Bandom Big Bang is a long-running big bang challenge that started on LiveJournal in 2008, moved to Dreamwidth in 2013, died in 2019, and was revived by new mods on Tumblr and Twitter in 2021.

Challenge History

LiveJournal community banner in 2011
Tumblr icon in 2023

In 2008, the minimum fanfic length was 20,000 words, and successfully completed fics were gifted with a soundtrack, rather than artwork, since it seemed more appropriate for a music-based fandom and because at the time it was felt that fanart was not as common in Bandom. See the rules post. There was some fanart produced for the challenge as well. The mods were airgiodslv, foxxcub, jocondite, maleyka, and shoemaster.

In 2009, an artist signup was added, but art was considered an optional extra. See the 2009 rules. The list of bands allowed in the challenge (or, rather, what wasn't allowed) seems to have caused some concern among would-be participants. The number of participants doubled from the first year, so sunsetmog was added as a sixth mod.[3]

In 2010, the challenge was divided into two waves: the first wave for 10,000-word fics and the second wave for 20,000-word fics. Completed first-wave stories would get a fanmix, and completed second-wave stories would get a fanmix and/or fanart. See the rules post.

In 2011, the two waves were swapped, with the 10,000-word fics in the second wave. Artists could participate in either wave. See the rules post. The mods were sunsetmog, boweryd, fallintosilence and untappedbeauty.[4]

In 2012, podfic was added as an alternative to posting fic. Podficcers were limited to the list of Bandom fics submitted for the 2011 challenge. See the rules post. The mods were all new: catchmelike, knight_tracer, anoneknewmoose and cincodemaygirl.[5]

In 2013, podfics became eligible for receiving fanart or fanmixes. See the rules post. The mods were anoneknewmoose, cincodemaygirl, knight_tracer, and jrho.[6]

In 2014, any Bandom fic longer than 10,000 words was allowable for podficcing. See the rules post. The mods were chimneythunder, dapatty, happilyappled, lucifuge5, romanticalgirl, and akamine_chan.[7]

In 2015, the challenge was changed to be "a combination of a big bang and a reverse bang": any fanwork, not just fanfic or podfic, could be the "primary" fanwork, and any other fanwork could be the "complementary" fanwork. See the rules post. The mods were lucifuge5 and akamine_chan.

In 2016, the challenge was scaled down to one wave, due to lower participation rates in 2015.

In 2018, the mods set up a discord server, though it had low traffic. 2018 was the last year in which Bandom Big Bang was run with moderators who had experience running the challenge in previous years.

In 2019, Dreamwidth posts indicate that three "primary" drafts were posted for claiming, but no completed fanworks were ever announced, and the AO3 collection for 2019 is empty.[2]

In 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tumblr user basementeye-s (ace_writez on AO3) started organizing a big bang for Bandom, also called Bandom Big Bang,[3] and reported in April that 52 people had signed up.[4] However, basementeye-s was the only mod, and later posts indicated they had been busy with school and/or being sick.[5] The AO3 collection is empty.[6]

In 2021, a new moderation team resurrected the challenge. A new tumblr account, bandombigbang2021 (later renamed bandombigbang), and a new AO3 collection, with anonymous mod account, were set up. The reverse bang element introduced in 2015 was discontinued, and primary works were entirely written. Writers were given the option of posting their stories in chapters. Minors were welcome to participate, but were not permitted to create explicit works, and two discord servers were created for minor and adult participants.[7] Fans began pushing for dark themes including incest and sexually explicit content featuring minors to be entirely banned from big bang creations; following this controversy, throwupsparkles stepped down from the challenge[8], leaving pyrchance as the sole mod. Though a replacement appears to have been added at some point, both mods stepped down at the end of the challenge and asked for new volunteers to take over.[9]

The 2022 mods instituted several new rules. Participants were divided into four groups: writers, primary creators, secondary creators, and beta readers. Writers provided "source material" for creators with a traditional 20k+ word fic, primary creators produced an accompanying piece of art or short story, secondary creators produced other creative works not covered by the primary creator role (including playlists or moodboards), and beta readers edited the writer's work.[10] The challenge was also restricted to participants over the age of 18, and "incest, pedophilia, explicit underage, and explicit non-con" were banned from all challenge creations, with "other similarly disturbing content" liable to be excluded based on mod discretion.[10] See #Content Restrictions below. The mods were antspaul, findingsaturn, runandgo, grammyawardwinnermeatloaf, and lithopseffect.

In 2023, the challenge returned with similar rules and structures.[11] The beta reader role was formalized and included in the claims process. The mods were antspaul, starstruck0rmetal, and lithopseffect.

Defining Bandom

Possibly as a result of the 2007/2008 Bandom Terminology Debate, the scope of the challenge in 2008 was defined as "FBR/MCR and related bands only."[12] For the most part, the basic premise does not appear to have been in contention,[13] but after the first year of the challenge, the rules posts included a disclaimer stating that the list of allowed bands was not an attempt to "define" Bandom. These disclaimers were in response to comments from would-be participants, arguing that their favorite bands were interconnected enough to count as part of FBR/MCR Bandom. In some cases, they were successful. In 2009, one fan commented,

The main reason that these decisions is so utterly frustrating to me as a fan of the fringe bandom bands is that one of the things I hope for in a massive challenge that inspires as much creativity as this one is that people will write new stories and explore parts of canon that haven't gotten a lot of exposure. I'm one of the fans whose bandom experience hinges more on MCR/MSI and bands in that periphery, and the lack of fic involving the people I fangirl most is incredibly frustrating, and the fact that people are being discouraged from at least trying to create new stories about them is infuriating. I understand that there are a lot of people in the fandom who are fine with reading the same Panic fic over and over, but I for one am not one of them and know a rather large subset of people feel the same.[14]

Things got a bit heated the following year as well, with some fans arguing for the exclusion of certain bands based on their lack of connections to the "core" bands while other fans were arguing for a more fandom-centric approach (if fans write them into Bandom fic, then they are Bandom bands):

Warnings

In 2009 a Bandom Big Bang fic missing a dubcon warning ignited a pan-fandom LiveJournal debate on trigger warnings: see Trigger Warning Debate (2009).

From the 2010 general rules post:

We have always asked that writers include warnings on their summaries, so that artists or mixers can avoid potential issues. Please note: it is now mandatory to warn for rape/non-con, dub-con, incest, character death/suicide or graphic self-harm. Other warnings are at your discretion, but if your story contains any of the bolded issues and you fail to warn for them, we will not be organising a mixer or artist for your story. Obviously we cannot protect everyone from everything, but we can at least warn for the most common, most preventable triggers. We had one artist last year who was triggered by a story containing graphic self-harm that the writer had chosen not to warn for; that is not something we want to happen again, ever. Artists and mixers (and particularly pinch-hitters) take on stories blind, as a gift to the writer, and deserve basic consideration in return. Okay? Okay.[15]

Content Restrictions

The original Bandom Big Bang had no restrictions on what topics could be explored, and some fanfics featured alcoholism, graphic violence, incest, dubcon, noncon, or other potentially upsetting topics. The challenge was a reflection of LiveJournal fandom generally and Bandom in particular. For example, two of the members of My Chemical Romance are brothers, and some fans shipped them together (see Waycest). Because the band's first MTV music video was set in a high school, coming-of-age high school AU stories that sometimes included underage sex became popular. Meanwhile, an early and influential Panic at the Disco story featured the band members as teenage sex workers.

On November 8, 2021, the mods of the 2021 round announced they were stepping down and asked for volunteers to take over.[9] The new mods were announced three days later.[16] On November 24, the official tumblr account posted that they had "adjusted a few of the rules", that "Incest, pedophilia, explicit underage, and explicit non-con are not allowed and will not be tolerated.", and that they reserved the right "to deny participation to specific individuals whose presence within the BBB 2022 community would make the majority of members feel uncomfortable and unsafe".[17] From the 2022 challenge document:

In the past, BBB has allowed for participation of all ages and submission for all kinds of content (with restrictions on minors writing and interacting with mature/explicit works). We understand the well-intentioned reasoning behind the decision of prior mods to run the challenge this way, but we have decided to moderate BBB in a way that feels right to us.

The goal of BBB is community building—to encourage collaboration and creation between fandom creators. We believe that within the community spaces central to BBB, the presence of minors (who would not be able to participate in much, anyway, with age restrictions) and works including incest, pedophilia, and explicit underage/sexual assault would deter many from feeling comfortable there. This has been the case in the past.

After a lengthy discussion, we have reached the conclusion that, while some people who have participated in the past will be excluded this year, the very small decrease in content will help participants feel more comfortable. We prioritize the comfort of people participating in the challenge over someone’s ability to associate their work with the challenge’s name. Therefore, we reserve the right in very rare cases to deny participation to specific individuals whose presence within the BBB22 community would make the majority of members feel uncomfortable and unsafe within those community spaces.[18]

Some fans were deeply unhappy about the changes, and another challenge was organized with no content restrictions. The mods for the new challenge, Bandom Summer Blowout (BSB), advertised their challenge on Twitter and Tumblr on December 6.[19][20] Wank ensued. Twitter fans who liked the content restrictions cast aspersions on the morals of everyone involved in the new project; see Bandom Summer Blowout Controversy. throwupsparkles, the 2021 BBB challenge mod who had quit early after being harassed, supported the new challenge: "I made a stance against censorship and fandom policing".[21] Other fans who liked throwupsparkles' fic reacted with dismay because they considered throwupsparkles's stance to be morally reprehensible.

I woke up to find out throwupsparkles is deleting their ao3 account and this is the worst news i have ever heard

it’s so shitty i was so invested in their ‘in your sweetest torment’ fic lol

Dude i fucking loved that one like i would wake up and look forward to reading the newest chapter and now to find out everything that happened and what they’re actually like has ruined it[22]

what happened

they support the other bbb challenge made by ppl who write incest and pedo shit

eww what the FUHK[23]

hi! i’m a bit late but i love her works and i’m just really curious, what did she actually do??[24]

i believe there was a writing prompt challenge that supported proshipping, shipping siblings, and other awful writing tropes and she defended the person in charge of the challenge instead of denouncing them[25]

ohhh yikes, ok thank you[26]

throwupsparkles was harassed and decided to delete all their fanfic and social media accounts.[21][27]

One of the Bandom Big Bang mods then posted on their personal blog about their November decision to ban problematic content:

the response to implementation of this rule has been overwhelmingly positive so far and a lot of people have reached out and said it’s made them feel way more comfortable participating. there wasn’t an official survey or anything obviously but we had many people tell us this unprompted.

last year any topic was allowed and that’s how the previous organizers ran it; i don’t really care to make a judgment on that because that was their decision. they decided to step back this year and five of us took over, and decided that for our own mental health and maximum accessibility to others, we would instate content restrictions. this also included banning three (3) people: one of whom has documented inappropriate conduct with minors, and one of whom has written extreme underage and makes writing “taboo” (read: inc*st, etc) topics their brand.

this small amount of people have created a challenge (bandom summer blowout if you’ve seen it going around) that’s basically a smaller version of bbb out of, in their own words, “spite,” because they feel like their FrEeZe PeAcH is being restricted. this has created some kind of false dichotomy where you either support unequivocal don’t like don’t read or you’re the fandom police. i take a lot of issue with that because like. not wanting someone to write inc*st for example in a public event i’m helping to host is not the same as saying you should be kicked off the internet. it’s a personal boundary. and we have absolutely every right to set those.[28]

The Bandom Summer Blowout mods then posted:

An event being created to cater to our own boundaries and discomforts when BBB22 became an event that no longer aligns with them does not make it a spite event. It is simply a reaction to an action. A democratic one at that.

While we disagree with the way the BBB22 mods have decided to run their own event, we respect their personal boundaries and we are upholding this respect by creating an event with rules that suit us and our philosophies. They know this as we reached out to them directly. Moreover, we encourage anyone who feels compelled to create their own event that suits their own needs to do so! You can reach out to us and we’ll be happy to help. Fandom is based on a gift economy, and we want to uphold this by sharing and not gatekeeping means and resources.[29]

On dreamwidth a few oldschool Bandom fans, who saw the change as another example of the spread of anti-shipping and purity culture in fandom, commented on the new regime:

[shadowhive]
New mods have taken over this time and they’re already making restrictive policies (no ‘problematic’ pairings or topics and they’re already banning people on tumblr). So it just seems like another event corrupted by these kinds of people.
[turps]
That's so sad about Bandom Big Bang. I loved it the times I took part and have such good memories of it, but know the challenge has changed so much I probably wouldn't even be able to join now due to the pairings I enjoy.[30]

One BBB participant later commented, "This past BBB season was kind of a weird one-- I wasn't particularly happy with some of the changes and decisions made by the new mods... a lot of unnecessary discourse came of it and it felt very gatekeeping in a lot of ways."[31]

In 2023, a twitter fan summarized what happened from their perspective: "previous participants started another fest with the old rules and everyone who joined it was then harassed and blocked by the new bbb mods and most of puriteen bandom".[32]

Statistics

BBB's busiest year was 2009, its second year, and the overall popularity of the challenge decreased significantly after the 2012 challenge, possibly as a result of My Chemical Romance's breakup or the waning popularity of LiveJournal as a fannish platform, or both.

The three most popular bands in the challenge have always been Panic! at the Disco, Fall Out Boy, and My Chemical Romance. However, their relative popularity has shifted dramatically since the first year, probably due to Panic's split and FOB's hiatus in 2009. FOB got back together in 2013, but MCR's apparent immortality is somewhat mysterious. It may be due to a) the new mods being MCR fans, b) the overall drop in participation skewing the results, or c) tumblr MCR fans joining the challenge.

  • popularity of the challenge over time, measured in primary fanwork counts

  • popular BBB bands, 2008-2017

  • all bands, 2008 vs. 2017

When the challenge returned under new management in 2021, My Chemical Romance remained the most popular Bandom band. In 2021 the second most popular band was Fall Out Boy, followed by MCR's Danger Days album. In 2022 the second most popular band was Taking Back Sunday, followed by Fall Out Boy and Thursday. In 2023 the second most popular band was Cobra Starship, followed by Fall Out Boy and The Academy Is....

It's difficult to say whether the rule change between the 2021 and 2022 challenges had an impact on ratings, but it did affect warnings: In 2021, 20 fanworks were rated Explicit/Mature vs. 13 Teen/General Audiences. In 2022, 15 fanworks were rated Explicit/Mature vs. 15 Teen/General Audiences vs. 3 Not Rated. In 2021, 21 fanworks (64%) were tagged No Archive Warnings Apply, 8 (24%) Graphic Depictions Of Violence, 3 (9%) Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, 2 (6%) Major Character Death, and 1 (3%) Underage. In 2022, 26 fanworks (79%) were tagged No Archive Warnings Apply, 3 (9%) Graphic Depictions Of Violence, 2 (6%) Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, and 2 (6%) Major Character Death. In 2023, 57 fanworks (72%) were tagged No Archive Warnings Apply, 15 (19%) Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, 8 (10%) Graphic Depictions Of Violence, and 3 (4%) Major Character Death.

Of the 333 fanworks available in the AO3 collection for the 2008-2018 challenges, 232 (70%) are tagged No Archive Warnings Apply, 51 (15%) Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, 40 (12%) Graphic Depictions Of Violence, 22 (7%) Major Character Death, 9 (3%) Underage, and 4 (1%) Rape/Non-Con.

Masterlists

Some of the most popular works to come out of the challenge include I Have Been All Things Unholy by bexless (2008), Gerard Way's (Vampire) Detective Agency by jjtaylor (2009), and The Anatomy of a Fall by novembersmith (2010).

The complete lists of fanworks for the challenge are posted on livejournal and dreamwidth here:

See also Bandom Big Bang/Masterlists.

References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ See Bandom Big Bang 2019 (AO3 collection) and Bandom Big Bang 2019 Claims Post, Archived version (dreamwidth post, 2019-08-21).
  3. ^ Bandom Big Bang 2020, Archived version, 20 March 2020.
  4. ^ tumblr post by basementeye-s, Archived version, 4 April 2020.
  5. ^ tumblr post by basementeye-s, Archived version, 4 June 2020.
  6. ^ Bandom Big Bang 2020, Archived version (Accessed 9 October 2023.)
  7. ^ Bandom Big Bang 2021 rules post
  8. ^ resignation post by throwupsparkles, reblogged by bandombigbang, Archived version, 3 January 2021.
  9. ^ a b BBB Announcement, Archived version, 8 November 2021.
  10. ^ a b Bandom Big Bang 2022 Masterdoc
  11. ^ Bandom Big Bang 2023 Masterdoc
  12. ^ Bandom Big Bang 2008, posted 2008-01-17
  13. ^ except by this person: thread started by tiktac, Archived version
  14. ^ 13 January 2009 comment by nokomis305
  15. ^ FAQ Post 2010, Archived version, livejournal post by bbb_mod in bandombigbang, 2010-01-10.
  16. ^ We are thrilled to announce that Bandom Big Bang 2022 is coming soon!, Archived version, tumblr post by bandombigbang, 11 November 2021.
  17. ^ One week until sign-ups open, Archived version, tumblr post by bandombigbang, 24 November 2021.
  18. ^ BBB 2022 Masterdoc (Accessed 9 October 2023.)
  19. ^ tweet by BandomSummer, Archived version, 6 December 2021.
  20. ^ Sign-ups for Bandom Summer Blowout are now open!, Archived version, tumblr post by bandomsummer, 6 December 2021.
  21. ^ a b wtf happened, Archived version, tumblr page by throwupsparkles (Accessed 12 October 2023.)
  22. ^ twitter conversation between BuryMeInBlck and a deleted account, 7 Dec 2021.
  23. ^ twitter thread, 6 December 2021.
  24. ^ tweet by late_dawn5, Archived version, 28 January 2023.
  25. ^ tweet by DrFrankenIero, Archived version,
  26. ^ tweet by late_dawn5, Archived version, 29 January 2023.
  27. ^ screencap of throwupsparkles' tumblr post, Archived version, tweet by FUCKlNGBATS, 7 December 2021.
  28. ^ tumblr post by bringmoreknives, Archived version, 7 December 2021.
  29. ^ PSA: This mirror IS big enough for the two of us., Archived version, 7 December 2021.
  30. ^ comment by turps on "The cliff over there" by shadowhive, Archived version, 11 December 2021.
  31. ^ Bandom Big Bang, Archived version, dreamwidth post by venomwolves, 14 September 2022.
  32. ^ tweet by SoggyMulder, Archived version, 1 January 2023.
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