FanLib

Name:	Fanlib (on some promotional materials), FANlib (on some promotional materials). FanLib (on some promotional materials, and the term used by fans who were not fans of FanLib)
Date(s):	began in 2002 as "My2Centences" , ; slowly morphed into Fanlib, ; was in beta March 2007-April 9, 2007, ; and became the much more visible FanLib between May 2007 - August 4, 2008
Profit/Nonprofit:	Profit
Country based in:	United States
Focus:	multifandom fanfiction archive
External Links:	FanLib.com - Where the stories continue..., Archived version, archived version of the front page from October 2007
	Click here for related articles on Fanlore.
	Contents 1 Some Context; 2 Regarding FanLib's Name; 3 Official FanLib Info; 4 Some FanLib Ads; 5 FanLib Brochure for Investors; 6 FanLib's Beginnings 6.1 Self-Descriptions and History: My2Centences; 6.2 Other Descriptions and History; ; 7 Photos of FanLib's Various Headquarters; 8 Invitation Letters; 9 FanLib's Fan Forum, and FanLib's Official Blog 9.1 Fan Forum; 9.2 FanLib's Official Blog; ; 10 Reactions to FanLib's Launch from the Fan Community 10.1 Specific Praise of FanLib 10.1.1 General; 10.1.2 A Supportive Community; 10.1.3 Validation; 10.1.4 Rating and Reviews; 10.1.5 Corporate Responsibility; 10.1.6 Source of Meta; 10.1.7 Experimentation; ; 10.2 Specific Criticisms of FanLib 10.2.1 Making a Profit by Exploiting Fan Labor; 10.2.2 Cultural Appropriation; 10.2.3 Accentuating Gender Divisions; 10.2.4 Clumsy Interface; 10.2.5 Business Model and Privacy Policy; 10.2.6 Issues With Feedback for Fiction; 10.2.7 Mixed Messages Over Legality and Representation; 10.2.8 Questions About Rating Systems; ; ; 11 Reactions to Reactions to FanLib's Launch from the Company's Owners; 12 Consultant: Laura Hale; 13 Terms of Service; 14 Some FanLib Inspired Fanworks 14.1 Visual; 14.2 Fiction; ; 15 The Buyout and the Closure; 16 Fan Reaction to the Closure 16.1 Fan's Comments Regarding Closing; 16.2 A FanLib Obituary; 16.3 A FanLib Goodbye Vid; 16.4 After-FanLib Communities; ; 17 Some FanLib Stats 17.1 Content Submissions; ; 18 Further Reading/Links to Responses: General; 19 Further Reading/Links to Responses: 2006; 20 Further Reading/Links to Responses: 2007; 21 Further Reading/Links to Responses: 2008; 22 Further Reading/Links to Responses: 2009; 23 Further Reading/Links to Responses: 2010; 24 Further reading 24.1 Links to Responses: 2015; 24.2 Further Reading: Press Commentary; ; 25 References;

FanLib was a commercially-owned fanfic archive whose content was generated by fan creators. Like Fandom, Inc., it was widely perceived as an attempt by outsiders to profit from the work of fans, especially because it sent out invitations to BNFs, asking them to create content for free (for Fanlib's profit). It was a Pan-fandom archive that accepted all fics of all qualities (and let other users rate them), hosted a fan forum, and sponsored contests.

an early "animated" slide from FanLib: "Collaborative Storytelling for the People! : * Democratic & Fair : * Easy & Fun : * Rich Administration Tools Patent Pending Technology 3-Years in Development"

The site, "FanLib," was created by Chris Williams ("leader"),^[2] David Williams ("established online pioneer"),^[2] and Craig Singer ("resident creative guru").^[2] It was available in its most visible form between May 18, 2007 and August 4, 2008.^[3] The site began with 3 million USD of starting capital.

The groundwork for the site began much earlier, though, "under the banner of My2Centences.".^[4] See Further Reading: Press Commentary.

A 2001-03-ish link lists Chris Williams (Co-Founder & CEO), Craig Singer (Co-Founder), David B. Williams (SVP, Product Development) and Robert Dean Klein (Screenwriter & Story Editor). ^[5]

FanLib's self-description:

FanLib, Inc. delivers People Powered Entertainment™ in the form of online storytelling and fun, online events for entertainment fans. At FanLib.com, we provide a free service for people who want to showcase their stories, discover great writers, and share their passions with other fans. We also partner with media companies, publishers, and sponsors to create special events where fans can interact with the talent behind some of their favorite books, TV shows, and movies.
FanLib.com—Where the stories continue...^[6]

a 2007 banner/icon for FanLib's The L Word contest

FanLib partnered with different TV and book copyright owners to provide fanfiction events ^[7] and contests for fandoms such as The L Word and Star Trek ^[8] However, submitting fic to the contest forfeited the fan writer's rights to the fic, allowing it to be used for commercial purposes. Additionally, to qualify for some contests, the fics had to be of a specific type, and for a designated scene. The winner would then have their scene written into canon.

In August 2008 and just over a year after it had been launched, FanLib was bought by Disney and almost immediately shut down by its new overlord.^[9]

At the time of this announcement, FanLib had over 42,000 submissions, and over 25,000 members. The site admins did not give the members any reasons behind the closure, but the site did create a content download function so members could save HTML copies of their written works.

Some Context

Other major discussions regarding fannish control over fanworks were happening at roughly the same time as Fanlib's launch.

How Fanfiction Makes Us Poor (an April 26, 2007 post by cupidsbow generated much response)
An Archive Of One's Own (post by astolat) proposed the Organization for Transformative Works and Archive of Our Own (May 17, 2007) ^[10]
Strikethrough and Boldthrough was LiveJournal's attempts to control fannish journal content. (May 29, 2007) ^[11]

Four years later (in 2013), Amazon announced Kindle Worlds, a very similar project to Fanlib in that it aimed to use fanworks for commercial profit.

Regarding FanLib's Name

Many fans speculated on the meaning of "fanlib."

Some fans' suggestions: Library, Liberation, Liberty, Libel.^[12]^[13]

However, the actual meaning of "lib" was this: "FanLib's proprietary software allowed fans to submit content, vote on content, and talk about it. Content solicited from fans was extremely limited in scope, fill in the blank type stuff, hence the name FanLib, as in Mad Libs; it's a common misconception that lib stood for library, and referred to the fanfiction archive." ^[14]

Official FanLib Info

The 2004 FanLib brochure
Terms of Service, also see Terms of Service (October 2007)
Our Privacy Policy (2008)
FanLib.com - About Us - Introduction, ^{Archived version}
FanLib.com - About Us - Background, ^{Archived version}
FanLib.com - About Us - Exec Bios, ^{Archived version} (the bios of the men in charge: Craig Singer ("veteran filmmaker"), David B. Williams ("internet pioneer"), Chris M. Williams ("former Yahoo! executive and film producer"), the investors and advisors: Jon Landau (film producer), Jon Moonves ("esteemed entertainment attorney"), Anil Singh ("former Chief Sales and Marketing Officer of Yahoo!")
FanLib.com - About Us - Partners, ^{Archived version}
FanLib.com - FAQ, ^{Archived version}
FanLib.com - DMCA, ^{Archived version}

Some FanLib Ads

one of FanLib's ads, 2007
one of FanLib's ads, 2007 " Who on earth is THIS supposed to appeal to? "*boggles* You know what I'd like to see? Our own versions of this. Add another pic like Rodney or the Doctor (any of them) or Hiro or Spock or Elwood or Harry (Potter, either Dan or as the books describe him)...or any of the guys who don't fit the ideals of masculine good looks but have nevertheless been loved by fans since the early days of fan fic. Hell, add in the men that do or did fit the ideals for that matter." ^[15]
one of FanLib's ads, 2007
banner for a spring 2008 contest: "the BIGGEST FANS WIN. earn points. win stuff."

FanLib Brochure for Investors

This was brochure aimed at investors, not fans. It was available at the "My2Centences" website. It was removed in May 2007, likely after it gained high visibility after being linked to and discussed by fans.

From the statement at the site, "If you're looking for the FanLib brochure, it has been removed. Published in 2004, the brochure contained outdated information for special collaborative events."

See much more, including discussions and comments at The FanLib Brochure.

"THE AMAZING Fan-Powered MEDIA EVENT - See How To: GROW AUDIENCES and INCREASE REVENUE!"
"Invite millions of fans to collectively create an original story or script in a groundbreaking event that culminates with the production and distribution of the fan-oowered creation Think American Idol for written material." "INCREASE AUDIENCE - IF THEY BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME."
"YUP!" "FANLIB PLAYER 8765 - "Last night our team lead at work left me a pile of stuff to do but once again I slacked off to feed my (FanLib) addiction... This contest should come with a warning label or something."
"MANAGED & MODERATED TO THE MAX. All the FANLIB action takes place in a highly customized environment that YOU control."
"FAN TESTED WITH PROVEN RESULTS. In a recent test, BANLIB helped Harry Potter fan-site SnitchSeeker.com achieve stunning games with negligable markting and player incentives. Audience & Revenue up 398%, Registered Members up 280% - Based on date provided by SnitchSeeker.com."
"Your Amazing Fan-Powered Event isn't just good for you, it's good for us all. While encouraging the public to read, write and express themselves creatively, [and] you're also helping your brand..."
"[FANLIB] is a great marketing idea." - Mike Benson, SVP Marketing, Advertising & Promotion, ABC Television, 12/15/03" - "NO JOKE!"
"FANLIB TECHNOLOGIES (a division of My2Centences, LLC) develops, markets, and manages innovative social software and web services that unleash the creativity of the worldwide public and generation remarkable value for businesses. FanLib TM, the Company's patent-pending flagship product, aims to spark a new creative phenomenon by enabling groups of all sizes to collaborate democratically on "chain stories" and other written and mixed-media compositions."

FanLib's Beginnings

a 2004 Fanlib page

FanLib got its start in 2002, as a different product under the name "My2Centences," ^[16] something that, among other things, sponsored Potter Project and had its hand in SnitchSeeker.com, two commercial, for-profit ventures.^[17]

Self-Descriptions and History: My2Centences

FanLib's own description of its start:

FanLib was founded in 2002 by veteran filmmaker Craig Singer, internet pioneer David B. Williams, and former Yahoo! executive and film producer Chris M. Williams as a division of their production company My2Centences. My2Centences was actively involved in the convergence of marketing, entertainment, and online media. While completing a series of feature films under the My2Centences banner, Singer conceived of the storytelling process that inspired FanLib's unique collaboration technology.
In October 2006, after a successful and well-publicized partnership with Showtime Networks around their hit series The L Word (fans were invited to help script an episode, or Fanisode™), Chris Williams led a successful effort to raise venture capital financing for FanLib, Inc., the new company dedicated solely to FanLib.
FanLib's investors and advisors include notable veterans from both Hollywood and Silicon Valley, including film producer Jon Landau (Titanic), esteemed entertainment attorney Jon Moonves, and FanLib Chairman Anil Singh, former Chief Sales and Marketing Officer of Yahoo!.
FanLib, Inc. is a private, venture-funded company based in California with offices in Los Angeles and Silicon Valley.^[18]

From a 2004 FanLib page:

Introducing the groundbreaking storytelling game and turnkey marketing solution from MY2CENTENCES. Driven by a revolutionary patent-pending technology, FANLIB™ lets a mass audience create original stories and scripts collectively and democratically.

Like in the classic "campfire" game, a group of players improvises a story one passage at a time. Only with FANLIB, millions can play and democracy rules! THE POTTER PROJECT: In the fall of 2003, FANLIB made its public debut when Harry Potter fan-site SnitchSeeker.com used the technology to drive an unprecedented event called The Potter Project. Over the course of eight weeks, the site garnered over 125,000 visits, saw a four-fold increase in traffic and revenue, and a tripling of its membership. In the end, an amazing collaborative adventure had been created by the fans." ^[19]

From a 2006 FanLib/My2Centences ad:

Our software and services unleash the creativity of entertainment fans while delivering more... > Value for marketers > Mangeability for producers > Fun for fans! Leading companies like Pepsi and Showtime Networks are discovering how FanLib's groundbreaking online experiences profuce vibrant communities, closer customer relationships and market-friendly consumer generated media." ^[20]

from June 8, 2003
from May 2003

Links:

under construction (maybe 2001?)
splash page (2002,2003)
Contents (promo reel, much content with passwords) (2004?)

Other Descriptions and History

From "What Disney Bought From FanLib," a post by stewardess at life_wo_fanlib, January 7, 2009

FanLib did not begin as a fanfiction archive. It was incorporated in 2003, when its founders developed proprietary crowdwriting software. They could have done all sorts of things with it; they elected to lease it for web-based marketing.
Between 2003-2007, FanLib was paid for conducting dozens of marketing campaigns, usually in the form of writing contests, which were hosted on FanLib's servers and used FanLib's software. IPs (intellectual property owners) could pay for a sub-domain, such as lword.fanlib.com, with FanLib doing the heavy lifting.
FanLib's proprietary software allowed fans to submit content, vote on content, and talk about it. Content solicited from fans was extremely limited in scope, fill in the blank type stuff, hence the name FanLib, as in Mad Libs; it's a common misconception that lib stood for library, and referred to the fanfiction archive.
Perhaps the most well-known campaign was paid for by The L Word. Fans submitted content for a tiny and irrelevant scene (a character's dream), and then fans voted for a winner, to be incorporated into a future episode.
By early 2007, FanLib may have been worrying about future income. As broadband increasingly replaced dial-up, IPs were attracting fans online by offering video content: previews, interviews, and eventually entire episodes; they weren't going to need FanLib to provide "more fun for fans." Rare in 2007, the number of TV shows viewed over the web soared into the billions in 2008.
In any case, it was in 2007 that FanLib added a multi-fandom fanfic archive (copying the fandom list in its entirety from fanfiction.net); it was assuredly thought a smart move in the circles the Williams brothers (Chris and David, FanLib's principal founders) moved in. They already had the domain, the servers, the software, and the employees. The worst possible outcome, as they probably saw it, would be a larger audience for their marketing campaigns—most ads on FanLib were for those campaigns, encouraging people to participate in useless contests paid for by Star Trek, The Ghost Whisperer, Battlestar Galactica, and so on; FanLib members were regularly spammed with the same. The best case would be increasing FanLib.com's traffic and earning big advertising bucks (which did not happen).
To fund the fanfiction archive expansion, FanLib received $3 million in venture capital—far more money than they needed, in the opinion of anyone who has operated an archive. Curiously, FanLib's two business branches, the fanfiction archive and the crowdwriting marketing campaigns, do not seem to have been separated financially, and had a shared budget.^[21]

Photos of FanLib's Various Headquarters

Circa Oct 2006, FanLib in their West Hollywood office, ^{Archived version} (October 2006) (Photos of workspaces: "FanLib in their West Hollywood office. Our first major operations meeting at my apartment building's conference room. Thank god for the Polycom USB Speakerphone and Skype to allow us to connect with remote team members! Already outgrown their one man office plus reception area, they are set to move by the end of the year.")
FanLib Burlingame Office 1-2007, ^{Archived version} (January 19, 2007) ("Newly moved into their Burlingame office. Small and compact, as befits a startup! Not much here, just raw computing power!")
FanLib Moving Up: Beverly Hills 90212, ^{Archived version} (February 2007) ("Companies grow up. They need to expand. FanLib is hiring like mad and has moved to Beverly Hills. What's with the pig and balloon in the elevator?" ^[22]) (address is FanLib, Inc., 445 South Beverly Drive, First Floor Beverly Hills, California 90212)
FanLib Company Get-Together Numero Uno!, ^{Archived version} (taken February 27, 2007, photo posted March 4, 2007) (February group photo: "The first company get-together for FanLib, bringing all the investors and company together to celebrate and show the incredible progress they've made. I love group pictures like this, especially as they record history. They are all special moments in a company's history and need to be saved.")
Founders Chris and David Williams in front of the Fanlib logo, ^{Archived version} (undated)

Invitation Letters

PurplePopple engaged in some FanLib PR/outreach in May 2008: "Hey, Purple P, look what you got! Congratulations, you've got a best answer and 10 extra points!"

An April 8, 2007 letter sent to some fans:

Dear [username],
Thanks for making the FanLib.com private beta such a great success! Today we take a big step forward in the roll-out of the site.
The password comes off.
The sharing tools come on.
Our official home is now www.FanLib.com.
We think you're especially going to like the sharing tools. Not only can you easily send permanent links to your friends and fans, but you can also embed the themed fanfic badges in your own website or blog (LiveJournal & MySpace support coming soon!). It's a great way to showcase what you're writing and reading for your online pals.
Over 3,400 fabulous fanfics and growing!
Know it or not, you truly are one of the superstars of fan fiction. And, we're not only grateful for the impressive quality and quantity of your fanfics, but also your feedback. We've already incorporated some of your suggestions, and more are on the drawing board. So, please keep them coming!
Together, we can create a fantastic fan fiction experience for everybody -- for writers, for readers, and for people who haven't discovered it yet, but will love it when they do (believe us, there are a lot of them out there).
With the opening of the site, we begin a gradual but steady rollout to that wider audience as well as more fanfic-ers. Then, later this Spring, we'll announce some incredible upcoming events and contests, so stay tuned!
Thanks again to you and all our amazing founding members.
Sincerely,
- Team FanLib ^[23]

In March and April 2007, a woman named Naomi ^[24] emailed the following form letter to numerous authors, including Icarus^[25] and Susan, a moderator of lotrfanfiction.com.^[26] The email read as follows (brackets denote the differences between Icarus and Susan's version):

Sent April 20, 2007:

"Hi [NAME],
I saw some of your [FANDOM] fan fiction online and really enjoyed your writing. I work for a brand-new fan fiction website called FanLib.com and my colleagues and I want it to be the ultimate place for talented writers like you. In case you're wondering, FanLib's not new to fan fiction. Since 2001, we've been producing web events with people like CBS, Showtime and HarperCollins to bring fan creativity into the big leagues.
We're impressed by your writing and impact in the fan fiction community, and we value your opinion. That's why we're inviting you to be among the first to experience FanLib.com.
Feel free to take a look around, upload some fics, maybe read and comment on a few. Do as much or as little as you like. On FanLib.com, you'll be able to connect with other first-rate writers like yourself and exchange ideas with the site creators. Also, stay tuned for our sweepstakes, which will give fanfic writers and reviewers a chance to win prizes.
Don't worry, you won't get spammed. We're not selling anything. We just want you to try the site and hopefully give us some feedback.
[Beta information for Icarus, who was invited in March instead of April]
We look forward to having you as a founding member. Together, we can create the greatest fan fiction site the web's ever seen!
Best, Naomi
FanLib Launch Coordinator, FanLib.com

Despite these grandiose letters, FanLib did not get the serious attention of the fanfiction community (and fandom at large) until mid to late May 2007, after the mass publication of news articles and press releases relating to the company. The LiveJournal community fanthropology discussed it critically, which prompted FanLib user and employee jdsampson to clumsily join in the discussion.^[27]

The CEO of FanLib, user mimbo on LiveJournal, posted publicly in the comments to discussion about FanLib as well, but without managing to garner much sympathy:

hey everyone, I'm Chris one of the founders of FanLib> it's really late and i have been working on the site all day. I'm exhausted but i just realized what was going on here and all of the commentsts are making me sick. we're a small company with 10 emplyees who work 16 hours a day to try and make a great website. we're real people! with feelings and everything! we have been working on this and dreaming about it for a long time and you are just here to shit on it without giving us a chance. i care deeply about what you think but this is crazy. we're good people here and you make us sound like we're an evil corporation or the govt. sending your kids to war or something. we really are all about celebrating fan fiction and fan fiction readers and writers. im sorry this is so short and please excuse the fact that i am cutting and pasting this across a bunch of ljs but i gotta get some sleep. chris ^[28]

FanLib's Fan Forum, and FanLib's Official Blog

Fan Forum

Archived forum posts start at least April 20, 2007. Some of the posts to the forum are archived here.

Also see FanLib Forum Discussion May 2007.

FanLib had its own distinctive site culture, some of which can be seen at its forum.

FanLib depended a great deal on volunteers for its forum. From a May 30, 2007 official post:

Team FanLib Wants You!
Team FanLib is looking for a few good members! That's right, this is your opportunity to become part of the FanLib team of moderators through our "Associate Moderators" program. As FanLib grows, we'll need to rely more and more on our members to help run the forums, report fanfics that are misclassified or violate site policy, select "quips," those fun little quotes running across the top of the site, and down the road, nominate fanfics to be featured on the homepage. As the forums become more active "Associate Mods" will be assigned topics to watch and may be given full moderator privileges as the need arises. If you'd like to help out by becoming part of Team FanLib's "Associate Moderators" program please let us know and we'll add your name to our list of candidates. To sign up, post a reply to this thread and we'll be in contact soon with more information.
Thanks again for participating and remember, it's up to all of us to make this community fun and safe for everyone! ^[29]

A fan posted the "Top 10 Signs You’re Addicted to FanLib’s Forums":

10. You’re always one of the first to welcome someone in the ‘Introductions’ forum
9. You know what a one-star bandit is, and shake your fist at them
8. You’ve encountered the mechanism that prevents you from posting too quickly–even though it only activates within 30 seconds of your last post
7. You always know when one of the regulars changes their badge
6. You’ve used #7 repeatedly when you’ve run out of something to say in TPAM
5. You have all of the story quotes from the top of the page memorized
4. You’re sure you’ve refreshed ‘FanLib Fun’ over 500 times a day
3. You got really confused when Leila and Shilom changed avatars
2. You remember when ‘The Person Above You’ was on page 200–and that was last month!
And the number one sign you’re a FanLib Forum Addict is:
1. You’re pretty sure no one hates anyone for liking Hip Hop ^[30]

a sample forum screenshot from May 2007, accessed by the Wayback Machine
a sample forum screenshot from May 2007, accessed by the Wayback Machine

FanLib's Official Blog

No Hiatus was FanLib's official blog. It ran from September 8, 2007 – August 4, 2008. A May 2008 sample is here and includes: "Ladies, did you know that BSG could save your marriage? I didn’t either. According to the folks at MSN Entertainment News, the dual personality of the show can save us some of those “snuggle-less” nights in front of a separate TV in a separate room. We get a sexy thriller, and our fellas can enjoy an explosive space opera. So this week, give him what he really wants - a night on the couch with Battlestar and you."

The blog's name probably comes from the writer's strike that was happening at the same time as the blog's launch.

From FanLib: One Year Later:

On September 8, 2007, FanLib launched their official blog, No Hiatus. The blog would have a number of features, including "Fandom 411" posts which would give an overview of canon, Five Questions that featured members on FanLib answered, weekly updates as to new features on FanLib and more. Schinders, one of the main bloggers for the site, would also do a number of interviews with people connected to various television shows. These interviews were occasionally picked up and linked around in their respective fandoms. One interview was Ed Westwick from Gossip Girl. Some of these posts would get picked up and linked around fandom. One example of this was a post by xohhthatscenex that linked to a No Hiatus entry on the writer's strike and how it would affect Supernatural.

Reactions to FanLib's Launch from the Fan Community

Most of the fan community reacted with extreme prejudice, mockery, and fannish rage. It is generally considered taboo to use fanworks for commercial gain (which might violate copyright law and annoys the original rights holders), so many fans were uncomfortable with the very idea of FanLib, which was clearly a for-profit company.

Additionally, quite a few fans, especially the large amount of whom are women in their 20s and 30s, felt condescended to by the founders and employees of Fanlib,^[31] which did not make them especially eager to jump into their fic archive (when they already had many archives) and make money for them (when they wouldn't see a cent of it for themselves, and would then be going against the non-commercial "spirit" of fanfiction).

Interestingly, when (in Icarus' words), "their current ad campaign, featuring a 98-lb weakling (who doesn't read fanfiction) alongside a muscleman who reads fanfiction on FanLib.com, left fans mystified and vaguely insulted," fans reacted by writing pink guy/blue guy slash.^[32] When FanLib followed up with an ad involving a pinata, there was discussion of bestiality!fic.^[33]

Several fans made protest icons,^[34] mocking both the "color inside the lines" part of their sales brochures, and their attempts to emulate fanfiction.net's popularity. Some of these were featured in mainstream media blogs.^[35]

Specific Praise of FanLib

General

Oddly, I like the idea of FanLib. I think their execution needs a bit of work but overall, sound concept... I'm all for FanLib. I can think of some other ways to generate revenue for them that connect to their core intentions. They need to fix some of the usability issues but they have the programmers and the lack of a Greek chorus to hinder them. They also have the money to do it successfully.^[36]

Who's been to Fanlib? Who Loves it? Who's willing to give it a try?
This is a positive Fanlib thread because I'm tired of people telling me what to think.^[37]^[38]
So here goes:
I love the graphics that attach to every story. Nothing like looking at a Sam and Dean pic to get me in the mood for a story.
I love the badges that I can embed all over the web that have all my summary info already formatted and typed out so I don't have to type it again and again.
I love the easy uploading and I find it much more readable than LJ because of the changes in people's backgrounds and column sizes and fonts.
The featured stories on the front page are my favorite thing about Fanlib. I've read work I know I never would have found if I hadn't seen them there. Very cool way to find new fandoms and great writers.
Contests! I am in love with the fact that CBS challenged Fanlibbers to write the finale of Ghost Whisperer before it happened. They're giving away autographed scripts, etc. to the winners. Now if only it had been Supernatural - I'd be in a coma from the love.
I like the signal to noise ratio - much more signal than noise.
And I really like that it's a work in progress and how fast TPTB respond to feedback, making the site sharper and easier to use everyday.^[39]

A Supportive Community

I decided that I wanted to try to expand my writing to some new places so I went to Google to search for fanfiction websites. That is where one of the first places I saw was Fanlib. It looked like a great site and after checking it out for a bit I decided to join. It was interesting since not only could you post fanfiction, but you could post original stories, poetry, and pictures. It seemed like the perfect place to expand my writing skills. And I was correct.
Fanlib was a place where people did more than just ask you to update. They gave corrections and helpful tips about how to become a better writer and after spending some time there I did. I had even moved to start posting in the forums and getting to know some of the other fanlibbers. Soon I had become great friends with many of them....
Even though the community was online it was a place where we could all talk about common intrests and share the inner mechinisms of our minds with people who would understand us.
After a while on fanlib a group of newcomers came from another site that was closing down. Fanlib opened it's doors to them and helped them to become comfortable with a new place. Many of us helped out as well. Seeing as we could only imagine what it would be like to lose our online home. Many of us had thought of Fanlib as a home and though many people don't seem to get the love of a place like that, us fanlibbers did very well.^[40]

Validation

...I finally made featured author!!! I've been on the carousel twice, been a featured reviewer three times. I've been a featured member. but, to me, being featured author takes the cake... I've been added to the long list of featured authors chosen during the past year. can you say "validation as a writer"? To me, that does.^[41]

Think this through.
The reaction to the new Supernatural novel has been pretty poor. http://community.livejournal.com/supernatural_tv/1025168.html
People keep saying, Fans write better than this, and Keith got the job because he knew someone and several say, "hey how can I get my work published professionally because I'm better than that"
SEE! This is the point of Fanlib. All those people who yelled because they DIDN'T want the big corporations to see their work, but here's a bunch of fans saying I WANT the corporations to see my work.
Fanlib is about connecting the fan with the license holder. I'm not saying that if you post your SPN story on Fanlib you'll get the next tie-in contract. But Showtime published a book of the winners of their L-Word contest we ran - and some of the winners will be featured on their next DVD.
Let's show the studios and publishers that Fanwriters are the best writers for writing fan related books for their shows. Do this by posting on Fanlib, writing the best you can, get featured, win contests and enjoy the higher profile your work will receive.
And maybe the next SPN book contract or Bones or CSI or whatever fandom's tie-in novel will go to a fan fic writer.^[42]

Rating and Reviews

I like the idea here that the mods are taking stories they think have mereit and promoting them. That's, to my mind, a great idea because on a lot of fanfic sites you sometimes have to wade through a lot of barely adequate fics to get to the gems. I also like the Star system--it really grabs your attention when a fic gets a four or five star rating.^[43]

Corporate Responsibility

Personally, I'm finding Fanlib as a corporate entity to be very responsive and sensitive to its critics as well as the wishes and suggestions of those who are archiving here. As a commercial site, they have a financial obligation to keep up with the problems, modify things as they see a need or have a demand, fix what's broken, and engage both the writers and the readers. It's something I haven't seen in very many fan-run sites, including fanfiction.net.^[44]

Source of Meta

One thing fanlib HAS done is bring out some excellent meta.^[45]

Experimentation

on fanlib, people were so much more willing to read outside their fandoms. Not sure why that doesn't happen here. I was thinking of pinning a topic with comments given/received where people could post comments.^[46]

You're absolutely right. I did find myself reading outside of my fandoms more often on FanLib. I even discovered a couple of fandoms through the Fandom 411 (Namely Wonderfalls) I'm really going to miss that.^[47]

Specific Criticisms of FanLib

Making a Profit by Exploiting Fan Labor

C. knows the guy running this thing, he's a typical dot-com media operator. They're in it to make a buck. I suspected as much; you can smell their bullshit from miles away. I sincerely hope writers keep their stories the hell away from that place. This whole thing is giving me massive heebie-jeebies. It kinda reminds me of old-time actor conventions, and the way Creation swooped in, took over, and made it an a la carte business, raping fans for BIG bucks for every little thing. They make me sick.^[48]

I have been against the whole concept of FanLib from day one as it's just a prelude to The Man selling us back our own work at a profit, and I'm sick of a group of boys who can't even be bothered to punctuate claiming to be collecting "the best fanfiction out there" and trying to become the public face of our community.^[49]

[How is FanLib making money?]
The short answer is: Banner ads.
The (really) long answer:
FanLib itself has not been direct about how they are making profits. Chris Williams stated in his defense of FanLib at Henry Jenkins' blog that they aren't making a profit. (Probably true, at least so far.)
The money that was brought in by FanLib's L Word contests "was not significant" according to Showtime Chief Executive Matt Blank (quoted in BusinessWeek). Having fans write scenes for the L Word was largely a way to cut marketing costs by having the fans do the marketing work themselves, unpaid.
But this new FanLib archive, on the other hand, proposes to make money through banner ads and the massive amounts of traffic fanfiction generates. David Williams says that fanfiction.net makes huge profits, based on its traffic statistics, and FanLib seems to view ff.net as its main competitor.
FanLib has shown some ignorance about ff.net, which casts some doubts on their claims about ff.net's assumed profits. They said ff.net had paid accounts when in fact they don't, though ff.net did offer special features like hit counts for paid users at one time.
At ff.net's inception in the late 90s, Xing, the college kid who designed it, paid all the bandwidth costs out of pocket. These spiraled out of control and fans tried to help him out to keep the archive up. When he removed the NC-17 stories in October 2002, it was partially to allow ads to support the costs of that archive. At this point it's unknown whether he's making a profit on ff.net or not. As far as we know, he's not, and the ads just support ff.net's massive traffic.
(I hate to say this, but if ff.net is making a profit, that could be what's drawn the sharks like FanLib. Other archives have been careful to only have enough ads to support costs, while the majority of fandom archives -- my Percyness site included -- do not have ads. I tell you, I didn't see this coming. I expected lawyers, not venture capitalists. But then, the lawyers follow the money, not the other way around.)
Now FanLib also says that Livejournal makes a huge profit on fanfiction. This is a little disingenuous on FanLib's part. Livejournal doesn't have banner ads and, for example, my LJ account here is free. Plus, lots of people have accounts on LJ who have nothing to do with fanfiction.
FanLib seems to be making the equation "Internet Traffic = Revenue" without factoring in whether any revenue's being made by that traffic. They also seem to be factoring in other income sources (fees) that don't exist.
David Williams at FanLib also claims that Quizilla, TheForce.net, and Yahoo! make money on fanfiction... but at that point you might as well say that I make money on fanfiction, because I've invested in a mutual fund, in which one of whose companies advertise on the web, and draws in business based on ads in Yahoo! on the page someone has typed into the search engine the word "fanfiction."
FanLib has $3 million invested from H.I.G. Ventures, so one way or another they have to make money for their investors. Venture capitalists don't invest out of the goodness of their hearts. They want profits. ^[50]

Cultural Appropriation

From day one, the FanLib guys have been operating on the assumption that their world view and economic model are inherently superior to ours and that we'd be absolutely overjoyed to be granted the privilege of "moving up" into their version of the world. It's like they're doing us a favor by letting us into their club and assuming that we'll feel happy and privileged to leave behind our own ways of doing things and switch over to theirs.^[51]

FanLib irked me as something put over on us from outside the community; I'd much rather have this come from inside, and I know we've got the ability to do it if we want to.^[52]

Accentuating Gender Divisions

FanLib's contests are quite a bit different than the archive. I could even see the contests as serving a reasonable purpose ---again, sort of like an American Idol for fanfic writers ---and I don't mind seeing an opportunity open up in which fan ideas might leach into the pro side. I'm already convinced that, despite all the sturm and drang, the two influence one another anyway. And y'know, I really don't have the time or inclination to contribute to a Trek contest, but if they were doing MFU, I'd be there. Why not? I'm not going to leave the field to the guy fans and I could really use a vacation :) On the other hand, I could see the guy fans going for the contests while the women fans end up ghettoized in the archive and that does disturb me. After all, most of the guys have nothing to contribute to an archive, while I would expect that the ideas contributed by the guys in the contest will fit better into the expectations of the pros. Rather than unite the gendered spaces of fandom, FanLib would be creating new ones.^[53]

The launch of FanLib.com represents the coming of age of fan fiction, or "fanfic." Give me an effing break - wow, now we can finally achieve puberty because male-dominated corporate America has figured out a way to line their pockets through fanfic! I can feel myself finally becoming a woman." ^[54]

Clumsy Interface

...the interface is clumsy and painful, doesn't allow user-controlled formatting, and inserts new pages for anything over about 800 words (I supposed that's a way of forcing you to see the ads change).^[55]

The damn thing looks like MySpace.^[56]

I went to FanLib armed with information [about a fic]: fandom, author name, story name. And it took a lot longer than fifteen seconds, and probably something like seven or eight clicks? You just have to jump through more hoops to get things—or you had to jump through more hoops to get things. And in the very early days, you couldn't search by author at all. I mean, they thought authors were so unimportant that they didn't even give you a way to find them. Which shows what they understood about fanfic and the fanfic community. They literally were like, It's just a product. No one cares who wrote it as long as there's something there to read. Dude, no. And, reading her story on the Yuletide archive was just click and click and then you read it. because it's all on one page. It's one click to get there. It was something like a thirty-two hundred word story or something. They broke that up into ... I think it was nine pages on FanLib. And randomly. It wasn't like 500 words per page. It was, you know, some pages were 370 words. The next page would be 602 words. It was completely random. And you just had to click, click, click, click, click your way through it. And it's like, Wow, this is obnoxious. What do you do for a 100,000-word story? You'd have to click 90,000 times. So, yeah, it was pretty horrible.^[57]

Business Model and Privacy Policy

To my (mostly) untrained eye, based on their privacy policy, it looks as though they could deliver a demographic to their "partners" for a fee- a market of consumers who can be better targeted to buy tie-ins, tee-shirts, or whatever. I would be very interested to know exactly what they say to their "partners" to get them onboard- my guess is that it is something like, "We will find for you people who love your product, and then we will tell you exactly who they are." It gathers in one place people who buy DVDs and other merchandise and people who will theoretically respond to similar offerings. Basically, I think the site is a marketing tool that knows better than to call itself a marketing tool, and I would like to know what the founders have to say about that." ^[58]

Issues With Feedback for Fiction

[comment by javanyet]How is it that my less than 100% enthusiastic (but far from hypercritical) feedback was deleted from an author/board moderator's feedbacks for the story I rated? Why invite feedback if anything less than glowing praise is deleted at will?
[response by holly9000, moderator] It is our policy to block comments at the member's request. We feel that while it's important to invite feedback, your space is your own and that each member has the right to manage the content therein as they see fit. Please don't let a blocked comment deter you from leaving feedback. As we all know it's important to learn from our mistakes and celebrate our accomplishments whether we choose to make that experience public or not. ^[59]

Now, if we could only apply their honesty to the hundreds of kids on Fanlib who only know how to give a generic' half sentence of a review, "OMFG I WUB DIS. CONTINUE PLZZZZZZZZZZZ". Fanlib needs more constructive criticism floating around. My friends and I there can't just be the ONLY ones doing it to help everyone else.^[60]

Mixed Messages Over Legality and Representation

alot of people are concerned by WHO all is involved in FanLib. i'm sorry, but when i see that there's a person is involved in this who was also the president of RIAA during the period when they treated its customers like criminals and basically helped turn IP into the shit-hole that it is (except for big business), then you can understand the concern some folks would have now that this person is here dealing with fanfiction. one wonders why some website markets fanfic as perfectly legal when it's a grey area at best and then has a ToS that basically says "sorry, not only must you indemnify us, but also DEFEND us in case we get sued". they provide no guarantees of protection, yet ENCOURAGE us to do more and more that may, in fact, turn out to be illegal SHOULD IT GO TO COURT.^[61]

Questions About Rating Systems

You might be right that the particular fanfic wouldn't make it past network censors, but if so, that would only be, again, because network censors share the idea gay people are icky, and the second story barely even seemed to warrant a PG-13 level rating even assuming gay people = automatic inappropriateness. I'm getting seriously disturbed by this. Is this site supposed to be bringing fanfiction into the mainstream, or mainstreaming fanfiction? It's not using a rating system that resembles any one I've seen on any other site but one tied to (American) TV and I've yet to get any answer for why. It's already tagging material as inappropriate because some people might disagree with it, not because it's too much for readers of a certain age.^[62]

Reactions to Reactions to FanLib's Launch from the Company's Owners

hey everyone, I'm Chris one of the founders of FanLib>, it's really late and i have been working on the site all day. I'm exhausted but i just realized what was going on here and all of the commentsts are making me sick. we're a small company with 10 emplyees who work 16 hours a day to try and make a great website. we're real people! with feelings and everything! we have been working on this and dreaming about it for a long time and you are just here to shit on it without giving us a chance. i care deeply about what you think but this is crazy. we're good people here and you make us sound like we're an evil corporation or the govt. sending your kids to war or something. we really are all about celebrating fan fiction and fan fiction readers and writers. im sorry this is so short and please excuse the fact that i am cutting and pasting this across a bunch of ljs but i gotta get some sleep. -- chris.^[63]^[64]

Consultant: Laura Hale

Laura Hale registered an account at Fanlib on May 17, 2007.^[65]

According to her resume, Hale worked as a "consultant" for FanLib/Take180 between June 2007 to June 2009, specifically consulting on social network communities such as Twitter and Facebook.^[66]^[67] Hale mentions losing this job at the end of June 2009, which put a crimp on Fan History Wiki's finances: "At the end of June, Fan History’s founder lost her job. This was stressful as this employment helped cover Fan History’s cost out of pocket." ^[68]

Terms of Service

Some excerpts from the October 11, 2007 Terms of Service. ^[69]

Section 1. What's FanLib?
FanLib is an interactive computer service that allows members to showcase and share their fan fiction, discover great stories, get closer to the talent behind their favorite fandoms and participate in fun events. Our goal is to support and encourage the development and sharing of fan creativity.
Fan fiction is based on characters or settings created by someone else. You should not expect to gain any rights to others' characters or settings when you include them in content you post on FanLib.com. If someone with an interest in the characters or settings complains about their use, we may need to block or remove the particular work complained of, and we reserve the right to do so.
Section 2. Acceptance of Terms
[...]
Section 3. Eligibility
[...]
Section 4. Password
[..]
Section 5. Privacy
[...]
Section 6. Acceptable Use Policy
FanLib encourages and supports active and open publication of fan fiction in a lawful and civil manner. We do not monitor the FanLib Website for inappropriate content or conduct, but we may need to take action in the event that we learn of unlawful activity or violations of our Acceptable Use Policy.
[...]
Section 7. Blocking or removing materials
While FanLib does not intend to monitor the FanLib.com website or to generally remove or block access to material, FanLib reserves the right to block or remove any or all content posted by you, without prior notice, and at its sole discretion. However, FanLib is not responsible for any failure or delay in removing or limiting access to such content.
Since fan fiction is usually based on existing characters and settings, the creators and/or owners of those characters and settings may take issue with your use of them and could ask FanLib to remove your work based on what they believe are their rights. We will take any such concerns seriously, we will investigate any such complaints, and, as noted above, we reserve the right to remove or block content as a result.
FanLib complies with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") and has policies and procedures for handling complaints of alleged copyright infringement. Our notification and counter-notification procedures can be found at http://www.fanlib.com/cms.do?page=dmca.htm or can be obtained from FanLib's designated Copyright Agent at [email protected]. Anyone who believes their copyrighted material is being infringed on the website may provide us with notice, according to our policies and procedures. Upon receiving notice, FanLib will follow the procedures of the DMCA. FanLib reserves the right to block or remove website content without prior notice upon receipt of a notice provided pursuant to the DMCA. In the event that FanLib blocks or removes content pursuant to a DMCA notice, you will be notified and be given an opportunity to provide counter notification whenever possible.
Section 8. Your Rights to Material you Post
At FanLib, we expect you to post the content you create ("Your Content") on the website. You keep any and all rights to Your Content. FanLib does not own any rights to Your Content. However, when you post Your Content, you are giving FanLib the right to use, reproduce, distribute and publicly display Your Content on the website or through its services (such as email notification and RSS feeds) free of charge.
FanLib also wants to be able to promote Your Content on FanLib.com. As a result, FanLib may create summaries or descriptions of Your Content to promote and/or showcase Your Content. You authorize FanLib to make, reproduce, distribute, and display these summaries or descriptions on FanLib.com or through its services but not for any other purpose unrelated to FanLib.com. If you mark any of Your Content private, we will not promote and/or showcase Your Content.
Another part of FanLib's service allows other people to use Your Content on the FanLib Website. By putting Your Content on the FanLib website and making it public, you are granting each FanLib website user all the rights necessary to make use of all the features of the FanLib website for viewing and sharing Your Content.
Section 9. FanLib's Intellectual Property Rights
The FanLib website also contains content created and owned by FanLib. That content is protected by copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, and other U.S. and foreign laws. The content owned by FanLib includes the text, software, scripts, graphics, photos, sounds, music, videos, interactive features, and the like ("FanLib Content") and the trademarks, service marks and logos contained therein ("Marks").
FanLib gives you a limited, revocable, non-sublicensable license to view, reproduce and display FanLib Content from the website (excluding any software code) solely for your personal non-commercial use in connection with viewing the website and using FanLib's services.
You agree not to engage in the use, copying or distribution of any of the FanLib Content other than that which is expressly permitted herein.
Section 10. Things We Can't Control
We don't control the information provided by other members that is disclosed through their Accounts. Therefore, through use of the website, you could risk interacting with underage persons or people acting under false pretenses. You understand that all information, data, text, software, music, sound, photographs, graphics, video, messages, or other material residing on the website ("Content"), whether publicly posted or privately transmitted, are the sole responsibility of the person with whom such Content originated. This means that you, and not FanLib, are entirely responsible for any Content that you post, email, upload, transmit or otherwise make available via your Account. FanLib does not control the Content posted by members on the Website and, as such, does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity, legality, or quality of such Content. You understand that by using our services, you may be exposed to Content that is offensive, indecent or objectionable. Under no circumstances will FanLib be liable in any way for any Content, including, but not limited to, for any errors or omissions in any Content, or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted, emailed, transmitted or otherwise made available through the Website.
[...]
Section 11. Representations by you
[...]
Section 12. Obligatory Disclaimer
[...]
Section 13. Obligatory Limitation of Liability
[...]
Section 14. Indemnification
[...]
Section 15. Arbitration
[...]
Section 16. Termination
[...]
Section 17. Everything Else

Some FanLib Inspired Fanworks

see Life Without Fanlib fan creations

Visual

from megselv (May 30, 2007)
from lavenderfrost (May 27, 2007)
an anti-Fanlib banner created by angelofsnow that fans could post to their journals or websites
Fanlib: We make FF.net look good.
made by a fan of FanLib "I LOVE FANLIB... FanLib.com - Where the stories continue... - The Slogan For Fanlib.com AND I WILL ALWAYS LOVE IT" ^[70]
a parody ad created by apple-pi
anti-FanLib icon by bookshop draws on Star Wars parallels
one of the many reaction icons produced by fans. Icon by angelofsnow

Fiction

Lol Fic ("Blue Dude teaches Pink Guy a well deserved lesson, by bringing in his friend Pinata.")
In Just Seven Fics, I Can Make You A Man, by LizBee

The Buyout and the Closure

Disney began acquiring FanLib in May, 2008, and completed the process in June, two months before FanLib announced it was "closing." FanLib was acquired for the coding software it had on its backend, not for its fanfiction-related work.^[71]^[72] (NOTE: Many news stories put the Disney acquisition in early August, rather than June.^[73])

On July 23, 2008, FanLib announced it was closing the site.

On August 4, 2008, FanLib closed. From the official announcement on FanLib.com:

FanLib.com was founded on the belief that fan creativity is a true art form that deserves a first-rate showcase for cultivation and celebration. Over the course of the past fifteen months, you have triumphantly confirmed this notion with an astonishing display of talent, enthusiasm, imagination and camaraderie. So, it is especially difficult to announce that FanLib.com will shut down on Monday, August 4, 2008. While individual sites may come and go, fan creativity can never be stopped. The inspiration behind FanLib.com will continue to drive legions of passionate fans to find and make new destinations at which to thrive. ^[74]

The short time between the announcement and the closure meant many fans lost their fanworks. The site is not waybackable, and this means that all content, including comments and reviews are gone as well. From a fan: "): That's just not right, I didn't hear about it closing until all my writing was lost." ^[75]

Fan Reaction to the Closure

Some fans who had considered FanLib their internet gathering place were not only left homeless by the site's closure but also felt alienated and unwelcome in many other fandom spaces that were hostile to FanLib.^{[citation needed]} Many fans also lost their own fanworks.

Fan's Comments Regarding Closing

"On July 23, 2008, Fanlib announced that they would be closing their doors. It was a time of panic for many of us fanlibbers. We began to overload the forums with questions as to why. But to this day there has never been given a real reason to the closure. Many of us flocked to new places and tried to find ways in which we would be able to keep in touch. The last thing we wanted was to lose the valuble friendships we had all made through our love of writing. Sadness had filled us all as the closing date grew near and several of us closed our accounts prematurly, wanting to feel as if we had some ounce of control over it." ^[76]

"This is indeed a sad day… and I long to stay in touch with all the friends I made through the late, great FanLib.com… please try to stay in touch, okay? LLAP, TERRELL B)" ^[77]
"I'm upset about this too. I just saw the message this morning. I wanted to cry. Fanlib is where I started reading fanfiction and got inspired to start writing my own story...not finished yet, but I am working on it." ^[78]
"Yes we're upset about FanLib. But fandoms and fanfic writing came before FanLib and will continue on after." ^[79]
"i can’t believe fanlib closing it broke my heart." ^[80]
"It is long and un-lamentably gone. I found the wake of the giant controversy that had accompanied this corporate sponsored attempt at fan-mining that was still rippling outward... This was almost THE BIG ONE that we've all been half-anticipating for so long -- the ultimate Pan-Fandom epidemic; the moment when Big Media finally figures out an insidious way to co-opt and shut us down not by stomping or starving us out as we have so long feared but rather by making us tame and docile as we eagerly lick at a drip-bottle of carefully rationed corporate approval." ^[81]
"Fanlib bought...by DISNEY?! I just hopped on Fanlib to check it out, since I have quite a few stories there, and found that it is now GONE. Just like that. Apparently, according to a few news stories, it's been bought by Disney, although I didn't quite understand why. So why in the world does Disney need it? If they want something like that, can't they make it themselves? I'm just rather annoyed right now, as well as pretty sorrowful. Fanlib was wonderful and I enjoyed it so much. I hope that others will miss it as much as I do!!" ^[82]
"Fanlib's ending? Lmao! What the hell, Fanlib Gods? As soon as I figured that I would drop a few much needed reviews for people, it decides to permanently shut down on me. Does anyone have any idea why this is suddenly happening? Bah, it just goes to show that Good Things DO come to awful ends every once in awhile." ^[83]
"i know, i’m totally lost now... fanlib is absolutely closed. nothing is left. srry that u lost all ur stories, it’s a shame." ^[80]

A FanLib Obituary

A fan wrote an obituary for FanLib:

Fanlib Dies; Creativity Lives On: At 5:04 pm pacific time, Fanlib ceased to exist. Posting on forums continued clear up until the end. A strong attendance of former KvP writers was represented for the final countdown, giving a familiar feel of round four’s countdown to destruction. Indeed, today was a good day to die for the fan site that gave birth to the best collaborative minds of the decade.
For anyone attempting to post after the slightly delayed hour of death, a coded error message was received. In that moment, scores of fans were immediately cut off and left to decide their trek.
While fanlib.com no longer lives, it is survived by countless writers and artists who continue to thrive on various sites throughout the internet. We here on the KvP Alum project are a testimony to that truth. Fanlib’s short life span inspired many creative minds and its presence will be greatly missed.
For those of you who missed the party and list of alternate sites on Fanlib’s home page, we’re big believers in keeping in touch. Just for you: DeviantArt.com • FanFiction.net • FanPop.com • LiveJournal.com • MyFandoms.com • PhotoshopFaceOff.com • Quizilla.com • TheOtaku.com • TokyoPop.com • FanLib Refugees—InvisionFree.com • FanLib Refugees—FanFiction.net • FanLib Refugees—MyFandoms.com • FanLib Forever
Boldly writing on, dr.jeanTre16 ^[77]

A FanLib Goodbye Vid

In August 2008, Marphlets made a vid, Last Call, in honor of the site's passing. The music used was "Closing Time" by Semisonic. A fan comments: "Nice vid... It was definately nice knowing you all. But we still know each other. The community lives on here and in our hearts. Right?" ^[84]

the title card
one of the many quotes: "People here are totally willing to give a compliment and that is so appreciated. There were many times it made my day so much better just to hear something really small."
one of the many icons representing individual FanLib users, this one is for Tikatu
"I tend to see us as a family, and this site was just a house."—Jopierce
banner by Smokie4ever
credit

After-FanLib Communities

Refugees from the site set up a number of communities, archives, and discussion forums to reconnect with their friends after the closure.

Some FanLib Stats

Some stats taken from FanLib: One Year Later, a post by partly bouncy, which has a very detailed account of numbers, contests, and stats:

Around March 2, 2007: FanLib first invited authors to join the site.
April 2007: FanLib had 985 members and 4,542 submissions.
late May 2007: FanLib had 2,829 members
As of August 12, 2007: FanLib had 8,737 members. This was an increase of 2,498 members since June 24, 2007.
September 8, 2007: FanLib launched their official blog, No Hiatus.
November 2007: FanLib expanded, to host fan art and allow users to embed fan vids.
As of March 26, 2008: FanLib had 19,000 members.

A June 2007 poll on FanLib's forum asked members their gender. 19% replied they were male, 81% replied they were female.^[85]

Laura Hale was paying attention: February 23-March 23, 2009 stats regarding searches for "FanLib" at Fan History Wiki
"Blog reference comparisons: Fan History, FanLib, Organization for Transformative Works in the period between November 2, 2007 and May 1, 2008 according to Nielsen's Blogpulse trend tracker"
submissions to FanLib April 2007 to February 2008
another graph showing submissions to FanLib April 2007 to February 2008
2008 poll results of FanLib users: answer to the question posted to the FanLib forum -- "A new poll! Are you a guy or a gal?"
chart from March 2007 to March 2008 showing FanLib's traffic
FanLib's traffic from April 7 to May 22, 2007

Content Submissions

Below are two snapshots of the most popular fandoms as per number of submissions. One interesting note is how original fiction shot to the top. Some of these fics were purely original fiction, but many were little essays about fans' personal lives, short commentaries that would have perhaps been more appropriate for a forum post.

One of the biggest fandoms was "Star Trek: KVP," or "Star Trek: Kirk vs. Picard."

The fandoms with the most submissions as of about November 2007:

Naruto (913) : Harry Potter (882) : Star Trek: KVP (873) : Original Fandom (429) : Inuyasha (332) : Star Wars (257) : CSI (223) : Buffy: The Vampire Slayer (211) : Stargate: SG-1 (198) : Supernatural (197) : Thunderbirds (171) : Gilmore Girls (165) : Pirates of the Caribbean (158) : Stargate: Atlantis (149) : Star Trek: The Original Series (130) : Battlestar Galactica: 2003 (128) : X-Men: The Movie (114) : Star Trek (107) ^[86]

The fandoms with the most submissions as of about May 2008:

Original Fandom (5497) : Naruto (4041) : Harry Potter (1759) : Inuyasha (1693) : Transformers/Beast Wars (948) : Star Trek: KVP (864) : Star Wars (737) : Yu-Gi-Oh (603) : Star Trek (556) : Star Trek: The Original Series (545) : X-Men: Evolution (511) : Pokemon (452) : Buffy: The Vampire Slayer (430) : Bleach (429) : Pirates of the Caribbean (394) : Twilight (381) : Gilmore Girls (326) : Supernatural (319) : CSI (311) : Battlestar Galactica: 2003 (308) : Kingdom Hearts (301) : Stargate: SG-1 (301) : Star Trek: Enterprise (267) : Uglies (262) : X-Men (246): Thunderbirds (218) : Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (212) : Stargate: Atlantis (209) : Star Trek: The Next Generation (204) : Sailor Moon (202) ^[87]

References

^ See Further Reading: Press Commentary
^ ^a ^b ^c bio from FanLib's site
^ It was in beta in early spring 2007 and "threw open the doors" on April 9, 2007. -- "Thanks to all our cool beta testers, Fanlib.com is now open for all! This great new fan fiction site as features and cool photos and cool tools like the ability to imbed your fics there out on the web (Except it doesn't seem to work on LJ! Looking into that) I hope you will ALL come and play! Supernatural is rocking the top five, so let's keep it that way and beat those Harry Potter folks down!!" -- Fanlib Throws Open the Doors, post by jdsampson, April 9, 2007
^ FanLib: Craig Singer bio
^ My2Centences
^ FanLib.com - About Us - Introduction, ^{Archived version}
^ "Fanlib has launched their first official contest and the winner gets a movie theater for the day. You get to rent a local theater for fifty people, show YOUR favorite movie (think Ten Inch Hero could be a choice?) and have popcorn and soda for all your friends. To enter you just have to upload your fic to Fanlib.com and be chosen as a featured piece on the homepage... Not a writer? You can still win. They're also awarding a featuring great fan fic REVEIWS - so have at it!" -- Win a Movie Theater for the Day by Writing Fan Fic, post by jdsampson, April 24, 2007
^ "Star Trek royalty (George Takei, Wil Wheaton and writer Andre Bormanis) and FanLib.com are teaming up with CBS Interactive and the Star Trek franchise for a fan-driven storytelling event that uses scenes written by you and other Star Trek fans to create a new online story. This is the first time CBS has ever used the Star Trek characters for an official online fan writing event!" -- official post at FanLib, June 2007
^ "When Disney bought FanLib, what did it get, and what did it do with it? The short answer: Disney got the servers and the software—everything but content—and launched Take180 the same month FanLib closed (August, 2008)." -- What Disney Bought From FanLib, ^{Archived version}, post by stewardess at life_wo_fanlib, January 7, 2009
^ "For record keeping, the straw that broke the camel's back was fanlib, if you see the post dates and the incorporation dates, that's the very basic cause/effect. Very. Basic.") (January 4, 2008)
^ "On the other hand, now that the pitchfork and torch waving mobs have gone after Six Apart, the "really cool" guys at FanLib must be breathing a sigh of relief. It's been a shitty couple of weeks for fandom.") -- May 30, 2007 comment at Metafilter: livejournal suspends hundreds of accounts, ^{Archived version}
^ "it's a common misconception that lib stood for library" What Disney Bought From FanLib, ^{Archived version}, post by stewardess at life_wo_fanlib, January 7, 2009
^ "Can't tell if the "Lib" here stands for Liberation, Liberty or Libel" Fanlib and stuff, ^{Archived version}, post by mhalachai
^ What Disney Bought From FanLib, ^{Archived version}, post by stewardess at life_wo_fanlib, January 7, 2009
^ A question for you all; archive link, page 1; archive link, page 2; archive link, page 3; archive link, page 4 by telesilla, post includes MANY comments
^ "FanLib was founded in 2002 by veteran filmmaker Craig Singer, internet pioneer David B. Williams, and former Yahoo! executive and film producer Chris M. Williams as a division of their production company My2Centences. My2Centences was actively involved in the convergence of marketing, entertainment, and online media. While completing a series of feature films under the My2Centences banner, Singer conceived of the storytelling process that inspired FanLib's unique collaboration technology." -- About Us - Background
^ from MediaPost -- Online Fan Fiction - Better than Stealing Music, ^{Archived version} by Larry Dobrow, October 3, 2003
^ About Us - Background
^ FANLIB:: People Powered Entertainment, ^{Archived version}, a FanLib site in 2004
^ FANLIB :: People Powered Entertainment, ^{Archived version}
^ What Disney Bought From FanLib, ^{Archived version}, post by stewardess at life_wo_fanlib, January 7, 2009
^ If pigs could fly?
^ MPH's personal notes
^ "Naomi" was believed by many fans to be a false identity and one of the male board members. -- Article summing up FanLib by Icarus, page one, ^{Archived version}, page two, ^{Archived version}; page three, ^{Archived version}; page four, ^{Archived version}; page five, ^{Archived version}, page six, ^{Archived version} (572 comments, plus an very extensive listing of reaction links)
^ FanLib Invitation. One of the select few. Like hell., ^{Archived version} (2007), by Icarus, accessed March 4, 2011.
^ (On) FanLib.com, ^{Archived version} (2007), by Susan, accessed March 4, 2011.
^ "The corporatization of fanfic?". {{cite web}}: |archive-url= requires |archive-date= (help)
^ "Meta/Rant: It's like deja vu all over again!". Archived from the original on 2021-05-10.
^ FanLib.com - Forums, ^{Archived version}
^ from FanLibRefugees
^ One exchange between JD Sampson (FanLib's spokesperson) and fans: "I will say that I've been surprised by the gender issue being raised by a few people of late. My philosophy is, if I want something, I don't really care if it's a man or a woman who hands it to me. Yes, fandom is thought of as a woman's world, but computers and websites are thought of as men's worlds. Almost every web company I've worked for was started and run by men because they came from the programming end or the corporate world - which is again, mostly men. If, as in this case, men want to spend money they raised in order to make a playground for what will likely be mostly women - more power to them. Now, since they're smart men (JD looks around to see who's watching), they hired a fannishly obsessed woman like me to help tidy up the place and kick them when they run off track. And when it comes to fannish enthusiasm, don't believe that men don't have it (ever go to a Star Trek convention!)" A fan responded: "I kinda take offense to your gendering of computer skills, given that fandom is famous for making women competent a lot of times in exactly the skills you here ascribe to men, whether it's the archiving software many central archives use (written by one of "us"), the amazing skills displayed in vids, or just the everyday setup of tailoring our journals, creating RSS feeds, you name it." -- from The corporatization of fanfic?, post to Fanthropology; Archive
^ In Just Seven Fics, I Can Make You A Man, by LizBee, accessed March 4, 2011.
^ "Join the FanLib Party!". {{cite web}}: |archive-url= requires |archive-date= (help)
^ FanLib Icons & Badges (2007), by angelsnow, accessed March 4, 2011. Archive
^ Internet Goes Nova Over Showtime, Starz, Moonves Partnered FanLib.com, May 2007; icons featured on 2nd page of article (^{[dead link]} as of at least January 2015)
^ comment by partly bouncy at Archives and not wanting to say "but", ^{Archived version}
^ Well, a bit ironic, as this post was made by a fan who was a paid consultant to FanLib "Lots of cool Ghost Whisperer prizes and man oh man why couldn't it be Supernatural! (Oh wait, never mind, that would be bad since I couldn't win seeing as I work for Fanlib!)" -- Fanlib and Ghost Whisperer Team Up May 4, 2007
^ "And take a really short 1 page survey about what you see there. I'm not selling anything, you won't be asked to register or anything, it's purely to get unbiased opinions on a project I'm involved in." -- A Quick Favor, Please?, post by jdsampson, February 22, 2007
^ My Official I Love Fanlib Thread!!!, post by jdsampson, May 17, 2007. Note that jdsampson was a FanLib employee: "Lots of cool Ghost Whisperer prizes and man oh man why couldn't it be Supernatural! (Oh wait, never mind, that would be bad since I couldn't win seeing as I work for Fanlib!)" -- Fanlib and Ghost Whisperer Team Up May 4, 2007
^ A Journey to Something New; Archive, June 16, 2009
^ verrrrrrry-innnnnnteresting, April 2, 2008
^ The New SPN Book and Fanlib, post by jdsampson, May 24, 2007. Note that jdsampson was a FanLib employee: "Lots of cool Ghost Whisperer prizes and man oh man why couldn't it be Supernatural! (Oh wait, never mind, that would be bad since I couldn't win seeing as I work for Fanlib!)" -- Fanlib and Ghost Whisperer Team Up May 4, 2007
^ comment by epalladino Subject: Reading, Rating, and Reviewing, May 22, 2007
^ by tikatu at FanLib's forum, May 24, 2007
^ Archive for page one, page two, ^{Archived version}
^ comment by Maryilee at Fanfiction.net FanLib Refugees, July 24, 2008
^ comment by live2tivo at Fanfiction.net FanLib Refugees, July 24, 2008
^ from An Archive Of One's Own (post by astolat)/Comments, post by klia
^ from An Archive Of One's Own (post by astolat)/Comments, post by geekturnedvamp
^ from summary, icarusancalion (May 28, 2007)
^ comment by Angiepen, ^{Archived version}, June 16, 2007
^ from An Archive Of One's Own (post by astolat)/Comments, post by xenacryst
^ comment by St. Crispins, ^{Archived version} , June 15, 2007
^ comment by lamardeuse at Dear Fandom: Could You Please Stop Saying That?, page 2 (May 17, 2007)
^ elfwreck comments, ^{Archived version}, June 16, 2007
^ I have a headache THIS BIG, and it has FanLib written all over it, ^{Archived version}, May 23, 2007
^ Fan Fiction Oral History Project with Arduinna (September 2012)
^ comments by sinquepida at An Archive Of One's Own (post by astolat)
^ exchange on FanLib's forum, June 23, 2007
^ Perfection, Perfection....heavy critique?, June 29, 2008
^ comment by fuzzybluelogic at FanLib's forum, May 23, 2007
^ comment by farla at FanLib's forum, May 23, 2007
^ Chris Williams, this at Fanlib, ^{Archived version} and many other places on May 16, 2007
^ darkrosetiger commented at panik's journal: "You may want to screencap, because he's been going around deleting the spamming posts. Wanktastic!"
^ User:Laura/Timeline
^ "Performed reputation management related tasks. Research fan fiction, and fan communities and gave advice about how to effectively engage them." -- LinkedIn, accessed January 25, 2017
^ also at [https://web.archive.org/web/20111111074429/http://www.fanhistory.com/wiki/User:Laura/Resume resume posted to Fan History History
^ http://blog.fanhistory.com/?p=1133, accessed January 25, 2017
^ Terms of Service
^ by tetsigawind at Deviantart, December 9, 2009
^ "I base this on the trademark records "Attorney Revoked And/Or Appointed" dated 5/28/2008, and "Automatic Update Of Assignment Of Ownership" on 6/11/2008. The first rumor of the buyout appeared June 3, 2008 -- a rumor FanLib denied right through its "closure" in August, 2008. -- life_wo_fanlib: Disney purchased FanLib in May/June 2008, two months before FanLib's "closure.", ^{Archived version}
^ Some fan reaction is at Fanthroplogy, posted June 4, 2008
^ some sources: CrunchBase, ^{Archived version} (cites the buyout as August 21, 2008), Disney's acquisition of FanLib is still on, and Disney's Buyout of FanLib Still On; Will Focus On Company Shows. The exact date may be hard to pin down as per the definition of "buy" and "acquire" may be different and full of legalese. More information is needed.
^ from FanLib Shutting Doors August 4 by Merlin Missy (July 23, 2008)
^ from a comment at FanLib Shutting Doors August 4 by Merlin Missy (July 23, 2008)
^ A Journey to Something New, ^{Archived version}, June 16, 2009
^ ^a ^b Fanlib Dies; Creativity Lives On, August 5, 2008
^ comment by spacecadet777 at Fanfiction.net FanLib Refugees, July 26, 2008
^ comment by epalladino at Fanfiction.net FanLib Refugees, July 24, 2008
^ ^a ^b FANLIB, CLOSED!!!!!!?????, ^{Archived version}, August 2008
^ from Bill Hupe and FanLib: Why I'm Here in 1000 words or Less; Archive (2010)
^ a comment; Archive at GateWorld Forum, August 10, 2008
^ BEAU/KAMMY ish..back?, comment by beauxxx, July 28, 2008
^ August 7, 2008 from FanLibRefugees
^ Are you a guy or a gal?
^ See Fandoms for more
^ Fandoms
^ Category:FanLib images - Fan History Wiki: The Fandom History Resource, ^{Archived version}
^ ... it came out that FanLib's CEO and another person involved with FanLib's management had been sockpuppeting on a Lord of the Rings message board. Around May 17, a semi-organized effort was undertaken to inform people about the site, their objections to it and asking them to ask others to boycott the site. This would turn out to be somewhat successful. FanLib had negative mentions on a number of services: Xanga, Tokyo Pop, GreatestJournal, InsaneJournal, MySpace, orkut,... and Xanga. The situation would later catch the attention of the media and was mentioned in publications like the Christian Science Monitor, Valleywag and elsewhere. Chris Williams would discuss the site with Henry Jenkins in his blog. The resulting kerfluffle resulted in a situation where some authors who had been using FanLib left and took their stories with them." -- FanLib: One Year Later
^ ^a ^b Between June 2007 to June 2009, Hale worked as a consultant for FanLib/Take180, specifically consulting on social network communities such as Twitter and Facebook. -- "Performed reputation management related tasks. Research fan fiction, and fan communities and gave advice about how to effectively engage them." -- LinkedIn, accessed January 25, 2017

[1] See Further Reading: Press Commentary

[bio_from_FanLib's_site-2] rom FanLib's site

[3] It was in beta in early spring 2007 and "threw open the doors" on April 9, 2007. -- "Thanks to all our cool beta testers, Fanlib.com is now open for all! This great new fan fiction site as features and cool photos and cool tools like the ability to imbed your fics there out on the web (Except it doesn't seem to work on LJ! Looking into that) I hope you will ALL come and play! Supernatural is rocking the top five, so let's keep it that way and beat those Harry Potter folks down!!" -- Fanlib Throws Open the Doors, post by jdsampson, April 9, 2007

[4] FanLib: Craig Singer bio

[5] My2Centences

[6] FanLib.com - About Us - Introduction, ^{Archived version}

[7] "Fanlib has launched their first official contest and the winner gets a movie theater for the day. You get to rent a local theater for fifty people, show YOUR favorite movie (think Ten Inch Hero could be a choice?) and have popcorn and soda for all your friends. To enter you just have to upload your fic to Fanlib.com and be chosen as a featured piece on the homepage... Not a writer? You can still win. They're also awarding a featuring great fan fic REVEIWS - so have at it!" -- Win a Movie Theater for the Day by Writing Fan Fic, post by jdsampson, April 24, 2007

[8] "Star Trek royalty (George Takei, Wil Wheaton and writer Andre Bormanis) and FanLib.com are teaming up with CBS Interactive and the Star Trek franchise for a fan-driven storytelling event that uses scenes written by you and other Star Trek fans to create a new online story. This is the first time CBS has ever used the Star Trek characters for an official online fan writing event!" -- official post at FanLib, June 2007

[9] "When Disney bought FanLib, what did it get, and what did it do with it? The short answer: Disney got the servers and the software—everything but content—and launched Take180 the same month FanLib closed (August, 2008)." -- What Disney Bought From FanLib, ^{Archived version}, post by stewardess at life_wo_fanlib, January 7, 2009

[10] "For record keeping, the straw that broke the camel's back was fanlib, if you see the post dates and the incorporation dates, that's the very basic cause/effect. Very. Basic.") (January 4, 2008)

[11] "On the other hand, now that the pitchfork and torch waving mobs have gone after Six Apart, the "really cool" guys at FanLib must be breathing a sigh of relief. It's been a shitty couple of weeks for fandom.") -- May 30, 2007 comment at Metafilter: livejournal suspends hundreds of accounts, ^{Archived version}

[12] "it's a common misconception that lib stood for library" What Disney Bought From FanLib, ^{Archived version}, post by stewardess at life_wo_fanlib, January 7, 2009

[13] "Can't tell if the "Lib" here stands for Liberation, Liberty or Libel" Fanlib and stuff, ^{Archived version}, post by mhalachai

[14] What Disney Bought From FanLib, ^{Archived version}, post by stewardess at life_wo_fanlib, January 7, 2009

[15] A question for you all; archive link, page 1; archive link, page 2; archive link, page 3; archive link, page 4 by telesilla, post includes MANY comments

[16] "FanLib was founded in 2002 by veteran filmmaker Craig Singer, internet pioneer David B. Williams, and former Yahoo! executive and film producer Chris M. Williams as a division of their production company My2Centences. My2Centences was actively involved in the convergence of marketing, entertainment, and online media. While completing a series of feature films under the My2Centences banner, Singer conceived of the storytelling process that inspired FanLib's unique collaboration technology." -- About Us - Background

[17] rom MediaPost -- Online Fan Fiction - Better than Stealing Music, ^{Archived version} by Larry Dobrow, October 3, 2003

[18] About Us - Background

[19] FANLIB:: People Powered Entertainment, ^{Archived version}, a FanLib site in 2004

[20] FANLIB :: People Powered Entertainment, ^{Archived version}

[21] What Disney Bought From FanLib, ^{Archived version}, post by stewardess at life_wo_fanlib, January 7, 2009

[22] If pigs could fly?

[23] MPH's personal notes

[24] "Naomi" was believed by many fans to be a false identity and one of the male board members. -- Article summing up FanLib by Icarus, page one, ^{Archived version}, page two, ^{Archived version}; page three, ^{Archived version}; page four, ^{Archived version}; page five, ^{Archived version}, page six, ^{Archived version} (572 comments, plus an very extensive listing of reaction links)

[25] FanLib Invitation. One of the select few. Like hell., ^{Archived version} (2007), by Icarus, accessed March 4, 2011.

[26] (On) FanLib.com, ^{Archived version} (2007), by Susan, accessed March 4, 2011.

[27] "The corporatization of fanfic?". {{cite web}}: |archive-url= requires |archive-date= (help)

[28] "Meta/Rant: It's like deja vu all over again!". Archived from the original on 2021-05-10.

[29] FanLib.com - Forums, ^{Archived version}

[30] rom FanLibRefugees

[31] One exchange between JD Sampson (FanLib's spokesperson) and fans: "I will say that I've been surprised by the gender issue being raised by a few people of late. My philosophy is, if I want something, I don't really care if it's a man or a woman who hands it to me. Yes, fandom is thought of as a woman's world, but computers and websites are thought of as men's worlds. Almost every web company I've worked for was started and run by men because they came from the programming end or the corporate world - which is again, mostly men. If, as in this case, men want to spend money they raised in order to make a playground for what will likely be mostly women - more power to them. Now, since they're smart men (JD looks around to see who's watching), they hired a fannishly obsessed woman like me to help tidy up the place and kick them when they run off track. And when it comes to fannish enthusiasm, don't believe that men don't have it (ever go to a Star Trek convention!)" A fan responded: "I kinda take offense to your gendering of computer skills, given that fandom is famous for making women competent a lot of times in exactly the skills you here ascribe to men, whether it's the archiving software many central archives use (written by one of "us"), the amazing skills displayed in vids, or just the everyday setup of tailoring our journals, creating RSS feeds, you name it." -- from The corporatization of fanfic?, post to Fanthropology; Archive

[32] In Just Seven Fics, I Can Make You A Man, by LizBee, accessed March 4, 2011.

[33] "Join the FanLib Party!". {{cite web}}: |archive-url= requires |archive-date= (help)

[angelofsnow1-34] FanLib Icons & Badges (2007), by angelsnow, accessed March 4, 2011. Archive

[multichannel-35] Internet Goes Nova Over Showtime, Starz, Moonves Partnered FanLib.com, May 2007; icons featured on 2nd page of article (^{[dead link]} as of at least January 2015)

[36] t by partly bouncy at Archives and not wanting to say "but", ^{Archived version}

[37] Well, a bit ironic, as this post was made by a fan who was a paid consultant to FanLib "Lots of cool Ghost Whisperer prizes and man oh man why couldn't it be Supernatural! (Oh wait, never mind, that would be bad since I couldn't win seeing as I work for Fanlib!)" -- Fanlib and Ghost Whisperer Team Up May 4, 2007

[38] "And take a really short 1 page survey about what you see there. I'm not selling anything, you won't be asked to register or anything, it's purely to get unbiased opinions on a project I'm involved in." -- A Quick Favor, Please?, post by jdsampson, February 22, 2007

[39] My Official I Love Fanlib Thread!!!, post by jdsampson, May 17, 2007. Note that jdsampson was a FanLib employee: "Lots of cool Ghost Whisperer prizes and man oh man why couldn't it be Supernatural! (Oh wait, never mind, that would be bad since I couldn't win seeing as I work for Fanlib!)" -- Fanlib and Ghost Whisperer Team Up May 4, 2007

[40] A Journey to Something New; Archive, June 16, 2009

[41] verrrrrrry-innnnnnteresting, April 2, 2008

[42] The New SPN Book and Fanlib, post by jdsampson, May 24, 2007. Note that jdsampson was a FanLib employee: "Lots of cool Ghost Whisperer prizes and man oh man why couldn't it be Supernatural! (Oh wait, never mind, that would be bad since I couldn't win seeing as I work for Fanlib!)" -- Fanlib and Ghost Whisperer Team Up May 4, 2007

[43] t by epalladino Subject: Reading, Rating, and Reviewing, May 22, 2007

[44] y tikatu at FanLib's forum, May 24, 2007

[45] Archive for page one, page two, ^{Archived version}

[46] t by Maryilee at Fanfiction.net FanLib Refugees, July 24, 2008

[47] t by live2tivo at Fanfiction.net FanLib Refugees, July 24, 2008

[48] rom An Archive Of One's Own (post by astolat)/Comments, post by klia

[49] rom An Archive Of One's Own (post by astolat)/Comments, post by geekturnedvamp

[50] rom summary, icarusancalion (May 28, 2007)

[51] t by Angiepen, ^{Archived version}, June 16, 2007

[52] rom An Archive Of One's Own (post by astolat)/Comments, post by xenacryst

[53] t by St. Crispins, ^{Archived version} , June 15, 2007

[54] t by lamardeuse at Dear Fandom: Could You Please Stop Saying That?, page 2 (May 17, 2007)

[55] wreck comments, ^{Archived version}, June 16, 2007

[56] I have a headache THIS BIG, and it has FanLib written all over it, ^{Archived version}, May 23, 2007

[57] Fan Fiction Oral History Project with Arduinna (September 2012)

[58] ts by sinquepida at An Archive Of One's Own (post by astolat)

[59] xchange on FanLib's forum, June 23, 2007

[60] Perfection, Perfection....heavy critique?, June 29, 2008

[61] t by fuzzybluelogic at FanLib's forum, May 23, 2007

[62] t by farla at FanLib's forum, May 23, 2007

[63] Chris Williams, this at Fanlib, ^{Archived version} and many other places on May 16, 2007

[64] rkrosetiger commented at panik's journal: "You may want to screencap, because he's been going around deleting the spamming posts. Wanktastic!"

[65] User:Laura/Timeline

[66] "Performed reputation management related tasks. Research fan fiction, and fan communities and gave advice about how to effectively engage them." -- LinkedIn, accessed January 25, 2017

[67] so at [https://web.archive.org/web/20111111074429/http://www.fanhistory.com/wiki/User:Laura/Resume resume posted to Fan History History

[68] ttp://blog.fanhistory.com/?p=1133, accessed January 25, 2017

[69] Terms of Service

[70] y tetsigawind at Deviantart, December 9, 2009

[71] "I base this on the trademark records "Attorney Revoked And/Or Appointed" dated 5/28/2008, and "Automatic Update Of Assignment Of Ownership" on 6/11/2008. The first rumor of the buyout appeared June 3, 2008 -- a rumor FanLib denied right through its "closure" in August, 2008. -- life_wo_fanlib: Disney purchased FanLib in May/June 2008, two months before FanLib's "closure.", ^{Archived version}

[72] Some fan reaction is at Fanthroplogy, posted June 4, 2008

[73] some sources: CrunchBase, ^{Archived version} (cites the buyout as August 21, 2008), Disney's acquisition of FanLib is still on, and Disney's Buyout of FanLib Still On; Will Focus On Company Shows. The exact date may be hard to pin down as per the definition of "buy" and "acquire" may be different and full of legalese. More information is needed.

[74] rom FanLib Shutting Doors August 4 by Merlin Missy (July 23, 2008)

[75] rom a comment at FanLib Shutting Doors August 4 by Merlin Missy (July 23, 2008)

[76] A Journey to Something New, ^{Archived version}, June 16, 2009

[Fanlib_Dies;_Creativity_Lives_On-77] Fanlib Dies; Creativity Lives On, August 5, 2008

[78] t by spacecadet777 at Fanfiction.net FanLib Refugees, July 26, 2008

[79] t by epalladino at Fanfiction.net FanLib Refugees, July 24, 2008

[FANLIB,_CLOSED!!!!!!-80] FANLIB, CLOSED!!!!!!?????, ^{Archived version}, August 2008

[81] rom Bill Hupe and FanLib: Why I'm Here in 1000 words or Less; Archive (2010)

[82] t; Archive at GateWorld Forum, August 10, 2008

[83] BEAU/KAMMY ish..back?, comment by beauxxx, July 28, 2008

[84] August 7, 2008 from FanLibRefugees

[85] Are you a guy or a gal?

[86] See Fandoms for more

[87] Fandoms

[88] Category:FanLib images - Fan History Wiki: The Fandom History Resource, ^{Archived version}

[89] ... it came out that FanLib's CEO and another person involved with FanLib's management had been sockpuppeting on a Lord of the Rings message board. Around May 17, a semi-organized effort was undertaken to inform people about the site, their objections to it and asking them to ask others to boycott the site. This would turn out to be somewhat successful. FanLib had negative mentions on a number of services: Xanga, Tokyo Pop, GreatestJournal, InsaneJournal, MySpace, orkut,... and Xanga. The situation would later catch the attention of the media and was mentioned in publications like the Christian Science Monitor, Valleywag and elsewhere. Chris Williams would discuss the site with Henry Jenkins in his blog. The resulting kerfluffle resulted in a situation where some authors who had been using FanLib left and took their stories with them." -- FanLib: One Year Later

[hale-90] Between June 2007 to June 2009, Hale worked as a consultant for FanLib/Take180, specifically consulting on social network communities such as Twitter and Facebook. -- "Performed reputation management related tasks. Research fan fiction, and fan communities and gave advice about how to effectively engage them." -- LinkedIn, accessed January 25, 2017

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Name:	Fanlib (on some promotional materials), FANlib (on some promotional materials). FanLib (on some promotional materials, and the term used by fans who were not fans of FanLib)
Date(s):	began in 2002 as "My2Centences" ^[1], slowly morphed into Fanlib, was in beta March 2007-April 9, 2007, and became the much more visible FanLib between May 2007 - August 4, 2008
Profit/Nonprofit:	Profit
Country based in:	United States
Focus:	multifandom fanfiction archive
External Links:	FanLib.com - Where the stories continue..., ^{Archived version}, archived version of the front page from October 2007
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.
Contents 1 Some Context 2 Regarding FanLib's Name 3 Official FanLib Info 4 Some FanLib Ads 5 FanLib Brochure for Investors 6 FanLib's Beginnings 6.1 Self-Descriptions and History: My2Centences 6.2 Other Descriptions and History 7 Photos of FanLib's Various Headquarters 8 Invitation Letters 9 FanLib's Fan Forum, and FanLib's Official Blog 9.1 Fan Forum 9.2 FanLib's Official Blog 10 Reactions to FanLib's Launch from the Fan Community 10.1 Specific Praise of FanLib 10.1.1 General 10.1.2 A Supportive Community 10.1.3 Validation 10.1.4 Rating and Reviews 10.1.5 Corporate Responsibility 10.1.6 Source of Meta 10.1.7 Experimentation 10.2 Specific Criticisms of FanLib 10.2.1 Making a Profit by Exploiting Fan Labor 10.2.2 Cultural Appropriation 10.2.3 Accentuating Gender Divisions 10.2.4 Clumsy Interface 10.2.5 Business Model and Privacy Policy 10.2.6 Issues With Feedback for Fiction 10.2.7 Mixed Messages Over Legality and Representation 10.2.8 Questions About Rating Systems 11 Reactions to Reactions to FanLib's Launch from the Company's Owners 12 Consultant: Laura Hale 13 Terms of Service 14 Some FanLib Inspired Fanworks 14.1 Visual 14.2 Fiction 15 The Buyout and the Closure 16 Fan Reaction to the Closure 16.1 Fan's Comments Regarding Closing 16.2 A FanLib Obituary 16.3 A FanLib Goodbye Vid 16.4 After-FanLib Communities 17 Some FanLib Stats 17.1 Content Submissions 18 Further Reading/Links to Responses: General 19 Further Reading/Links to Responses: 2006 20 Further Reading/Links to Responses: 2007 21 Further Reading/Links to Responses: 2008 22 Further Reading/Links to Responses: 2009 23 Further Reading/Links to Responses: 2010 24 Further reading 24.1 Links to Responses: 2015 24.2 Further Reading: Press Commentary 25 References

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