FanworksFinder
| Website | |
|---|---|
| Name: | FanworksFinder (sometimes "FanWorksFinder") |
| Owner/Maintainer: | screwthedaisies (initially)
Fan History Wiki (posteriorly) |
| Dates: | July 19, 2007 – March 17, 2009 |
| Type: | fanworks finder |
| Fandom: | panfandom |
| URL: | wayback link |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
FanworksFinder was a website where fans could post links, find, rate and discuss fan fiction, fan art, fan vids and fandom-related meta. It was part Digg, part wiki, and part directory.
The site opened for a public beta test on July 19, 2007. It had been in alpha testing for about a month prior to that. It closed on March 17, 2009.
About
As described by Laura Hale in September 2008:[1]
About
FanworksFinder is a tool to help fans find, list, rate & discuss fanfiction, fanart and fanvids located all over the Web. FanworksFinder is more than a listing of fanworks, though. It’s also a centralized recs system. Post listings to fanworks you’ve enjoyed and rec fanworks others have listed.
FanworksFinder puts all this information in one site and makes it easily searchable. Fan content is not mixed with other content, making it difficult to find. It was designed by a member of fandom for fandom. There is no content confusion or trying to adapt an interface created by outsiders to suit fandom purposes.
History
FanworksFinder was created by screwthedaisies in July 2007 in response to FanLib and the ensuing discussion in fandom about the need to have a fan run resource to protect fanworks from disappearing, and from the fragmentation that was taking place in fandom. The site was originally partnered with Fan History. In September 2008, the site ownership was formally turned over to Fan History; the domain is now owned by Fan History and the site is now hosted on our servers.
Objectives
The primary objectives of FanworksFinder are to:
- Have a reader centered fan works recommendation site.
- Create a fanworks search engine, to help make it easier for readers to find stories they might enjoy.
- Compliment Fan History and its own objectives.
- Work with fan fiction, art and vid sites to promote their content.
- Show case quality works being created by fans.
How Many Fanworks?
204,718 fanworks were listed at FanWorksFinder as of August 1, 2007. 259,526 fanworks were listed as of August 14, 2007.
The End of the Line
FanworksFinder was just getting slammed with spam. We had over 100 pages of spam submissions from robots. In that content, there were only 10 legitimate submissions. We were getting one new spam account registering every 15 minutes like clockwork. This is a development issue with pligg, the software that powers FanworksFinder. We’re just really frustrated. So until we can get a pligg developer to help us fix the problem, we’ve temporarily disabled the ability to login and register. We’re looking for a solution to this problem.[2]
On March 17, FanworksFinder was effectively closed down. The underlying software was pligg and was extremely vulnerable to spam. The quantities that were coming in, and the number of spam registrations, made it a hassle to hand currate that problem away. Rather than take the site down, the registration and link submission pages were disabled. Despite looking, we could not find a developer to help fix this problem.[3]
FanworksFinder is continuing to have a spam problem. We’re aware of it. We tried a recapatcha solution that ended up shutting down registration. It didn’t work. When we reopened registration, the spam problem came right back. So now we are searching for another solution. Thank you for your patience.[4]
References
- ^ Laura Hale (2008-09-21). "Blog Archive » Fan History is growing!". Fan History Blog. Archived from the original on 2024-04-03. Retrieved 2017-01-26.
- ^ Laura Hale (2012-12-13). "FanworksFinder update". Fan History Blog. Archived from the original on 2024-04-03. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
- ^ Laura Hale (2009-12-24). "Fan History's Blog » Blog Archive » Our history on Fan History in 2009". Fan History Blog. Archived from the original on 2024-04-04. Retrieved 2017-01-25.
- ^ Laura Hale (2009-02-15). "Fan History's Blog » FanworksFinder problems". Fan History Blog. Archived from the original on 2024-04-04. Retrieved 2009-04-11.