Fanlore:News/2020
October 24, 2020
Fanlore is excited to present a redesigned version of our Fanlore:Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)! This major update incorporates questions formerly found on the Fanlore:Intro to Fanlore FAQ into this page to create one consolidated FAQ. We've removed or combined duplicate questions from the two FAQs, and have also updated and reorganized much of the language in the updated FAQ.
In the updated FAQ, you can find the answers to these common issues and more:
- What type of content belongs on Fanlore
- The best ways to get started as an editor
- What stubs are and whether you can make them
- What to do if you disagree with content someone else published on Fanlore
- The difference between a User page and a People page
- How much control you have over what is said about you outside of your User page
Do you have a question that isn't addressed in the revamped FAQ? Submit your question to the Fanlore Committee and suggest that we add it!
September 7, 2020
The carnival is coming to town! Our annual Stub September editing challenge is back this month from the 7th - 20th September.
Everyone, from seasoned editors to people new to Fanlore, is welcome to participate in the challenge. You can win shiny new badges for participating and helping expand our empty or short pages. There may even be an additional badge for editors who go the extra mile of adding lots of content to a page!
Visit Help:Participating in Stub September to learn more about stubs and how to take part in the challenge!
September 2, 2020
Fanlore is pleased to announce that we've made some updates to our Cheatsheet for editors!
The Fanlore Cheatsheet is a quick reference sheet to help editors (both new and experienced!) with common types of wiki formatting. In the interest of making the Cheatsheet as useful and applicable as possible to editors, we've replaced some less frequently used formatting types with more common types of wiki formatting that weren't previously listed.
Some of the new additions to the Cheatsheet include:
- How to offset quotations inside of boxes
- How to format a series of images as a gallery
- How to add footnoted asides with additional information in a dedicated 'Notes' section
- How to use Displaytitle to change the capitalization of a page from title case (capitalized words) to lowercase
- How to use Defaultsort to alphabetically sort a page by a letter other than the first letter of its title
We've also made the descriptions of what each listed type of formatting does more informative, with links out to additional Help pages for more information.
What types of formatting do you find yourself looking up most often? Is there a formatting type you wish was listed on the cheatsheet? Let us know and we'll consider adding it to the list!
June 30, 2020
Fanlore is updating its logo! After much behind-the-scenes designing, proposing, voting, and refining on the part of our volunteers, we're excited to present our new look.
The new logo, designed by Fanlore graphic designer Amyl, brings us thematically in line with the rest of the OTW's red logos and includes the imagery of the book and magnifying glass to represent Fanlore's mission of examining and preserving fannish history.
We will greatly miss our old logo, which served us extremely well for 12 years - but it's immortalised on our Fanlore page about Fanlore! And if you want to revisit the old logo in its original setting, check out this 2008 version of the Fanlore homepage saved on the Wayback machine - we've come so far since then!
June 28, 2020
Enjoyed Fanlore Bingo? Save your Bingo cards!
Thanks to everyone who took part in our 2020 Fanlore Bingo Challenge! We had a lot of participants this year, and we’re grateful to each and every one of you.
Since the templates on Fanlore are changed every year, we've made some cute Bingo graphics for you to preserve your cards - and share your success outside of Fanlore!
Select the images below to view the full-size graphics and save them - we've also made graphics for 2019's Bingo Challenge!
2020 Beginner Bingo Card
2020 Expert Bingo Card
2019 Beginner Bingo Card
2019 Expert Bingo Card
We hope to see you in a couple of months for Stub September!
May 26, 2020
Come play Bingo with us on Fanlore!
From Monday 1st June until Sunday 14th June, we're inviting all Fanlore visitors and editors, old and new alike, to play the Fanlore Bingo Challenge.
Challenges are presented on 3x3 bingo cards, with each square containing a different editing challenge. Complete the editing tasks, achieve Bingo! or even Blackout, and win unique badges (made by the talented CarnwennanB312!) to show off and display on your user page.
There are both Beginner and Expert level challenges for newbie editors and seasoned pros. Find out more about how you can participate by reading the Fanlore Bingo Challenge page on Fanlore.
Happy editing!
March 3, 2020
Upcoming changes to Fanlore's Pre-1995 Fan Name Use policy
On 10 March, Fanlore will be making some changes to its policy on Pre-1995 Fan Name Use in order to bring it in line with our broader Identity Protection policy.
In the days prior to the Internet, some fans who wrote in zines (or contributed to other fanworks) used their real names as opposed to a fan name. The expectation at that time was that fanworks would remain within the fairly closed community of fandom. With respect to this different environment and in order to protect the identity of fans, Fanlore created a policy stating that fanwork authors credited in zines and other fannish publications prior to 1995 should be identified with a first name and last initial (e.g. Mary R. as opposed to Mary Richards).
However, as time went by, it became apparent that a great deal of zine content containing fans’ full names and/or preferred names had already been online for many years, and on many established websites. Additionally, many fans writing prior to 1995 used "real" sounding pseudonyms that did not need to be abbreviated. The policy of abbreviating fans' last names has also caused a great deal of confusion over fan authors who share a first name and last initial. Different early print communities (such as science fiction zines) would often use a first initial and last full name to attribute authors, adding to the confusion.
Because of this, the Fanlore Committee has decided to bring the Pre-1995 Fan Name Use policy in line with the wider Fanlore policy on Identity Protection. Author names on fanworks made prior to 1995 will be recorded on Fanlore as they appeared at the time, but if the fan in question wishes to protect their identity, the Fanlore Committee will replace their name with a first name and last initial (e.g. Mary R.), with initials only (e.g. M.R.), or with a pseudonym of the fan’s choice (e.g. Unnamed Fan X). We are happy to work with fans to find an arrangement that they are comfortable with and that sufficiently protects their identity.
We encourage any fans who created fanworks prior to 1995 (and also fans writing in our "grey area" of 1996-1999) to get in touch if they are concerned about their full name appearing on Fanlore: we will take steps to either redact it, or ensure it is redacted if it is added to the wiki at a later date.
From 10 March onwards, the Pre-1995 Fan Name Use policy will be referred to as Pre-2000 Fan Name Use, in order to better encompass the period before the web was more "open", and will appear as a sub-section on the Identity Policy page.
Any fans who have already requested to have their identity protected on Fanlore do not need to do anything: the Fanlore Committee has kept a record of these requests and will continue to honour them to protect fans' privacy.
For more information on identity protection on Fanlore, please review our Identity Protection policy. If you have any questions about this announcement, or want to make an identity protection request, please reach out to the Fanlore Committee via this link and select "Identity Protection" as the message subject.
February 25, 2020
Spotlight on... FanloreProjects!
Thanks to everyone who took part in our recent International Fanworks Day (IFD) Fanlore Challenge - we had a great event with lots of awesome edits made to Fanlore pages.
On Day 7 of the Fanlore Challenge, we challenged event participants to make edits to pages that are part of a FanloreProject, or to join a FanloreProject themselves and edit multiple pages. But just what are FanloreProjects, anyway?
If you're passionate about a specific fandom topic you would like to see more of, you can join a team of Fanlore contributors to help bring your project to life!
Want more examples of meta about the portrayal of disability in fanfic? Interested in exploring the use of tropes in all 11 seasons of X-Files? Then FanloreProjects are for you!
We already have ten active FanloreProjects that you can join, started up by intrepid Fanlore editors, on topics ranging from sci-fi fandom to Naruto, Tumblr archiving to IT.
If your own fannish interest doesn't feature on the list, consider starting your own! Some advice and guidelines can be found on our About page, and our Help page Starting a FanloreProject contains more detailed step-by-step guidance.
All FanloreProject creators will be awarded a badge that they can display on their profile, and participants will also be awarded a badge for every project that they take part in. To qualify for a Creator badge, simply create your FanloreProject and add it to the list of active FanloreProjects. To qualify for a Participant badge, add yourself to the member list on any FanloreProject and make some edits!
February 10, 2020
In honor of International Fanworks Day (IFD) this week, Fanlore is proud to present our third annual week-long editing challenge: the IFD 2020 Fanlore Challenge!
For the next seven days, there will be a different daily editing challenge to complete, with shiny badges available for anyone who participates. Have a go at our simple editing challenges, or if you're feeling ambitious, try one of the advanced bonus challenges, and see if you can earn all of our Roaring Twenties art deco badges!
Visit our challenge Help page to find out how to take part!