Ficbook (Книга Фанфиков)

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Archive
Name: Книга Фанфиков (Kniga Fanfikov, Book of Fanfics)
Date(s):
Archivist:
Founder:
Type: Fanfic, original fic, fic translations and meta
Fandom: Any
URL: https://ficbook.net/
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Книга Фанфиков (Kniga Fanfikov, Book of Fanfics), usually referred to as "Фикбук"/"Ficbook" by the Russian-speaking fans, is a Russian-language-only website for publishing fanfiction and original fiction. The site allows Russian translations of fics originally published in another language elsewhere, but only if the original author has given permission.

Ficbook also allows the posting of "Articles", which are non-fiction works or meta related to fanfiction or to a specific fandom; as examples they list titles like "Death Note: Is Light a villain or a hero?", "Why do we want to write fanfics?", and "Why Naruto behaves implausibly".[1]

Since August 2011, Ficbook has an official Twitter account, @ficbooknet. A group on VK was created in 2012, and the site also has an official telegram channel.

Site Statistics

Number of stories on the site as of June 2022:

  • Gen - 1,319,379
  • Slash - 1,226,765
  • Het - 1,097,783
  • Femslash - 138,214
  • Multi - 178,744
  • Other - 67,808
  • "Article" - 14,329[2]

Impact of Russia's LGBT propaganda law

On December 5, 2022, a law banning "LGBT propaganda" (an expansion of the 2013 law) came into effect. One effect of the law was to ban LGBT literature in Russia.

In October 2022, Ficbook posted to assure its users that slash and femslash hosted on Ficbook would not be affected because Ficbook's servers were not in Russia (the site is hosted in Latvia) and that Ficbook would not give user data to the Russian authorities. The post recommended installing a VPN in case Ficbook was blocked.[3]

Keen-eyed users noticed on December 5 that Ficbook's TOS had been updated with no warning and now contained clauses banning slash and indicating that ficbook would share users' personal data with law enforcement. There was widespread panic on twitter and users declared they were deleting their ficbook accounts and migrating to AO3.[4] On the Holiwarka forum, anons expressed their anger at the site admin's betrayal and discussed downloading their favorite fics before they got deleted.[5][6] Anons also discussed how the new TOS had simply copied parts of the Russian law and whether the new verbiage constituted illegal discrimination against LGBT people in the jurisdiction where ficbook was supposedly located.[7] By the afternoon of December 6, one anon estimated that 10% of the slash on the site had already been deleted.[8] Meanwhile, other ficbook users started adding disclaimers in their profiles that their slash fics weren't propaganda.[9]

Some fans expressed disappointment that Ficbook had chosen profit over principle[10][11] (others thought these fans were naive[12]).

Ficbook, aware of the reactions on social media, posted a short update on December 6 trying to reassure users and received many upset comments on their VK page.[13] Finally, Ficbook posted a detailed announcement about upcoming site changes: All the slash and femslash would be migrated to a separate URL under the name Слэшбук (slashbook) and the main Ficbook's TOS would be updated to prohibit material illegal in Russia. This way, Ficbook expected that the main site would not be blocked in Russia even if slashbook was.[14] The announcement ended as follows:

Мы приносим извинения за то, что новое соглашение по ошибке оказалось на сайте раньше времени. Мы над ним еще работаем и корректируем, чтобы защитить как себя, так и наших авторов. В частности в первой редакции был пункт о том, что “мы будем выдавать данные правоохранительным органам”. Этого пункта в финальной версии не будет, он попал туда по ошибке, виновные побиты веником. Еще раз напоминаем, что мы НЕ ХРАНИМ никаких ваших данных, в том числе данные карт (их хранит третья сторона и у нас нет к ним доступа). Наши авторы и читатели - самое главное, что у нас есть, все будет хорошо.

Ficbook [14]

We apologize that the new agreement appeared on the site ahead of time by mistake. We are still working on it and adjusting it to protect both ourselves and our authors. In particular, in the first edition there was a clause that "we will issue data to law enforcement agencies." This item will not be in the final version, it got there by mistake, the perpetrators were beaten with a broom. Once again, we DO NOT STORE any of your data, including card data (they are stored by a third party and we do not have access to them). Our authors and readers are the most important thing that we have, everything will be fine.

machine translation

Although many users were reportedly satisfied with this explanation, others were unimpressed by the change itself or how the site communicated the change.[15][16]

Despite the assurances, people remained suspicious about whether Ficbook would cooperate with Russian authorities[17][18] and continued to migrate to AO3. English-speaking AO3 users noticed the influx of Russian-language fanfic.[19] Ironically, when AO3 was blocked in Russia a few months later, it further popularized the website as a place that the fans can trust not to give their data to the Russian government.[20]

The wank was reported on by the Russian SF magazine Mir Fantastiki.[21]

As of April 2023, slash fanfic is still visible on the main ficbook URL.

Approximately on July 12, 2024, Ficbook was banned in Russia altogether.[22][23]

[LynnFragile]

I am from Russia and I am a fanfic writer. What can I say, the blocking of Ficbook has become a tragedy for thousands of people. Ficbook was a place for creativity, self-expression and finding like-minded people. We didn't do anything wrong, we just wrote and read fanfics, but it was taken away from us, our favorite hobby was taken away. And it hurts a lot. While there is a way to access the site with VPN, many people simply do not know how to use it, or it is inconvenient for them. Ficbook management is trying to find a way out, but LGBT content will be blocked for Russian residents anyway.[24]

References

  1. ^ Rules, accessed May 18, 2018
  2. ^ official telegram post, Archived version, archive.is, Jun 19, 2022.
  3. ^ Слэш/фемслэш и закон о «запрете гей-пропаганды» в России (Slash/femslash and the law on “banning gay propaganda” in Russia), Archived version, 19 October 2022.
  4. ^ tweet by ok_sirok, 5 December 2022.
  5. ^ Форум» ...и прочий интернет» Фикбук (Ficbook thread), Archived version, Holiwarka forum, 6 December 2022.
  6. ^ "Мерзко от того, что фикбук живет за счет авторов, которые несут ему контент. И вот так плевать им в лицо, меняя пользовательское соглашение тихо, за спиной, делая их виновными в нарушении закона и крайними, если что. Не сообщают об этом нигде. При этом орали на все соц.сети, что они не в юрисдикции РФ и авторам ничего не будет... так мерзко поступают." (It's disgusting that the ficbook lives at the expense of the authors who bring content to it. And so spit in their faces, changing the user agreement quietly, behind their backs, making them guilty of violating the law and extreme, if anything. It is not reported anywhere. At the same time, they yelled at all social networks that they were not under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation and nothing would happen to the authors ... they act so vilely.) Форум» ...и прочий интернет» Фикбук (Ficbook thread), Archived version, Holiwarka forum, 6 December 2022.
  7. ^ Форум» ...и прочий интернет» Фикбук (Ficbook thread), Archived version, Holiwarka forum, 6 December 2022.
  8. ^ "Судя по тому, как опустели мои сборники 'прочитано№...', добитые до тысячи, за последние 12 часов с сайта удалили или скрыли 10% всего слэша. Примерно столько же ушло за всё предыдущее время с начала обсуждения закона." (Judging by how empty my collections of "read # ...", finished to a thousand, over the past 12 hours, 10% of the entire slash has been removed or hidden from the site. Approximately the same amount has gone over the entire previous time since the beginning of the discussion of the law.) Форум» ...и прочий интернет» Фикбук (Ficbook thread), Archived version, Holiwarka forum, 6 December 2022.
  9. ^ twitter thread of example disclaimers collected by amon_pd, Archived version, 6 December 2022.
  10. ^ tweet thread by AkiyaPercy, Archived version, 6 December 2022.
  11. ^ comment in "Do ao3 give out personal information?", Archived version, r/Fanfiction, 10 December 2022.
  12. ^ tweet by _kmjngn, Archived version, 6 December 2022.
  13. ^ важная информация (Important Information), Archived version, 6 December 2022.
  14. ^ a b Изменения на Фикбуке и создание Слэшбука: сайта для слэша и фемслэша (Changes on Ficbook and the creation of Slashbook: a site for slash and femslash), Archived version, Ficbook site news, 6 December 2022.
  15. ^ tweet by HugsFromStars, Archived version, 6 December 2022.
  16. ^ tweet by adskayapanda, Archived version, 6 December 2022.
  17. ^ tweet by trinny_k1, Archived version, 6 December 2022.
  18. ^ "С фикбука бежали потому, что никто не верит, что там не выдадут личные данные." ("They fled from fikbuk because no one believes that personal data will not be given out there.") Index» ...и прочий интернет» АО3 — обсудим?, Archived version, 6 December 2023.
  19. ^ What's up with the Russians?, Archived version by Clem2605 in r/Fanfiction subreddit, 11 Feb 2023.
  20. ^ "Я наоборот успокоен, что ао3, выходит, не отдал таки никакие личные данные, теперь на практике это видно." ("On the contrary, I am reassured that ao3, it turns out, did not give away any personal data, now it can be seen in practice.") Index» ...и прочий интернет» Фикбук, Archived version, Holiwarka anon thread, 15 April 2023.
  21. ^ Сайт фанфиков «Фикбук» запустил «Слэшбук» — версию для слэша и фемслэша (Fanfiction website Ficbook launches Slashbook - slash and femslash version), Archived version, www.mirf.ru, 7 December 2022.
  22. ^ Russia blocks top fanfiction platform in continued crackdown on ‘LGBT propaganda’, Archived version, 12 July 2024.
  23. ^ Роскомнадзор заблокировал крупнейший русскоязычный сайт с фанфиками «Фикбук», от которого ранее требовал удалить «пропаганду ЛГБТ», Archived version, 12 July 2024.
  24. ^ comment by LynnFragile on r/FanFiction 'ficbook got BANNED in Russia' post, Archived version, 20 Jul 2024.
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