I searched my name at Fanlore this week.

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Title:	I searched my name at Fanlore this week.
Creator:	heroofthreefaces
Date(s):	February 6, 2018
Medium:	Tumblr post
Fandom:
Topic:
External Links:	Original Post at Tumblr I searched my name at Fanlore this week.
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I searched my name at Fanlore this week. is an February 2018 Tumblr post by heroofthreefaces.

Some Topics Discussed

• Fanlore
• notability
• Wikipedia, TV Tropes
• entitlement
• wishing someone else would do the work

The Post

I seached my name at Fanlore this week. With the exception of a Star Trek Voyager filk to the tune of the theme from Gilligan’s Island having won an annual alt.startrek.creative award during the heyday of Usenet, I seem to have disappeared with the print fanzine era. That’s what comes of hosting your work yourself to the exclusion of FF.net and AO3, I guess. Of course if it really mattered to me I would have looked before now.

Confusion Over Wikis and Plural Points of View

2018

[MeeDee]

If you appeared in media fandom print fanzines, there may be info about you….that’s where Fanlore is strongest. They don’t have a list of every media fandom fanzine published, so perhaps you can add the info?

[lcn71]

My particular slice of the Highlander fandom isn’t there at all. It’s like the first 3 years of the fandom just didn’t exist.

History is written by the victors.

[MeeDee]

History is written by the people who show up and write it. The only reason Fanlore has info on 8000 fanzines is because a few crazed fans spent 5 years every day adding the info. And scoured eBay sales for info about zines. And badgered friends to send them info about zines. And pretty much are obsessed with everything fanzines.

In fact every damn thing on Fanlore was added by a fan who rolled out of bed one morning, looked at Fanlore and sputtered: “Hey, that’s not right” and then sat down and started writing about their crazy love.

So head over to Fanlore and claim your victory spoils and start adding those missing 3 years.#fandom history #if you love something #tell the world #tell Fanlore #something's wrong on the Internet #but that's OK #we're gonna fix it #or rather #you're gonna #cause no one knows your fandom better

[fangirlarthur]

Agree completely. Fanlore editors are great but if they weren’t there at the beginning of a fandom, it can be difficult to explain how that fandom has evolved over time. Information has gotten lost as fans have moved away from print zines and older websites have been shut down.

If you have information add it, and if it’s inappropriate someone else will edit it. By adding more information. But it will never be deleted.

Your experience is part of our history.

[roachpatrol]

HISTORY IS WRITTEN BY THE PEOPLE WHO SHOW UP AND WRITE IT

[grammarmancer]

#fanlore isn't wikipedia!

[smoldworf]

#what part of wiki is so hard to understand??? #an honestly? #written by the victors? #fandom does not have a official historian ffs

[auronlu]

Complaining about fanlore not having things is like complaining that no one’s written a wiki entry or posted a photoset of your favorite thing. I have a huge chunk of 1980 and 1990s fandom I really should add but I haven’t because I’m a lazy ass. It sounds like you are more motivated so GO DO IT and stop waiting for another fan just like you to do it for you!

[heroofthreefaces]
While this is good advice in the general case, nevertheless there is a distinct conflict of interest (of a sort that is actively against the TOS at Wikipedia) in me making a Fanlore page about The Hero of Three Faces.

[MeeDee]

Actually, no it doesn’t present a conflict of interest. Fanlore does not use Wikipedia’s TOS or follow Wikipedia’s gatekeeping policies. It uses “plural points of view” which means you don’t have to have a purely objective perspective in order to contribute. If your page is biased in one direction, someone will market it “needs more plural points of view ” and then someone else will help fix it. Fanlore recognizes that fandom has always been a participatory experience not an academic or journalistic one. So go forth and make pages about the things that you love. This is your history and no one else will write it but you.

[klia00]

Let me say first that I love and appreciate Fanlore – a lot – but actually really dislike its lack of objective perspective, and think it creates a potentially dicey, even abusive, situation, considering how volatile and nasty fandoms and fans can be. Because it means people are free to disparage anyone whose fanworks or opinions they don’t like, and the vitriol just… stays there for the world to see, forever. And unless someone else cares enough to take the time to write something positive, the garbage is basically all anyone will ever see.

Another thing: There are people who aren’t even aware there’s a Fanlore page about them, and would never know something like this was happening. And of those who do know, how many do you think check regularly to see exactly what’s on their page? No one I know.

Just… be very aware of the potential pitfalls

[believerindaydreams formerly thatdeepandlovelydark]

Actually, their guidelines don't forbid creators making their own pages, as such. Though I can see how it doesn't sound quite right.

[omgpurpleann]

that’s how wikis function? how can you complain that the wiki is missing stuff that only you can provide? (your work)?

[heroofthreefaces]

Perhaps that’s how smaller wikis work - and yours isn’t the first comment I’ve got suggesting it - but 1) it’s against the TOS at WIkipedia and that forms an impression 2) perhaps I’m spoiled but I didn’t have to do it for myself at TVTropes (Or, for that matter, at Wikipedia. There was an entry there for Arthur, King of Time and Space before notability became a thing.).

[MeeDee]

It is not against Fanlore’s TOS to write about yourself or what you know about fandom. We use Plural Point of View instead of demanding notability. We realize that fandom is participatory, and that a fandom “wiki” (lower case) is not an academic or journalistic publication. Because fandom rarely meets the mundane world’s notability requirement …there is a reason most fandom activities won’t be recorded on Wikipedia. They delete fan run conventions labeling them as “just a bunch of school kids getting together”

But back to Fanlore….. if the article is too one sided or unbalanced, someone can always label it “Needs More PPOV” and another someone will see if they can add more info (aka..it’s a wiki and it takes many hands to create.)

I find it sad when the voices that measure fandom and finding it wanting and lacking “notability” come from within the community. Fandom may be participatory…but we do not have to participate in our own marginalization.

[heroofthreefaces]

I’d still rather draw the cartoons but you’ve got me thinking now.

[astolat]

This, this, this! I mean, we are mostly NOT objective in fandom, and Fanlore does not ask you to be either. You are welcome to share your own experience and perspective even on yourself and your own projects. :)

[sixohsixoheightfourtwo]

#plural point of view is my favourite fanlore policy!!! #FANLORE

[morganmuffle]

#fanlore #otw #plural points of view is a beautiful description of fandom

2020

[ilsa-fireswan]

Not that long ago someone messaged me that they wanted to do a fanlore quote and link back one of my pieces discussing Blake’s 7 influence in Joel Cornah’s books. Because it was the only piece they’d ever seen on that particular subject and they are still actively contributing information on a 40-year old fandom.

So yeah. It’s Wikipedia for Fandom. Add. Edit. Contribute. Help preserve your fandom history!

Related Comments

[post by rivkat reblogged from meeedeee]

#fanlore #wikipedia #nothing about us without us #sometimes that slogan has a sadder meaning than other times #don't even get me started on wikipedia's fan fiction stuff

[post by xcziel reblogged from fanculturesfancreativity]

#just points out #wikis are not impartial #its like dictionaries #everyone uses them as reference #few give any thought to those #who edit it #their opinions and where they come from

Response

Several other authors and fans have decided to follow suit with heroofthreefaces and search their names on Fanlore, some of the reactions are hilarious, others not so much. There were those who created their strap to improve entries about your name, as you would to ask for your information to be removed.^{[citation needed]}

[deducecanoe]

I don’t exist there at all. Probably for the best :)

[urban-trek-thru-middle-earth]

Holy shit. I just searched the website, and found my name attached to a Star Trek zine I’d done a drawing for in 1989. Wow.

[mollokoplus]

Holy shit! MollokoPlus is there under her real name!

[iwilltrytobereasonable]

Hmm, I think I probably only show up in the Kuryakin Files, but not clearly identified and different for each of the two issues.

…huh, apparently my awkward Del Floria’s interviews are in there. MFU fans are serious about archiving.