Kirk/Spock Online Festival
| Challenge | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Kirk/Spock Online Festival (KSOF) |
| Date(s): | 2000-2005 |
| Moderator(s): | kira-nerys, Jenna Sinclair & Dusky |
| Founder: | kira-nerys, Jenna Sinclair & Dusky |
| Type: | fanfiction |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: The Original Series |
| Associated Community: | KirkSpockFest, ASCEM |
| URL: | AO3 Collections and associated archive links: |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Kirk/Spock Online Festivals were a series of challenge festivals founded by kira-nerys and the editors of Beyond Dreams Press, Jenna Sinclair and Dusky. The first festival was announced to various mailing lists and groups in August of 2000 as "following in the footsteps of the Spock Fuh-Q Fest and the Kirk Fuh-Q Fest".[1] It was such a success that four more K/S festivals followed, with the final stories published online in 2005.
Management of the festivals was co-ordinated through a restricted membership egroup (KirkSpockFest) for the writers and organisers only, but the distribution of stories and art changed over the years. Works from the first festival were published online at Lady Kardasi's Domain and a subset published in the print zine Festival, but from the second, held in 2002, stories and artworks were distributed first via the SBS-ezine e-group and subsequently published online as part of the Side by Side e-zine's Special Editions.
Festival rules from the very beginning included an exclusivity requirement, where contributors were forbidden from distributing their work either in printed or online form until a certain date or elapsed time was reached. Only after that time were contributors free to publish their works as they chose.
The 2004/2005 Winter Edition was the last KSOF published. Although challenges for an Autumn 2005 festival were available at Lady Kardasi's Domain and the usual announcements were made, the main driver behind the festivals, kira-nerys, was minimising her involvement online for personal reasons and the proposed autumn festival did not proceed.
Announcement
From kira-nerys in August 2000:
Sorry for crossposting like this, but we're just now launching a new Online Challenge Festival. It's called the Kirk/Spock Online Festival and follows in the footsteps of the Spock Fuh-Q Fest and the Kirk Fuh-Q Fest.It's going to consist of K/S stories solely. No other pairing allowed. And thus the challenge will be somewhat different from the SFF, KFF and the EFF. Instead of pairing Kirk or Spock up with lots of other characters, there are a bunch of scenarios written down that the authors will write. It's again the luck of the draw that decides what scenario you will end up with. There is some lee-way of course. If the scenario that you first pick doesn't catch your fancy, you do get a second or maybe even a third chance. There is also the chance to trade with one of the other listmembers.
However, we do want to try and keep some of the randomness and the challenge factor intact, so please don't disregard your scenarios without giving them proper consideration.
Everyone who joins this Festival *has to* participate. *No-one* can join this list without agreeing to write a story. And everyone who do join must agree to the rules of the festival. So before joining read this through thoroughly.[1]
Website Lost
An administrative oversight meant the domain name for Lady Kardasi's Domain (home of all the Kirk/Spock festivals) was not re-registered and was sold by the domain registration company to a third party,[2] rendering the site unavailable. Initially it was thought that the site could be hosted elsewhere, but this never eventuated, and although some parts of the e-zine can still be accessed via SBS Main Page, Archived version and KSOF 2000, Archived version more and more is being lost over time. The 2020 Open Doors' import of Side by Side into the AO3 included the first Kirk/Spock Online Festival in 2000 as well as those which were published as Special Editions of Side by Side. All of the KSOF stories and all but 2 of the artworks were recovered and imported to the AO3.
Reactions
See, you have a brilliant and great achievement in the KSOF project; what could be more fun! Everything I read was great! It was so sexy! Your energy kept it going! Not to mention your intelligence! I loved the scenarios and the postings and the whole thing, and as you know I loved it so much I'm on the second wave! KSOF was a great thing, sparking interest all across the board for treksmut![3]
Thankyou, thank you. The SFF/KFF/EFF are terrific, but I've been *praying* for this. The suggested scenarios are a hoot - good luck to all who join, I look forward Very Eagerly for all of these stories. Oh, I can't wait!![4]
Wow, this is beautiful! I love the layout and I can't wait to read the rest of the stories. I just read BatsRGre8's "The Bonding Contingent" and I'm really impressed. If the rest of the stories are half as good, I [won't] leave this place for a week![5]
I just read "But Never Parted." It's completely engrossing. I couldn't stop reading! More![5]
Wonderful idea. Beautiful site. Looking forward to the printed edition![5]
Festival Summaries
See the subpages for details about individual festivals, including artwork examples and story feedback:
Subpages for Kirk/Spock Online Festival: