Open Letter

Synonyms:
See also:	Personal Statement
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An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience. Open letters can take the form of a letter addressed to an individual but provided to the public through letterzines, mailing lists, personal journals, blogs, and other media. An open letter can be written by one person or by a group. Some open letters contain a legal stance that, while mailed to an individual, is meant to be publicized so that others are aware of its content.

Motivations Behind Open Letters

• to state the author's position on a particular issue
• an attempt to start or end a wider dialogue around an issue
• to criticise someone else's actions
• to attempt to focus broad attention on the letter's recipient, prompting them to some action
• to make public a communication that must take place as a letter for reasons of formality
• to publicly apologize to as many fans as possible
• as a fandom flounce
• for humor value

Examples of Open Letters in Print Fandom

See Category:Open Letters.

• Open Letter by "S.T.A.B. Paramount" Regarding a Proposed Boycott of All Paramount Productions (1973)
• Open Letter by Mary Lou Regarding Explicit Fanworks (1977)
• Open Letter to Star Wars Fans by the Duncans (1980)
• Open Letters to Star Wars Zine Publishers by Maureen Garrett (1981)
• Open Letter to Fandom by Teri Meyer Regarding Spock's Movie Death (1982)
• Open Letter to K/S Fandom by David Gerrold (1985)
• Open Letter to the Editors of All K/S Zines & All Other "/" Media Zines (1985)
• Open Letter by Helena Seabright Regarding "Alien Brothers" (1986)
• Open Letter by Della Van Hise Regarding "Killing Time" (1986)
• Open Letter by the Gang of Six Regarding Courts of Honor, a series (1987)
• Anatomy of a Letterzine (1987)
• Open Letter by "Name Withheld By Request" (1988)
• Harve Bennett's Farewell Open Letter (1990)
• An Open Letter to Harve Bennett... In Fandom's Defense (1990)
• Holes in My Yard, an open letter by Marion Zimmer Bradley in which she warns fans to cease creating fanworks based on her creations (1992)
• Open Letter to Fandom by Alexis Fegan Black Regarding Zine Pirating (1993)
• The Generic Slash Defense Letter (1995)
• An Open Letter to J.K. Rowling from Mugglenet and The Harry Potter Lexicon (2006)
• the series of open letters relating to Middle-Earth Fanfiction Awards (2012)
• many of the Personal Statements in adzines and letterzines were, by definition, open letters to fellow fans
• open letters from Gene Roddenberry were published in some zines, one example is in STAG #13 (1975), another in STAG #25 (1977); for the latter, see Open Letter to Spock-Nimoy Fans

Links to Some Other Open Letters

• An Open Letter to Fandom, ^{Archived version} (2009, an open letter form)

• An open letter to white people in SFF fandom, ^{Archived version} (2009)

• Open Letter to my Fandom, ^{Archived version} (2011, NCIS)

• On Winter’s Doorstep: An Open Letter to the Game of Thrones Fandom, ^{Archived version} (2011)

• Open Letter to the Twilight Fan Fiction Fandom, ^{Archived version} (2012)

• An Open Letter to Slash Fandom, ^{Archived version} (2012)

• An Open Letter to Steampunk Fandom, ^{Archived version} (2012)

• Open Letter to the Spartacus Fandom, ^{Archived version} (2012)

• An Open Letter to the Doctor Who Fandom, ^{Archived version} (2013)

• An open letter to the #Twilight fandom from a worn out Twihard, ^{Archived version} (2013)

• An Open Letter to my Fandom, ^{Archived version} (2013)

• Open Letter to the Sterek Fandom, ^{Archived version} (2013)

• An Open Letter to the Teen Wolf Fandom: We Gotta Talk, ^{Archived version} (2013)

• An Open Letter to the Glee Fandom, ^{Archived version} (2013)

• An Open Letter to The Men In Genre Fandom, ^{Archived version} (2013)

• Convention Manifesto: An Open Letter to Fandom Fest (and organizers of the future), ^{Archived version} (2013)

• Bring Wendy Back – Or, really, CSI, where did your diversity go?, ^{Archived version} (2013)