The FanLib Brochure

Title:	The FanLib Brochure
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The FanLib Brochure was a 2004 publication by FanLib's owners.

It was meant for investors and people in media industry, NOT fans.

The brochure became part of the monetization of fanworks discussion in May 2007 after fans discovered it.

Removal

It was available at the "My2Centences" website. It was removed in May 2007, likely after it gained high visibility after being linked to and discussed by fans.

From the statement at the site, "If you're looking for the FanLib brochure, it has been removed. Published in 2004, the brochure contained outdated information for special collaborative events."

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  "THE AMAZING Fan-Powered MEDIA EVENT - See How To: GROW AUDIENCES and INCREASE REVENUE!"

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  "Invite millions of fans to collectively create an original story or script in a groundbreaking event that culminates with the production and distribution of the fan-oowered creation Think American Idol for written material." "INCREASE AUDIENCE - IF THEY BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME."

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  "YUP!" "FANLIB PLAYER 8765 - "Last night our team lead at work left me a pile of stuff to do but once again I slacked off to feed my (FanLib) addiction... This contest should come with a warning label or something."

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  "MANAGED & MODERATED TO THE MAX. All the FANLIB action takes place in a highly customized environment that YOU control."

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  "FAN TESTED WITH PROVEN RESULTS. In a recent test, BANLIB helped Harry Potter fan-site SnitchSeeker.com achieve stunning games with negligable markting and player incentives. Audience & Revenue up 398%, Registered Members up 280% - Based on date provided by SnitchSeeker.com."
  "Your Amazing Fan-Powered Event isn't just good for you, it's good for us all. While encouraging the public to read, write and express themselves creatively, [and] you're also helping your brand..."

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  "[FANLIB] is a great marketing idea." - Mike Benson, SVP Marketing, Advertising & Promotion, ABC Television, 12/15/03" - "NO JOKE!"

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  "FANLIB TECHNOLOGIES (a division of My2Centences, LLC) develops, markets, and manages innovative social software and web services that unleash the creativity of the worldwide public and generation remarkable value for businesses. FanLib TM, the Company's patent-pending flagship product, aims to spark a new creative phenomenon by enabling groups of all sizes to collaborate democratically on "chain stories" and other written and mixed-media compositions."

From the Brochure

MANAGED & MODERATED TO THE MAX. All the FANLIB action takes place in a highly customized environment that YOU control.

• As with a coloring book, players must "stay within the lines."
• Restrictive player's terms-of-service protects your rights and property.
• Moderated "scene missions" keep the story under your control.
• Full monitoring & management of submissions & players.
• Automatic "profanity filter."
• Completed work is just the 1st draft to be polished by the pros.

A CLASSIC GAME WITH A TECHNO TWIST! FANLIB works like the classic "campfire" chain-storytelling game in which a group of players improvises a story one passage at a time. Only with FANLIB, millions can play and democracy rules!

A suite of exclusive features helps make FANLIB easy and fun for anyone to play:

• User-friendly design
• Minimum time & skill requirements
• Short submissions (only 1-3 pgs.)
• Auto-formatting like a screenplay
• Moderated "scene missions" to gently guide players
• Addictive rapid-fire voting style
• Rolling eliminations to separate the wheat from the chaff
• Loyalty points to encourage even greater participation

SO, WHAT'S THE STORY?

The kinds of events your audience can created are as limitless as your imagination. The FANLIB team will brainstorm with you to develop the perfect plan. Here are some examples:

• A new installment of an existing series
• A dream sequence or "what-if" scenario that can even launch a spin-off
• A parody of a famous character or franchise
• A new adventure featuring Dracula, Hercules or even Santa Claus
• An entirely original creation

Comments from FanLib About the Brochure

I'd like to clear up some confusion around a FanLib brochure from 2004 that is being discussed. As a company, we have two distinct parts:

1) This beta site, FanLib.com (launched in March 2007)

2) Special fan-powered events. In this second part, where we actually started years ago, we work with other companies and sponsors to create special fan events around online storytelling. Each event is governed by its own clear rules and terms of service that are separate from those for the FanLib.com site referred to above. This is necessary because contests, sweepstakes, prizes etc. need their own rules and regulations. The brochure that people are referring to was written for potential companies and sponsors and relates only to these special events and not the FanLib.com beta site. At the time we published the brochure, our URL linked to a site that essentially described the events for companies and sponsors in more detail.

I hope that addresses the confusion.

Thanks, The FanLib Team

Comments from Fans About the Brochure

[Lis Riba]: Isn’t that interesting? It’s a perpetual motion machine — excuse me, an automatic content generator. This content generation will be done by fanfic writers, who’ll be moderated to an inch and made to color inside the lines. Their work will be used as raw material to be finished and exploited by professionals. And all shall be done for the profit of FanLib’s backers and customers.

[Jonquil]:

Fanlib's official response is that this brochure was designed in 2004 for a previous version of Fanlib, not for the current 2007 offering.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070630022539/http://www.fanlib.com/posts/list/75/153.page#2392

This means, of course, that the contempt for fans expressed so abundantly in the 2004 brochure in no way carries over to their 2007 product.

[Adam Lipkin]: ...that brochure contains what appears to be a pretty gratuitous Tivo trademark violation on page 3.

[James MacDonald]: "In case you're wondering, FanLib's not new to fanfiction. Since 2001, they've been producing really cool web events with people like CBS, Showtime and HarperCollins to bring fan creativity into the big leagues."

With that one paragraph in the letter they spammed to fanwriters, FanLib acknowledged that brochure. It's theirs. That's their attitude. No use denying it.

Pwned.

[Leva Cygnet]: I'll buy the brochure was written for a past incarnation of fanlib, likely the L-word contest.

However, it shows a marked lack of understanding of fandom that they *ever* put this on the web. The tone of the brochure stinks of a patronizing stereotyping of fans. It's absolutely guaranteed to piss people off.

[Teresa]: I thought there was a chance the brochure was no longer current, but it says a lot that they could have written it at all. They don't just fail in their understanding of fanfic. They don't understand writers. They were going to make writers color inside the lines? Pray tell, how?

[Jules]: OK, so the PDF is about some kind of collaborative fiction RPG. I think the "staying within lines" and stuff is all quite justified by the fact that they appear to be suggesting that the property owner actually distribute the results as an official part of their series. OK, I don't really see how it ever could have worked, but yes, if you're trying to get fan written content to be publishable as part of the series that inspired it, you're going to have to be pretty strict about controlling it. You don't want the fans to do something that upsets your future plans for the series, for instance.

I think what I'm saying is that other than being (IMO) an unrealistic business plan, I don't see what's so bad about this brochure. If you look at it as what it is: an attempt to get fan-generated content accepted by the original authors for distribution -- presumably as a canon story in their universe -- then the sort of moderation they're talking about is necessary.

[Dorothy Rothschild]:

The cover of that brochure is giving me mental images of the cover of a Dilbert book. The font, or the sarcasm?

— Restrictive player’s terms-of-service protects your rights and property

Hmm, so they are assuming a contributor pool of one. This may be wise.

[Sara Rosenbaum]: Yes, it's clear just from reading the brochure that it dates from an earlier incarnation of FanLib, but it gives a revealing glimpse of FanLib's evolution and indeed, the etymology of the name "FanLib."

I had wondered, earlier in the saga, whether there was some reference to Mad Libs intended - or whether the "Lib" part of the moniker was meant to recall "Women's Lib." The brochure seems to strongly indicate the former: fans are supposed to be simply "filling in the blanks" in some showrunner's episode (or Fanisode - TM).

Bleh.

[Adam Stephanides]: My computer wouldn't open the PDF file. But FanLib used to (and might still) run fanfic contests in collaboration with the copyright holders, and I believe the brochure was meant for these. Some of the lines quoted by Lis don't fit their current endeavor. "Restrictive player’s terms-of-service protects your rights and property": the TOS may be bad for contributors, but I don't see how it protects copyright-holder's rights specifically. (Copyright holders would be able to sue, if they wanted, whatever the TOS said.) "Moderated “scene missions” keep the story under your control": this doesn't even make sense applied to a fanfiction archive, let alone one apparently run on the principle of "accept anything."

And I'm somehow not shocked to learn that another company turns out to care primarily about making money, not about serving its users.

Again, none of this is to defend that brochure, which mainly strikes me as silly. And it may have been dumb to make it available on the web (though would you have preferred that they tried to suppress it?). And I'm certainly not defending Chris Williams' bizarre screed.

[Jules]: I have no idea how the company was presenting itself when it produced that brochure. As it was a different project, it was undoubtedly marketing itself in a different way. I honestly don't see what's so bad about that brochure.

[Victoria]: FWIW on 5-29-2007 I followed the link to my2centences.com and found the .pdf and all other data removed because "the information is outdated." The only thing left on the site is a link to an e-mail address.

[aljan]:

Well, one of the things that has been brought up repeatedly on forums is that there's a brochure designed to appeal to corporate sponsers. It has a section where it specifically says that "when the work of the fans is complete, the ultimate prize is to actually produce and distribute their creation" and advertises that its "restrictive terms of service protects your rights and property". My problem here is that these comments are so clearly counter to what fans have been told, especially as regards republishment of work posted to Fanlib.

The brochure is here: http://www.my2centences.com/my2c_new/FanLib_info.pdf It's a 6 page pdf file, and it makes an interesting read since you can see what the sponsers are being told.