X-Files-Fanfic
| Fanfiction Mailing List | |
|---|---|
| Name: | X-Files Fan Fiction Mailing List, or XFF |
| Date(s): | 1995 - c. 2021 ? |
| Moderated: | |
| Moderators/List Maintainers: | Gil Trevizo |
| Founder(s): | Chael Hall |
| Fandom: | The X-Files |
| URL: | https://www.x-philes.com/lists/xff http://mail.utep.edu/~trevizo/xff.html (via Wayback) http://www.slip.net/~takakin0/xfc.htm (dead link) |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Created in 1995, X-Files-Fanfic (XFF) was the first and, for many years, the largest automated mailing list for X-Files fanfiction.
XFF was for fanfiction only and subscribers can choose how frequently they receive posts: instantly (every post as it's sent), digest (all the day's posts compiled into one email), or weekly (one message per week listing all of that week's fanfic). Writers also had the choice of posting only to the list or posting to both the list and the alt.tv.x-files.creative newsgroup, with the mailing list automatically forwarding the story to the newsgroup.
XFF was privately owned and hosted on chaos.x-philes.com. The list is still running, though largely inactive. Its companion list FicTalk was discontinued in 2006.
Links
Presented as a Safe Space
It was presented as a safe haven from the non-moderated Usenet by one of its administrators, Gil Trevizo.[1]
There has been a thread here on why people still read this newsgroup with the archives and the mailing lists. Well, this is *exactly* why a lot of people choose to use x-files-fanfic instead of the newsgroup -- there is little if nothing that can be done to protect people from this kind of abuse on the newsgroup.
Something like this could never happen on x-files-fanfic or fictalk (and I doubt it would happen on any of the non-automated mailing lists either), because those lists are moderated. Flames are not allowed, either on the list or in private email. If a writer is flamed for something they posted on x-files-fanfic, then all they have to do is contact the list administrator, and the administrator can sort things out -- unsubscribing the flamer if necessary.
I understand that posting on the newsgroup provides extra distribution of your fanfic (extra not greater -- x-files-fanfic has 940 subscribers now), but if you're looking for protection then you won't find it here. Usenet is a crapshoot and you take your chances. But with x-files-fanfic and fictalk there's no worries about flames, and with EMXC there's no worries about plagiarism. So if you're concerned about protection, now you know where to come for it. [later post on the same thread]: Lemme tell you, when the debate got a little hot on fictalk, I emailed every person that unsubscribed during that period, encouraging them NOT to unsubscribe, trying to make people feel comfortable debating issues. Besides addresses that have malfunctioned, I've only unsubscribed two people from a mailing list. Both were on x-files-fanfic -- one was child who kept making non-fanfic posts to the list after I asked him not to twice and never recieved a response until after the fact. The other was a plagiarist, who I offered to listen to and come to some kind of understanding with but ignored me.[2]
1997 Turmoil
In 1997, there was intense turmoil regarding X-Files-Fanfic (and FicTalk) that involved plagiarism, who owns what list, access to fiction and lists, flaming, open letters, power moves, censorship, personal disagreements, unsubscribing...
- Joining other xf fanfic mailing lists, January 17, 1997
- an open letter to the chaos.taylored.com mailing lists, June 28, 1997
- an open letter to the chaos.taylored.com mailing lists, a second post, June 29, 1997
- Mailing lists and Archives and Usenet..., June 29, 1997
- An open letter to ATXC, June 30, 1997
References
- ^ Ironically, Trevizo was ousted just over a year later from FicTalk. See an open letter to the chaos.taylored.com mailing lists.
- ^ Gil Trevizo, We're Being Bashed on atxf, September 20, 1996