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FanFiction.Net
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| Fanfiction archive
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| Xing Li
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| Xing Li
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FanFiction.Net (often abbreviated as FF.Net or FFN) is an automatedfan fiction archive site. It was founded on October 15, 1998 by Xing Li. As of 2005, FanFiction.Net is the largest and most popular fan fiction website in the world, hosting more than one million stories, for literally thousands of fandoms and in over 30 languages.
The site is split into eight main categories: Anime/Manga, Books, Cartoons, Miscellaneous, Games, Comics, Movies, and TV Shows. Each has an abundance of subcategories, with over 100 in each main category (as of March 22, 2006, "Anime/Manga" alone has 380. Registration is free and registered users can submit their fan fiction for publication on the site, maintain a biography or profile, read and review other stories, contact or interact with each other through the website, and maintain a list of favorite stories and authors.
The site is, at the present time, run solely by Xing Li. Prior to 2005, FanFiction.Net had a number of staff members. They included Meimi, Cairnsy, Michelle Savage, Steven Savage, Tara LJC, Sheryl Martin, Michela Ecks, Haven and Flourish.
FanFiction.Net has been and continues to be a major influence in on-line fan fiction communities for several reasons. These include: ease of access, the number of readers, the review system, the number of stories, the breadth of categories represented on site, the number of languages supported (ranging from English to Esperanto), and the centralization of a number of fan fiction communities and forums around the site.
The largest section for any fanfiction subject on the site is the one for the Harry Potter series of books, with 252,153 fanfictions as of June 24, 2006. It is also one of the most active, increasing by approximately 600 stories each month. [link]
The main page (as of January 1, 2005) is shown in the image above. The description that follows is for the site (as of April 17, 2006), but no significant changes have been made in that time. The site logo appears in the upper left corner, above a blue bar containing several links. The links include the most recently uploaded works and the site's search engine. Below the bar is a box containing links to pages for each major category. Site news, usually notice of downtime for maintenance, appears below the categories. Ads are placed in the upper right corner and along the right edge of the page.
The category links lead to a page listing subcategories, such as Star Trek or Happy Days under the category TV Shows. Each subcategory title is a link leading to the listing of stories under that subcategory. By default, Stories are listed in order of when they were last updated, the most recent ones first. The stories may be filtered by length, genre, rating, or language. Stories are listed in the following format:
Story Title by Author Pennamereviews
Story Summary
In-Progress/Complete - Fiction Rating - Language - Genre - Chapters - Word Count - Reviews - Date of Last Update - Publish Date
The title is a link which leads to the page containing the story. The penname leads to the author's profile, which allows one to contact the author through private messsages or sometimes email. The profile also lists the author's other works on the site and the author's favourite stories and authors. The "reviews" link (in red) leads to a page containing readers' opinions of the work, with the most recent ones at the top.
Policies and policy changes
FanFiction.Net has insituted several policy changes as it grew in size and visibility. These policies were multi-randing and frequently led to the deletion of certain types and genres of fan fiction and materials based on the copyrighted works of certain authors.
Honoring author requests
FanFiction.Net, because of its size, has attracted the attention of a number of professional authors and producers where the site hosted material derived from their copyrighted and trademarked properties, who then sometimes ask that fan fiction based on their properties be removed from the site. The site's response to these requests has generally been to comply with the wishes of the producers.
As of 2005, uploading fanfictions based on works by the following authors is forbidden on FanFiction.Net:
The reasons for not allowing works from these authors include public statements by some authors who have stated that they do not allow fan fiction based on their works, authors or their representatives having sent the site cease and desist letters or general requests to the site's staff that the material not be present on their site.
NC-17
In September 12, 2002, FanFiction.Net changed their policy of allowing material rated NC-17. The site changed all the ratings to G in their removal of that rating option. Authors were given the option of removing their NC-17 rated stories or rewriting them to an R rating. Authors who failed to comply with this change had their material deleted. The site relied on its users to report stories being inappropriately rated.
Previously, the site had relied on pop-up boxes notifying the reader that the material they had just chosen to view was not meant to be read by minors, and asking the reader to click through only if they were 17 or older - something notoriously ineffective at preventing minors from actually viewing the material, only making them aware of its existence.
While some protested at the NC-17 ban and others edited their work to be suitable for an 'R' rating, most simply moved their work to other archives which allowed or specifically catered to writers and readers of adult fan fiction material, such as [RestrictedSection.org], [AdultFanfiction.net], [Fichaven.org], [Mediaminer.org] or to personal sites, fan fiction mailing lists, online blogs, or journals, particularly personal LiveJournals.
Other points of critique towards the site
According to many sources, the main challenge concerning the archive format is quality control. There is no editing and no review process - anyone who can type can publish a story on the site. This has lead to a large number of unfinished, ungrammatical stories that have not been proofread at all. Those opposing Fanfic.net often remark that it is impossible to find enjoyable material there due to the huge number of stories, lack of quality control and most of all: because the only way a story might be rejected for archival is that it belongs to certain fandoms or has pornographic content. Many feel that Fanfiction.net is simply too big to function properly, and opt to support so-called 'specialty archives'. These archives only works based on one (or sometimes two to three) fandom(s), and they are usually never 'self-service'; in other words, there is an editor who goes through every submission and takes care of story formatting.
Restrictions on format
In 2004, FanFiction.net banned fan fiction written in script form from the site. Some fic authors who write in script format moved to others sites that accept script format http://www.ficwad.com/
http://www.fandomination.net/ http://www.fanworks.org/ http://fan-fics-r-us.com/Index.php http://www.fanfictionnow.com/
http://www.fosff.net/ http://novelas.wikicities.com/wiki/Fan_Fiction http://www.foreverfandom.net/
In 2005, FanFiction.net banned songfics from being posted on the site due to potential legal action from lyric copyright holders. Public domain lyrics such as those to "Amazing Grace" or lyrics written by the author of the fan fiction are not directly addressed.
Timeline
1998
*October 15 - FanFiction.Net is founded by Xing Li.
1999
*Rock band Blink 182's primary fan fiction archive is based in FanFiction.Net. This continues until 2002 [link].
*September 4 - Harry Potter and the Man of Unknown by Gypsy Silverleaf becomes the first Harry Potter fan fiction posted to FanFiction.Net [link].
*October 15 - FanFiction.Net instates a policy forbidding ActorSlash while they have Musicians and other real person fic categories [link]. This policy is repealed September 12, 2002.
2000
*April 7 - Anne Rice releases a statement on her website prohibiting all fan fiction using her characters. (The original statement does not seem to exist anymore).
2001
*Some describe the Blink 182 slash fan fiction community based at FanFiction.Net as producing influential works. [link].
*June 23 - Cassandra Claire's supporters and fans react with a certain degree of rage on various mailing lists and message boards.[link] [link] [link] [link] [link][link] Other fan fiction communities, who are unaware of the situation, are baffled by the controversy. [link] [link]
*June 24 - FanFiction.Net admins on the Fanfictionnetwriters mailing list tell Cassandra Claire's fans that the Cassandra Claire case was investigated. [link] (The mailing list has since been renamed fanfiction-writers, but it now appears to be near-defunct (as of 2005)). [link]
* September 6 - FanFiction.net removes the official forums from the site [link]. In 2005, they re-enable the service, but without official forums.
2002
*FanFiction.Net removes all NC-17 stories from the site.
*FanFiction.Net also removes all lists from the site.
*September 12 - FanFiction.Net removes all Real Person Fics from the site.
2004
* A group of teenagers calling themselves the "Author Alliance" reports of thousands of stories which allegedly break the site's Terms of Service. Its leader, GTA Jake, tackles the Sonic the Hedgehog series first, expanding into such archives as Pokémon, Animal Crossing, and The Legend of Zelda. An opposing group, led by Metaletemon27 and Arianna, criticizes their methods and alleges blatant disregard for artistic freedom.
* FanFiction.Net institutes a policy change and stops allowing scriptfics to be posted on the site. As scriptfics are reported, the staff removed them.
2005
*Cease and desist letters are sent by the MPAA to many fan fiction archives, alleging trademark infringement on the part of sites for using their ratings system. FanFiction.Net, along with many other archives, migrates to the [Fiction Ratings] system.
*FanFiction.Net begins a more aggressive movement to remove works that do not comply with their policies. Complaints by the authors of some of the removed works - some claiming to have had works deleted despite full compliance with the TOS - are alleged to have been unanswered by staff members.
*FanFiction.Net bans 'responding to reviews', in which the author can 'talk' to their reviewers. This measure is criticized by many because it prevents the authors from giving clues and informing their readers, turning communication between author and audience into a one-way street. An upset author begins a petition to abolish this rule. (At the time of this writing, it has about 80 of 200 signatures.) On November 21, 2005, FF.Net added a "reply" link on signed reviews, which allowed one reply per review and sent them directly to the reviewer's e-mail address.
* 1UP.com uploads to their "features" section "In the Name of Love," which notes the various aspects of how fans of video games show their like (or dislike) of various games and/or characters. The article is particularly critical of FanFiction.Net, citing poor quality control. [link]
* Fanfiction.net adds a forum feature, allowing users to create up to five (later increased to ten) forums, but only one in any category.
* FanFiction.net bans songfics from being posted in the archive. Already archived songfics are required to have lyrics removed, regardless of attribution to original artist.
Recent user conflict
Some critics of FanFiction.Net criticise it for deleting stories without notice, claiming that many of the stories that have been deleted did not actually violate any rules and were deleted because of 'revenge reports' filed anonymously. Many people have alleged that stories that are reported are not actually checked to see if they do break the rules and thusly are unfairly deleted, and no explanation nor a chance to appeal is given if an author complains about this or tries to point out that their work was within the rules. [link] [link]
On the other hand, there are other critics who claim that FanFiction.Net is full of pornographic and pedophiliac material which not only offends their personal, religious and moral sensibilities but break the rules of FanFiction.Net, and such material does not get deleted even when they complain.
