My $.02 on FanLib

[owlmoose]

So by now I'm sure most of you have heard about FanLib, the new general fanfiction archive run by a for-profit start-up that's been advertising like mad (apparently; I didn't get spammed by them myself). It appears that their business model is to sell advertising and partner with "legitimate" content producers to promote products of interest to fans. They've been greeted with a great deal of skepticism, and I find myself among the skeptics. My main concerns are the hand-waving around the copyright issue and the appearance that they were founded by a bunch of corporate types: former Yahoo! executives, an entertainment lawyer, that sort. Not to say that corporate types can't be fans, but none of them say anything about being readers or writers of fic themselves. On top of that, they're all men. Not that there aren't men in fandom, but given that a strong majority of fanfic writers are women, the fact that they don't have a single woman on their board is a red flag to me.

Lots of thoughful posts on the topic in metafandom lately. In particular, I recommend telesilla's point-by point discussion of the FanLib FAQ, which does a good job of summarizing both people's concerns and the inadequacy of FanLib's response to them.

The thought of a real alternative to FF.net is tempting, I must admit. But I'm not convinced that this is it.

Comments

[regann]

I'm skeptical, too. Just look at the mess made of aff.net now that it was bought out by a corporation. (I know because my company tried to buy it, too, but we missed our chance.) Not that is was good before, but now it's completely screwed up.

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

I've never used aff.net, so I'm not familiar with the situation. What's the story there? (If you don't mind telling it. ;) It's an issue I'm actually pretty curious about.)

[regann]

Well, for one thing, as soon as a company owns it they become subject to all sorts of for-profit rules. In the case of aff.net, they now are now subject to the same laws that govern US pornography (they even use a RTA Label on their site, which is an adult industry self-labelling link which means "restricted to adults.") and other rules pertaining to adult-related material.

Now, they might not say that they're a corp. but they are or else they wouldn't need to bother with all the legal speak and age bumpers and stuff they have. I know, I worked in porn for a year.

The worse part of it all -- the reason I call it screwed up -- is by adding all this, they've made people legally bound to their word. When you go through the age bumper and say you're an adult, that's a legal contract - which probably means that they're using tracking software that can, in the vernacular, get your ass jacked. So if someone legal comes breathing down your neck, they can and will turn over YOUR information to save themselves. I don't like this at all. I have a friend who works for the government who refuses to even go through the age bumper because of what you're actually agreeing to when you click through.

Now, granted, alot of this is adult-related legal stuff but as soon as someone starts to make money from it, it becomes a thousand times for complicated. And I'm pretty sure these guys came to the idea because someone in their offices said "OMG FANFIC IS A BIG THING" and someone else said "FANFIC WHUT?" and they realized how big a chunk it was on the 'net and wanted to make money off of it. Again, I know because this is exactly why my company tried to buy aff.net, even though no one other than a few of us had ever heard of it before; they simply saw the traffic numbers for aff.net and ff.net and saw dollar signs.

/end rant

[ovo-lexa.livejournal.com]

... I was wondering where I'd seen them before! :O

They dropped me a couple of emails a while back. When I checked it out, they didn't seem to have a lot of fandom coverage (The Big Few) and a bit cruddier layout. It's... uh... good to know they've since knicked on all of FF.Net's categories?

[auronlu.livejournal.com]

After reading everyone's concerns I'm torn. On the one hand I doubt we're in any danger at all from Square -- they seem to support fans a LOT and probably just chuckle at the slash -- and on the other hand, the argument that making a big for-profit site for fanfic might attract a more aggressive corporate response against fanfic makes sense to me. It's like the old argument about gays not marching for gay rights and making a stink because of the backlash it generates. With gays, well, it's a little different because they're trying to fix current problems. But with fanfic, right now, we're doing just fine thank you, and the last thing we need is for fanlib to attract tighter corporate scrutiny and legal action against fan sites.

I don't care that much about the money-making issue, because I know how much work it is to maintain a big site. (although, on the other hand, the admin team of LOTRplaza is volunteer... worked 16 hours a day sometimes, but we were donating money for server upkeep, not getting any).

But the "don't rouse the dragon" issue matters to me.

*Deletes most of the stuff I'd archived, debates deleting all of it, including one that for some odd reason they threw onto the front page as a "featured story"*

[auronlu.livejournal.com]

Meh. I took mine down. I'll stick with ficwad. It's small, it's simple, it works (most of the time.)

I did like the interface on fanlib-- the story submission part is SO much easier than any other archive I've used-- but teliesilla's post and the responses are revealing indeed.

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

Yeah. If I hadn't already been skeptical, telesilla's post would have sealed it for me.

I agree that the fact of making money isn't of itself a serious concern. If they seemed like a bunch of fans using their business savvy to put together a site that would pay for its own upkeep, I wouldn't be nearly so concerned. It's the fact that they seem set up to make a *profit*. That's what will get the rightsholder's attention in ways that might cause problems.