A New History Of Fandom Purges

A New History of Fandom Purges

On November 24th, 2018, I posted a list of major deletions of sites or of content on sites that stripped fandom of its history. A bunch of pro-shipper blogs had just been deleted, and people were nervous. I suppose I was thinking “All this has happened before…”

On December 3rd, 2018, Tumblr’s Department of Irony announced the NSFW ban. Thanks for providing this salutary lesson to The Youth and a billion reblogs to me, I guess.

Today, we have AO3 for writing. Audio, images, and video are in as much danger as ever, yet fans attack AO3 every donation drive. For those of you who forget our past…

HERE IS WHAT HISTORY HAS TAUGHT US!

1992 - Chelsea Quinn Yarbro forces a zine to be destroyed

1995 - Viacom/Paramount goes after fansites

1995 - Anne Rice gets IWTV fic deleted everywhere

1997 - Fox and Lucasfilm go after fansites

1998 - AOL goes after X-Files fansites

2000 - Warner Brothers goes after Harry Potter fansites

2000 - Anne Rice anne rices again

2001 - Tripod Massacre

2001 - Anne Rice goes after IWTV fic on FFN

2001 - The Bronze shut down as Buffy changes networks

2002 - FFN bans porn

2002 - FFN bans RPF

2003 - Gryffindor Tower implodes

2004 - FFN bans script format

2005 - FFN bans CYOA, Readerfic, 2nd person, Songfic

2005 - Sheezyart bans adult content; y!gallery founded

2005 - Viacom/Paramount goes after fansites again

2006 - Sakura Lemon Archive suddenly closes

2007 - Strikethrough, Boldthrough on Livejournal

2007 - Youtube institutes Content ID, deleting many fanvids

2008 - Slash Cotillion closes, taking much historical m/m with it

2009 - GeoCities shuts down, taking old fannish websites

2009 - Greatestjournal shuts down; RPGs deleted

2009 - Marvel gets scans_daily deleted

2009 - imeem, major vidding hub, closes suddenly

2010 - FFN forums purged for inactivity

2010 - DeviantArt purges adult fanfic

2010 - Literate Union goes after Twilight fandom on FFN

2011 - Delicious destroyed by Yahoo’s incompetence

2011 - China arrests women for writing m/m; destroys danmei.org

2012 - major FFN crackdown on porn

2012 - Megaupload deleted for piracy; also destroys vids, podfic

2013 - Max-Dan-Wiz.com purged of fan-generated content

2014 - Quizilla shuts down

2014 - China purges m/m story websites; arrests female authors

2014 - Blip.tv deletes vids

2014 - Viddler deletes vids

2015 - Journalfen’s servers become fully robust, deleting Fandom Wank

2016 - y!Gallery deleted

2016 - Elfwood goes offline

2016 - Audiofic Archive corrupted; major blow to podfic

2017 - Chinese author jailed after being ratted out over fandom drama

2017 - Parents get queer Warrior Cats fic purged from Wattpad

2018 - Tumblr deletes pro-shipper blogs

2018 - Tumblr announces NSFW ban

2018 - Wattpad deletes accounts/fics without warning

2019 - China purges weibo of m/m; more women jailed

This is only a small taste of the many times that:

Fannish moderators got bored, ran out of money, or had a falling out, deleting a site/list/forum along the way.

Sites got bought out and closed for being unprofitable.

Fandom got hit as governments targeted piracy or political dissidents.

Fans grudge reported each other.

Official forums got deleted when the canon finished.

It’s not always malicious. It’s not always about us. But we lose every time.

Some of these purges hit everyone. Many of them hit m/m content specifically or female gaze-y material in general. This is why antis are dead wrong. This is why anti-fujoshi policies end up being anti-m/m policies. This is why we need clear labeling, not content restrictions.

This is why we need AO3.

And it’s why we need a solution for audio, visuals, and video too.

More Posts from Kychloreine and Others

1 year ago

the barbie (2023) experience as an afab non binary person is just [reconnecting with your femininity and love for pink bc you couldnt when u were younger bc being too girly will get u made fun of] [feeling guilt bc u dont identify with being a girl but girlhood is so inherently beautiful and magical and no experience is truly like it] [healing the inner child in you by allowing yourself to enjoy dolls and pink and maximalism] [unapologetically letting yourself wear pink and be stereotypically girly in a society where being non binary means you have to be presenting androgynous 24/7] [getting your heart shattered and then put back together again with sparkly glue over and over in the span of two hours] [realizing that no matter what you do you have somewhat experienced girlhood and it shaped you to be the person you are today and you will never get to erase that experience or truly disconnect yourself from it] [appreciating and understanding your mother in a way that you thought wasnt possible without experiecing motherhood]


Tags
5 years ago
Detail Of Portrait Of Princess Sibylle Of Cleve, 1526, By Lucas Cranach The Elder  (1472-1553)

Detail of Portrait of Princess Sibylle of Cleve, 1526, by Lucas Cranach the Elder  (1472-1553)


Tags
9 months ago

I can't keep having the same conversations about love languages, mbti, iq, bmi, "brain fully formed at 25" and shit over and over again...

1 year ago

I’m so fucked up about simon. His character arc in the main series was set up that ice king becoming a simon again was inevitable. It wasn’t a matter of if, but when and how.

but now that it’s happened, it’s the worst thing that could’ve happened to him.

he had friends! a special secret club of wizards he had matching rings and would go on roadtrips with! he wasn’t even really a problem anymore!

betty’s character is so fantastic. she traveled through time for him. She went insane for him. She become a god for him. But him being Simon was easier for her. Did she ever truly consider if it was what he wanted? She’s not even there with him. She’s not there and now he’s Simon and he’s more isolated than ever.

He lives with humans! At this point, Finn has known him longer as Simon than he knew him as Ice King. Ice King is just an old memory now. But Simon is over a thousand years old. “Simon Petrikov” is just an old memory too. He’s human again, but not really.

What’s worse is how smart he is. He’s an intelligent and emotionally competent man. So he really, truly, profoundly knows how deeply fucked up his life is. He’s so aware of it.

wouldn’t it be easier? If he was stupid and naive and magical? does he miss magic? maybe not ice, but magic itself? would he try to learn? Does he remember the password to Wizard City? Would they even still let him in? there’s a school. He could learn magic again. but would he? Doesn’t Simon Petrikov like learning about magic?

Everything Stays. He’s still here. But he’s different now. Everything is different now except it’s not because the world stayed the same and he’s the one who changed. He can’t go back. Except he did, in a way, and it wasn’t even his choice.

4 years ago

Honestly, it's kinda disappointing that the reason I was pale and had cold hands was this, and not me turning into a vampire. :(

Turns out I have iron deficiency and I wasn't faking being tired so I could skip class ! Who would have thought ???


Tags
5 years ago
St. Joan Of Arc (detail, 1909) Paul Antoine De La Boulaye

St. Joan of Arc (detail, 1909) Paul Antoine de la Boulaye


Tags
1 year ago

anyway i looked up the post about seeing your grandma's boobs and tumblr has deleted the screenshot of the story where the finnish dude says that americans are "like that" because they haven't seen their grandma's tits

good job tumblr 👍


Tags
1 year ago

I can’t even watch shit like pixar movie rankings anymore cause I just can’t stand the idea of having to watch people slander Turning Red like Im not gonna say it’s peak cinema or the most amazing movie ever but it hits DIFFERENT

4 years ago

University life is so goddamn weird because I don't understand anything and the only reaction my teacher had to "I'm going to write a paper about my Immortal" was a genuine "Ok, sounds very interesting."


Tags
3 years ago

"I'm not lazy, I'm just tired. and I don't mean because I've been working hard. Not at all. I'm tired from forcing myself to get out of bed everyday. I'm tired of distracting myself from the thoughts in my brain. I'm tired because all my energy is put to surviving and people don't understand that because all they see is how unproductive you are."

— depression is a disease and it's tiring


Tags
Loading...
End of content
No more pages to load
  • petrerpkr
    petrerpkr reblogged this · 3 weeks ago
  • theschultinator
    theschultinator liked this · 3 weeks ago
  • guiltfactory
    guiltfactory liked this · 4 weeks ago
  • taboomonster123
    taboomonster123 reblogged this · 4 weeks ago
  • riana-one
    riana-one reblogged this · 4 weeks ago
  • vtvtvtfrancis
    vtvtvtfrancis liked this · 1 month ago
  • honeebeeb
    honeebeeb liked this · 1 month ago
  • floustian
    floustian liked this · 1 month ago
  • dimensionslip
    dimensionslip liked this · 2 months ago
  • shepardsorey
    shepardsorey liked this · 2 months ago
  • madscientist-physicsedition
    madscientist-physicsedition liked this · 2 months ago
  • darthbloodorange
    darthbloodorange reblogged this · 2 months ago
  • sarcasmzero
    sarcasmzero liked this · 3 months ago
  • cottoncandyxxl
    cottoncandyxxl reblogged this · 3 months ago
  • lunarssong
    lunarssong liked this · 3 months ago
  • catthetamedshrew2
    catthetamedshrew2 liked this · 3 months ago
  • fjaoenfs
    fjaoenfs reblogged this · 3 months ago
  • ksddkskdkd
    ksddkskdkd liked this · 3 months ago
  • wanderingdonut
    wanderingdonut reblogged this · 4 months ago
  • toloveaweasley
    toloveaweasley reblogged this · 4 months ago
  • billsfangearring
    billsfangearring reblogged this · 4 months ago
  • larryy4life
    larryy4life reblogged this · 4 months ago
  • luna-aqua-marinax
    luna-aqua-marinax liked this · 4 months ago
  • aro-ace-from-outer-space22
    aro-ace-from-outer-space22 liked this · 4 months ago
  • mblematic
    mblematic liked this · 4 months ago
  • broomsticks
    broomsticks reblogged this · 4 months ago
  • ghoul-fromthe-grave
    ghoul-fromthe-grave liked this · 5 months ago
  • potatoesandchipsaredelicious
    potatoesandchipsaredelicious reblogged this · 5 months ago
  • potatoesandchipsaredelicious
    potatoesandchipsaredelicious liked this · 5 months ago
  • lakaeva
    lakaeva liked this · 5 months ago
  • lizardperson
    lizardperson liked this · 5 months ago
  • voidthing
    voidthing reblogged this · 5 months ago
  • lightningsky02
    lightningsky02 reblogged this · 5 months ago
  • lightningsky02
    lightningsky02 liked this · 5 months ago
  • smellslikeoranges
    smellslikeoranges liked this · 5 months ago
  • catchcrows
    catchcrows reblogged this · 5 months ago
  • hiodoshi-ao
    hiodoshi-ao liked this · 6 months ago
  • annoyinglyvague
    annoyinglyvague liked this · 6 months ago
  • basil0saurus95-main
    basil0saurus95-main liked this · 6 months ago
  • thejollywizard
    thejollywizard reblogged this · 6 months ago
  • thejollywizard
    thejollywizard liked this · 6 months ago
  • the-awkward-echo
    the-awkward-echo liked this · 7 months ago
kychloreine - ❇ KychloReine ❇
❇ KychloReine ❇

French. Posts sometimes. Can't pass up an opportunity to apocalypse. (Yes, I know it's not a proper verb.)

168 posts

Explore Tumblr Blog
Search Through Tumblr Tags