FanFiction.Net
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 Screenshot of homepage 2006-08-20. |
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| URL | http://www.fanfiction.net/ |
|---|---|
| Commercial? | No |
| Type of site | Fanfiction archive |
| Registration | Optional |
| Owner | Xing Li |
| Created by | Xing Li |
FanFiction.Net (often abbreviated as FF.Net or FFN) is an automated fan fiction archive site. It was founded on October 15, 1998 by Los Angeles computer programmer Xing Li, who also runs the site. 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.[citation needed]
The site is split into eight main categories: Anime/Manga, Books, Cartoons, Miscellaneous, Games, Comics, Movies, and TV Shows. Each has many subcategories, with over 100 in each main category ("Anime/Manga" alone has over 380). Registration is free and registered users can submit their fan fiction for publication on the site, maintain a autobiography 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. There are also centralized communities and forums. Several languages are supported on the site.
The subject with the most fan fiction is the Harry Potter series of books, with over 270,000 stories. It is also one of the most active, increasing by approximately 600 stories each month. The largest shipping is (couples of all categories)Draco/Hermione on the website with 14170 stories and still growing to an estimated six to ten stories per day.
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[edit] Site structure
Stories on the site are categorized. Each of these category links leads to a page listing subcategories. For example, the category TV Shows might include the subcategories Star Trek and Happy Days. 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. They are listed in the following format:
Story Title by Author Penname reviews
Story Summary
In-Progress/Complete - Fiction Rating - Language - Genre - Chapters - Word Count - Reviews - Date of Last Update - Publish Date
[edit] Policies and policy changes
FanFiction.Net insituted several policy changes as it grew in size and popularity. These policies frequently led to the deletion of genres of fan fiction that were based on the copyrighted works of published authors.
[edit] Honoring author requests
Since the site's founding, several professional authors and producers have asked that stories based on their copyrighted or trademarked works be removed. The site's response to these requests has generally been to comply with the wishes of the creators of intellectual property.[citation needed] These requests have been made in numerous ways, ranging from cease and desist letters, to authors simply stating that fan fiction based on their works are forbidden.[citation needed]
As of 2005, uploading fan fiction based on works by the following authors is forbidden on FanFiction.Net:
- P. N. Elrod
- Raymond Feist
- Terry Goodkind
- Laurell K. Hamilton
- Robin Hobb (a.k.a. Megan Lindholm)
- Dennis L. McKiernan
- Robin McKinley
- Irene Radford
- Anne Rice
- Nora Roberts (a.k.a. J.D. Robb)
- Archie comics
- Patricia Cornwell
- George R. R. Martin
[edit] NC-17
On September 12, 2002, FanFiction.Net banned material that was rated NC-17. Authors were given the option of removing their NC-17 stories, or rewriting them to achieve an R rating. Authors who failed to comply with the change had their material deleted. The site relied on its users to report stories that were inappropriately rated.
Prior to the new policy, the site would use a pop-up to prompt readers to say whether they were over 17 or not, a measure which has been proved to be largely ineffective.
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 personal sites, fan fiction mailing lists, online blogs, archives which allowed or specifically catered to writers and readers of adult fan fiction material, or journals (particularly LiveJournals). Much NC-17 material was moved to a site under the name of Adult Fan Fiction, a similar site, but made especially for R and NC-17 rated fan fiction. The NC-17 ban prompted many authors to abandon the site completely.
[edit] Criticism
According to many, the main problem with the archive is its lack of quality control. There is no editing and no pre-posting review process - anyone who can type and fill out a form can publish a story on the site. This has lead to a large number of stories that have not been proofread at all being featured on the site.
Others claim that it is impossible to find enjoyable material on the site due to the huge number of stories. Additionally, they point out that though a story should be rejected for archival because it is based on certain select works, has pornographic content, features 'script' formatting, or involves the usage of real people (including the author of the fanfiction) as characters, only after it is reported can it be deleted.
Many feel that FanFiction.net is simply too big to function properly, and opt to support so-called 'specialty archives'. These archives only host works based on one (or sometimes two to three) fandom(s), and they are rarely 'self-service'; in other words, there is an editor who goes through every submission.
Some people also accuse the site of 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 anonymously filed 'revenge reports', that stories that are reported are not actually checked to see if they do break the rules, and that neither an 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. Some users have recently reported that they received only a vague note about a 'bug' being 'fixed', but found that their work was still deleted.
Yet another group claims that stories reported for clear violations of rules might not be deleted for weeks or months because they are ridiculously short fanfiction and take up less space.
[edit] Restrictions on format
In 2004, FanFiction.net banned fan fiction written in script form from the site. Some authors who wrote in script format moved to other sites that accept script format, such as FicWad, Fandomination, MediaMiner.org or Fanworks.org.
In 2005, FanFiction.net banned songfics from being posted on the site due to potential legal action from copyright holders of lyrics. Public domain lyrics such as those to "Amazing Grace" or lyrics written by the author of the fan fiction are not directly addressed. Despite this, there are currently over 22,000 stories with the word 'songfic' in their summary.
[edit] External links
- Official site
- Pop Fiction, about FF.net, at TIME.com Archive
- Adult Fan Fiction
