leiascully - Tumblr blog

[leiascully]

A brief history of fandom, for those on here who somehow think tumblr invented fandom:

1960s: with the advent of Star Trek, fandom moves into the public sphere for the first time with a television in almost every home, creating a large group of people all excited about one thing. Beforehand, fans mostly had relationships with the author, not with each other. Obviously there were groups and conventions prior to Star Trek, but many pop culture scholars agree that Star Trek was the beginning of an independent, interactive, saturated fandom culture centered on one show, and set many precedents for how many modern fandoms act. 

This means in the coming years: conventions, mailing groups (both public and private), fan magazines, and fanfiction presses. 

Yeah this pretty much remains the deal until the internet gets put into every home in the 90s. 

EXAMPLES OF BIG FUCKING DEAL FANDOMS, 90s EDITION: X-Files, Xena, Star Trek, Star Wars, ASoIaF, The West Wing, Buffy

So with the internet, this really cool thing happened: Geocities. And then Yahoo groups. Early fanfiction archives. Back in the day, fandoms had to create their own private spaces. This made fandoms on the internet smaller and less accessible than fanzine operated ones. However, since fans on the internet didn’t have to pass through an editorial board to publish their fic, it was the beginning of the democratization of fandom. 

USENET. Which will probably be confusing to anyone who wasn’t actually on Usenet during it’s height, but feel free to Google. 

In 1998, fanfiction.net was launched to compete with the hundreds of independent, fandom-oriented fanfiction archives. More democratization, although fanfiction was marketed on how many reviews one had. You had to, like today, “break into the market.“ 

In 1999, Livejournal was launched. Fans created communities and their own private journals which was like woah, we have our own places to store our own fic? And can cross-post them places? However, with Livejournal came a new incarnation of the internet-based BNF: big name fan. Since communities had moderators and posts could be friend or community locked, people could easily gain social capital. 

See also: Cassie Claire and misscribe. 

On the other hand, authors like George RR Martin get Livejournals. 

Around this time was also the rise of forums. Again, moderators had a lot of power, as did certain users who would rise to the position of moderator. People rapidly gained and lost power, causing quick turnover in these parts of fandom. 

In 2002, due to legal concerns, fanfiction.net bans NC-17 fanfiction. 

Adultfanfiction.net is created to fill the void. For years, 13 year olds would pretend to be 18 to enter. Including myself. 

In 2005, fanfiction.net, again due to legal concerns, bans "choose your own adventure” and songfics. 

In 2007, Archive of Our Own is launched to further democratize fandom in response to fanfiction.net’s and LJ’s new stringent rules, offering writers a cleaner format, kudos, hit counters, and bookmarks. However, many older fandoms have not made the move. 

In 2007, tumblr is launched. It would take until 2010 for it to reach saturation on the internet, meaning that most fandoms which lived and died pre-2010 exist(ed) on Geocities, Yahoo Groups, independent archives, ff.net, etc. 

In 2009, Geocities is taken offline. Thousands mourn because they never backed up really old fic that they liked. 

In 2012, most major broadcasting companies have caught on to the fact that tumblr has democratized fandom to a degree of anarchy and mob mentality, and utilize it, since tumblr is unmoderated. 

And that’s what you missed on FANDOM BEFORE TUMBLR, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. 

[leiascully]

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[leiascully]

There are 33000 stories on Gossamer (give or take) and 26000+ on AO3. I assume there's some overlap, but assuming 50k stories archived between those sites, that still doesn't represent or preserve all the fic that used to exist - some people had their own personal sites and didn't use Gossamer or Ephemeral or ff.net. There's not really a centralized way to categorize all of that without it being unwieldy, although it would be an interesting project for some fandom historian(s). Like @lilydalexf said, there are also plenty of stories that are just gone now. I think your best bet is following people like Lilydale and @randomfoggytiger who do a lot of themed rec posts and adding to your follows based on who chimes in on their posts.

If there was interest, I'd be willing to start a spreadsheet to categorize the Gossamer stories with more modern tags and organize them by season, but it's not a one-person project.

ISO an msr fanfic spreadsheet. There are so many fanfics which I love and adore but it makes it hard to sort through when I’m looking for specific tropes and ao3 filters aren’t specific enough. Can anyone in here help me find one? This fandom is over 30 years old there must be someone who made one. And if there isn’t one are there any people who would want to team up and take the time and effort to make one?

Also is there a discord or group I could join?

THANKS!

[leiascully]

We also just didn't tag things by trope back in the day, beyond basics like AUs. The length of the fic was more important then because people had limited internet. Fandom has transformed since the 1990s in terms of depending on tropes to curate your reading experience. Just having an archive like Gossamer was a big deal. It focused on classifying stories by genre (angst, romance, etc.) and length. A shared document like that would have been impossible to manage and all the webrings and rec sites are gone. @lilydalexf posts great recs that are likely to help you find some stories, but there is no master spreadsheet classifying 30 years of fic by trope.

ISO an msr fanfic spreadsheet. There are so many fanfics which I love and adore but it makes it hard to sort through when I’m looking for specific tropes and ao3 filters aren’t specific enough. Can anyone in here help me find one? This fandom is over 30 years old there must be someone who made one. And if there isn’t one are there any people who would want to team up and take the time and effort to make one?

Also is there a discord or group I could join?

THANKS!

[leiascully]

Dana Scully + side profile 1/?

[leiascully]

What’s my theory? My theory is you don’t know Mulder at all. You never did.

[leiascully]

happy pride month to the FBI's most bisexual

[leiascully]

MSR in their first night at a motel [room].

[leiascully]

Before, I could only trust myself. Now, I can only trust you. DANA SCULLY and FOX MULDER | The X Files, Season 2

[leiascully]

THE X-FILES | 7.22

[leiascully]

@mashnotesofthemythopoeic “Heuvelmans’ On the Track” fanfic trailer. Thank you for an amazing story.

Link to story here -  https://archiveofourown.org/works/24371170/chapters/58777492

[leiascully]

honestly scully was bold in early seasons, if I started a brand new job and had a big fat crush on my attractive partner I would never be caught dead doing shit like this

[leiascully]

don’t go, don’t go, don’t go

[leiascully]

Love the way they look at each other 💗

[leiascully]

@edierone I need these tags to live.

The biggest crime in the X Files is not all the crime but actually the fact they just eventually stop wearing their glasses

[leiascully]

paper hearts

That scene where he is digging in the dirt with his bare hands. There is something so raw and tragic about Mulder blindsided by fear and grief.  It’s not the first time he’s done that. In Conduit, he dug through the soil of a shallow grave, gripped by the memory of his sister. In Oubliette, plunged once again into the throes of Samantha trauma, he senselessly kept giving that little girl CPR by the side of the icy river. And who is by his side each time, shouting for him to stop, holding him back, being thrown off blindly and still sticking around out of fear for him and an overwhelming instinct to protect him? Scully.

Episodes like this make me think how alone - not just lonely, but truly alone - Mulder was before her. Nobody lost sleep over him falling apart under the fist of decades old trauma. Nobody grappled with him, let him wrestle his grief against them, and still stayed. Nobody visited him in the hospital, flew to Alaska, lied for him, stayed by his bed for days straight without an extra change of clothes. Nobody else knew he was suffering or wanted to, knew it more than he knew. That end of Paper hearts where she tells him to get some sleep, he laughs at the ridiculousness of it, but also out of incredulity at having someone to wish for better on his behalf. The heartbroken look on her face as he’s laughing into her waist seems to be her coming to the same realisation; “Who looked after you before? How long did you feel like this on your own?”

This dynamic is so compelling to me, and it really comes to a head in Sein Und Zeit in a dark way which I described as oedipal and bereaved and needy - but really it’s mutual need. The relief she feels at him grasping onto her is always tangible, especially after all those times where he’s thrown her off, distraught by his own pain. We get both sides in Paper Hearts. Season 4 baby.

[leiascully]

Hi!! What do you think Mulder and Scully are doing in the year 2024? 🔥

I was thinking about this today while I was driving around and then I was passed by a forest green Subaru Forester with the license plate SKWACHN and a licence plate frame that said "Bigfoot doesn't believe in you either", so I guess I have my answer.

Stay tuned for a rela answer that isn't from my actual literal life.