Vox: China has censored the Archive of Our Own, one of the internet’s largest fanfiction websites. “The Archive of Our Own (AO3), the Hugo-winning fanfiction website, is the latest casualty of Chinese censorship, amid a continued crackdown in the country on queer content, sexually explicit content, and websites based abroad.”
fandom
Fanta Tracks: Be a part of the Fantha Tracks Star Wars fan created video database
Fantha Tracks: Be a part of the Fantha Tracks Star Wars fan created video database. “From its launch, Fantha Tracks have supported our fellow Star Wars podcast creators in promoting their shows, and our readers in discovering new and exciting audio content in the form of our Podcast A-Z Database. Now, Fantha Tracks wants to expand that to the realm of Star Wars fan made videos.”
Penn Today: ‘May the force be with you’ and other fan fiction favorites
Penn Today: ‘May the force be with you’ and other fan fiction favorites. “As a new Star Wars movie hits the multiplex, Penn researchers are launching a new computer-based tool to better understand fiction written by fans based on that blockbuster series and several other famous film franchises.”
Wired: The Pride and Prejudice of Online Fan Culture
Wired: The Pride and Prejudice of Online Fan Culture. “Go with me here. Janeites can be seen as internet culture avant la lettre—what Sebastian Heath, an archaeologist and professor of computational humanities and Roman archaeology at New York University, calls a ‘self-digitizing community.’ OK, yes, the Arpanet and packet switching don’t figure much in the misadventures of Emma Woodhouse or the Bennet sisters. But the Janeites represent a critical plot point in the evolution of online sociology.”
UPROXX: From Chance The Rapper To Nicki Minaj, How Social Media Challenges Replaced Rap Street Teams
UPROXX: From Chance The Rapper To Nicki Minaj, How Social Media Challenges Replaced Rap Street Teams. “In the early days of hip-hop, rappers used street teams to promote new albums, singles, and tours. Now, they have Instagram. As social media becomes more integrated into all of our daily lives, recording artists have also naturally incorporated it into the business of building and communicating with their fanbases. And, just as rapidly as social media itself innovated the way we debate, discuss, and interpret the world, artists have learned to leverage those online fanbases to useful real-world effect.”
Wired: Fans Are Better Than Tech at Organizing Information Online
Wired: Fans Are Better Than Tech at Organizing Information Online. “Kudos to the fans. One of the nominees for the Hugo Awards this year is Archive of Our Own, a fanfiction archive containing nearly 5 million fanworks—about the size of the English Wikipedia, and several years younger. It’s not just the fanfic, fanart, fanvids, and other fanworks, impressive as they are, that make Archive of Our Own worthy of one of the biggest honors in science fiction and fantasy. It’s also the architecture of the site itself.”
Engadget: Fan uses AI to remaster ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’ in HD
Engadget: Fan uses AI to remaster ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’ in HD. “Unfortunately, you’re highly unlikely to see an official remaster of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Its special effects were shot on video rather than added to film, making an already daunting remastering process that much more difficult — and since it’s not a tentpole show like The Next Generation, CBS might not consider it worth the effort. Machine learning might make it easier for fans to fill the gap, however.”
Equestria Daily: The Pony Music Archive Is Up! Download 600 GB of pony music in one go!
Now available — an enormous online archive of music related to My Little Pony. 600 GB is a lot, yeah? As I understand it, this is music related to and inspired by My Little Pony. (All I know about My Little Pony is that Tara Strong is one of the voices, so if I’m getting this wrong please correct me in the comments.) From the Equestria DAily article link: “The dedicated archivist ponies of the Pony Music Archive have completed a massive bundle of all the pony music that they could find in the best possible quality, resulting in more than 600 GB of music! The archive will be maintained with the new music coming out from now on, too.”
TechCrunch: Facebook wants up to 30% of fan subscriptions vs Patreon’s 5%
TechCrunch: Facebook wants up to 30% of fan subscriptions vs Patreon’s 5%. “Facebook will drive a hard bargain with influencers and artists judging by the terms of service for the social network’s Patreon-like Fan Subscriptions feature that lets people pay a monthly fee for access to a creator’s exclusive content. The policy document attained by TechCrunch shows Facebook plans to take up to a 30 percent cut of subscription revenue minus fees, compared to 5 percent by Patreon, 30 percent by YouTube, which covers fees and 50 percent by Twitch.” OF COURSE IT DOES.
Teen Vogue: The BTS ARMY Can Help Write Their ARMYPEDIA — Here’s How
Teen Vogue: The BTS ARMY Can Help Write Their ARMYPEDIA — Here’s How. “Right now, there’s probably no fandom that is bigger or more ready to hype up their faves than BTS’s fanbase, the BTS ARMY. Since the group formed in 2013 and burst onto the scene in a major way, the ARMY has been devoted to streaming their music, following their every move on social media, unpacking clues about their new albums and music videos, seeing them at live shows and events, and basically making sure the whole world knows about all things BTS. Now, it looks like the ARMY can actually put all of their knowledge of and love for BTS in one place: the ARMYPEDIA, a Wikipedia-like site dedicated to BTS.”
Slate: Fandom’s Fate Is Not Tied to Tumblr’s
Slate: Fandom’s Fate Is Not Tied to Tumblr’s. “Like Tumblr is now, in the mid-2000s LiveJournal was a social hub for transformative fandom—communities of people who create and share fan works, from stories about the continuing adventures of Spock and Kirk to artwork depicting romantic relationships between Dragon Age nonplayable characters to the creation of alternate universes in which Severus Snape is a barista instead of a potions professor. However, following a policy change in which LiveJournal mass-deleted without warning a swath of fandom journals, that platform eventually became a ghost town for users seeking that community.”
Dark side of fandom: Study on Blue Jays fan tweets argues sports aren’t always unifying (National Post)
National Post: Dark side of fandom: Study on Blue Jays fan tweets argues sports aren’t always unifying. “After sifting through thousands of tweets about the Toronto Blue Jays, a researcher in Regina is challenging the notion that fandom has a magical ability to unite people. It was a notion peddled constantly during the Jays’ electrifying reign as a playoff contender in 2015 and 2016 – beer commercials, politicians in ball caps, all heralding the official Blue Jays slogan: Come Together. But according to University of Regina PhD candidate Katie Sveinson, Blue Jays fans on Twitter give a starker portrait.”
Now Available: An Archive of Furry Fandom Going Back to the 1980s
Now available: an archive of furry fandom going back to the 80s. “The long abandoned ConFurence.com site, revitalized with nearly 2000 images and files to search (so far) is now the Confurence Archive. Anyone and everyone can now access documents from the early (pre-Internet) years of science fiction and comic conventions, the Cartoon/Fantasy Organization (C/FO, the first US animation fan club with emphasis on the animation of Japan), and of course, ConFurence and the furry community. The site is still growing, but it’s open now.”
Using Social Media to Crowdsource Materials for a Beatles Documentary
Very interesting: using social media to crowdsource material for a Beatles documentary. “The Beatles: Eight Days A Week — The Touring Years, directed by Ron Howard, will chronicle the last five years of The Beatles touring career, from the group’s first performance at Liverpool’s Cavern Club in 1961 to the last performance at Candlestick Park stadium in San Francisco in 1966. According to a Fast Company profile of the documentary, the filmmakers sent out a call for footage to the more than 40 million Beatles fans who liked The Beatles official Facebook page. The filmmakers and researchers also used specific software to monitor social media platforms such as Twitter to find fans who may have stories or footage surrounding The Beatles’ performances during that five-year span.”
Argentina To Create a Hooligan Database
The government of Argentina is going to create a “Hooligan Database”.”The announcement came hours after President Mauricio Macri, former president of the club Boca Juniors, called for players to set a better example in the wake of a friendly between Boca and fierce Buenos Aires rivals River Plate that descended into on-pitch scuffles. Hooliganism between rival ultras has roiled Argentine football for years and the database will create a register of supporters banned from stadiums.”
