Kinkuary 2022 Is Here!

—

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.

Drarry microfic: "Dangerous"

The Detection Charms on Draco’s Knockturn Alley flat activated just after midnight, startling him awake like a cold-sweat nightmare.

He switched on the lamp, then shook the bare shoulder of the man sleeping beside him, his rising panic making him rough. Draco’s escape plan did not account for him. Merlin, he’d been a fool. A besotted, reckless fool.

“Potter, wake up. We have to go. Now.”

“What’s going on?” Harry mumbled.

“We have about three minutes until the people outside dismantle my wards.”

Draco jerked open the drawer of the bedside table and fumbled through it to find the stirring rod that was charmed into a Portkey. The thought of shadowy figures watching them through the windows, listening, made him shudder.

“What people?”

“Aurors, I assume. For fuck’s sake, move—unless you want to do some fast talking about why you’re naked in my bed.”

Harry didn’t move. He watched Draco pull on his trousers and slip his arms into his button-down with obvious disappointment. Draco avoided his eyes.

“I thought you said you were doing Potions research.”

“Well, the Potions part is true,” Draco said wryly.

He threw Harry’s clothes at him before grabbing the satchel that was always packed and ready. Beneath his bare feet, the floorboards began to vibrate from the tendrils of magic creeping over his wards, seeking a crack.

“Draco, what are you—”

“Not now! Are you coming with me or not?”

Harry’s gaze flickered over Draco’s face, then he nodded and gathered up his clothing. Draco felt his knees weaken with relief.

“Where are we going?”

“Kyiv. Then we’ll Apparate a few times to make sure they’re off our trail.”

Draco crawled across the rumpled bed until he was straddling Harry. He smelled like sex and the cheap Firewhisky that they always sipped in Draco’s draughty lounge, talking, circling around each other, until their veins burned with it and they couldn’t hold back any longer. It was the closest thing Draco had to predictable in his unpredictable life.

“What the fuck have you got yourself into?” Harry whispered.

Draco wrapped one hand around the satchel handle and the other around on the back of Harry’s neck, pressing the stirring rod against the knobs of his vertebrae.

“Something dangerous. Something I can’t walk away from now.”

He wasn’t talking about the illegal Potions lab in the attic.

With a whispered word, Draco activated the Portkey.

Written for the @drarrymicrofic song prompt, "Dangerous" by Big Data ft. Joywave.

Remembering the War: It doesn't get easier as the years go by. But at least they have each other.

Created for the Drarry Discord Server's Drawble Challenge, March 2020. Thanks go to this month's hosts, @potter-art and @ana-iliad.

Prompt: 'Remember when...'.

Art restriction: Earth tones/browns.

when a character is empty-handed & surrounded by weapons pointed at them but they're calm and maybe even smiling, and the attackers are the ones who look afraid??? very sexy i think

Do you notice how hot the room gets when you two talk about the secret?

Knight Duties by La Draws

where would we be without those 60s housewives and their gay little kirk/spock fanzines. where would we fucking be