twinkyempath:

mresundance:

The fact that blogs which are being deleted or flagged by Tumblr for “copyright infringement” is yet another reminder that Tumblr is a blogging platform which is primarily supported by sponsors and advertisers, and, as such, is not truly fandom friendly space. Our content and creative work can be and is threatened by corporate sponsors, basically. Today it’s just audio posts, but blogging platforms are supported by corporate sponsors have not traditionally had a solid history of being fandom friendly (ie, livejournal anyone?)

One thing we can do, short of migrating to a blog platform which is fandom friendly (does such a place exist?) is to archive, document, and protect our content. 

We can do that by posting things like fic, podfic, and artwork to Archive of Our Own, which is owned by the Organization for Transformative Works, a nonprofit organization devoted to supporting and protecting fan created works. If you don’t have an AO3 account, and/or don’t post your work there regularly, please consider opening an account and/or updating it. You can open an account with an invitation code, which an existing user can give you, or, you can request yourself. If your blog is deleted, your fanworks (podfic, fanart, fic) will obviously go with it, and AO3 is a fantastic place to archive all your creative work in one easy to search place. 

Another way we can archive, document, and protect our content is to document things via Fanlore.org, the fandom “Wikipedia”. Ideally, Fanlore can provide a wealth of information for users and for fans about particular fandoms, fannish works, and fannish users. It’s an effective way to collect and document major works and creators of works within a fandom, to have some kind of archive of them and the activities in a given fandom. 

I am targeting this specifically at my fellow Fannibals, because, while I was making some Fanlore edits, I noticed that the Hannibal page on Fanlore really needs some help. There is no current information on memes, authors, artists, or major fanworks. 

Please, fellow Fannibals, consider opening an account at Fanlore and adding information to the Hannibal page. 

If you’re a writer, artist podficcer, or roleplayer, consider making your own page and documenting the work you’ve done in fandom (my page is here as an example; morgandawn’s page, aka, meeedeee, irisbleufic’s page, aka irisbleufic as further examples). 

You can also write pages and articles for fic series (The Paradox Series for an example of a fic series page), vids, fanart memes, and communities which you think have been influential or important within the fandom. 

You do have to learn some really basic code to write and format Fanlore articles, but nothing more complex than good old fashioned html really, and they have ample documentation and plenty of friendly users who can help you. When I started my page, I basically found another user’s page in a format I liked, copied and pasted the formatting, and then filled in my own information. 

If you want to contribute but can’t for whatever reasons, please REBLOG this and spread the message, and/or send me an ask or message and I’ll see what I can do. Maybe you know something about some obscure fanfic and want it added to the Hannibal fanlore page, but don’t want to wrangle with the code; please contact me and I’ll try to add it. 

[OOC: signal boosting my own post, I know, but I consider the documenting, archiving, and preservation of fandom work really important. PLEASE consider contributing to fanlore, fellow Fannibals!]