#crack van

This week's Featured Article is Crack Van!

Active from 2003 to 2014, Crack Van was a multifandom fanfiction and vid rec community on LiveJournal that became, for a generation of fans, the first stop when exploring a new fandom. At its peak, it was one of the most organised and wide-ranging rec communities the internet had ever seen, with nearly 25,000 recs over ten years.

The community worked by recruiting volunteers from individual fandoms to "drive the van" for a month at a time, posting regular recommendations and writing fandom primers: overviews designed to help total newcomers understand the source material, the characters, the ships, and where to find the good stuff.

Crack Van closed permanently in January 2014, signalling a broader shift in fandom culture, as Tumblr, AO3, and Twitter had changed how fans discovered fanworks and connected with each other, making the curated, collaborative structure of Crack Van feel like a different era entirely. Many fans mourned it as the end of something irreplaceable.

Crack Van also inspired a wave of fandom-specific rec communities in its image, like Crack Impala for Supernatural.

Curious about the community that helped hundreds of thousands of fans find their footing in new fandoms? Head over to Fanlore to learn more!

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Yay!! That's so great to hear! Thanks so much for telling us--primers making a comeback is a big win for everyone!!

“Want some candy, little fangirl?” This Fannish History Friday, we’re looking back on the long-running LiveJournal recs community Crack Van. 

Did you write a fandom primer, or sign up to pimp your fandom for a month? Did you discover a favorite story, or even a favorite fandom through a Crack Van post? If you remember Crack Van, add your experience to our page on Fanlore.

Hi! 

Syntax6 hangs out on Haven and her website is here. 

RivkaT has a Live Journal and archives her fics on AO3.

I don’t know yet about the others. I’ve asked around and will get back to you. (and it’s Narida Law btw, author of “Worth Breaking”. :-) ) 

On the new writer’s front, I have been very impressed with the stories of DiscordantWords. Her writing style and characterizations are outstanding. 

I’ve also begun to read things by inksplotches, who claims to be 17, which, if she really is, is damn impressive. Honestly, at first, I almost thought it was Penumbra writing under a pseud i.e. excellent, poetic writing, once you get used to her lack of capitalization. 

The best place to go for fic recs is The XF Book Club. There is a link on the right hand-side of the page called “Fic Discussions Masterpost” which lists all the stories that were rec’ed and discussed. 

And there is always the X-Files tag on the now defunct Crack Van. The great thing about it is that people explain why they chose to rec a particular story. 

There was a time when LiveJournal community crack_van was a household name in the world of Internet fandom. Now, after 10 years of activity and fandom’s mass exodus from Livejournal to platforms such as Tumblr and Archive of our Own, it’s shutting down for good. 

The Crack Van’s purpose was twofold: To introduce people to new fandoms, and to provide trustworthy fanfiction recommendations for people who didn’t have time to wade through a ton of terrible writing to find the good stuff. Over the years, it’s provided guides to everything from Starsky & Hutch to this year’s big hits, Attack on Titan and Welcome to Night Vale.

Each month a new moderator took over the community, posting recommendations from their own fandom every day. At its peak, the wait list to be a crack_van moderator could be up to a year long, but ten years and 25,000 recs later, most of its readership has left Livejournal for good.

But crack_van’s dwindling audience isn’t just a case of fans moving away from LiveJournal, it’s also because fandom culture in 2013 is very different from the way it was a decade ago. On Tumblr, new fandoms can go viral in a matter of hours, without the aid of organised communities or even fanfic.

The Second Rise by victoria p (Teen)

Fandom: MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE Pairing: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers/Peggy Carter, background Tony/Pepper Length: 6000 Author on LJ: musesfool / musesfool Author Website: musesfool Why this must be read: So, apparently, in addition to alternate universes, I'll also be inundating you with food porn this month. I would apologize, except I'm not sorry, not even a little. This story is a non-powered-slash-modern bakery AU, and it's lovely. It's tagged "therapeutic breadmaking," and that's basically what it is. There are so many wonderful things about this story that I can't list them all (and wouldn't want to deprive you of the joys of finding them on your own), but suffice it to say, this is exactly how I picture Steve and Bucky if the war they'd fought was in Afghanistan instead of western Europe. In addition, there is a lovely teamfic feel and glorious little nods to canon, all written in Vic's always beautiful prose. 

Excerpt: 

Natasha is the first to hire on. A friend of Pepper's who ran her own cupcake and wedding cake business out of her apartment, she'd needed room to expand and Steve had been happy to provide it. He's a bread maker--it's what he knows and likes best: flour, salt, and yeast coming together to produce the most basic and yet most delicious staple of life. The fussy vagaries of cakes irritate him, though he's competent enough at the basics. It suits Natasha right down to the ground, though. She's the most intense baker he's ever met, and her wedding cakes are fluffy tiers of perfection for which they often charge exorbitant prices that make Steve feel guilty (which is why Natasha doesn't let him deal with the brides or the brides' mothers).