Co-hosted by V @aimmyarrowshigh and Emily @idontgettechnology, This Week In Fandom History celebrates fandom culture's highest highs and weirdest lows.
With which short-lived vampire cop drama was the very first X-Files fic crossed over? Who is Tara Gilesbie? How recently did the Starsky & Hutch Lending Library rent out its last zine? What were Strikethrough, Racefail,
LGBTFansDeserveBetter, and Conchobar, anyway?
V and Emily trade off some deep-internet research each week to learn and laugh (and sometimes rage) their way through the annals (heh) of fandom history. Come join us!
This week's episode will be posted late due to illness. Apologies, and thank you for your patience! (But when it is up, it's an extra-long interview with a great guest!)
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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Actually, let's see if I can do a temperature check on this.
Is it okay to link to lost or deleted fanfics on the Wayback Machine?
Yes, always
Yes, but not if the author deleted it/their account on purpose
Yes, but only if it seems lost 'accidentally' e.g. hosting website got deleted
No, never
Nuance (explain in the tags)
chickenshit button (see results)
Remaining time: 3 days 8 hours
ah shit I probably should have said "using the Wayback Machine" but now i've hit post and can't edit the poll
for context: i've been thinking about making reclists for some older fandoms that predate AO3, where many works may have been lost as their archive sites stopped existing or their authors left a platform. to me, it seems unproblematic to find them in the Wayback Machine -- indeed, there are some fics that I first read because I was looking at a defunct archive in the WM. however, i've recently been in a fandom where authors seem to delete/get bullied out unusually frequently and it feels ethically dubious to distribute WM links (or saved files) of these authors' works, and i've left such works off reclists before. what do we think, folks?
Yes! Me hahaha. We've had a longstanding rule on the Rec Center submission form:
We won't share recs that aren't broadly available to the public—locked-to-archive-members AO3 fics are totally fine, but Google doc copies of fics that have been taken down are not. We have no strong feelings about sharing the latter amongst friends, but we're not comfortable sharing it with thousands of people, especially if we don't know the intentions of the original author when they took their stuff down.
I tried to really hammer home the context when I first wrote this: the "this newsletter has thousands of subscribers" bit does matter imo. In contrast, there are a few notable writers in my fandom who hid/removed their works because they went pro, and I have their collected works in zipped folders. I never hesitate to share when someone in my fandom is asking about one or all of them—directly, privately. I know those authors took their works down intentionally, and I feel certain they would not want someone, like, republishing or otherwise very widely redistributing their work, but I don't see an issue with fan-to-fan exchanges. I would not put them on a rec list.
Funnily, we are breaking the "no archive links" rule for The Rec Center today because @thisweekinfandomhistory is doing a guest list with fics from each decade, starting with the 1960s. With this, the context is clear: exploring fandom history. But in my own fandom, which has existed for 15 years and which I've been in for 8, it's not really history. People delete work for lots of reasons, and I don't know them. I think it's a balancing act, which is why I voted "nuance." 😄
Totally agreed! Sharing a recently deleted fic is ~spiritually different than looking at something that never got the chance to appear online at all without being a scan or re-type on the Wayback Machine. We purposely didn't share stories that were available and then deleted from an online source (to the best of our knowledge!), including some that were definitely influential in fandom history. (Not that we'd ever recommend snowqueensicedragon iykyk.)
And there ARE decades-old fics on AO3 through Open Doors and on blogspot, LJ, dw, and independent websites just organically as well! You can do a lot of digging into fandom history without the Wayback. :) And their authors still have the right to delete them if they want to do that, as much as it pains my heart when any fic stops existing in the wider world.
Get cozy with your coffee and pastry of your choice, because it's time for Fanlore's Annual Bingo Challenge! Join us from June 16th-29th to complete your bingo cards. There will be two bingo cards, one for beginners and one for more advanced editors (or you can complete both for a total blackout!). Fulfill the challenge by getting a bingo, blackout, or total blackout, and you could earn yummy badges!
To join the fun all you need is a Fanlore account. Sign up now, and check out the Help page to learn more!
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We value every contribution to our shared fandom history. If you’re new to editing Fanlore or wikis in general, visit our New Visitor Portal to get started or ask us questions here!
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
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VIRTUAL TGIF/F - Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 August 2026
We're thrilled to announce a brand new, 100% online fan convention with a schedule build on your ideas - just like our in-person experience!
REGISTER NOW
Programming will include discussion panels, watch parties, and fun group events that cater to a wide range of interests and interaction styles. And there'll be plenty of time to socialize and meet new friends.
We've designed timings to work for all North American timezones, and we hope that our friends around the world will also be able to pop in!
Virtual TGIF/F is a complement to our in-person con, aiming to:
strengthen our community
provide opportunities to engage and connect
open the doors to more femslash-loving folks around the world
Like, share, follow, and don't forget to register!
Check out our super fun conversation with STAN Pod about Stranger Things, fandom, Stranger Things fandom, and more! It's available as an audio podcast on all normal audio platforms OR as a video on YouTube at the link above!
no, mother... you should have read my supposed "school field trip" permission slip closer.... i foresaw your betrayal a mile away.... im afraid, mother, it is you who has been sold to one direction
Send a SASE! This week, V and Emily take a look at the illustrious -- pun intended -- life and career of Big Name Fanartist and writer Beverly Zuk, whose Fanlore page is a riot of full-frontal Vulcans. We look at the fascinating fic she wrote, particularly "The Third Verdict," and read through her instructions of how to become a fanartist in 1978. Plus, we marvel at the Star Trek Welcommittee and their work to help fans connect in an age before the internet made connecting simple, if not always easy. The key thing we take away from Beverly Zuk's legacy is that fandom is about being a fan together with others.
Sources
Fanlore: The Third Verdict
Fanlore: Beverly Zuk
IDIC #10
In Memoriam, Bev Zuk
How To Break Into Treklit
So You Want to Be A Fanartist!
Promo
Aim High Brooch Designs - For 25% off any order on Aim High Brooch Designs on Etsy, including a custom brooch, bag charm, keychain, or magnet design, use the promo code TWIFH.
Virtual TGIF/F - Our friends at TGI Femslash have just announced a brand-new, online fan con happening this summer. On August 29–30, Virtual TGIF/F will bring femslash fans from around the world together for discussion panels, online events, and more. Registration opens June 1st. Find out more at tgifemslash.com/virtualcon
Wow If True - Wow If True is your one-stop internet culture shop, explaining how what’s happening online shapes the real world. And they're the internet experts and real-life besties to unravel it: tech culture journalist Amanda Silberling and science fiction author slash attorney Isabel J. Kim, Esq. More importantly, they're the only podcast that will mention Neopets and horizontal mergers in the same episode. So check out Wow If True, wherever on the internet you find your podcasts. New episodes every other Wednesday.
RePROs Fight Back - Right now reproductive health is facing seismic shifts and can feel confusing, overwhelming, and exhausting. On rePROs Fight Back, host Jennie Wetter really makes it feel like you’re learning from your friend. rePROs Fight Back breaks down the big, overwhelming issues in ways that actually make sense and really shows the ripple effects happening after the news cycle moves on. Jennie brings on experts and advocates to talk about everything from abortion access and sex-ed to the real impact of gender inequality and threats to LGBTQI+ rights. Plus, she’s always honest about how she’s managing these heavy feelings and how she’s coping. Check out rePROs Fight Back wherever you’re listening to this podcast right now.
This Week In Fandom History is a fandom-centric podcast that tells you… what happened this week in fandom history!
Follow This Week in Fandom History on Tumblr at @thisweekinfandomhistory
We’re now on Instagram! @thisweekinfandomhistory
Check out our Fandom Primer playlist via linktr.ee/twifh
You can support the show via our Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/thisweekinfandomhistory
If you have a fannish company, event, or service and would like to sponsor or partner with TWIFH, please contact us via our website.
Please remember to rate the show 5 stars on your listening platform of choice!
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Check out our super fun chat with Paul from That Aged Well over on their podcast feed! We discussed everything from the Citrus Scale to Emily's love for So Weird, plus we tried to explain the Hamilton Cannibal Mermaid HIVliving Wank from memory...
There are multiple chapters that are set in hospitals where the characters are attempting to recover from injuries that never fully heal. I must once again stress that my experience in WWI was perfectly normal.
There is a giant horrible mudplain full of unrecoverable and perfectly preserved dead bodies that the characters have to walk through in a land where the air is poisoned gas, and on a compLETELY UNRELATED NOTE: WWI WAS TOTALLY FINE AND NORMAL!!
And why are you all saying lotr was also a way for me to process the trauma and horror I experienced watching my own sons and students fight in WWII. Just because one of my characters longs to fight alongside her loved ones to save her country instead of being told to stay put, keep calm, and carry on while the world around her completely falls apart and all hope seems lost…..made to silently bear witness to the death and destruction of her people and the lands she is unable to protect….
Yes, I began writing these books during WWII while my sons were actively on the front lines, but my experience watching the young people I loved and taught dying to save me and my country from invasion in WWII bc my generation did not in fact end all wars WAS TOTALLY FINE AND NORMAL!!
Roar! This week, V and Emily look at a 70-year-old fandom that we'd never considered before: Godzilla. Thanks to a request, we look at the schism in the fandom, and the Godzilla canon, caused by Hollywood's GODZILLA (1998) -- also known as Zilla or GINO -- as well as the special effects fanzines of the '60s and '70s. We learn about Japan's bananas intellectual property laws in the '90s, and about a BANANAS crossover zine that spanned over 600 pages of fic. This is truly a giant-size episode chock full of kaiju content.
Sources
Fanlore: GINO
The Kaiju Apostle
Building Bridges in the Godzilla Fandom
Fanlore: Welcome to Earth!
Fanlore: Bite of the Wolf
Fanlore: Urban Legends
Urban Legends: The Site
TV Tropes: Vathara
Promo
Aim High Brooch Designs - For 25% off any order on Aim High Brooch Designs on Etsy, including a custom brooch, bag charm, keychain, or magnet design, use the promo code TWIFH.
Virtual TGIF/F - Our friends at TGI Femslash have just announced a brand-new, online fan con happening this summer. On August 29–30, Virtual TGIF/F will bring femslash fans from around the world together for discussion panels, online events, and more. Registration opens June 1st. Find out more at tgifemslash.com/virtualcon
Simple & Clean - Simple and Clean is a show where hosts Mischa Stanton and Mayanna Berrin (and friends) talk about Kingdom Hearts, a little video game franchise about really big feelings. Join us as we discuss the plot, characters, world building, music, fashion, fanbase, and societal impact of a thing that by all means, probably shouldn’t even exist. New episodes every Sunday, wherever you listen to podcasts!
This Week In Fandom History is a fandom-centric podcast that tells you… what happened this week in fandom history!
Follow This Week in Fandom History on Tumblr at @thisweekinfandomhistory
We’re now on Instagram! @thisweekinfandomhistory
Check out our Fandom Primer playlist via linktr.ee/twifh
You can support the show via our Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/thisweekinfandomhistory
If you have a fannish company, event, or service and would like to sponsor or partner with TWIFH, please contact us via our website.
Please remember to rate the show 5 stars on your listening platform of choice!
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
For those of you who don't know, Fandom Trumps Hate is a yearly event where fanworks (fic, art, videos, podfics, betaing, etc.) are auctioned off to generate donations for progressive nonprofits. You can see the list for those chosen this year here. The best bit is that the donations are directly to the charity and the receipt is then shown to the event organizers, so the money goes exactly where it should without the risk of a middleman!
I've participated as both bidder and as creator and I cannot recommend it enough. Search through the tags - there are a LOT of very talented folks in there and it's all for a good cause :)
I'm offering three fics this year! One fic is for between 5 and 10k words and can be found here, while the other two are for less than 5k words and can be found here and here. These are just ranges that must be hit for a minimum - any of them can go above those numbers if the story goes that way!
Y'all can probably guess what's on offer if you follow me, but I'll copy my spiel below the read more! This is the same info that is on each listing, which differ only in how many words are offered.
Bidding opens at 8 AM EST on Tuesday, March 3rd and closes at 8 PM EST on Saturday, March 7th. If you ever forget the dates, the information is on their Tumblr linked above!
Organizations this auction benefits: Bidder's choice of any of the listed groups (See full list.)
Type of fanwork: Written fanwork
Subtype(s): Fan fiction (new), Fan fiction (remix of an existing fic)
Fandom(s): Good Omens
Highest rating: E
Minimum Bid: $5
Audience: 18+ only
Length/scope: 5 -10k words (or Less than 5k words)
Specialty tags (what is this?): Aro/ace characters, Canonically trans or nonbinary chars, F/F ships, Genderswap/genderbending, Poly ships, Trans or nonbinary interpretations of canon characters
Characters/pairings of interest:
Aziraphale/Crowley, Aziraphale/Crowley/Adam/Eve, background relationships - any
Subjects/theme/tropes of interest:
For explicit fics, I tend to prefer top Aziraphale/bottom Crowley and dom Aziraphale/sub Crowley when writing, but can switch those dynamics if preferred very easily, so don't be shy to request the opposite in either regard! I am a very big fan of genderfuckery and love to write them with all sorts of combinations of Efforts and pronouns and presentations, both in human AUs and canonverse. And for that matter, I'm equally happy writing human AUs and writing canonverse, so I'm willing to work with whatever ideas you have!
I also love Ineffable Family works and would be stoked to write some for anyone interested, and am equally interested in writing the creation of the family and in slice of life during pregnancy and after birth.
Big old fan of monsterfuckery too, me, so happy to explore that!
For more SFW fics, I am a big fan of exploring Aziraphale and Crowley's pining through history, their relationships with the humans and the world around them, and just anything acknowledging how long they've been Earth's guardians. I am also always very excited to write anything about Aziraphale and Crowley's relationships with the current day humans from season 1 and season 2 that got wrapped up in the supernatural shenanigans, and even the ones who don't know their true nature.
For Aziraphale/Crowley/Adam/Eve, I find it lends itself best to human AUs because of the kind of inherent tragedy on it, but I'm willing to write both them and canonverse type stuff!
Unwilling to address:
I am not comfortable writing the major archive warnings. But I have written consensual non-consent before, so if you have a prompt similar to that and are unsure if it pushes a boundary, reach out to me and I'm happy to let you know if I would be able to work with it!
Other things I am not comfortable writing are incest, gore, body horror, blood play, age play, watersports, anything with scat, and hurt no comfort.
Themes and topics I would struggle with would be cheating, wrestling in depth with any forms of bigotry, and unhappy endings in general.
I won't write a romantic/sexual fic (or even a qpr type relationship) where Aziraphale and Crowley are not the final pairing (unless it is in the context of Aziraphale/Crowley/Adam/Eve), but I don't object to mentioning them having had other relationships in the past/exploring a little of a previous pairing, so long as the majority of the fic focuses on Aziraphale and Crowley's relationship. I am fine with any and all background pairings so long as everyone is of age.
Other notes:
I'm pretty easy going in terms of how specific you'd like your prompt to be! If you have very clear ideas on how the fic will go, I'm happy to take that direction, but I'm also happy for you to share a vibe and then we can bounce ideas back and forth. For more vague prompts in particular, I can have it be a surprise after the initial prompt if you'd like, or I can absolutely share outlines or little snippets, depending on what you want.
pixelskylines
tangentwithtanner
stormborns
dededos
