Chump Change from My2Centences

[cheshyre]

Crossposted from riba_rambles

So, Making Light and Henry Jenkins have both weighed in on FanLib.

Given all the talk, I decided to look up the company founder's history.

And that's how I discovered his main website [via ] -- My2Centences.com -- and read a very different story.

Here's how they're pitching FanLib to industry:

Introducing the new, turnkey entertainment marketing service

That's right, it's not primarily geared towards fans, it's a “marketing service.”

Read more in their 6-page PDF brochure, with revelatory quotes like:

• See How To: Grow Audience! Enhance Brand! and Increase Revenue!
• [let] a mass audience collaborate democratically in a fun online game that you control.
      [Emphasis theirs]
• Increase audience -- if they build it, they will come
• Massive Viral Marketing

And how about Page 4, describing how their site is "MANAGED & MODERATED TO THE MAX," including the following:

• As with a coloring book, players must "stay within the lines"
• Restrictive player's terms-of-service protects your rights and property
• Moderated "scene missions" keep the story under your control
• Full monitoring & management of submissions & players

Yes, a restrictive TOS isn't a bug -- it's a feature!

They conclude with the following B2B summary:

FANLIB TECHNOLOGIES (a division of My2Centences LLC) develops, markets and manages innovative social software and web services that unleash the creativity of the worldwide public and generate remarkable value for businesses.

Quite a different picture from the current site's About Page, which states:

FanLib is dedicated to promoting and celebrating fan creativity.
          ...as a means of profiting off fandom's back.

Can we consign this to the dustbin of history?