FanLib Is A Year Old

[monster-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Here is the announcement from the site.

It's been a whole year since FanLib first officially opened its doors — can you believe it? It's been some ride. Just look at these numbers:

* 29,000 submissions and counting
* 20,000 plus members
* Hundreds of fandoms represented from "A Bug's Life" to "Zorro."

And we couldn't have done it without each and everyone of you, our FanLibbers.

FanLib is more than just an archive, we're a community — from our forums to friending, messaging and commenting — people are connecting in many different ways.

In the past 12 months, FanLib has made lots of changes, mostly because you asked for them. We started with fiction, then opened our submissions to art and videos. We allowed for pictures embedded in stories. We overhauled our features a number of times to help you get the most out of your visits. But bells and whistles aside, we've always tried to put our members first, and that's why we enjoy being able to feature your works on our front page every day.

With time, the "most popular" fandoms on the site have shifted from the early Harry Potter days, to when Kirk vs. Picard ruled supreme, to the arrival of the anime fandoms such as Naruto and Inuyasha. Through it all, we've noticed a tendency not to divide but to unite. People have discovered new fandoms thanks to a featured fic or a contest, and they've learned new skills (thanks to our art lessons and writing critiques). We believe that good storytelling — be it words or visuals — transcends all fannish boundaries.

Our slogan is "FanLib: Where the Stories Continue…" because, as we say here on No Hiatus, fans never take a break.

So Happy Birthday, FanLib, and thanks to all you FanLibbers who have made it what it is.

EDIT: FanLib actually launched in February-March of 2007, when they added 4,000 1,000 of their 29,000 members. During that period, FanLib gave away free nanoPods.

Fandom's unpaid labor made them money! Aren't you glad?

Comments

[delle.livejournal.com]

Ecstatic. (/Jaffar voice)

[monster-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Hallelujah, Jaffar!

:D

[delle.livejournal.com]

I *adore* Aladdin. I"m as old as the hills and I still *adore* Aladdin.

[mews1945.livejournal.com]

Bulls--t of the purest ray serene, as SK would say.

[monster-of-hope.livejournal.com]

As I was saying below, the numbers aren't even true, because FanLib added at least 4,000 members in Feb. - Mar. 2007, when they were giving away nanoPods.

[lttledvl.livejournal.com]

Yet despite their 'glorious' changes, one majorly irritating effing thing remains the same.

The retarded page splits for fics.

Because we all love having to read 40trillion pages for a 10 chapter fic.

Yay fanlib! Let's party!

*gets snockered on margaritas and the burros' candy stash*

[monster-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Man. Posting a story there is so painful I could feel my brain rotting.

[lttledvl.livejournal.com]

That's what the margaritas are for. ;p

[ithiliana.livejournal.com]

29,000 submissions?

20,000 plus members?

In a freaking year?

In a fandom where the "fandom counts" LJ community got 30 or so thousand members in a very much shorter time (does not remember actual time but it wasn't that long)?

I am not a numbers person, but are those numbers really impressive? Especially because if every member did two submissions they'd have 40,000 submissions...?

[monster-of-hope.livejournal.com]

In a fandom where the "fandom counts" LJ community got 30 or so thousand members in a very much shorter time (does not remember actual time but it wasn't that long)?

It was 24-48 hours. :D

[ithiliana.livejournal.com]

*hah* I thought it was pretty fast, but didn't want to commit to numbers from my memory which, when it comes to numbers, sucks!

HAHAHAHAHAH!

So FL is totally lame.

[shalom]

At 1.45 submissions per person over the course of a year, it hardly seems momentous. I wonder how many members are really just taking up dead space (like mine, opened just to poke things on the forums).

In contrast, squeaky had this on insanejournal yesterday: Overnight last night we hit 200,000 accounts. The growth on this site is amazing. It took over 6 years to reach 100,000 and then less than 3 months to double that.

[monster-of-hope.livejournal.com]

*nods* FanLib's growth is astoundingly poor. 29,000 is not accurate, either, because some members (at least 4,000) joined in February and March, 2007, when FanLib was giving away nanoPods, before the "launch" in April.

InsaneJournal is adding 1,000 accounts a day, and they don't advertise.

[shalom]

He's having some problems with bandwidth due to his popularity.

[lttledvl.livejournal.com]

I wonder how many members are really just taking up dead space

*raises hand*

I poked at the forums for a while. :D

[shalom]

Poking lost its fun when the conversation turned to how feedback is good as long as it wasn't mean (mean = anything constructive).

[scribblesinink]

I wonder how many members are really just taking up dead space

Me, for securing usernames/pennames. Twice, at least (can't remember exactly, it's been a year after all!).

[monster-of-hope.livejournal.com]

By the way, did you ever try to remove your fanlib account? Last time I checked, it could only be done by sending an email request.

[meoinya.livejournal.com]

I tried to remove mine and I couldn't.

[shalom]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm...no, I never have, but I've not logged on in forever. I'll try and see if they've wiped me tonight. I use a diff name there.

[ardwynna-m.livejournal.com]

There was a post on fanthropology a few weeks ago, all ecstatic about the growth of Fanlib and how much fun they're having and how the anti-fanlib movement appears to have waned etc, and congratulating Fanlib on finding its viable business model. @_@ OMG whee! Users are so happy to get their ugly tshirts. Still doesn't change the fact that somebody's making money off your work, hanging you out to dry if the lawyers come, and can't actually offer most of fandom anything.

[monster-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Their performance has been horrible. 29,000 in a year (actually 25,000) is mind-bogglingly shitty. Insanejournal adds that many people in a month.

[ardwynna-m.livejournal.com]

http://community.livejournal.com/fanthropology/424192.html#cutid2

Post is there. Whole thing gave me a creepy crawly feeling.

[monster-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that. I left a comment.

http://community.livejournal.com/fanthropology/424192.html?thread=8328448#t8328448

[monster-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Okay. My conversation there is getting downright weird. According to the poster, FanLib "doesn't think of itself as a fanfiction archive," and doesn't differentiate between the archive and their marketing campaigns such as the one for The L Word.

I find that quite interesting.

[verdictlesslife.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I'm glad their growth is so slow and that fandom hasn't been seduced by the codswollop.

[monster-of-hope.livejournal.com]

By any measure, their growth is pathetic. :)

[manna]

20,000 members, and 1.45 submissions per member? Wow. They can put a brave face on it, but I the site owners are pretty disappointed by that.

I wonder what the stats would look like if all the people who opened name-squatting accounts there deleted them.

[monster-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Last time I checked, the only way to remove your account was by sending in an email. There isn't any way to do it yourself. That will keep the number artificially high.

[shalom]

Maybe I'll post that as a question in the forums tonight....why is it so difficult to remove oneself from your membership?