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life_wo_fanlibAnother news article 1 about FanLib partner Craig Singer's newest venture casually mentions FanLib has become Disney's Take180.
This is the second article 2 confirming Disney bought FanLib; I assume the information appears in a Disney financial report. Any Disney stockholders out there? The financial report may state the price paid for FanLib.
Take180 is visually ugly, and laden with "challenges" and prizes. It looks exactly the way you would expect FanLib to look after a quick re-do to serve Disney's interests. It is also riddled with the celebrity brown-nosing rampant at FanLib. The pitch (Be part of a creative community. Get in the spotlight. Prizes happen.) is nearly indistinguishable from Chris Williams's promotion of FanLib in July, 2007. 3
The men who owned FanLib (brothers Chris and David Williams) did not have the balls 4 to tell the 25,000 members of the sell-out. They have said nothing publicly on the subject (according to my daily news webcrawl since June, 2008). At the time of the closure, I speculated the only confirmation might be a FanLib-like product from Disney. 5 Now we have it. FanLib closed on August 4, 2008. 6 Take180 opened around August 29, 2008. 7
I had the lowest possible expectations of the Williams brothers, but even I didn't expect them to lie about matters of importance — not when the lies would inevitably be exposed. Apparently they thought lying was the better trade-off: better to lie and cowardly escape the reaction of fandom, even though they would be exposed later as liars.
Perhaps the FanLib founders feared their members would join Take180 and make a wreck of its forums, sullying its Disney purity. Perhaps they feared FanLib's failure 8 would foul Take180 before it was out of the dock. Or perhaps Disney publicists, reviewing the Williams brothers' track record 9 in communicating with fans, ordered them to be silent.
Five months have gone by since FanLib closed. Its members are scattered; articles about FanLib have dwindled. If nothing else, the lies bought time.
There's more. Craig Singer's current venture, the film Perkins' 14, came about this way:
"A year and a half ago, Singer was sorting through hundreds of one-paragraph ideas submitted through his Web site, FanLib [...]. The 10 fan finalists were then asked to create a 'video pitch' for their idea. It was a fan in North Carolina who came up with the premise of 'Perkins 14' [sic]— about a town that has suffered 14 child abductions, and the obsessed cop [...] who finds that the kids have been turned into zombified killing machines." 10
Craig Singer used a FanLib member's original idea to launch his new career? 11 I need a stronger stomach. Edit: Jeremy Donaldson's idea was submitted through massify.com in association with FanLib. 12
Another thing: numerous people in fandom (and outside of it) distrusted the Disney buyout rumor because it was farfetched Disney would believe a fanfiction website could be profitable (especially after FanLib's example). But Disney had no such foolish belief. Fanfiction appears at Take180 only as an interest in member profiles.
Take180 is built from FanLib's corpse, using a single limb added in October, 2007, vid hosting. 13 (Edit: Turns out this is literally true. Take180 URLs indicate it lives on FanLib's former servers.) Instead of the female dominated world of fanfiction, Take180 goes after amateur film makers — a fandom YouTube; you can imagine the corporate orgasm the concept would induce — presumably to gain the young male demographic FanLib slavered after. 14
Just one more thing. Confirmation of the Disney buyout means we must reconsider FanLib.
As a fanfiction archive and as a fandom community, FanLib was a disaster. 15 But as a money-making venture for a small group of wealthy white businessmen, it was a success: with $100 million 16 to spend on acquisitions, Disney probably paid quite a bit more for FanLib than its initial investment of $3 million in venture capital. 17
This is bad news for fandom; it will encourage future greedy and destructive corporate interference with fan creations.
Sources
1. Filmmaker from North Jersey put fans in charge by Jim Beckerman, January 4 2009.
2. Pay-TV Best Practice in Times of TV 3.0 by Guy Bisson, October 31 2008.
3. Chris Williams Responds to Our Questions about FanLib by Henry Jenkins, May 25 2007.
4. FanLib bought by Disney? Too good to be true... by partly_bouncy at Fanthropology, June 4 2008.
5. The Disney buyout rumor just won't die by Stewardess, August 9 2008.
6. FanLib Shuts Down, SoCalTech, July 29 2008.
7. Take180 FAQ, August 29 2008.
8. What businesses learned in 2007 about the digital race by Steve Cody and Sam Ford, December 28 2007.
9. Mimbo (Chris Williams) opens a dialogue with fans in Telesilla's livejournal, May 17 2008.
10. Filmmaker from North Jersey put fans in charge by Jim Beckerman, January 4 2009.
11. Craig Singer Looks to the Internet for Perkins' 14 by Kyle Rupprecht, October 21 2008.
12. Perkins' 14 in Post Production in NYC by Joseph B. Mauceri, August 18 2008.
13. FanLib: One Year Later by partly_bouncy at Fanthropology, March 26 2008.
14. Internet Goes Nova Over Showtime, Starz, Moonves Partnered FanLib.com by Mary McNamara, May 28 2007.
15. A FanLib Retrospective by Stewardess, July 25 2008.
16. Disney Investing up to $100MM in New Worlds, Virtual World News, January 2 2008.
17. Storytelling Social Net FanLib Launches With $3 Million In Funding by David Kaplan, May 18 2007.
This is the second article 2 confirming Disney bought FanLib; I assume the information appears in a Disney financial report. Any Disney stockholders out there? The financial report may state the price paid for FanLib.
Take180 is visually ugly, and laden with "challenges" and prizes. It looks exactly the way you would expect FanLib to look after a quick re-do to serve Disney's interests. It is also riddled with the celebrity brown-nosing rampant at FanLib. The pitch (Be part of a creative community. Get in the spotlight. Prizes happen.) is nearly indistinguishable from Chris Williams's promotion of FanLib in July, 2007. 3
The men who owned FanLib (brothers Chris and David Williams) did not have the balls 4 to tell the 25,000 members of the sell-out. They have said nothing publicly on the subject (according to my daily news webcrawl since June, 2008). At the time of the closure, I speculated the only confirmation might be a FanLib-like product from Disney. 5 Now we have it. FanLib closed on August 4, 2008. 6 Take180 opened around August 29, 2008. 7
I had the lowest possible expectations of the Williams brothers, but even I didn't expect them to lie about matters of importance — not when the lies would inevitably be exposed. Apparently they thought lying was the better trade-off: better to lie and cowardly escape the reaction of fandom, even though they would be exposed later as liars.
Perhaps the FanLib founders feared their members would join Take180 and make a wreck of its forums, sullying its Disney purity. Perhaps they feared FanLib's failure 8 would foul Take180 before it was out of the dock. Or perhaps Disney publicists, reviewing the Williams brothers' track record 9 in communicating with fans, ordered them to be silent.
Five months have gone by since FanLib closed. Its members are scattered; articles about FanLib have dwindled. If nothing else, the lies bought time.
There's more. Craig Singer's current venture, the film Perkins' 14, came about this way:
"A year and a half ago, Singer was sorting through hundreds of one-paragraph ideas submitted through his Web site, FanLib [...]. The 10 fan finalists were then asked to create a 'video pitch' for their idea. It was a fan in North Carolina who came up with the premise of 'Perkins 14' [sic]— about a town that has suffered 14 child abductions, and the obsessed cop [...] who finds that the kids have been turned into zombified killing machines." 10
Craig Singer used a FanLib member's original idea to launch his new career? 11 I need a stronger stomach. Edit: Jeremy Donaldson's idea was submitted through massify.com in association with FanLib. 12
Another thing: numerous people in fandom (and outside of it) distrusted the Disney buyout rumor because it was farfetched Disney would believe a fanfiction website could be profitable (especially after FanLib's example). But Disney had no such foolish belief. Fanfiction appears at Take180 only as an interest in member profiles.
Take180 is built from FanLib's corpse, using a single limb added in October, 2007, vid hosting. 13 (Edit: Turns out this is literally true. Take180 URLs indicate it lives on FanLib's former servers.) Instead of the female dominated world of fanfiction, Take180 goes after amateur film makers — a fandom YouTube; you can imagine the corporate orgasm the concept would induce — presumably to gain the young male demographic FanLib slavered after. 14
Just one more thing. Confirmation of the Disney buyout means we must reconsider FanLib.
As a fanfiction archive and as a fandom community, FanLib was a disaster. 15 But as a money-making venture for a small group of wealthy white businessmen, it was a success: with $100 million 16 to spend on acquisitions, Disney probably paid quite a bit more for FanLib than its initial investment of $3 million in venture capital. 17
This is bad news for fandom; it will encourage future greedy and destructive corporate interference with fan creations.
Sources
1. Filmmaker from North Jersey put fans in charge by Jim Beckerman, January 4 2009.
2. Pay-TV Best Practice in Times of TV 3.0 by Guy Bisson, October 31 2008.
3. Chris Williams Responds to Our Questions about FanLib by Henry Jenkins, May 25 2007.
4. FanLib bought by Disney? Too good to be true... by partly_bouncy at Fanthropology, June 4 2008.
5. The Disney buyout rumor just won't die by Stewardess, August 9 2008.
6. FanLib Shuts Down, SoCalTech, July 29 2008.
7. Take180 FAQ, August 29 2008.
8. What businesses learned in 2007 about the digital race by Steve Cody and Sam Ford, December 28 2007.
9. Mimbo (Chris Williams) opens a dialogue with fans in Telesilla's livejournal, May 17 2008.
10. Filmmaker from North Jersey put fans in charge by Jim Beckerman, January 4 2009.
11. Craig Singer Looks to the Internet for Perkins' 14 by Kyle Rupprecht, October 21 2008.
12. Perkins' 14 in Post Production in NYC by Joseph B. Mauceri, August 18 2008.
13. FanLib: One Year Later by partly_bouncy at Fanthropology, March 26 2008.
14. Internet Goes Nova Over Showtime, Starz, Moonves Partnered FanLib.com by Mary McNamara, May 28 2007.
15. A FanLib Retrospective by Stewardess, July 25 2008.
16. Disney Investing up to $100MM in New Worlds, Virtual World News, January 2 2008.
17. Storytelling Social Net FanLib Launches With $3 Million In Funding by David Kaplan, May 18 2007.
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-15 03:23 pm (UTC)I can say right away that this speculation is not true. If it had been, they would not have invited several FanLib members to the beta test of Take180 (which started out a while before they announced FanLib would close).
no subject
Date: 2009-01-15 07:58 pm (UTC)No FanLib member mentioned it at the time. Considering how many FanLib members were angered by the abrupt closure, it's surprising there was no leak. I wonder if the members knew they were testing a product that was going to be sold to Disney.
It's also mind boggling that FanLib would ask FanLib members to test a product they would later deny producing. FanLib refused to confirm the Disney buyout, and yet they STILL sought free labor to test the converted product? Wow. What assholes.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-17 01:30 pm (UTC)- The invitations to join the Beta-test of Take180 were sent through a mass-PM (I didn't save it to my computer, so I don't have it anymore, sorry), that I seem to recall targeted very active FanLib members (probably members the creators felt they could trust not to leak the information if they asked them not to, which they did). Basically they let us know that this site was not public information yet and that they would like it to stay that way until it was ready to be opened.
"Considering how many FanLib members were angered by the abrupt closure, it's surprising there was no leak."
- I actually seem to recall Take180 to be mentioned maybe once or twice. Of course this can just be a fabricated memory of mine, possibly it was not mentioned by name. At least no one thought too much of it. I still don't think there can be made *that* much comparison between FanLib and Take180. Sure they have similar design and software, but FanLib was a fanfiction community with some added official contests that you could choose whether or not to participate in, while Take180 is purely contest based. It is impossible to submit anything there unless it's through a contest submission form.
Also the anger was more about the lack of information, the short time limit we had before the site would close (but thankfully the tech people made a few last-minute features to help us not only save all our stories in one go, but also the feedback we had received for it as well).
"I wonder if the members knew they were testing a product that was going to be sold to Disney."
- We didn't. But the beta-test process on Take180 was very similar to the one that had occurred on FanLib over a year earlier (which I had also been part of). Basically we just joined a new site, which we could only access by password (like we had on FanLib), checked out the site, gave our feedback on it on the forum, and those of us who could participated in the first few contests that they had launched (since I was non-US I was not eligible to do any of the contests, so I saw really early on that the site had nothing to offer me. However, I did make a strong suggestion for them to be upfront with whoever else they invite to join the site that it is US-only (as an apology for having forgotten that I was non-US when they chose to invite me, I was sent an ipod as a consolation... lol. Hey, it's better than nothing, right?)
"It's also mind boggling that FanLib would ask FanLib members to test a product they would later deny producing."
- It would be incredibly stupid of FanLib to deny they were behind/involved in Take180, as there are many members of Take180 who can contradict their statement, some of them are still active (meaning participating) members today.
"FanLib refused to confirm the Disney buyout, and yet they STILL sought free labor to test the converted product? Wow. What assholes."
- The lack of information as to *why* the site was being shut down bugged me at the time. They did offer to phone me if I wanted to talk about it. I saw no point in it, however. But now I just don't care if it was Disney or not behind it. Those of us who wished to conserve the community we had built on that site moved on to our own self-created fan community (no corporation involved there) and that's where we are now.
And like I mentioned above, the beta test on Take180 was very similar to the one on FanLib. The people invited to join the beta testing basically just signed up to a private test-launch of a site. We basically just participated on the site (those of us who could, in the competitions) and voiced our opinions on the Forum. What we liked, what we didn't like. What we wanted of new features and so on. The same was done at FanLib almost two years ago. I see no problem in inviting people to join a beta-test that way, and no reason to label them as assholes simply from choosing people they were already familiar with. I do still object to the fact that they never gave us any real information behind why FanLib was shutting down (but like I said above, I don't really care anymore... the site is gone and the former FanLib-ers have made our own).
no subject
Date: 2009-01-17 09:52 pm (UTC)I consider FanLib assholes not because they asked FanLib members to beta-test Take180 (it was a logical business move), but for never admitting publicly that Take180 was the consequence of their selling out to Disney. If they had been upfront about it, it wouldn't bother me.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-18 03:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-18 05:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-18 04:31 pm (UTC)