Random Thoughts 9: Attack of the Vapid Posts

[hobbsyoyo]

It's not like vBulletin when we had more control and people had to send friend requests (which you could accept or reject).

Yes it seems that in addition to this, that the forum software will automatically decide to 'follow' people even if you never intended to and are not even friends with them in the old software.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

I suspect you're mistaken about that. Well... I can't see any reason why it would anyway, and it hasn't done for me. Anecdote vs anecdote I guess.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I was going off of @Takhisis's explanation a page or two back. I will admit I may be misunderstanding what he wrote. Or he may have explained it in one of the site feedback threads. Apologies I don't recall where he posted it.

 

[Takhisis]

Yes it seems that in addition to this, that the forum software will automatically decide to 'follow' people even if you never intended to and are not even friends with them in the old software.

Nnnno, but you can't stop people from ‘following’ you.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Nnnno, but you can't stop people from ‘following’ you.

Well...

 

[Takhisis]

Spray-and-pray? That's inefficient.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

is the most sure way.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Yes it seems that in addition to this, that the forum software will automatically decide to 'follow' people even if you never intended to and are not even friends with them in the old software.

Or you might accidentally click on 'follow' instead of whatever else you might have intended to click on in their profile.

Or you get followed by an adbot (I've got one or two I can't get rid of).

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Spray-and-pray? That's inefficient.

I think of it more as "shoot them all and let God sort them out."

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

While updating all the fanfic metadata for Calibre, I came across a few authors that removed every single one of their fics.

Although it's probably not likely (it requires nobody else to have saved it and the author to have deleted their own copy), there's an odd feeling in wondering if you might have the last existing copy of a fanfic in the world.

(It might be somewhat more likely for one of @Valka D'Ur's hard-copy fics though.)

 

[Takhisis]

there's an odd feeling in wondering if you might have the last existing copy of a fanfic in the world.

It's like those odds and ends I find from old anime conventions, especially brochures, fanzines, pieces of paper with URLs for blogs that are dead or deleted, YouTube channels, etc.
They never fail to amaze me and they feel like a tiny preserved piece of the past that still lives.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

While updating all the fanfic metadata for Calibre, I came across a few authors that removed every single one of their fics.

Although it's probably not likely (it requires nobody else to have saved it and the author to have deleted their own copy), there's an odd feeling in wondering if you might have the last existing copy of a fanfic in the world.

(It might be somewhat more likely for one of @Valka D'Ur's hard-copy fics though.)

It is true that I likely have the last existing copy of some fanfics, but most are probably ones that I either wrote myself or co-wrote. Back in the late '80s/early '90s I collaborated with some other people to write some Star Trek fanfic and a small book of filksongs. I strongly suspect I'm probably the only person in this group who kept any copies. I may even be the only person who still has a copy of the song I participated in writing at BanffCon, where we held a filking workshop. A group of about half a dozen of us got together and wrote an "X-Files" filksong, to the tune of "Help!". It was an interesting challenge for me, since I'd never seen either the TV show or heard that particular Beatles song. But I did keep a copy of the song we ended up with (my contribution was about half a line).

The rarest items among my fanzine collection that I didn't write/co-write are probably the Darkover 'zines. There weren't many printed in the first place (I have one of only 200 hardcover copies of the Darkover Concordance ever printed), and there are a couple of reasons why some copies people had were discarded or outright destroyed (various legal issues resulted in the MZB Literary Trust ordering people to destroy any Darkover fanfic they possessed, and some people doing this voluntarily for a different legal reason). Obviously I am not going to allow either some team of American lawyers to dictate the contents of my bookshelf, nor will I give in to peer pressure and throw my fanzines, novels, and anthologies on a bonfire. So I've kept my copies.

There are some Star Trek 'zines that didn't have a large circulation, and I suspect some of those may have been victims of the raid on a convention dealers' room in the '70s when Paramount lawyers swooped in, grabbed every fanzine they could find, and left. Some of those were likely the only copies in existence, which from the pov of both a book collector and SF historian, is a loss to Star Trek fandom that can't ever be restored.

*Some will probably scoff that fanfic based on a TV show could ever be a loss to the literary world, but consider that people put in time and effort to create the stories, poetry, songs, and artwork that went into those. You never know when a story will touch people or influence them to look at the world in a more positive way.

Some specific issues are hard to find. I'm missing a few from certain titles, and it's not from lack of hunting for them. Some just didn't have that many copies, or there may be some reason why they're in the hands of collectors, rather than in circulation and available for sale.

Obviously, fanfic can't legally be sold, but these are being sold as collectibles, not as a specific author trying to make money off an intellectual property they don't own. What the Paramount lawyers didn't know - or care about - was that Gene Roddenberry actually didn't mind people creating their own Star Trek stories. As with George Lucas, who also tolerated fanfic, fan creations kept people thinking about the franchise, kept them interested, every person who sported a costume at a convention was literally a walking advertisement, and so on.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Some specific issues are hard to find. I'm missing a few from certain titles, and it's not from lack of hunting for them. Some just didn't have that many copies, or there may be some reason why they're in the hands of collectors, rather than in circulation and available for sale.

Very unlikely that they have the specific ones you're looking for, but you might want to check out this scanned fanzine collection on the Internet Archive. I love digging around on the IA and finding neat things.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Very unlikely that they have the specific ones you're looking for, but you might want to check out this scanned fanzine collection on the Internet Archive. I love digging around on the IA and finding neat things.

Thank you!

I'm looking for specific issues of Saurian Brandy Digest, Masiform-D, and several others. I have Spockanalia and some others listed on this website, but there are a couple of titles I've never heard of.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Just musing on how the TNG script writing was so much better than "Picard", as this clip just proves:

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I still want to know who made me princess.

You were drafted. What you do with the job now is up to you. Princesses are usually queens-in-training, so I'm sure that you and Mary will be benevolent rulers.

I think Mary abdicated

So do you want your coronation to be a coattails affair or can I show up in a canadian tuxedo?

As long as you ride a moose.

So, uh, what now?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

So, uh, what now?

I'd go with stepping down gracefully and welcoming her back.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Can we not just have a civil war like the good old days.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Legions of moose riders charging hither and yon would likely leave a big ol' mess. I'm not in favor.

 

[Takhisis]

I still support aimee's cause.