Fanlore Page

[wellharkather.livejournal.com]

As part of Fanlore's Stub September, aralias and I have been updating Fanlore's previously woeful Red Dwarf page. We've used Google, Fanlore, this community and other LJ communties, and my small knowledge of the fandom, but it could probably still do with a lot more info.

If possible, could you - the lovely members of this com, please:
Check the page for factual inaccuracies and missed info - feel free to just go in and edit the page, or leave comments here
Search your memories/internets for info about early fanfic. I think we're particularly missing info like - when was the first Red Dwarf fic published (and where), when did slash start to massively take over. And what did people do before Livejournal?
If anyone is a fanartist and OK with their art being uploaded to Fanlore that would be great, as the page is a bit dull at the moment
Info about other conventions
Anything else you can think of - all info (as long as it is about what the fandom is/was doing, rather than about the show) is good

Comments

[rosecathy1.livejournal.com]

Ooh! It's very cool that you're doing this, thank you!

Tumblr: There's also a Red Dwarf Confessions (http://reddwarfconfessions.tumblr.com), although it's been dormant for awhile.

The observation that the fandom tends to go for short, funny stories is interesting — I don't mean to argue against it, especially since I haven't been around very long, but I would have said the opposite. Going by comments and kudos (which aren't scientific measures, of course) on recent fics, it seems to me that longer, angsty and/or sexy stories have the biggest draw. Anyone else want to weigh in on this?

[janamelie.livejournal.com]

I'd say you're right. Maybe the "short, funny stories" observation was true once, but in recent years the most popular and prolific authors tend to write lengthy fics - Kahvi / Roadstergal, Felineranger, Kronette, Veronica Rich etc. They certainly can be funny though. :)

Pedant mode - it's "Demons & Angels", not the other way round. ;)

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I'm a popular and prolific author? I'll take it.

[janamelie.livejournal.com]

Well, one of your fics is about three times longer than my entire output to date, so I'd say so. ;)

[lordvalerymimes.livejournal.com]

Seconded! :)

[aralias.livejournal.com]

ack - changed (my fault, not wellharkather's). and i've added in the observations about longer fics by those authors. thanks!

keep pendantic comments coming :)

[aralias.livejournal.com]

thanks! i've added both the confessions blog, and the stuff about longer stories.

[lordvalerymimes.livejournal.com]

I think you're right that we don't necessarily go for short stories, but I think that humor is an almost universal quality with Red Dwarf fic. I mean it stands to reason since the show is as funny as it is, without some humor, it just doesn't feel like Red Dwarf. I don't know that I've ever come across a fic that doesn't have a least a bit of humor thrown into it, even if it's a particularly dark one.

It's one of the things I love about it and that drew me to it. Some fics have had funny bits that made me laugh nearly as much as the original show, just from reading them.

[laurenthemself]

Before Livejournal there was Yahoo Groups, for me at least: Red Dwarf Slash Society and Red Dwarf Het Society. I reckon slash started coming into its own when the RDSS formed (2001) because before that it copped a lot more flaming, but when there were a group of us we could leave each other positive feedback and it put the flamers off.

I don't know about the first RD fic but the first RD slashfic I found was Yuchtar's 'What the Smeg', on their now defunct website http://users.ipa.net/~yuchtar/fanfic.html. The Wayback Machine has it, though, and the pub date is somewhere between the 18th of February 1999 and the 31st of May 1999.

I know I used to read fic as it went up over here. I also, because I didn't have internet access at home, used to download fics to a floppy disc at the library and take them home to read, and those files (which I still have because I am a pack rat) go back to 1999. I don;t know the actual pub dates though because nobody put those on their work!

[aralias.livejournal.com]

thanks for this :D it's exactly what wellharkather and i were looking for. i've added in some extra stuff about RDSS and the stuff about the (massively less popular) het society. and i've linked to this comment, so people know where it came from.

also - it's weird to think how easy we have things like 'dating a fic' now. because of course not everything is dated - but all major fic-hubs now just have it as a matter of course.

hmm. anyway - thank you for your help! anything else you want to add, feel free to let me know - or, obviously, write it straight into fanlore or the talk page, if you don't want to put it straight into the document.

[lordvalerymimes.livejournal.com]

Oh that "What the Smeg" story was a fun read. Such a simple idea, but cute. Also interesting to read something written in the early years of the internet. There are lots of little errors (Space Bug instead of Starbug, Christine instead of Kristine) that probably don't happen much these days with every bit of info you want to check just being a Wiki page away. I'm appreciative that I didn't start writing until now when it's easy to look stuff up. :)

I wonder what Yuchtar's up to these days?

[lordvalerymimes.livejournal.com]

This is fascinating. I'm entirely new to the community and I had been wondering about the history of it: when it started, who first paired Lister and Rimmer together, whether some of the first writers are still around, etc.

[felineranger.livejournal.com]

It's so hard to keep track, especially as user-names etc change.

[(Anonymous)]

Hey, there are quite a few fan artists roaming around on tumblr. I draw some stuff and can link you to things on my DeviantArt, Tumblr or Pixiv. Drop me an ask on tumblr at atomic-mayonnaise and I can get you something.