Bookmark

:For the fancraft, see Bookmark (fancraft).
Bookmark or Bookmarking refers to a series of tools, often platform specific, that allow their users to store website URLs for later reading or reference. 
Bookmarks were introduced into graphical browsers in the mid 1990s such as Netscape, Internet Explorer and Firefox. WebTV also had this capability in 1997, but it was limited. An X-Files fan wrote in 1997: "I started bookmarking my favorite stories, but since the WebTV favorites capability was only 32, I decided to start posting stories on my page and began a FanFic page of my own." -- These bookmark tools were for private use and were usually stored inside the browser located on a single desktop or laptop. 
When the Livejournal blogging platform grew in popularity, users were offered the ability to create public bookmarks that could be stored within their blog space. This was often referred to "adding a post to one's memories". Livejournal "memories" fell out of favor once "tagging" was introduced to the Livejournal platform. 
In later years, platforms emerged solely for the purpose of bookmarking, such as Del.ici.ous and Diigo. These bookmarks could be made either private or public and the links were stored on the platform's server. 
In some instances these third party bookmarking tools were integrated back into the web browsers, allowing them to sync from the desktop to the cloud and vice versa.
Created in 2003, Del.ici.ous became a popular bookmarking platform for fandom, with elaborately tagged fic recommendations. Many of the Livejournal fandom newsletters made use of automated tools that allowed them to bookmark blogs and stories from multiple platforms in Del.ici.ous and then create a daily or weekly automatic post to Livejournal. This enabled fans to keep track of fic, vids and other events across the increasingly fractured fandom spaces.
In 2011, Del.ici.ous was bought by Yahoo who promptly disabled many of the useful features, causing fandom to look for alternatives such as Pinboard. Around the same time, other social medial platforms emerged such as Twitter and Tumblr, both of which offered few bookmarking tools. As a result, bookmarking began to be less used by fandom as a social interactive tool and returned to it more private function. 
Archive of Our Own gave users the ability to create links to external stories since its open beta launch in 2009.Archive of Our Own (rev. 1585) Archive FAQ, Updated: Sun Oct 18 07:58:37 -0400 2009. (Archived 20 October 2009 by the Wayback Machine.)
==Fandom's Contribution to the Shaping of the Tool==
After the acquisition of Del.ici.ous several articles were written about fandom bookmarking innovations.
A 2013 comment by Maciej Ceglowski, the developer of Pinboard, during a talk about fannish bookmarking practices: 
==Private vs Public Bookmarking ==
To some, the act of making their bookmarks publically available is seen as being detrimental to fandom. Often tags are used that are at odds with the author's intent or the reception of the story by other readers. Some bookmarking services allow comments or notes to be added, which can also be seen as derogatory or offensive.
This can result in fanfic being removed from archives:
Not all fans feel that public bookmarking is a bad thing:
==Meta/Further Reading==
* To Save or Not To Save (Fanfic); archive link page 1; archive link page 2; archive link page 3 by bethbethbeth (pre-bookmarking context) August 2005) 
* (2007)
* (2007)
* (2007)
* (2011)
* (2013)
* (2016)
==References==
Category:Fan Activities
Category:Fanwork Sharing