Bandom Big Bang

Bandom Big Bang is a long-running big bang challenge that started on LiveJournal in 2008, moved to Dreamwidth in 2013, died in 2019, and was revived by new mods on Tumblr and Twitter in 2021.
==Challenge History==
In 2008, the minimum fanfic length was 20,000 words, and successfully completed fics were gifted with a soundtrack, rather than artwork, since it seemed more appropriate for a music-based fandom and because at the time it was felt that fanart was not as common in Bandom. See the rules post. There was some fanart produced for the challenge as well. The mods were airgiodslv, foxxcub, jocondite, maleyka, and shoemaster.
In 2009, an artist signup was added, but art was considered an optional extra. See the 2009 rules. The list of bands allowed in the challenge (or, rather, what wasn't allowed) seems to have caused some concern among would-be participants. The number of participants doubled from the first year, so sunsetmog was added as a sixth mod.
In 2010, the challenge was divided into two waves: the first wave for 10,000-word fics and the second wave for 20,000-word fics. Completed first-wave stories would get a fanmix, and completed second-wave stories would get a fanmix and/or fanart. See the rules post.
In 2011, the two waves were swapped, with the 10,000-word fics in the second wave. Artists could participate in either wave. See the rules post. The mods were sunsetmog, boweryd, fallintosilence and untappedbeauty.
In 2012, podfic was added as an alternative to posting fic. Podficcers were limited to the list of Bandom fics submitted for the 2011 challenge. See the rules post. The mods were all new: catchmelike, knight_tracer, anoneknewmoose and cincodemaygirl.
In 2013, podfics became eligible for receiving fanart or fanmixes. See the rules post. The mods were anoneknewmoose, cincodemaygirl, knight_tracer, and jrho.
In 2014, any Bandom fic longer than 10,000 words was allowable for podficcing. See the rules post. The mods were chimneythunder, dapatty, happilyappled, lucifuge5, romanticalgirl, and akamine_chan.
In 2015, the challenge was changed to be "a combination of a big bang and a reverse bang": any fanwork, not just fanfic or podfic, could be the "primary" fanwork, and any other fanwork could be the "complementary" fanwork. See the rules post. The mods were lucifuge5 and akamine_chan.
In 2016, the challenge was scaled down to one wave, due to lower participation rates in 2015.
In 2018, the mods set up a discord server, though it had low traffic. 2018 was the last year in which Bandom Big Bang was run with moderators who had experience running the challenge in previous years. 
In 2019, Dreamwidth posts indicate that three "primary" drafts were posted for claiming, but no completed fanworks were ever announced, and the AO3 collection for 2019 is empty.See Bandom Big Bang 2019 (AO3 collection) and (dreamwidth post, 2019-08-21).
In 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tumblr user basementeye-s (ace_writez on AO3) started organizing a big bang for Bandom, also called Bandom Big Bang,, 20 March 2020. and reported in April that 52 people had signed up., 4 April 2020. However, basementeye-s was the only mod, and later posts indicated they had been busy with school and/or being sick., 4 June 2020. The AO3 collection is empty. (Accessed 9 October 2023.)
In 2021, a new moderation team resurrected the challenge. A new tumblr account, bandombigbang2021 (later renamed bandombigbang), and a new AO3 collection, with anonymous mod account, were set up. The reverse bang element introduced in 2015 was discontinued, and primary works were entirely written. Writers were given the option of posting their stories in chapters. Minors were welcome to participate, but were not permitted to create explicit works, and two discord servers were created for minor and adult participants.Bandom Big Bang 2021 rules post Fans began pushing for dark themes including incest and sexually explicit content featuring minors to be entirely banned from big bang creations; following this controversy, throwupsparkles stepped down from the challenge, 3 January 2021., leaving pyrchance as the sole mod. Though a replacement appears to have been added at some point, both mods stepped down at the end of the challenge and asked for new volunteers to take over., 8 November 2021.
The 2022 mods instituted several new rules. Participants were divided into four groups: writers, primary creators, secondary creators, and beta readers. Writers provided "source material" for creators with a traditional 20k+ word fic, primary creators produced an accompanying piece of art or short story, secondary creators produced other creative works not covered by the primary creator role (including playlists or moodboards), and beta readers edited the writer's work.Bandom Big Bang 2022 Masterdoc The challenge was also restricted to participants over the age of 18, and "incest, pedophilia, explicit underage, and explicit non-con" were banned from all challenge creations, with "other similarly disturbing content" liable to be excluded based on mod discretion. See #Content Restrictions below. The mods were antspaul, findingsaturn, runandgo, grammyawardwinnermeatloaf, and lithopseffect. 
In 2023, the challenge returned with similar rules and structures.Bandom Big Bang 2023 Masterdoc The beta reader role was formalized and included in the claims process. The mods were antspaul, starstruck0rmetal, and lithopseffect.
In 2024, the challenge returned once again with similar rules and structures. A new role of Pinch Hitter was added, a way for creators to step in to craft a fanwork for a writer in the event of another creator needing to step away from the challenge. 
Bandom Big Bang 2024 Masterdoc The mods were xobarriers, jugradio, and bonety.
==Defining Bandom==
Possibly as a result of the 2007/2008 Bandom Terminology Debate, the scope of the challenge in 2008 was defined as "FBR/MCR and related bands only."Bandom Big Bang 2008, posted 2008-01-17 For the most part, the basic premise does not appear to have been in contention,except by this person:
 but after the first year of the challenge, the rules posts included a disclaimer stating that the list of allowed bands was not an attempt to "define" Bandom. These disclaimers were in response to comments from would-be participants, arguing that their favorite bands were interconnected enough to count as part of FBR/MCR Bandom. In some cases, they were successful. In 2009, one fan commented,
Things got a bit heated the following year as well, with some fans arguing for the exclusion of certain bands based on their lack of connections to the "core" bands while other fans were arguing for a more fandom-centric approach (if fans write them into Bandom fic, then they are Bandom bands):
* 2010 comment thread
* another 2010 comment thread
==Warnings==
In 2009 a Bandom Big Bang fic missing a dubcon warning ignited a pan-fandom LiveJournal debate on trigger warnings: see Trigger Warning Debate (2009).
From the 2010 general rules post:
==Content Restrictions==
The original Bandom Big Bang had no restrictions on what topics could be explored, and some fanfics featured alcoholism, graphic violence, incest, dubcon, noncon, or other potentially upsetting topics. The challenge was a reflection of LiveJournal fandom generally and Bandom in particular. For example, two of the members of My Chemical Romance are brothers, and some fans shipped them together (see Waycest). Because the band's first MTV music video was set in a high school, coming-of-age high school AU stories that sometimes included underage sex became popular. Meanwhile, an early and influential Panic at the Disco story featured the band members as teenage sex workers. 
On November 8, 2021, the mods of the 2021 round announced they were stepping down and asked for volunteers to take over. The new mods were announced three days later., tumblr post by bandombigbang, 11 November 2021. On November 24, the official tumblr account posted that they had "adjusted a few of the rules", that "Incest, pedophilia, explicit underage, and explicit non-con are not allowed and will not be tolerated.", and that they reserved the right "to deny participation to specific individuals whose presence within the BBB 2022 community would make the majority of members feel uncomfortable and unsafe"., tumblr post by bandombigbang, 24 November 2021. From the 2022 challenge document:
Some fans were deeply unhappy about the changes, and another challenge was organized with no content restrictions. The mods for the new challenge, Bandom Summer Blowout (BSB), advertised their challenge on Twitter and Tumblr on December 6., 6 December 2021., tumblr post by bandomsummer, 6 December 2021. Wank ensued. Twitter fans who liked the content restrictions cast aspersions on the morals of everyone involved in the new project; see Bandom Summer Blowout Controversy. throwupsparkles, the 2021 BBB challenge mod who had quit early after being harassed, supported the new challenge: "I made a stance against censorship and fandom policing"., tumblr page by throwupsparkles (Accessed 12 October 2023.) Other fans who liked throwupsparkles' fic reacted with dismay because they considered throwupsparkles's stance to be morally reprehensible.
throwupsparkles was harassed and decided to delete all their fanfic and social media accounts., tweet by FUCKlNGBATS, 7 December 2021.
One of the Bandom Big Bang mods then posted on their personal blog about their November decision to ban problematic content:
The Bandom Summer Blowout mods then posted:
On dreamwidth a few oldschool Bandom fans, who saw the change as another example of the spread of anti-shipping and purity culture in fandom, commented on the new regime:
One BBB participant later commented, "This past BBB season was kind of a weird one-- I wasn't particularly happy with some of the changes and decisions made by the new mods... a lot of unnecessary discourse came of it and it felt very gatekeeping in a lot of ways.", dreamwidth post by venomwolves, 14 September 2022.
In 2023, a twitter fan summarized what happened from their perspective: "previous participants started another fest with the old rules and everyone who joined it was then harassed and blocked by the new bbb mods and most of puriteen bandom"., 1 January 2023.
==Statistics==
BBB's busiest year was 2009, its second year, and the overall popularity of the challenge decreased significantly after the 2012 challenge, possibly as a result of My Chemical Romance's breakup or the waning popularity of LiveJournal as a fannish platform, or both.
The three most popular bands in the challenge have always been Panic! at the Disco, Fall Out Boy, and My Chemical Romance. However, their relative popularity has shifted dramatically since the first year, probably due to Panic's split and FOB's hiatus in 2009. FOB got back together in 2013, but MCR's apparent immortality is somewhat mysterious. It may be due to a) the new mods being MCR fans, b) the overall drop in participation skewing the results, or c) tumblr MCR fans joining the challenge.
File:Bbb totals.png|popularity of the challenge over time, measured in primary fanwork counts
File:BBB band popularity.png|popular BBB bands, 2008-2017
File:BBB 2008v2017.png|all bands, 2008 vs. 2017
When the challenge returned under new management in 2021, My Chemical Romance remained the most popular Bandom band. In 2021 the second most popular band was Fall Out Boy, followed by MCR's Danger Days album. In 2022 the second most popular band was Taking Back Sunday, followed by Fall Out Boy and Thursday. In 2023 the second most popular band was Cobra Starship, followed by Fall Out Boy and The Academy Is....
It's difficult to say whether the rule change between the 2021 and 2022 challenges had an impact on ratings, but it did affect warnings: In 2021, 20 fanworks were rated Explicit/Mature vs. 13 Teen/General Audiences. In 2022, 15 fanworks were rated Explicit/Mature vs. 15 Teen/General Audiences vs. 3 Not Rated. In 2021, 21 fanworks (64%) were tagged No Archive Warnings Apply, 8 (24%) Graphic Depictions Of Violence, 3 (9%) Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, 2 (6%) Major Character Death, and 1 (3%) Underage. In 2022, 26 fanworks (79%) were tagged No Archive Warnings Apply, 3 (9%) Graphic Depictions Of Violence, 2 (6%) Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, and 2 (6%) Major Character Death. In 2023, 57 fanworks (72%) were tagged No Archive Warnings Apply, 15 (19%) Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, 8 (10%) Graphic Depictions Of Violence, and 3 (4%) Major Character Death.
Of the 333 fanworks available in the AO3 collection for the 2008-2018 challenges, 232 (70%) are tagged No Archive Warnings Apply, 51 (15%) Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, 40 (12%) Graphic Depictions Of Violence, 22 (7%) Major Character Death, 9 (3%) Underage, and 4 (1%) Rape/Non-Con.
==Masterlists==
Some of the most popular works to come out of the challenge include I Have Been All Things Unholy by bexless (2008), Gerard Way's (Vampire) Detective Agency by jjtaylor (2009), and The Anatomy of a Fall by novembersmith (2010).
The complete lists of fanworks for the challenge are posted on livejournal and dreamwidth here:
* 2008
* 2009 part 1, part 2
* 2010 wave one, wave two, part 1, wave two, part 2
* 2011 wave one, part 1, wave one, part 2, wave two, part 1, wave two, part 2
* 2012 wave one, wave two, wave three
* 2013 waves one, two, and three
* 2014 wave one, wave two, wave three
* 2015
* 2016
* 2017
* 2018
* 2021
* 2022
* 2023
* 2024
See also Bandom Big Bang/Masterlists.
==References==
Category:Journaling Communities
Category:Bandom Journal Communities
Category:Big Bang Challenges
Category: 2008 Challenges
Category:2000s
Category:2010s