Was Fanfic Any Different in the Olden Days?

In early 2015, some Tumblr fans were in an introspective mood, and discussed the good old days and how fanfic has, or hasn't, changed. This discussion was start in response to the ask "was fanfic any different in the Olden Days", submitted by asiangreyjoys to actualvampireang and answered on January 17, 2015. The ask and its response spawned a huge and wide-ranging discussion among Tumblr users, with more than 8,000 notes (likes and reblogs) accumulated in the first two weeks.
As of December 2018, the post has more than 22,000 notes.Archived snapshot, taken on December 23, 2018 The ensuing discussion covered everything from the typical length of fanfiction through the ages to distribution platforms, misogyny, internalised homophobia in fic, wank, ship wars and much more besides.
==Similar Essays/Posts==
* Reminisce With Me (2008)
* The good old days before google were dark and involved horses (2010) 
* Fandom 1994-2000-ish (2012)
* Memories by vass (2012)
* A brief history of fandom, for the teenagers on here who somehow think tumblr invented fandom (2014)
* Was Fanfic Any Different in the Olden Days? (2015)
* The three generations of fanfic (2015)
* I feel like fandom generations are both very specific and easily conflated. (2018)
* Historical trends in fanfiction? (2019)
* What were popular things writers used to do in their fanfics that have pretty much faded away. (2022)
==The Original Reply==
actualvampireang responded to the original Ask with their own remiscences of entering fandom in the late 90s, and their personal experiences of late 90s fan culture. The points they touched on included:
* Slash fandom and the relative lack of characters written to be explicitly queer
* Fic distribution via mailing lists and not archives, and how that influenced fandom
* The differences in aesthetic
* The differences in fic conceits and themes in late 90s and early 2000s fanfiction
* Story length: measured by file size, and not by wordcount
* The existence of, and attitudes surrounding, RPF
==Responses==
actualvampireang's post sparked a huge variety of responses - many replying directly to their points, others simply containing the poster's own experiences of entering, and participating in, fandom.
Below is a sampling of the thoughts contributed the discussion from Tumblr users and the points they raised, including those raised by actualvampireang in their original post. They are sorted by common topic and not by date.
==Olden Days, Well, It's All Relative==
==Age Statements, Disclaimers, and Warnings==
==Story Length==
==Bashing Women==
==We're Not Gay, We Just Love Each Other, and Other Sexuality Issues==
==Femslash==
==Fandom and the Underground==
==Wank and Shipping Wars==
==Changes in The Fourth Wall==
==RPF==
==Print Zines, Mailing Lists, and Other Platform and Delivery Systems, Finding and Archiving Fiction==
==Exposure to a Bigger World==
==Style, Aesthetics ==
==Changes in Feedback==
==Technical Changes/Editing==
==Closing Statements==
==Also See==
* How long have you been in fanfic? (1998)
* :Category:Interviews by Fans
* Lost Works
==References==
Category:Fanfiction Meta
Category:Meta on Tumblr
Category:2015 Meta
Category:2019 Featured Articles