Hockey RPF and the Fourth Wall

Hockey RPF fandom has a very fraught relationship with the fourth wall. There have been several notable incidents in which the divide between the fandom and the subject was breached or seemed to be at risk. The distress caused by these events negatively affected fandom activity, leading many to hide or delete their works. The desire to avoid breaking the fourth wall has affected the fandom's attitude toward Sharing Deleted Fanworks.
== Tweet from Tyler Seguin ==
In December 2012, player Tyler Seguin tweeted a link to a LiveJournal picspam, The Tylers Seguin-Brown: A Picspam by rsadelle, to fellow player Tyler Brown with the message "your girl should see this..." (Seguin's Twitter has since been deleted; see section below). Though not explicitly slashy or romantic, it highlighted their bromance and contained links to a slash primer on the two of them. In response, many of the commenters on the picspam deleted their posts.
After a screenshot of the Tweet was posted on tumblr, rsadelle responded positive, writing: “That is my picspam, and I can’t stop laughing. (Meaning, you all are welcome to freak out on your own behalf, but it’s not going to make me lock/delete things.)” This casual response was not appreciated by; many wanted the picspam to be deleted or made private so that it would not continue to be shared outside the fandom and draw attention. dexwebster wrote:
Rsadelle responded, saying:
Dexwebster reached a rapprochement with rsadelle, but touched on the concerns of many hockey RPF fans in a follow-up comment:
The exchange (full thread here) highlights the tension between openness/visibility and subculturalism experienced by members of hockey RPF fandom. As dexwebster wrote,
Additionally, the Seguin tweet was brought to a wider audience when Aja wrote about it for The Daily Dot at the beginning of 2013: When celebrities discover fanfiction… about themselves 
For more on the "curtailed an article on hockey fandom," see below.
== Aja's Unpublished Article ==
Fan and journalist Aja Romano had previously, in December 2012, announced that she would be publishing an article on hockey fandom. Despite her assurance that the article would not focus on hockey RPF, the prospect of her article was strongly opposed in the hockey RPF/tumblr fan communities. Many fans were simply uncomfortable with attention being drawn to fanfiction which focused on real people in (often) erotic situations, but jedusaur, for example, cited the delicate position of the anti-homophobia movement in sports as a reason to curtail such an article. LJ user quiet000001 also noted the marginalized status of female hockey fans as a factor: 
Hockey RPF fan and fanfic writer impertinence posted about how she would be locking down her fanfiction: “This is totally an overreaction and I own that, but […] I don't want to deal with people who aren't in hockey fandom being all "omg, hockey boys~" or "tee hee, RPF" or what the fuck ever.” Impertinence’s post attracted a large number of comments, including an extended discussion with Aja herself.
The article ultimately remained unpublished, with Aja apologizing, and writing:
An anonymous commentator on the Yuletide Coal LJ community highlighted the tensions between grassroots fandom and Aja’s mainstream-oriented articles:
There was a general feeling that Aja was not being respectful of many people involved in hockey fandom’s wish to remain a subculture. As LJ user beatperfume wrote in a comment on Impertinence’s post, “Look no offense, but if you respected the concerns of fandom and this fandom regarding privacy, you wouldn't be writing an article that makes us incredibly uncomfortable.” It was not just the prospect of the publicizing of hockey RPF that made people uncomfortable, but also Aja’s approach to it. As another commenter on impertinence’s post wrote,
The situation received coverage on Fandom Wank Fandom Wank: In which Aja demands that she is Vroomfondl​e and Majikthise​, I mean that she is a real journalist , and was also discussed here on Fail Fandom Anon.
(Aja did, however, publish a non-RPF-referential article called "5 ways the Internet will help you survive the NHL lockout"). 
Later in January, Aja alluded to the controversy in The crumbling of the fourth wall: Why fandom shouldn't hide anymore, an article encouraging fans to break down the fourth wall:
Impertinence commented on the piece on her tumblr, describing it as "that article about how hockey fandom can’t handle the truth", and further commenting on her problems with Aja’s approach. As she wrote:
A long commentary on the fourth wall and Aja's article was posted by amazonpoodle, pointing out the conflict between Aja's fan presence and journalistic presence. As amazonpoodle writes,
== Goodreads ==
In another example of fandom colliding with other spaces, salifiable republished her Crosby/Ovechkin story "Heart in Hand" as original fiction via name changes after it began to be recommended on Goodreads.
In 2012 and again in 2014, fans in the Hockey RPF community spoke against fellow fans listing fanfic on their GoodReads blogs or writing reviews about the fanfic on GoodReads. While these objections were not unique to Hockey RPF fandom, the community taboo against "visibility" resonated with many members
Others disagreed:
== Tumblr Tagging ==
Many fans use creative tagging for their hockey posts, possibly as a strategy to retain hockey RPF as a niche activity. Many tags poke fun at NHL players and their fandom personas, for example:
* sidney crosby is Canadian for hockey robot jesus with a booty touch (sharksdontsleep); The Sid!Bot is programmed for hockey excellence (puckling)
* Tyler Seguin’s harem is the best harem (rsadelle)
* PK Subban: Actually a puppy (puckling)
== Players/reporters in fannish spaces ==
Twitter: locking twitters or not using full names (of players or reporters who are known to search for their names)
Tumblr: Erik Karlsson on Tumblr (and commenting on fanworks, e.g. here), initial apprehension.
Colorado Avalanche on Tumblr. Fans expressed concerns about the official blog seeing RPF fanfiction in player tags, but the Avalanche assured users that their works were safe.
==Trends in Locking Works on AO3==
In a 2015 Slash Report episode, Mklutz noted that a significant proportion of the hockey RPF on AO3 was still locked (only viewable to logged in users), despite the passage of time and the article never having been published.Slash Report episode 504 Fourth Wall Redux, posted February 1, 2015. As of 7 February 2015, 72% (5710 of 7925) of hockey fanworks on AO3 are public, which is lower than average.Compare logged in and logged out view of the fandom tag pages: fiction television fandom Supernatural (99.3% public), music RPF fandom One Direction (99.3% public), and video blogging RPF (including youtube) at 99.6% public. Actor RPF was slightly lower at 96% public. Sports RPF does appear to be more secretive overall with only 82% of fanworks public (though as a subtag, hockey fandom numbers do affect the sports average).
As of 9 December 2017, 54% (8618 of 15898) of hockey fanworks in AO3 are public.
As of 27 September 2020, 50% (12568 of 24952) of hockey fanworks on AO3 are public. A comparison of relationships shows that many of the newer relationships (particularly identifiable by date the players arrived in the NHL) have substantially higher locked work rates than pairings that have been around for a long time.
As of 8 December 2022, 43% (13348 of 31111) of hockey fanworks on AO3 are public.
==Sharing Deleted Fanworks==
These many negative interactions with the Fourth Wall has led to the community adopting a strict stance against sharing of deleted fanworks and using copyright law to argue against sharing fanworks.
This extends to private sharing, public requests for deleted fanworks, and in one case, even the creation of a database of Hockey RPF that included both current and deleted fanworks.Ibid. One fan added tumblr notes: #really private sharing will always happen #but don't oranize a fucking database#. See also In spite of these prohibitions, at least one Hockey RPF Fic Search blog remains active in 2019. See Sharing Deleted Fanworks for how other communities approach the practice.
==Meta & Further Comments==
==Notes==
== References ==
Category:Hockey RPF
Category:ScandalsCategory:Fandom Wars
Category:Social Media Feature-Wank Wednesday