SlashFic Hall of Shame

The SlashFic Hall of Shame was a website mocking bad slash fanfiction by Sandy Herrold (as JoAnne). The website was started up in the late 90s in the midst of many fandom arguments about feedback, and about fandom's overwhelming tendency to push back against any hint of negative critique. The site was thus set up as a comment on this tendency, as a site that explicitly pilloried bad fic. An early tagline was, "Bad Fanfic Must Be Punished."
There were some rules around which stories could be submitted, namely that they had to be Professionals, X Files, Highlander, Due South, or Sentinel slash fanfic, and must be public. (Refer to "The "Rules" for more on this). The site also did not name authors and did not link to the stories themselves.
The site was often subjected to legal threats and reports by authors in an attempt to get it taken down, but many fans left approving comments on the site itself. Themes of discussion about the site (for a sampling of comments, refer to Reactions) ranged from whether an atmosphere that only allowed positive commentary on fic was stifling, to whether fans take themselves "too seriously", to whether it was unfair to make negative critique public and whether outright ridiculing stories was petty and uncalled-for. 
A similar site was Citizens Against Bad Slash.
==History==
In 1996-97, there were frequent flame wars around the idea of concrit (a word that did not yet exist). Writers complained that there were too few reviews and comments about stories (this was years before Livejournal comments -- many stories were still only being published offline, and even the ones published online usually had no way to leave public comments), but when stories were discussed in public (i.e., on mailing lists), any hint of critique, or less than completely favorable review, led to flames and uproar.
As a comment on this atmosphere, Sandy Herrold pseudonymously started the SlashFic Hall of Shame under the name of JoAnne, mocking bad Internet-published stories, and encouraging people to send her other stories worthy of mocking. Each updateSlashfic Hall of Shame on the Wayback machine included a rant about some common story annoyance (these included rants about men who owned teddy bears, BSO's who were inexplicably drawn as pagan for no good reason, implausible crossovers, and others), that started with the phrase, "well, there's no easy answer," and then a link to an excerpt of the story being shamed. 
Each story updateStory of Shame example: Inuit Love (Due South) gave the reason it was chosen, an excerpt, comments on the excerpt, and then solicited comments on whether the story deserved the pillorying it got. Links were never given to the story (mostly due to the link etiquette of the time), and the author's name was never mentioned anywhere on the page. 
From a very early version of the front page: "Hi, I'm fanficcritic. Come see my page! The description of my page is: Bad Fanfic Must Be Punished. ** Avoid ** Avoid ** Avoid **" TelevisionCity/5922
Some fans who opposed the website and resorted to legal threats in an effort to silence JoAnne. In September 1997, JoAnne posted the following to the website: "A recent author profiled on this page has threatened to report me to Geocities for harrassment, spreading of hate, and inappropriate materials" if I don't remove all mention of her story." However, given that authors were never named and there were no links to the stories, one might argue that the author did more damage to her reputation by posting her comment than JoAnne's original web posting.
Critics of the website gained little traction and soon other fandom-specific Halls of Shame appeared in the months afterward; none of them lasted long. JoAnne's page only lasted a year or so itself (although guestbook comments continued to appear as late as 2000), as finding appropriately bad stories became a hassle.
==The Reveal==
At Escapade (1998 or after), Sandy Herrold and Maygra (one of the people with a story posted on the Hall of Shame) were on opposite sides of a panel on "should stories be critiqued publicly." During the panel, Sandy 'came out' about being JoAnne, and Maygra was as gracious as humanly possible, basically saying, "I don't care if you critique me but what about those other people out there without my thick skin."
===JoAnne on JoAnne!=== 
Before she came "out" as "JoAnne," Sandy Herrold commented on her own site:
==The "Rules"==
From an early version of the site: 
==Some Example Topics==
Each one was followed by: "Well there's no easy answer," --- and JoAnne's reply.
* "People ask me, they say, "JoAnne, why no Trek? Why no B5? and especially, why no Xena? Are you showing favoritism, or are you just too chicken to take on all those rabid Trekkers?"" 
* "People ask me, they say, "JoAnne, aren't you just trying to hold back the tide? Isn't bad fanfic inevitable?""
* "People ask me, they say, "JoAnne, what is it with slash and religion?"" 
* "People ask me, they say, "JoAnne, why is most net S/M so bad? It should be so *hot*!""
* ""People ask me, they say, "JoAnne, people say mean things about you in your guestbook. Doesn’t that get you down?""
* "People ask me, they say, "JoAnne, I understand why there has to be a Slash Hall of Shame, but can’t you be nicer about it?"" 
* "People ask me, they say, "JoAnne, you need to be put down like a rabid dog. And I know I'm not alone in feeling that way. How can I let all fandom know how terrible and vile you are?"" 
* "People ask me, they say, "JoAnne, why create the Slashfic Hall of Shame? Isn't it mean-spirited and cruel?""
* "People ask me, they say, "JoAnne, you pusillanimous pissant, don’t you ever like *anything*?""
* "People ask me, they say, "JoAnne, shouldn't people get to write what they want to write?""
* "People ask me, they say, "JoAnne, aren't you stereotyping men by saying that male characters wouldn't do certain things?"" 
* "People ask me, they say, "JoAnne, why couldn't Cowley really be Bodie's father," or "Why couldn't the Simons really just be adopted" (so it wouldn't be incest, I guess), or "How do you know that Blair and Jim couldn't be half brothers" (so it *could* be incest, I guess)?"" 
 
* "People ask me, they say, "JoAnne, just what makes a story a Hall of Shamer?""
* "People ask me, they say, "JoAnne, aren’t we really writing about women?""
* "People ask me, they say, "JoAnne, you black hag from hell, last week's story wasn't *so* bad; why'd you pick on them when there are so many worse?""
==Some of the Fics "Shamed"==
* Inuit Love (due South); other fan comments
* Healing (The Sentinel); other fan comments 
* Baccarat Figurines (The X-Files, Baccarat Figurines); other fan comments
* Brooding Angel (The Sentinel); other fan comments
* "Simple Gifts" (Highlander), "A Living X-File" (X-Files/Sentinel), "Brothers in Arms" (Highlander)
==Reactions==
Although there was a lot of bitching about "JoAnne" and the site on mailing lists at the time, comments actually left on the site were largely approving. Comment page from 1999: Mail Feedback, Wayback machine. As Sandy later explained: 
In 1997, a fan left feedback on the guestbook attempting to argue that the website violated everything from copyright law to the Berne Convention and even ran afoul of the writer's moral rights. This was quickly countered by other fans who correctly pointed out that quoting excerpts of a story as part of a critique or review fell firmly within the definition of fair use and that "moral rights" did not allow authors to ban discussion, or even ridicule, of their work.In fact at the time, moral rights were only extended to visual artists in the US. The international span of fandom illustrated one of the many perils of non-lawyers attempting to insert legal arguments into fannish discussions.Guestbook page on the threats, accessed February 18, 2012;Morgan Dawn's personal notes, accessed February 18, 2012.
===1997===
 
===1998===
 
 
===1999===
 
===2000===
===2012===
==Similar Sites==
Citizens Against Bad SlashCitizens Against Bad Slash, or CABS, had the goal of promoting constructive criticism -- the writers there followed JoAnne's lead and stayed anonymous.
The pseudonymity of CABS members was a wise move, as this type of public critique often resulted in banning and policies against discussing or reviewing fanfiction. In 1997, members of the HLFIC-L mailing list were inspired by the Slash-Fic Hall of Shame and wanted to start a similar website for Highlander gen fiction. They planned to call themselves "The Wham Girls" and put up a website with a review of a story originally posted to HLFIC mailing list. The list erupted in anger and the list owner banned "The Wham Girls." She then made it policy that reviewers needed to get authorial permission to review a story posted to the mailing list. Morgan Dawns personal notes, accessed February 18, 2012.
== References ==
Category:Fan Communities
Category:WebsitesCategory:Slash Websites
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Category:1990s
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