Fan Run

Fan run refers to any fan activity that is conducted by one or more fans and focuses on consumption by other fans.
Some key characteristics of fan-run activities are: they usually start out as non-profit; they have little to no budget; they are non-professional endeavors, and usually all work is done by volunteers who receive little or no monetary compensation for their work and time. The term by fans for fans can often be found in the description of these activities.
The power over the product and content is in the hand of the fans and not a commercial supplier or TPTB/copyright owner.
This may include for example:
* Archives like Archive Of Our Own
* Challenges like Fanweek or the Yuletide fan fiction challenge
* Charity actions like the Sweet Charity auction
* Companies like Nova Enterprises
* Clipping services like Company Clippings
* creation and administration of unofficial or official fan sites, message boards, mailing lists etc.
* fan run conventions
* Fanwork Awards like the UUFFAA (Unofficial USENET Fan-Fic Achievement Awards)
* Podcasts like The Babylon Podcast (although most of Fannish podcasts may be fan-run)
* Publishers like The Big Bang Press or The Writers Coffee Shop,To build a fan base, it helps to know what it’s like to be a fan by Elizabeth Minkel, Decemeber 12th 2014
* Wikis that are self-hosted (e.g. non Wikia) like the Supernatural Wiki
* surveys like Star Trek - The Fans: A Study of the Legend and Its Followers
* the creation and publication of Fanzines
* unofficial websites like the First Unofficial Forever Knight Website
* unofficial fan clubs like the The Unofficial Harry Potter Fan Club
* Workshops like the Fanauthor Workshop
* The WSA Program - a fannish organization created to combat fraudulent fandom practices
Also see List of Fan Run Star Trek Merchandising Companies.
==Fan earned servers vs. commercial servers==
Early on, fans have been determined to be in control over the works they created.
One example is some early-to-mid fanfiction authors who declined to have their works archived in specialized archives. This led to the fact, that a lot of fan work was inevitable lost when hosted like Geocities, AOL Hometown or Lycos' Tripod Massacre closed and the corresponding author pages were deleted.
Archive of Our Own's creation was an extension of a mindset that there is a need for fans to own their own servers in order to control the content and protect that content from official influence.
In the wake of Yahoo's devaluation of Tumblr (which is now owned by Oath/Verizon), a need was expressed by fans to "own what we build" to guarantee longevity.
==Fandom, Inc.==
In October 2000, Fandom, Inc., a commercial dot-com startup, threatened a fan named Carol Burrell who owned the domain name fandom.tv, saying they had the trademark on "fandom" and if Burrell didn't give up her domain, they'd sue her.The Fandom Menace, an official site in fans' clothing, by Fox Echo Station, December 5, 2000. Accessed October 11, 2008.
==Wikia hosted wikis project vs. self-hosted wikis==
FANDOM is a brand of the commercial Wikia, Inc that hosts a lot (if not the most) wiki projects that are maintained by and contributed to by fans. Contrary to self-hosted wikis, edits and contribution may not done under a creative commons license, but automatically become the intellectual property of Wikia, Inc, depending on the wiki's initial license type.Wikia Licensing Due to Wikia's wiki "branding", software modifications to the default mediawiki layout and navigation pages, it's very hard to identify under which license type an individual wiki is operated, since the license is not displayed in the wiki's footer by default.
Another issue: advertising on all Wikia pages, as well as personal information that is collected (and thus monetized) for marketing reasons.wikia.com Privacy Policy
Wikia projects often result in a number of duplicate or even competitive wiki projects on the same topic or in abandoned wikis if the "owner" loses interest or no longer finds the time maintaining the project.
See also Wikia#Rehosting for more discussion.
==Fan-run websites vs. official authorised fansites==
Pottermore maybe the most famous case where the creation of an official fan site lead to the temporary closure of fansite with virtually exact mission and content, The Harry Potter Lexicon, and the lawsuit that followed.Rowling Wins Lawsuit Against Potter Lexicon, by JOHN ELIGONSEPT. 8, 2008 A lot of fan discontent stemmed from the fact that the space was subject to the whims of The Powers That Be, leading to them creating their own spin-off social spaces.
In some cases, like for example with the Official Gillian Anderson Website, an initially fan-run website may become an official authorised web site.
==Examples of fan run activities by Fandom==
===Harry Potter===
* Sectus - convention
* The Harry Potter Lexicon - resource website
===Multifandom===
* Australian Television Information Archive
===Star Trek===
* KiScon (Star Trek convention)
* Memory Alpha and Memory Beta - wiki projects (hosted on wikia)
===Starsky & Hutch===
* CopCon, and in fact, all Starsky & Hutch Conventions
===Vidding===
* Vividcon - convention
===X-Files===
* Akte X / Babylon 5 Convention Frankfurt
* connXIons - convention
* IBG Inc. - fan run charity
* XFilesNews - resource website run by fans
* X-CON - convention
* Spookyverse - German wiki
==See also==
* List of fan-run X-Files conventions
* fan run Supernatural Conventions
* Fandom Auction
* A list of charity actions by fandoms
* GeoCities Rescue Project
==Links/Further Reading==
* On the Demise of Fanlib, and Why Fan-run Sites Are More Likely to Succeed
* Fox Takes On Fan Web Sites: Star Wars sites could see more legal action
* The Viacom Crackdowns
* The Harry Potter Lexicon Trial
* PotterWar
* Fandom At The Crossroads: Celebration, Shame and Fan/Producer Relationships by Katherine Larsen, Lynn Zubernis, Cambridge Scholars Publishing; Unabridged edition edition (September 1, 2012), ISBN 978-1443841405
==References==
Category:Fan Activities