ParadigmOfUncertainty

ParadigmOfUncertainty was a Harry Potter Yahoo!Group originally started for the distribution and discussion of Lori's The Paradigm of Uncertainty.
The group also hosted other works in the PoU universe: The Show That Never Ends and The Hero with a Thousand Faces, its sequels; A Sirius Affair, a prequel by Carole Estes and Penny Linsenmayer; A Sirius Change by Carole Estes, a sequel to "A Sirius Affair"; and various cookies by Lori and Carole.
Besides hosting fan fic, the mailing list offered fans a place to discuss their favorite stories, share their fan art, and generally talk about the Harry Potter characters and Harry Potter fandom events.
In January 2014, the list went into archive mode following an announcement from Lori that she had other places to host her fanfiction, and would be deleting the list shortly. It remained online, but no activity until the closure of Groups by Yahoo.
==Content Removal==
In October 2000, the works of Cassandra Claire were included: see The Draco Trilogy. In August 2006, after The Cassandra Claire Plagiarism Debate, Cassandra Claire's stories were removed from the group, as well as elsewhere on the web. 
Almost all posts dated June 23, 2001 on the ParadigmOfUncertainty list have been deleted or screened.
==Introduction==
==A 2003 Welcome and Overview==
==Cassandra Claire==
In October 2000, Lori announced that the group would also feature the works of Cassandra Claire:
On December 18, 2000, Cassandra Claire posted chapter 9, part 1 of Draco Sinister on ParadigmOfUncertainty. This is the disclaimer for the chapter that eventually led to Cassandra Claire's black listing from FanFiction.Net for plagiarism on June 23, 2001:
===Popularity and Promotion===
While the other stories being serially posted at the mailing list were a huge draw for membership, Cassandra Claire's status as a BNF and the eagerly-awaited installments of The Draco Trilogy were a major boost for "ParadigmOfUncertainty." 
One example of this was in May 2003. Lori Summers, one of the lists' mods commented: 
A fan replied: 
Lori quipped: 
Carole Estes, another mod chimed in: 
=== Foreshadowing and Irony ===
On May 13, 2001 (about five weeks before Cassandra Claire's fiction was removed from FanFiction.Net for plagiarism on June 23), a fan posted that someone was plagiarizing Cassandra Claire's story Draco Sinister. The discussion at that time touched on a number of topics, including the age of the writer, the amount of fiction lifted, the visibility of Harry Potter fiction, the ethics of using quotes from existing canon such as Buffy and Amber, and Cassandra Claire's good-natured forgiving responses sweetened things even further, especially with her promise to post some cookies for the last chapter of Draco Sinister.
See Foreshadowing and Irony.
===Plagiarism Discussion: 2001===
On June 23, 2001, Claire's fiction was removed from FanFiction.net for reasons of plagiarism. On June 23, A fan asked: "When I go into fanfiction.net, and click on Draco Sinister and Draco Dormiens, it tells me that the stories aren't there. Where did they go?" Heidi8 answered: "Cassie is aware of this, and Xing has been contacted, but we have no idea what's going on. I did a post in the HELP section of the discussion forums today - add your question to the thread - maybe they'll read it & answer!" Fanfiction.net - Where did DD/DS go?, June 23, 2001 On June 25, a fan asked: "I just joined this group, and I'm wondering if someone could do me a favor and tell me what's up with the ff.net boycott thing? I haven't heard the whole story and would like to know what's going on." Claire herself replied: "Hmmm. I'm thinking this sort of thing should be answered off-list from now on....otherwise this topic will never die the death it probably should. I'll answer this off-list." Hi, I'm new here., June 25th, 2001 
Note: It is possible that many messages regarding this topic have been removed from the mailing list. The first fan who asked about removal of Claire's fic from FanFiction.net does so in message #9361 on June 23. The next time the topic comes up is two days later in message #9547. There appear to be no messages with numbers in-between #9361 and #9547. Please correct this statement if it is untrue. 
===Plagiarism Discussion: 2006===
On August 6, 2006, The Cassandra Claire Plagiarism Debacle was published. 
Right around this time, Cassandra Claire's stories were removed from the mailing list, as well as elsewhere on the web. The public statement was that Claire had retired from fandom to start her profic career.
There is no apparent discussion regarding the bombshell that was Avocado's expose remaining on the list. It is unknown if fans simply were talking about it there (unlikely) or if messages were not approved to be posted, or removed later. At one point, on August 17th, a fan asked where all of Claire's fiction had gone, and a fan pointed them to a site where they could be downloaded: 
 
The response: 
==Went into Archive Mode==
In 2009, the list was set to archive mode, with only moderators being allowed to post messages.
On January 17 2014, Lori announced the mailing list would be shut down because her fanfic had been migrated to AO3:
No mention was made of the other fanfic archived on the mailing list, along with the fan art or the accumulated years of fandom discussions. At the time of Lori's announcement, the public mailing list had approximately 18,000 members and tens of thousands of messages.
Despite the announcement, the mailing list was not deleted at that time, and it was remains online until the Yahoo!Groups Purge, albeit with no new messages posted after the January of this announcement. Lori did not post an explanation to the list about why it was not deleted after all.
==Related Lists==
* PoU-Art, created March 19, 2001
::"This is a list to store fanart for the following fanfics: Paradigm of Uncertainty, The Show that Never Ends, A Sirius Affair, Draco Dormiens, and Draco Sinister. Discussion of this Art should still be directed to the Paradigm of Uncertainty Yahoogroup.
::The list will also serve to announce when new chapters of the featured fics are posted to the main list."
== References ==
Category:Harry Potter Mailing Lists
Category:2000s
Category:Yahoo! Groups