Laura Hale (fan)

Laura Hale is a fan, website owner, and forum creator best known for starting Fan History Wiki and Writers University. In the 2000s she was a very contentious figure in fandom.
==Fannish History==
In a May 2008 interview, Laura Hale outlined a bit of her fannish history: 
She offered a slightly different fannish history timeline on her Fan History wiki userpage, on which she says she's been in fandom since "1994 or so". User:Laura Laura's own fannish timeline on Fan History Wiki cites 1992. User:Laura/Timeline 
In a 2002 bio, Hale wrote at length about her involvement in fandom beginning in Babylon 5 where: 
Hale was active outside fanfiction.net as well, and frequently posted meta on fannish history in various forums, including the Fanthropology LJ community and the FCA-L mailing list. Three of these essays used to be archived on the Fanfic Symposium website associated with FCA-L, but have since been removed by the site's administrator due to fannish anger over Hale's behaviors.See A History of Male Involvement in the Fan Fiction Community, A Historical Perspective on Mary Sue: Issues and Trends, and "History of Fan Fiction by Laura M. Hale" (Accessed 29 October 2008) Other essays are still archived at Whoosh!.Michela Ecks. Is Fan Fiction Legal?, in Whoosh! #57, June 2001; Fan Fiction, Novels, Copyright, And Ethics, in Whoosh! #62, November 2001. (Accessed 04 December 2008) Hale was also the creator and moderator of the Yahoo! Group FanficArchivists beginning in May 1999. 
Hale, once an enthusiastic, energetic newbie, became an enthusiastic, energetic established fan whose entrepreneurial perspective on fandom generated controversy: 
==Professional Fannish History==
Between June 2007 to June 2009, Hale worked as a consultant for FanLib/Take180, specifically consulting on social network communities such as Twitter and Facebook. She described this as: "Consultant. FanLib/Take 180 Studios. June 2007 – June 2009 (2 years 1 month). Performed reputation management related tasks. Research fan fiction, and fan communities and gave advice about how to effectively engage them." her LinkedIn page Her employment with FanLib appears to have been a paid position as Hale mentioned losing this job at the end of June 2009, something that put a crimp on Fan History Wiki's finances. , accessed January 25, 2017 "At the end of June, Fan History’s founder lost her job. This was stressful as this employment helped cover Fan History’s cost out of pocket." In her wiki post, Hale linked to her LinkedIn page. 
Laura was also highly involved in the greater wiki community, attending Recent Changes Camp in 2008, being a principal organizer of RCC in 2009, and on the leadership team for 2010.
== On Being "Notable" in Fandom ==
In 2006, a few months after founding Fan History Wiki, Laura weighed in on a post that scolded Harry Potter fans for being fixated on BNFs (and by inference, a comment on The Cassandra Claire Plagiarism Debacle which had just been published a week earlier):
Hale had specific ideas on how to become "notable" in fandom, which she explained in the 2008 Fanboy.com interview: 
Hale is consistent in these beliefs. A month earlier, she had posted to the Fan History blog along similar lines: 
On July 18, 2008, Hale posted to her Twitter offering to send cookies to anyone who would generate unique hits on her wiki:
* "I will mail anyone who can generate 500 unique visits for http://www.fanhistory.com/ half a dozen home made chocolate chip cookies. :)" 2:54 PM Jul 18th from web 
* "Clarification: Half a dozen cookies for each 500 unique visitors you get up to two dozen cookies. I loves cookies. :) And traffic." 2:56 PM Jul 18th from web 
Hale claims that the offer of cookies was made in jest.
She posted the same offer to her Livejournal in an expanded version; at the bottom of the post she added ideas on how to generate hits for Fan History. These included a variety of places to post information and links, including the instruction to "generate wank" (screencap) -- a notion very much in keeping with her stated assumption that being "controversial" is a key way to gain recognition in fandom.
Many fans took these repeated assertions to mean that controversy (or wank) is a tool that she actively uses and encourages. Others felt that the quotes were taken out of context. Hale publicly denied this interpretation in July 2008: 
In October 2008, however, she posted another affirmation:
==Fanfiction.net ==
Hale was involved with Fanfiction.net for about a year. By some accounts, this was June 2000 until January 2001. "Web Projects: FanFiction.Net. Writers University maintainer, policy advisor, spokesperson, forum manager, Terms of Service creator and maintainer." -- User:Laura/Resume "In the issue of transparency, in the early 2000s, I was briefly on staff at FanFiction.Net as a volunteer." -- Talk:FanFiction.Net adult content purge felt across fandom two weeks on, Wikinews, Laura, June 16, 2012 By another account, this was June 2000 to December 2001. Hale then parted ways in a fractious manner. One example of high-running tensions: "I recently learned that someone who *called my home to threaten legal action* when I was in HS b/c I got into a bout with her on the http://ff.net forums (when they had such things) continued to be a source of drama in fandom to this very day... I knew her as Michelle Ecks at the time" -- (October 28, 2019) Keep in mind that the line between Fanfiction.net and Writer's University (which Hale also left in a fractious manner) was a very thin one. 
See RPF?! (post) for some comments by Hale about her interactions with Fanfiction.net. One comment: "And I've seen some [RPF] fan fiction based on Xing from FanFiction.Net. :) I don't think it bothered him at the time though most of that back in 2000 or so was het fic.... Not as disturbing as some stuff. For me at least. But there is a certain point where fen reach a certain amount of celebrity that I think they kind of leave themselves open for that. And these fen knew next to nothing about him. But I've patted his ass. So ha! It really, really bugged me at the time because I was paired a few times with him. I think Savage talked me down off that one and I'm still friends with a few of the people who did that. They just forget about it because they are now 18 and not 13." --RPF?!, August 12, 2005
==Writers University==
Hale and Writers University left fanfiction.net in January 2001 on bad terms, with Hale posting a long farewell letter to various ff.net forums detailing her reasons for leaving, including repeated mentions of the fact that she felt she had been lied to and that some of the people she'd been involved with had proved untrustworthy. Michela Ecks' FF.net Resignation Letter; WebCite, dated January 8, 2001, posted to Fanfiction.net Liberation Front. Accessed November 30, 2008.
"Writers University" and Fanfiction.net parted ways in early 2001 with much contention. On January 8, 2001, Xing Li wrote: "Writers University has left FanFiction.Net and I'm sad that it has left. However, FanFiction.Net will move on and so will the staffs of Writers University. You will not hear personal remarks from me or any other ff.net staff members regarding this issue as the matter was private to start with and private to end with. - Xing" Old News: January 10, 2000 (note: Xing gets the year wrong in the first few posts, something he comments upon and corrects a few posts later) 
Writers University then moved to its own space, and was regarded by some fans as a valuable resource: 
Other fans had issues with inaccuracies on the site, however. Discussing the article, The How and Who of Mary Sue, on Mary Sue Whipple, Alice Karvonen Allonway (Whipple's creator), said: 
==Mary Sue Whipple==
Mary Sue Whipple became Hale's means to improve what she considered poor writing. In roughly 2002, Hale wrote: 
Hale claimed to be Mary Sue Whipple at ASC in November 1998. "They all should know that Mary Sue Whipple is me. In fact, she's been posting some spledoferous fan fiction to ASC that everyone has been reading. It is kinda obvious that it is." ASC (dead link) 
Other fans accused Hale of misrepresenting herself as the only Mary Sue Whipple at an awards nomination, something that caused some wank at alt.startrek.creative in May 2000. , May 17, 2000 
==The Bringers==
Around 2001, Hale was the media contact person for an online group called The Bringers, who were dedicated to "protecting fans and fan sites on-line". Their actions included "dealing with corporate copyright holders threatening fan webmasters with legal action over content/media", as well as "domain name disputes that affect fans, and other activities which threaten the existence and enjoyment of fans on the Internet." They also offered to evaluate C&D situations, and at one point were "also working on developing a list of lawyers who will assist fans for reasonable fees."The Bringers FAQ. Dated 2001. Accessed November 29, 2008.
The group further described themselves in their FAQ:
==Fandomination.Net==
Laura Hale co-founded FanDomination.Net and was involved in this project from 2002 to 2005 or 2006, after which she accuses her co-founder, Jim Partin, of locking her out of the site and stealing it from her. See Ownership and Theft for more. 
Hale was the main adnimistrator, gate-keeper for other administrators, and creator of the extensive FanDomination.Net Content Control and Weeding Guidelines.
==FCA-L and Fanthropology==
Over the years, Hale posted many "fandom histories" to FCA-L and Fanthropology, which were met with both interest and criticism. 
Also: 
Her scholarship in particular was frequently called into question as she had a habit of presenting anecdotal information as fact, and of generalizing activity in small niche fandoms or feral fandoms, asserting it as behavior all of fandom participated in. As one fan put it: 
She also routinely ignored input from other fans who attempted to correct misstatements and inaccuracies, if those corrections did not fit in with her original premise. For example: 
Looking back on Hale's participation on FCA, Cereta noted: 
Cereta later directly quoted some of that post, in which Hale said, in part: 
===Posts===
A sample of Hale's posts to Fanthropology:
* Fandom diaspora (Aug 3, 2007)
* BoldThrough: User Loss for LiveJournal: A meta analysis with stats! (Aug 11, 2007)
* Feedback: Getting it and giving it (Sep 16, 2007)
* BandFic history and Led Zeppelin (Sep 6, 2007)
* Fan History: A fandom wiki that needs your assistance! (Dec 29, 2007)
* History of BandFic, an overview (Mar 3, 2008)
* Fan fiction archive survey (Apr 7, 2008)
 
* Documenting fandom history: Getting the bias out (Apr 12, 2008)
==Fan History Wiki==
Hale's ongoing project in recent years has been the Fan History wiki, which she considers an outgrowth of her Writers University project from ff.net. In 2007, Hale made it clear that she believed both herself and the wiki to be widely, almost universally, known in fandom: 
From the beginning, the wiki has been plagued by inaccuracies. In addition, Hale acquired a reputation for being a micro-manager, controlling the wiki's content and its editors. In 2008, Hale implemented scraper bots to take information from fans' profiles on fanfiction.net and livejournal to create hundreds of thousands of pages of information, a move that caused some controversy in some fannish venues. She alluded to this conflict in her essay, Documenting fandom history: Getting the bias out. In early 2009, she implemented paid services, where fans could pay to have articles written about them or their fandoms.
In November 2010, Hale closed the Fan History wiki to public edits, citing lack of admin interest.
Her LinkedIn account, which she herself had published a link to in an earlier journal post , accessed January 25, 2017 lists Fan History's dates of existence as being May 2006 to February 2011. Hale's LinkedIn page. 
==Controversy==
Hale's activities have irritated many people over the years, and controversy and wank surround her to varying degrees in multiple forums; several incidents made Fandom WankFanhistory's entry on the Fandom wank wiki (Accessed 30 October 2008). But in mid-2008, her actions on her Fan History wiki caused a wider controversy in the general LJ-based fannish community that resulted in many fans actively attempting to shun her and boycott her wiki.
A fan in 2008 posted: "I guess the only surprise in the scorn for Laura Hale turning to outright anger is how long it took. On the one hand, that speaks to a certain interest in avoiding public disasters, which I think speaks well of fandom. On the other hand, people have been twirling their fingers next to their ears about her for years and haven't been able or willing to collectively tell her to go jump in a lake. Which, I guess, is the hassle of an ungovernmented populace." comment by Vehemently at her journal, July 22, 2008 
===Outing===
On her wiki, Laura and her staff would occasionally connect someone's legal and fannish name if they felt that the link was obvious enough already. Unfortunately, Hale's definition of "obvious enough" included things like giving out a legal name in a friends-locked post to people the fan trusted to keep it private; in Hale's estimation, that action made that information effectively public knowledge. 
One fan wrote: 
But because people don't like to talk about outings (both because that perpetuates the outing, and because it puts them at risk for being outed themselves), most of this flew under fandom's radar. As one fan put it: 
The situation became public in July 2008, when Hale posted an essay called "How to maintain fandom privacy" to the Fanthropology LJ (the post has since been deletedA post on the FanHistory blog by Laura in April may contain the same or similar text as the deleted fanthropology post. See Laura Hale (fan)/"How not to appear on Fan History".), with a list of ways to avoid being outed or having personal information disseminated. The advice basically boiled down to "Never say anything on the Internet," a view reflected in many mainstream media articles. Many people believed Hale's post was self-serving and interpreted its subtext as "It is never the fault of the person who outs; the fault lies with the person who trusted people to respect their privacy and wishes."
One fan wrote: 
Various fans responded both in comments to the post and in their own LJs; some agreed that privacy is an unrealistic expectation, but some pointed out that the tone of the post was very "blame the victim" in its assumption that anyone who trusted anyone should expect to be outed.
In the midst of all that, Dejana pointed out that the Fanthropology post wasn't about a hypothetical abstract, but about something that had already happened on the Fan History Wiki: 
After that post, Hale amended the Fanthropology post, mentioning astolat's legal name several times, and each time linking it directly to the Astolat page on Fan History Wiki: 
Some fans felt that the specifics didn't matter and continued to believe that privacy is an unrealistic expectation even in a fannish community: 
From another fan: 
Others reacted badly to the outing, demanding that the fanthropology post be edited or deleted immediately to erase the information. As one fan put it: 
Some fans also began posting to call out Hale on her behavior, citing the current situation as well as older ones, and digging deeper into Hale's behavior patterns.ithiliana: Calling out Michaela Ecks/Laura Hale/Purplepopple/Partly_Bouncy, posted July 22, 2008. Accessed November 25, 2008. A copy is archived here. 
Word of the outing spread, and evidence began mounting that this event wasn't an isolated incident, but part of a long-term pattern. At least one previous incident is described by Hale herself: 
Even some of Hale's supporters began questioning her methods and behavior: 
Another fan wrote: 
===Deceptive Practices===
As fans uncovered more information about Hale and the wiki, it became clear that the wiki was not a fannish project, but a for-profit venture intended to market fannish information to businesses.Lucy. For linking purposes. Last updated 28 July 2008 (accessed 28 October 2008). 
While Hale was relatively open about wanting to sell, she also made it clear that she believed in using deceptive practices to build up her "business". In Hale's own words: 
Hale also wrote: 
=== Outing for Profit? ===
The timing of the fanthropology post and the very public outing of a fan began to be questioned -- why the need to generate so much wank and so many hits, right at that point?
One fan posted: 
In July 2008, in the midst of the wankstorm, Hale incorporated the wiki as a limited liability corporation (LLC)Fan History article on the Wiki Index; link goes to the history page to show that Hale added this information on September 4, 2008. Accessed November 25, 2008.. Her Twitter posts during July provide a timeline, starting with the day after she outed the fan in the fanthropology post: 
*"Anyone good with PR who might be able to help me with an ongoing situation? If so, would love to get in touch ASAP. 12:22 PM Jul 23rd from web 
**Note: Hale originally locked her Twitter down to friends-only after this post.
*Ordered "Art of the Start" and it has arrived! Talked to @Jenbachand on the phone for an hour. It was a good convo. 10:23 AM Jul 25th from web 
*I think I should have a registered agent which means I can push through LLC incorporation documents. Score! 1:54 PM Jul 25th from web 
*fuck fuck fuck. :( things went from bad to worse, 3:21 PM Jul 25th from web 
*This morning started out bad. I can't see it getting much better. 7:25 AM Jul 26th from web 
*Advice for dealing with clusterfucks in PR when dealing with a startup? 7:26 AM Jul 26th from web 
*Spent an hour discussing how to handle PR situation, policy changes, etc. Has been productive. Should help contain situation. Maybe. 6:22 AM Jul 27th from web 
*LLC forms completed and payment submitted. That is another one of those great big massive steps. 9:29 AM Jul 27th from web 
* Fan History and my apology regarding recent actions 4:40 AM Jul 28th from web also at 
At roughly the same time, she began listing her wiki on start-up sites, asking for venture capital -- $200,000 to $500,000.Fan History - TechCrunch Elevator Pitches; Fan History Elevator Pitch, posted July 14, 2008. Accessed November 25, 2008. Fan history on fundfindr Accessed November 25, 2008; Fan History is growing!, accessed May 11, 2014; WebCite. See Fan History Elevator Pitch.
The possible connection between Hale's choice to out a fan and her desire to make her wiki look attractive to potential investors drew more ire from some fans: 
Another fan posted: 
In short, fannish privacy being a powerful cultural factor, Hale quickly became the subject of public anger, outrage, and scorn as her entrepreneurial intentions became clear.
A fan posted: 
===Fanhistory:expose===
On July 22, 2008, some fans began using the tag "fanhistory:expose" on both their LJ posts and any delicious bookmarks about the Fan History Wiki (and by extension, Laura Hale), to make tracking the information easier.
On August 22, Hale began using the fanhistory:expose tag on delicious, adding some 240 new bookmarks in one day using that tag (none of them about the controversy, but instead pointing people to the FHW itself or to posts supporting the FHW). She continued to sporadically add bookmarks after that, for a total of 266 by mid-October, in what would appear to be an attempt to bury any criticism.Hale's delicious bookmarks using the tag "fanhistory:expose", posted under the username "purplepopple", accessed November 27, 2008. As of 12 December 2012, the purplepopple account has been deleted from Delicious. It is not known when or why the account was deleted. Delicious itself, of course, is long gone.
==Some Comments Regarding Fanlib==
FanLib: One Year Later is a detailed look at everything Fanlib did in its first year, complete with traffic and usage charts, posted on March 26, 2008. After carefully analyzing all of her data, Hale's conclusion was: "In the end, trends indicate that Fanlib shall continue to grow as part of the fannish community. They've created a sustainable project, which will be around for many years to come."
Roughly four months later, Fanlib closed down completely, shortly after a social media news site reported a rumor that Disney purchased it for $20 million.
==Some Comments Regarding Fanfiction.Net==
Hale was a staffer at Fanfiction.net from sometime in 2000 to roughly January 2001.
Hale claims to have written Fanfiction.net's Terms of Service (which in turn was used by FictionAlley). "Heck, their Terms of Service they ROBBED from FF.Net which I wrote. It says zero tolerance of plagiarism yet... well, bah. They don't own up to their hypocrisy. I try to own up to mine." -- Subject: Re: New fan fiction archive, and misc. at VoyForums: Writer's University: Fan Fiction Ethical & Legal Discussion Board, conversation between Laura Hale and Sinead on September 10, 2002. "(I'm not saying that FictionAlley.Org doesn't but I mean, after all, I did write 75% of their Terms of Service so they must have similar ethics to me no? Oh my, if I was petty and rude, I might say with some malice that they are nothing but plagiarist through and through ;-) but see, I'm not that petty. Stealing almost word for word from FanFiction.Net's Terms of Service and ha ha ha! having plagiarized material on their Terms of Service... well, that isn't an ethical issue for me to play with." -- Subject: Laura, Moi, jealous? (sarcasm alert) (offensive material with in), October 13, 2002. 
See Reverse the NC-17 Ruling on Fanfiction.net!: Laura Hale's Response (September 13, 2002).
==Some Comments Regarding FictionAlley and Cassandra Claire==
In October 2002, Hale posted a long message at Writers University. The subject line was "Laura, Moi, jealous? (sarcasm alert) (offensive material with in) In reply to: Ivy Blossom 's message, "Re: Cassandra Claire"."
In it, she claims that she wrote the Terms of Service for Fanfiction.net and that 75% of it was plagiarized for FictionAlley's terms of service. This claim is embedded in a very offensive email that attacks Cassandra Claire and others in a very over-the-top manner. It would be difficult to tease out what was Hale's actual thoughts and what she was offering up as sarcastic commentary. In any case, it is quite crude; read the entire post at your own risk:
An excerpt: 
Ironically, this post would have failed the forum's terms of service. "Discuss ethical and legal concerns: If you want to discuss the incident, please feel free to. If you want to discuss what is cyber stalking and what isn't, what the correct fannish reaction is, please do. If you want to discuss the legality of fan fiction, please do. If you want to address specific incidents in fandom, I'm all for it but please reference more than you're just jealous. Please, research your information before you open your mouth and provide defense for some of your positions. Please, don't name call. Calling others crazy and accusing others of being jealous are posts that will most likely find themselves deleted. Discuss, don't harrass (sic). Remember, this board is for the discussion of ethics and legal information pertaining to fandom. It isn't to demonstrate how unethical you can be. Also, please note, your IP addresses can be tracked." -- Writers University forum 
==Hale's Blog Posts==
Hale wrote a blog, one that had a focus of marketing and commenting on Fan History Wiki.
Some archived posts can be found here, click on "Fan History's Blog" at the top to expand the page and here.
==Hale's List of Essays and Papers ==
Laura Hale compiled a list of what she felt to be her non-fiction contributions to fandom. Many of them were posts to Fanthropology and FanDomination and pages on Fan History Wiki. from Fan History Wiki's blog, Laura's own list ; Wayback, last updated in 2008 
NOTE: typos are Hale's own. 
Essays:
* 2006: partly_bouncy’s fan fiction year in review on Fanthropology, December 2006
* CSI: The Review Factor on Fanthropology, February 2007
* Current Trends and Issues in Improving Fan Fiction Literacy, Originally written in April 2004
* Design and Implementation of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning: FanDomination.Net, Originally written in August 2002
* Did LiveJournal kill the mailing list? on Fanthropology, December 2006
* Does the media’s feminist interpretation of Ally McBeal mesh with the fan interpretation of Ally McBeal based on fan fiction? , Originally written in September 2000
* Drabble History Fanzine, Originally written in March 2005
* Evolution (or lack there of) of the definition of smarm on Fanthropology, April 2007
* Fan Space’s Influence on non-Fen buying practices Hale's comment to it: "Have not published it. Just posted it here. I don't think the questions were all that good, nor were my collection methods ideal... and to be honest, I think my sample size was a bit on the small size. :/ Lots of flaws. The only thing I think it shows with any degree of accuracy is that fan activity can effect a creator's ability to sell their product to non-fen. And for that alone, it was worth sharing. I've asked an aquaintence (sic) if they might be willing to see about expanding upon it with me but that's about it." -- see post on Fanthropology, April 2006
* Fandom in Micronesia on Fanthropology, March 2006 Actually, it was February 2006, not March 
* Fandom Size on Fanthropology, December 2006
* FanDomination.Net’s Privacy Policy on FanDomination.Net, August 2002
* FanDomination.Net’s Terms of Service on FanDomination.Net, August 2002
* The Harry Potter Fandom: By The Numbers on Fanthropology, on hP_essays , January 2007
* A Historical Perspective on Mary Sue: Issues and Trends on FanFic Symposium, June 2005
* History of anti-slash on FanHistory.Com, Originally written August 2005
* History of BandFic, an overview, on fanthropology, Originally written June to September 2007
* History of feedback on Fanhistory.Com, originally written in May 2005
* History of slash fan fiction; archive link posted to Slash Philosophy, but later removed by the moderator there due to Hale's conduct (May 2005)
* A History of Male Involvement in the Fan Fiction Community on FanFic Symposium, January 2006
* Is the Internet a beneficial collaborative learning environment for fan fiction in terms of improving writing quality? , Originally written in March 2003
* KJ: Mamma, Mistress, Fearless Leader or Face in the Crowd? Let the Fan Decide…, Originally written in December 2000
* Real Person Fic Fanzine, Originally written in Mary 2005
* Safe sex in fan fiction on FanHistory.Com, Originally written in 2005
* Slash is not gay: Homosexuality, class and fan fiction communities, A historical perspective on FanHistory.Com, June 2006
* Supernatural: Does fandom activity correlate to the release of canon? on Fanthropology, December 2006
* What is fan fiction history? on FanHistory.Com, Originally written June 2005
* Writing and Conducting Fandom Survey Research on Fanthropology, May 2007
* Fan History Wiki: Content generation and finding the right format (September 2008)
Other, General, Informational Non-essay or Incomplete Essay posts:
* 2006 fan fiction calendar on personal file space, Originally posted December 2005
* ABC Fan Fiction Book on personal file space, Originally posted December 2005
* American Idol: Vote The Worst on Fanthropology, March 2007
* Bandfic as RPF on FanHistory.Com, May 2006
* Creator interactions with the fan fiction community on FanHistory.Com, June 2006
* Data Set Offer on fan_ta_sam, May 2007
* The History of BandFic, Primarily as it pertains to the United States of America on RockFic, April 2007
* Fan Fiction as Marketing Research, Originally written March 2001
* Fandom related dataset on Fanthropology , on fan_ta_sam, December 2006
* FanFiction.Net's Terms of Service, August 2000
* History of Fanfiction on Fanfic Symposium, June 2005Removed by the administrator of Fanfic Symposium in July 2008.
* ICANN, RegisterFly and domain names on Fanthropology, April 2007
* Poll: Mary Sue and Drabble on Fanthropology, March 2006
* Size of slash fandom vs. size of het fandom on Fanthropology, January 2007
* Teens in fandom on FanHistory.Com, July 2006
Web Projects:
* FanHistory.Com: Fan fiction history wiki, creator and primary contributor
* Fan fiction dictionary @ FanWorks.Org, originally found at Writers University
* Fan fiction policies @ FanWorks.Org, originally found at Writers University
==Interviews==
* Fanboy Interview with Laura Hale (2008)
* Conserving fandom: an interview with Fan History (2009)
* An Interview with Fan History (2010)
==Sample Fanworks==
* Tom’s Chest Hair Fiasco, 1999, Star Trek: Voyager
* a 2000 convention report for WindyCon by Michela Ecks can be read here; WebCite
* 
== External Links ==
* , undated academic paper, appears to be November 2002 
* Laura's views on the state of Trek writing: a post at alt.startrek.creative Why Trek Fic generally is pretty hot stuff (1999)
* , Laura's views on erotica and explicit material, and fans under 17: a post at alt.tv.x-files.creative (April 2001)
* Delicious tags for Fanhistory Expose
* ; WebCite, posted July 14, 2008. Accessed November 25, 2008. Fan history on fundfindr Accessed November 25, 2008; Fan History is growing!, accessed May 11, 2014 WebCite.
* Laura's Fandom Timeline -- 1992-2008
* Laura's Fan History User Page
* Interview: Laura Hale of FanHistory.com/reference link by Michael Pinto, posted May 10, 2008 accessed May 29, 2013
* LauraHale's user page at Wikinews, accessed September 19, 2016
* fiction at FanFiction.Net: PurplePopple (2001-2008)
* You know you're a fannish person who has burned out when, August 6, 2002 post on LiveJournal
==References==
Category:Fans
Category:Community Moderators