meta link: liviapenn and fannish profiteering

So it's not over, or at least, not yet. As we are--wait, let me quote this--right. A unique marketing opportunity.

liviapenn talks here about partly bouncy's ultimate motive for being an asshat--to wit, selling her wiki.

Quote from partly bouncy:

Had a great big chat with the major Fan History sysops regarding Fan History and its potential and if they'd be comfortable if I ever sold it, etc. The people who are the sysops pretty much realize that, for some of that, I'm sitting on a really nice, pretty comprehensive market research tool. That doesn't even begin to get into various other things I have compiled, like lists of LiveJournal communities that you can advertise your in fandom material on, contact lists, private demographic studies I've done, polling data, etc. The potential there for using that from a marketing perspective at fandom is nice. (It is why Fan History does NOT have a GNLU license and why our privacy policy is rather vague.)

*thoughtful* Well. I am glad her sysops were also awesome with this when she told them about it.

Comments

[apple-pi.livejournal.com]

I just - I don't get how a person can be so... slimy.

I mean, if someone described this character to me, I would be thinking, "Eh, too unbelievable. A one-note character, like someone in a sit-com." At this point, she seriously, seriously creeps me out. It's just grotesque.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Yes! That's pretty much the *exact* description of her. It's creepy.

[etty-kay.livejournal.com]

sorry random passer by and not really following this issue but that quote made my brain hurt trying to read it

:D

have a nice day!

[seperis.livejournal.com]

She's a miracle of weird, bizarre, creepy quotes like that. *shivers*

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

This is Laura Hale, right? She tried to recruit me to work on this thing a couple of years ago, re: my history in B7 fandom. She wanted me to write up the history of Blake's 7 fandom, heavy on the fannish in-fighting. I got a wrong-buzz off her and just let that drop somewhere along before I even got started.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Smart. Very smart. I knew her vaguely from Voyager and by rep later, so I stayed far, far away.

[that_mireille]

You know, I offered once -- long ago, before I knew how awful she was -- to help her *correct* her B7 fannish history, given that I had been present for some of the fannish infighting, and had been in the fandom for a long time. (There were specific items I wanted to correct because I had been present for them, and her report did not at all match my memories.)

She told me no, that her source had heard everything from some friends of friends and therefore would be more accurate than anything I could remember from actually being there.

That was enough to make me wary of Laura Hale. Everything I saw after that was enough to make me disgusted by her.

[cereta.livejournal.com]

That anecdote right there pretty much sums up her entire FCA-L posting history.

Her: "Here's this history of fannish thing."

Fans who have been in fandom since before she was born: Well, no, it didn't really happen like that.

Her: OMG, I don't see YOU writing a history!

[lydiabell.livejournal.com]

::dies::

Yes. Yes, exactly.

[that_mireille]

Yeah. By the time I saw her on FCA-L, I just sort of sat back and watched the insanity, most of the time.

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

HA! What happened was that there wasn't anything about the B7 debacle on the wiki at all, she tried to get me to write it for her, I resisted because it reopened some old wounds (and she rubbed me the wrong way), and then after a while, she got someone else to write it. Who wrote it wrong, wrong, wrong.

In fact, the creep who wrote it was a particularly egregious creep who, when it was just starting to blow up, asked me not to tell him what happened because he "wanted to stay good friends with both sides." a month later, I got a letter in which he viciously, and I mean *viciously*, attacked me for all the dreadful things I'd supposedly done... because he'd let the other side tell him what happened, and believed them. And he *still* wasn't interested in hearing my side/what actually happened. I was dealing with my father's fall from a second-story height in which he broke his pelvis, arm, and wrist, and almost died, so the fan-drama seemed too petty to try to give much attention to. Not that I think I could have ever gotten this jerk's friendship back even if I'd tried.

So screw it, it's history, and we all know how accurate *that* is.

[that_mireille]

This was actually before the Wiki (at least AFAIK) -- 4-5 years or so ago, now. So she had *something*, it was seriously wrong (I am not talking about things that were open to interpretation, I'm talking about things like what year a con was held, or what city it was in, or what con a particular event occurred at), and she... abandoned it, and got someone else to write something equally wrong. Awesome.

And by "awesome," I mean, "I could not have expected anything less from someone so dedicated to misinformation and batshit."

[drlense.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping that as this news spreads she's banned from every fannish community out there.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*sad* I only wish she was on my comms so I could ban. *sad*

[drlense.livejournal.com]

:D I just checked the one comm I'm a maintainer of and she's not a member there either.

[lydiabell.livejournal.com]

I know! She has no interest in either of my comms. Guess I could ban her anyway, just for fun, but it wouldn't be the same.

[tropes.livejournal.com]

Okay, so I watched her pitch video, and I am kind of flabbergasted. She appears to be several years younger than me. I became an active member of fandom at age 22, and at that time I was already hearing her name as a psycho troublemaker. WTF. Was she just like bored in high school and started wanking and never stopped? I don't understaaaand.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

She's been in fandom as long as I remember, and I started in Voyager in 1999, so--pretty much, yeah. And being wanky straight through.

[franzeska]

Well, I for one have been in fandom since I was 13. Let's just be thankful that most people stop being 13 at some point.

[yin-again.livejournal.com]

Funny that she should mention the word "tool" in her quote. I have long associated that person and that word in my mind. Oh, and a couple of times in my journal. *hands*

[cat-77.livejournal.com]

She makes my head hurt. A lot.

Scary thing is, I recognize her name, just can't remember where from. Bu to say inaccurate reports of past fandom infighting is a prime marketing tool? Sense make not.

[eleveninches.livejournal.com]

Ugh. That's gross.

[djinanna.livejournal.com]

I've never had the displeasure of crossing paths with her (online wank and I are mostly strangers, thank the gods!), but each time I hear about her, my stomach twists a little harder.

(Icon refers to her, not you, of course.)

[mz-bstone.livejournal.com]

I wish there was a way to toast the whole Fanwiki thing. It's sorta scary-bad, and it sounds like people have NO CONTROL over whether she takes there stuff, their info or their identities.

B

[out-there.livejournal.com]

This whole thing gives me the creeps in so many ways. *shudders*

[esther-a.livejournal.com]

If anyone needs a laugh after all of this, an ex-contributer made some creative changes to the main page of the wiki. They were taken down almost immediately, but there are screencaps here (http://slwatson.livejournal.com/156383.html).

[sl_walker]

Lasted two hours before the tech guy actually fixed it. Here, have some more:
http://commanderteddog.livejournal.com/507162.html?style=mine

[sl_walker]

I don't recall this convo. I remember her mentioning wanting to sell it, and I blew it off because I was sure no one would ever buy it. Then again, I was never quite a major sysop.

Hi! By the way.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Hi! And you and your friend--fantastic. The emails it set off could fill an *ocean* that I received today about it. *g*

[sl_walker]

Seriously? I'm amazed anyone noticed, outside her and what few people are still working for her.