Post by Emcee on Apr 26, 2005 4:07:27 GMT -5
Let me tell you a little story.
There were two women. Both were interested in the Buffyverse. In fact, they were interested in the same character in the Buffyverse. When both Buffy and Angel ended, they decided to make spin-offs with the character they were interested in as the lead.
Now, many times in the fan fiction world similar premises cause discord between the two creators. But in the case of these two women, not only did they have a mutual respect for each other's series, but they were friends.
It's a nice story, isn't it? Well, it's true. Masquerade the Philosopher and I both write Connor-centric series-- pretty much the only Connor-centric series in the virtual series community. I am a big fan of "The Destroyer". I've read every episode and I almost always read the new ones on the day they come out. While I don't believe Masq has read "The Nyazian Prophecies" (unless she's just keeping very quiet about it), she has always been very respectful of my series and my ideas. I do count her as a friend, one of my closest within the Buffyverse fandom.
Now, the reason I'm telling you this story? Next Tuesday, a long-running Buffy continuation, has gone on an indefinite hiatus. It's not because the staff are out of ideas. It's not because they don't love Buffy anymore. It's because fans of another virtual series have attacked them. NT was barraged with insults and bile and even HACKERS attacking them. It's well-known which virtual series is connected to these troubles. I'm not going to mention it here, because (1) I don't want to give them any free publicity. (2) I'm not going to go as low as them. The attacks on NT have also caused Crucifer, the Giles series to shut down.
Now, I will be honest. I haven't had the chance to read Next Tuesday or Crucifer yet. There are so many episodes to catch up on and I'm so busy on TNP and my Harry Potter novels, I haven't had the chance. I was planning to sit down and read them when TNP went on spring hiatus.
But the people connected to NT are a lovely bunch. Faith Bowie, who writes NT (along with Forsaken), runs the Virtual Series Topsites List and the Virtual Series Omnibus and the Virtual Series Webring. She also worked on Bloodwreck Virtual Television Network. All of these are a way to share virtual series, to strengthen the community between the different creators.
When TNP was first starting out, Faith and I had a lot of conversation back and forth about the running of a virtual series. She was nothing but kind and supportive in my project. She even put a very prominent banner for TNP in the regular rotation on her sites.
These are not the acts of someone who is competitive. Faith took a lot of time that she could have spent working on her own series promoting other people's work. This is someone who is just damn dedicated to virtual series.
And in exchange for her troubles, she's been giving nothing but grief. The fact that someone went as far as to hack into her site is deplorable.
I don't know who exactly was responsible for the attacks on NT-- whether or not they are writers or just fans-- but I know who they are affiliated with. I hold the creators of this series responsible for the attacks on NT. The discord between the two series has been public enough that I know about it, despite only being in the VS community since January. The staff of the series should have stopped the malicious activities. They are not wanting for publicity, so why they should allow attacks on another series...
Now let me say something really clearly: Virtual series are nothing but glorified fan fiction. There is currently 32,590 fanfiction stories related to Buffy and Angel on fanfiction.net alone. There is plenty of room for everyone on the web. The beautiful thing about VSes is that they are not actually in competition with each other. We don't have to choose between series. Because they're posted online and not aired on TV, you can read at your leisure. There is absolutely no point in creating competition. It just makes people angry and causes stress in this relatively small subfandom.
Just because your series is popular doesn't mean that Joss Whedon is going to walk up to you and say, "Hey! Here you go! Since I'm busy with "Serenity" and "Wonder Woman", you get to create the new Buffyverse series!". We're just FANS, trying to continue the franchise in our own fannish way.
I write TNP because I WANT TO WRITE THE NYAZIAN PROPHECIES. I want to continue the adventures of Connor, Andrew, Lorne and Wesley. I wanted to introduce Salome and Jamie and Oni. I have a grand total of about six fans who give me regular feedback on the series. If no one read the series, I would be disappointed, but I wouldn't stop writing. And, if I were attacked as NT is, I would probably do the same as them: I would continue writing without sharing.
So the moral of this story? Can more people take a page from Masq and I? There's plenty of room for everyone. I daresay my discussions with Masq have made TNP better. If you want to make your series more popular, spend time making your story better and not trashing other people.
I also ask that even if you don't read Next Tuesday to go sign the Save Next Tuesday petition. No story should be destroyed by hateful bastards causing trouble.
I mourn the loss of Next Tuesday and Crucifer. I hope things will turn around for the staff of NT and Laota and they will decide to come back.
There were two women. Both were interested in the Buffyverse. In fact, they were interested in the same character in the Buffyverse. When both Buffy and Angel ended, they decided to make spin-offs with the character they were interested in as the lead.
Now, many times in the fan fiction world similar premises cause discord between the two creators. But in the case of these two women, not only did they have a mutual respect for each other's series, but they were friends.
It's a nice story, isn't it? Well, it's true. Masquerade the Philosopher and I both write Connor-centric series-- pretty much the only Connor-centric series in the virtual series community. I am a big fan of "The Destroyer". I've read every episode and I almost always read the new ones on the day they come out. While I don't believe Masq has read "The Nyazian Prophecies" (unless she's just keeping very quiet about it), she has always been very respectful of my series and my ideas. I do count her as a friend, one of my closest within the Buffyverse fandom.
Now, the reason I'm telling you this story? Next Tuesday, a long-running Buffy continuation, has gone on an indefinite hiatus. It's not because the staff are out of ideas. It's not because they don't love Buffy anymore. It's because fans of another virtual series have attacked them. NT was barraged with insults and bile and even HACKERS attacking them. It's well-known which virtual series is connected to these troubles. I'm not going to mention it here, because (1) I don't want to give them any free publicity. (2) I'm not going to go as low as them. The attacks on NT have also caused Crucifer, the Giles series to shut down.
Now, I will be honest. I haven't had the chance to read Next Tuesday or Crucifer yet. There are so many episodes to catch up on and I'm so busy on TNP and my Harry Potter novels, I haven't had the chance. I was planning to sit down and read them when TNP went on spring hiatus.
But the people connected to NT are a lovely bunch. Faith Bowie, who writes NT (along with Forsaken), runs the Virtual Series Topsites List and the Virtual Series Omnibus and the Virtual Series Webring. She also worked on Bloodwreck Virtual Television Network. All of these are a way to share virtual series, to strengthen the community between the different creators.
When TNP was first starting out, Faith and I had a lot of conversation back and forth about the running of a virtual series. She was nothing but kind and supportive in my project. She even put a very prominent banner for TNP in the regular rotation on her sites.
These are not the acts of someone who is competitive. Faith took a lot of time that she could have spent working on her own series promoting other people's work. This is someone who is just damn dedicated to virtual series.
And in exchange for her troubles, she's been giving nothing but grief. The fact that someone went as far as to hack into her site is deplorable.
I don't know who exactly was responsible for the attacks on NT-- whether or not they are writers or just fans-- but I know who they are affiliated with. I hold the creators of this series responsible for the attacks on NT. The discord between the two series has been public enough that I know about it, despite only being in the VS community since January. The staff of the series should have stopped the malicious activities. They are not wanting for publicity, so why they should allow attacks on another series...
Now let me say something really clearly: Virtual series are nothing but glorified fan fiction. There is currently 32,590 fanfiction stories related to Buffy and Angel on fanfiction.net alone. There is plenty of room for everyone on the web. The beautiful thing about VSes is that they are not actually in competition with each other. We don't have to choose between series. Because they're posted online and not aired on TV, you can read at your leisure. There is absolutely no point in creating competition. It just makes people angry and causes stress in this relatively small subfandom.
Just because your series is popular doesn't mean that Joss Whedon is going to walk up to you and say, "Hey! Here you go! Since I'm busy with "Serenity" and "Wonder Woman", you get to create the new Buffyverse series!". We're just FANS, trying to continue the franchise in our own fannish way.
I write TNP because I WANT TO WRITE THE NYAZIAN PROPHECIES. I want to continue the adventures of Connor, Andrew, Lorne and Wesley. I wanted to introduce Salome and Jamie and Oni. I have a grand total of about six fans who give me regular feedback on the series. If no one read the series, I would be disappointed, but I wouldn't stop writing. And, if I were attacked as NT is, I would probably do the same as them: I would continue writing without sharing.
So the moral of this story? Can more people take a page from Masq and I? There's plenty of room for everyone. I daresay my discussions with Masq have made TNP better. If you want to make your series more popular, spend time making your story better and not trashing other people.
I also ask that even if you don't read Next Tuesday to go sign the Save Next Tuesday petition. No story should be destroyed by hateful bastards causing trouble.
I mourn the loss of Next Tuesday and Crucifer. I hope things will turn around for the staff of NT and Laota and they will decide to come back.
I don't really know what else to say.
