Does FanHistory have any regard for fandom at all? Of course not.

[icarus]

Oh, brother. From ithiliana: FanHistory is at it again.

Partly Bouncy, a.k.a. Laura Hale, has created a bot that is scraping info from people's LJs.

You either have to contact them to have the page created deleted (note, if you have already asked that a page about you be deleted, you will have to ask again if a new one appears), or mark the option on your LJ Viewing Options to "minimize inclusion" on search engines and bots.

My dislike for FanHistory had subsided to a mere trickle until now. A passing glance of disdain perhaps. Now I am again wholly disgusted with them.

They don't even have the excuse of ignorance. They know people will hate this. Their reputation is crap after they outed a popular fanfic author and refused to delete her real name from her page (the act which earned my never-ending loathing).

FanHistory can't get willing participation so they've decided to mug fandom.


ETA: Given Laura Hale's long history of trying to make a buck off our unpaid efforts (gee, thanks, Laura, f*** you), she's probably just trying to drive up hits again. As she's put it herself... "Ideas how to plug [FanHistory]: Generate wank."

Comments

[ithiliana.livejournal.com]

But fandom seems more upset by academics roooning the squee and institutionally oppressing fandom than by what many of us (aca and non aca fen alike) see as real exploitation of fandom.....amazing!

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Is that the latest spin on aca fen? That it "spoils the squee"? Why on earth would anyone think that?

[ithiliana.livejournal.com]

Actually, that's been a longstanding complaint (I've seen at least three rounds of the academics are ruining fandom).

Analysis is the antithesis of pleasure; we overanalyze everything; we take all the fun out of reading (one of the two posts that started this found is actually by a fulltime writer who thinks that popular/genre fiction should not be taught in university because it ruins enjoyment, and oh yes, literature courses in college ruin people for having fun reading). Etc.

[kagyakusha.livejournal.com]

as an honours english student I must raise the sword at that ridiculousness!
Point me in their direction! Fiction gets BETTER when you analyse it (if it was any good to begin with haha)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Even bad fiction gets better if you analyze it! So there! I raise my sword as well, hark!

[danacias.livejournal.com]

Thanks for passing this on.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

You're welcome.

[fourth-moon.livejournal.com]

Errrgh. Thanks for the info and the link. Happily my privacy settings should make sure that I don't turn up. (Not that I think I would be interesting to anybody, I just don't wont to turn up in lists on a site I never visited.)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Errrgh.

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.

[sage-theory.livejournal.com]

Fortunately I minimized inclusion a long time ago, back when I first discovered the option. But thanks for the heads up.

I'm not anywhere on the site. I don't think I attract enough notice for a bot to go trolling for me! :)

Still, I really hate things like this, and it's not like there's really a need for it anyway. I can't think of what the point of something like this would be. A fandom directory that's completely voluntary and where people sign up and put the information they want to have seen ala a fannish Facebook would be fine - even useful - but doing it for people without their permission not only seems rude but non-sensical.

I mean, if you just troll people's LJ's, you'll get a lot of sock puppets, duplicates, abandoned journals and other useless info.

Ugh. I remember this user from some other kerfluffles. Has she done something else that erupted in a wankstorm or am I remembering the wrong person?

[thalia]

Laura Hale is a vortex of wank--you're probably remembering her correctly. If you've ever been on FCA-L or read fanthropology you'll have been aware of her.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Here's her recent history (http://cereta.livejournal.com/559567.html). No doubt it's the same person.

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads up...

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome. I am not pleased that I've had to minimize my LJ's search results to avoid exploitation.

[moojja.livejournal.com]

Didn't she do that with fanfiction.net?

With livejournal, she will have RPG characters as part of her profiles. That's actually kind of funny. I'm imaging Rodney Mckey's FanHistory profile.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

She's scraping from communities to avoid that.

Of course, I've just had my RPG characters join a dozen or so prominent communities.

[anarchicq.livejournal.com]

Ok, so communities with less than 1,000 users are safe from her bot-rape?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

No idea. But I've decided to limit my LJ's inclusion, and am not happy about it.

[aphephobia.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the headsup. :)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. *nods*

[rike-tikki-tavi.livejournal.com]

This might be a very stupid question, but could a wiki itself be scraped with bots?

Cause if yes, I would not be surprised if she tried to get articles from Fanlore next.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

That's... a very good question.

[spirit-dog.livejournal.com]

Well anything posted verbatim from another site without proper permission and attribution is a violation of copyright..

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. But she's already getting away with scraping. How far will she go?

[scarah2.livejournal.com]

I am sure that Laura will totally get rich off this! She has totally thought it through.

Not

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

She's not worth the energy we've given this, on the other hand, she has managed to inconvenience and piss a large swathe of fandom.

[scarah2.livejournal.com]

Oh I'm not saying it's somehow wrong to be concerned about what she is up to and discuss it. I'm saying her ideas are... of questionable usefulness in the first place. Too. On top of pissing people off.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Who was it that asked what possible use our LJ profiles could be? They're dead on. She only kipe pointless information, valuable to us alone. The only people who'd ever be interested in FH are the very ones she's offended. There's no money in what she's doing. Has she not looked around at the current economy?

[scarah2.livejournal.com]

Seriously. And people like our potential employers, in the case of real names. She's adding fail on top of fail on top of fail.

[kagyakusha.livejournal.com]

what a bitch.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Yes.