Can we use Fanfiction.com as a metric for what is the most popular franchise ever?
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I didn't say anything about multiple authors writing one fic. I meant multiple authors writing multiple fics. It could just be a small group of authors writing a large amount of fan fiction.Hawki said:
Regardless I think a better metric would be how much of a presence a franchise has at, say, a convention or something.
I totally forgot that place existed, but it's part of my cringey past as a shipper. I have a piece of fluff on there that's been viewed 40,000 times... If I could pick one thing about myself to be viewed that many times, it sure as heck wouldn't be shipping fanfic I wrote as a teenager. DX
to escape my walk down memory lane and actually answer your question, though: probably. I mean, fanfic writers tend to be proportionate to the size of their respective fandoms, and that website is the largest collection of such people in one area. I imagine it's not precise, and probably can't be quantified, but i think if a study were performed, the fiction that generated the most fanfiction would likely also be the fiction with the largest communities.
to escape my walk down memory lane and actually answer your question, though: probably. I mean, fanfic writers tend to be proportionate to the size of their respective fandoms, and that website is the largest collection of such people in one area. I imagine it's not precise, and probably can't be quantified, but i think if a study were performed, the fiction that generated the most fanfiction would likely also be the fiction with the largest communities.
I would say "Yes.", but only as one of several metrics as far as popularity is concerned, as others have outlined above, there are several factors concerning genre, target audience and site archiving that would skew the numbers, still, one does not become a popular subject matter on Fanfiction.net WITHOUT being popular.
So yeah, it's a useful metric, but only to be taken as one of several.
So yeah, it's a useful metric, but only to be taken as one of several.
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Same potluck as FF.net was in it's time, just less fetters on content. Take warnings seriously because there's minimal moderation on things written considering the correct labels are used. And yeah I've used it the past year after FF.net has kind of dried up for me, s'got some good on there, alot of terribad tween angst writings but that's par for the course, gonna have to wade through the mud for the gems as per the norm.Samtemdo8 said:
Help me out here: What is the deal with Supernatural? I've never seen a single episode of it but it's been going on forever and there seem to be a lot of people who are way into it. Is it really that good? It's not exactly something that comes up a lot when people talk about classic great television.
From what I have seen of it, every supernatural thing in the history of the entire Earth is real and exists, even Gods are characters in this world seen in the guise of ordinary people, Satan himself is a character in this show.PsychedelicDiamond said:
So, bit of an update on the question, the site's buggered in that it no longer counts submission numbers. For instance, the Venom category is listed as having 8 fics, when in reality it has around 40.
If it isn't fixed (and given how slow the site is on updates, that's a genuine possibility), this is going to be a disaster for smaller fandoms.
What's interesting is that I checked out Archive of Our Own, and as far as fic numbers go, the numbers can be very divergent. E.g., off the top of my head:
Golden Sun: >3000 (ff.net) vs. >300 (AO3)
StarCraft: >1800 (ff.net) vs. >200 (AO3)
Killjoys: >60 (ff.net) vs. >600 (A03)
Dragon Prince: >10 (ff.net) vs. >300 (AO3)
So, it appears ff.net tends to have a greater share of 'old school' fandoms, while AO3 is where people are writing for newer fandoms. Looking online, I've seen comments that people on AO3 tend to be younger.
Edit: Did some more searching, there's actually correlation as well. So, sometimes it's divergent, sometimes it isn't.
If it isn't fixed (and given how slow the site is on updates, that's a genuine possibility), this is going to be a disaster for smaller fandoms.
What's interesting is that I checked out Archive of Our Own, and as far as fic numbers go, the numbers can be very divergent. E.g., off the top of my head:
Golden Sun: >3000 (ff.net) vs. >300 (AO3)
StarCraft: >1800 (ff.net) vs. >200 (AO3)
Killjoys: >60 (ff.net) vs. >600 (A03)
Dragon Prince: >10 (ff.net) vs. >300 (AO3)
So, it appears ff.net tends to have a greater share of 'old school' fandoms, while AO3 is where people are writing for newer fandoms. Looking online, I've seen comments that people on AO3 tend to be younger.
Edit: Did some more searching, there's actually correlation as well. So, sometimes it's divergent, sometimes it isn't.
An inaccurate metric, but approximate enough I suppose.
More accurately a metric of the popular franchise with the most shipping potential. Or at least characters that people desire to be shipped the most, aka characters that they themselves are attracted to.
I still write it myself from time to time, and never really got the prevailing desire to do that with every character pairing imaginable. If it fits the story sure, but there has to be a solid core of an idea to build it around to make it worthwhile.
I've started to wonder if maybe AO3 is more my jam.
More accurately a metric of the popular franchise with the most shipping potential. Or at least characters that people desire to be shipped the most, aka characters that they themselves are attracted to.
I still write it myself from time to time, and never really got the prevailing desire to do that with every character pairing imaginable. If it fits the story sure, but there has to be a solid core of an idea to build it around to make it worthwhile.
I've started to wonder if maybe AO3 is more my jam.
Um, does anyone? Shippers usually favour certain pairings over other.WhiteFangofWhoa said:
Speaking personally, I've never been that big on shipping. Of all the fics I've posted, only about 3% of them have a romance tag.
In my headcannon Danny Phantom exists in the DC universe, is a member of the Teen Titans if not the leader or Co-leader with Robin, and I ship Danny Phantom with Raven.Hawki said:
Because Raven > Sam Manson.
Like everyone else said, it probably a poor metric. It can indicate something is popular, as there were fan writing and publishing their own Sherlock Holms stories at the time it was being written, but then you look at the Expanded universe of Star Wars and its almost entirly fan fiction when it comes down to it.
Other times its a temporary thing. You see an influx as something gets popular then the move on.
And then there are the neiches. ANime for a while was a neiche. Yeah, Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Robotech, Pokemon, Digimon, Miozaki, Voltron may be household names state side, but it has ups and downs. Gundam Wing drove it for a while, and Naruto later, but up until the age of legal streaming most were not easily available enough to get. So while popular, and even good, its basicly left to the neiche market.
Add the neiches of said market, and it only gets worse. Rememer the Kiss in Naruto that launched a thousand X rated slash fan art between two twelve year old boys?
Yes its a billion dollar industry, but so is NASS Car and you don't see that having a race track everywhere.
Other times its a temporary thing. You see an influx as something gets popular then the move on.
And then there are the neiches. ANime for a while was a neiche. Yeah, Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Robotech, Pokemon, Digimon, Miozaki, Voltron may be household names state side, but it has ups and downs. Gundam Wing drove it for a while, and Naruto later, but up until the age of legal streaming most were not easily available enough to get. So while popular, and even good, its basicly left to the neiche market.
Add the neiches of said market, and it only gets worse. Rememer the Kiss in Naruto that launched a thousand X rated slash fan art between two twelve year old boys?
Yes its a billion dollar industry, but so is NASS Car and you don't see that having a race track everywhere.
So, fun fact, the fic counting is back. Kind of humorous to see Venom go from 8 to 60 fics overnight. 0_0
Think it's pretty clear to distinguish between tie-in fiction and fan fiction; one is solicited, the other isn't. Or, looking at these examples, plenty of authors continue to write Sherlock Holmes stories today, but they're all in isolation of each other, whereas the Star Wars books are outsourced by Lucasfilm and strive to be in canon with one another.saint of m said:
At times, though it can come back. Warcraft for instance, tends to get a surge every time an expansion is released, but then settles back down.
Yeah, actually. I remember seeing a chart showing the spikes that correspond with every piece of released new, original content. WoW expansion packs are treated kind of like new game releases, as subscriptions (and total profitability) spike and then fall off the face of the Earth with every grace period of new content. Plus fanfiction.com isn't probably a good metric as multiple fandoms tend to produce other sites, and it depends on the quality of those other sites UI and author base that may determine its propagation of fanfic.Hawki said: