(no subject)

[marguerite_26]

Does anyone know when the first Harry Potter fests began?

My mind is a strange place today...

I know in BtVS, there was something called Secret Slasha that was posted at Christmas. It was running since 2001.

In April 2003, I ran something I call a Flashfic-a-thon which was an exchange based fest with a ton of convoluted rules. *headdesk* It became quite popular and spun off into a million different fests of that type in BtVS.

Does anyone remember how things started in HP?

Comments

[rickey-a.livejournal.com]

oooh there's a meta I read a long time back about merry smutmas and the evolution of fests
I don't have the link but maybe someone knows what I'm talking about

I'll try to google it out

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

Oh! Yes, please. I've always been curious.

Looks like the merry_smutmas comm was created on 2003-10-05.

:D

[rickey-a.livejournal.com]

yes, I do believe that's what I read.

gmth isn't on my f-list (I came in quite late to HP) but her meta is unlocked and it's a wonderful trove of seeing how fandom has evolved yet not really changed at all! LOL! There's a couple of neat entries about the shift from the mailing lists & archives to LJ as well as exchange fests taking over. Very neat. Like looking at a time capsule.

http://gmth.livejournal.com/tag/meta

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

that is a fabulous link. You are dead on about the time capsule. LOL.

[cassie-black12.livejournal.com]

For a woman who's not thinking about fests today, you seem to be doing a surprising amount of it *G*

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

*snicker*

*eyes load of laundry*

*googles hp fest meta*

[okydoky.livejournal.com]

Hmm.. maybe the Severitus Challenge? I guess that wasn't a fest though.

Maybe the good ol' Fuh-Q Fests?

[okydoky.livejournal.com]

This Snarry one (http://www.kardasi.com/HPSS/) has been going since 2003 by the looks of it.

[okydoky.livejournal.com]

Make that 2002 (http://snapeff.quasi-evil.net/home/index.html).

:)

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!! very interesting seeing all that old stuff. :D

[leela-cat.livejournal.com]

They weren't called "fests", but back in the late 90s in Forever Knight, we used to have challenges. Essentially, they were challenges to write a story based on a certain character, type of character or situation. In some ways, they were very much like the prompt-based fests of today.

Of course, there were also the faction "wars" which were more like a giant RP game that took over the fiction mailing list for weeks at a time.

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

I see. And I guess the 'challenges' evolved into 'exchanges' somewhere, right? where suddenly you are writing 'gifts' with themes (like pairings or character specifics).

funny how popular prompt fests are again. ;)

[leela-cat.livejournal.com]

I assume that's at least part of what happened. Although, I don't know for sure if there were other fandoms doing the same kind of challenges around that time, or even earlier.

And, yes, prompt fests FTW. I'm becoming increasingly fond of them as well. *g*

[calanthe-fics.livejournal.com]

Unsurprisingly, I don't know! But I bet accioslash does!

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

hee! I was totally thinking that she would. Some crazy zine-fest thingy that started in 1984. ;) *ducks*

[faithwood.livejournal.com]

*clicks Flashfic-a-thon*

I see you weren't replying to comments in 2003 either. BAHAHAHAH!

*runs*

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

*diez*

Bwahhahahahaha!

Should I reply now? do you think 2003 is just TOO DAMN LATE? also, no one there would remember who the heck I am?

In my defense, I checked my actual fic and I did reply to every. single. comment. within days of receiving them. LOL.

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

oops. I just checked the second fic I wrote and I didn't finish replying to those comments.

Apparently, I haven't changed a bit. *headdesk*

[ashe-frost.livejournal.com]

I remember way back in 2002, I think it was, when the Armchair_Slash and VeelaInc yahoo groups did some fests/exchanges. I know there was a Christmas exchange (might've been VeelaInc) and then Armchair did a seasonal challenge and a furniture challenge.

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

Thank you! it certainly sounds like 2002 a lot of these things started cropping up. :D

[snegurochka_lee]

Older dinosaurs than me can correct me if I'm wrong, but merry_smutmas was the first HP fest of the current tradition, ie: sign up, list your 'kinks' and 'squicks', and someone else will write a fic/produce art for you. It would be anonymous, and guessing would be fun, and all would rejoice. It was multi-pairing but only slash and femslash. gmth began it, with help from a circle of core HP slashers at the time (2002 I think), who I think I could name but would not want to be wrong, heh.

The following year (?), smutty_claus came along to be the het-sister-fest equivalent, run by r_becca.

Soon after, hp_springsmut began as a rarepair version of it (with permission, I believe, and run by starrysummer). Smutmas was heavy on H/D and Snarry and Remus/Sirius, and SC was probably heavy on... popular het ships (?). Heh. Uh, Snape/Hermione? IDK. But rarepairs were given love.

And so then there were three. :) (That's why it was especially sad, I thought, to hear that Springsmut won't be back next year; Smutmas is already gone, and thus my fondness for SC). After that, all hell broke loose and everyone wanted their own fest on that format. Then others got annoyed with that format and went back to prompt-things or other formats.

(Prompt-things, AFAIK, began even earlier, on mailing lists and websites; I remember the Snape FQF, for instance, although I have no idea where it's hosted anymore if at all, where there were prompts and people posted stuff and it got put on a website. There were like 18 rounds of it, heh).

gmth is definitely a good person to know for HP fandom history; I know I've seen her talk about all this stuff before, although maybe not in her personal journal. IDK. amanuensis1, titti, and florahart also come to mind as people who've been around since that era and are still in HP...

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

hee! you old dinosaur. :D

This is a exactly what I'm looking for. Yes, the 'current tradition' of anon exchanges types of things. Exactly what I'm curious about. Interesting how these thing evolve. Merry_smutmas became yuleballs, right? or something. oh the evolution of fandom.

I can see why you are so fond of SC. Those old fest are very much part of the foundation of fandom, really. Nice to see that one still around.

Thanks for all the info. ♥

[snegurochka_lee]

Merry_smutmas became yuleballs, right?

Nooo. Gina (gmth) decided that Smutmas would end after five years, in 2007. It was the big slash exchange for the year in general during the five years it ran (check out the archive; stories used to get 100+ comments easily!), but also for the holiday season. (I don't know the history of hd_hols, but it seems to me that even the biggest H/D stories of the season always came from Smutmas, not pairing-specific fests). So, when she decided to close it, others stepped forward to run new, different slash-centric exchanges for the holidays. Apart from filling that niche, there is no tie to Smutmas or Gina, afaik. I can't bring myself to participate in yule_balls, tbh, because it's just not Smutmas. Heh. Possibly unfair of me, I know...

*dinosaur's it up some moar*

Yes, the 'current tradition' of anon exchanges types of things.

*nod* I can't find it now, but I do remember a 'fandom history' post of Gina's that summed all this up and went into the backstory of Smutmas that I hadn't known about. She and a few of her friends were chatting one night and everyone had ideas about fic they wanted to see but didn't think they could write, and thus the idea was born, so innovative at the time, about doing a small exchange where someone else writes for you. History tidbit: she was also the first mod to put in the "no smart quotes" rule that is now widely copied, too, heh, and only because smart quotes personally annoyed her. I love that.

/ramble

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

Oh, how I would love to see the days of ONE big slash exchange. *sigh* I know it's all kinda impossible now, but still. It's all so... silo-ed now. :/

and heh. yeah, I meant yuleballs was meant to fill that gap. Like CareerFair was meant to fill the gap by hd_inspired, though not directly affiliated. y/n?

LMAO at smart quotes. That's a great legacy. :D

[gmth.livejournal.com]

gmth is definitely a good person to know for HP fandom history; I know I've seen her talk about all this stuff before, although maybe not in her personal journal.

It was on my mod journal, actually: http://mod-diary.livejournal.com/ :-)

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

Woot! Thank you! and hi! Your name popped up like ... several time in poking about in the last few days and I thought, I need this person on my flist. *stalks*

[aliciajd]

According to Kira's website, From Dusk to Dawn the Harry/Snape Fuh-Q-Fest, started on September 9 2002. Kira also used to run The Slash Advent Calendar which had HP stories along with other fandoms even earlier.

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

Oh! a pairing centric one in 2002! Interesting. I remember that Advent Calendar, I think, from other fandoms.

Thanks for that. Goodness, it's amazing how things have changed.