(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

[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