Who are they?
It’s all in the name, fanlore is an extensive lore of derivative works made by fans, an encyclopedia of fan works! Fanfiction, Fanart, Filks you name it! Fanlore is a wiki which operates under the Organization for Transformative Works.
What do they do?
Art History is considered a core discipline in the Humanities. Fanlore takes itself very seriously in that they try to cover what is a very much neglected portion of the History of Modern Art.
Fanlore doesn’t only document online/offline fan works, but also critically analyses these. They build timelines, codify tropes and research bibliographic information on authors or artists who might have been deemed “lacking in notoriety” for an actual encyclopedia.
How do they do it?
Most of this activity takes place on a MediaWiki, namely Fanlore Wiki. They currently sport a whopping 52,017 articles, 940,737 edits.
How do I sign up?
Though fanlore is technically a project under the umbrella of the OTW, OTW membership or a similar position is not necessary to join, anyone who’s willing to edit a wiki is a potential member.
So what are you waiting for? Become a lore keeper today!
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