This is completely aside from the gender issues involved, which are driving me fucking nuts.

Any interest in summing up, for those avoiding like the plague for fear of aneurysm and in favor of reading fic instead?

So is there a big hidden cadre of males in fandom? I mean, I know guys are fans (and hugely fervent ones), but because of where I hang out, it's mostly women I see dissecting on both meta and show/book levels, not to mention ficcing and vidding and the like.

Where are the guys who are doing this? I want to see.

Also, are there other activities (like cosplay, maybe) that compose the typical male fandom task list?

I devoutly hope cosplay has nothing to do with figgy pudding.

Maybe their business model is based on an impression of an underserved community. I mean, I know nothing, but I could easily see that being something that could get funding.

I think it's a school rule.

Pfft. Whaddare they gonna do?

Aww, look at the handsome young hound from yesterday's Daily Puppy.

(I signed up for the Daily Puppy weeks and weeks ago and apparently, they just started sending me notifications this weekend. Weird, no?)

icarusancalion put together a summary of the FanLib situation here: [link]

In other news, I made a mom go ballistic at the pharmacy by saying "calm down, kid" to her precious angel as he was running, yelling inarticulately, and swatting at objects on shelves above his head. Apparently it's a faux-pass to try head off tantrums that 6 or 7 year-olds are throwing while their mothers blithely ignore them from across the room. Who knew?

Any interest in summing up, for those avoiding like the plague for fear of aneurysm and in favor of reading fic instead?

Hold on, let me dial my sarcasm level down to around three or four instead of eleven...

Looking at the FanLib FAQ and "About Us" ("Our mission is to bring fan fiction out of the shadows and into the limelight.") gives me the impression that the FanLib creators believe that fandom has been unable to figure out how to either legitimize or commercialize fan fiction.

Historically, fic writers have been female. It's certainly true of the initial wave of fanfic, dating from the Trek era. My segment of fandom, still overwhelmingly female. Slash writers, overwhelmingly female.

The FanLib board of directors? All male, and none of them have any established cred in the fan fiction world that I'm aware of.

So the whole thing reads to me like a group of rich white guys who secured $3 million in venture capital so they could swoop in on an unexploited source of revenue and profit off of (mostly) female fans' work.

icarusancalion put together a summary of the FanLib situation here

That's a good summary. That does seem ill-considered. If you can't answer the basic "why would anyone use this product" then good grief.

Aha, found the press release that really ticked me off:

The launch of FanLib.com represents the coming of age of fan fiction, or "fanfic."

[link]