Over the last two years, I have become quite involved in writing material for a fan wiki called fanlore. Wikis are collaborative efforts to produce web pages on a particular project, the most famous example being Wikipedia. Fanlore is a website dedicated to fandoms: communities of fans, their people, clubs and activities. Although there are a number of fan wikis on science fiction or related fandoms on the Internet, Fanlore appears to be very inclusive of fans and fanac across a wide range of fandoms, from Sherlock Holmes to Star Trek, from literary SF to media SF, from clubs and fanzines to conventions, and more.
Why spend time on fandoms? Because human societies have always been associated with communities coming together to network, share common interests, offer mutual assistance, discuss and debate ideas of collective interest, and reinterpret those philosophies in order to maximise their relevance and continuation in changing times. In the past, religions and mythologies offered forms of fandom and opportunities to adopt and adapt those ideas to suit the individual or collective need. Cultural templates involved heroes from Odysseus to Romulus and Remus, from King Arthur or Robin Hood to Ned Kelly. We have seen the evolution of heroic templates and the ideals that fans have seen as laudable: from Jason and his Argonauts to Captain Kirk and his astronauts, our heroes explore strange new scenarios,and thereby allow fans to explore themselves and the ideas that they deem important.
In modern times, copyright and intellectual property rights trump fannish cultural appropriation of fictional heroes, but without cultural and consumer demand, even the best of fictional or heroic franchises will wither and die.
“Readers and authors interact in a shared space of fandom and influence one another’s creative and interpretive work” – Nicolle Lamerichs, 2018 (p. 142)
It seems obvious to me that authors/creators and their fans have a symbiotic relationship that ultimately helps both to survive and succeed. Our folklore may define who we are and what we hold to be important, but our fanlore is the real-life experience of that folklore in action: a living, breathing expression of our culture and our personal/collective identity. Fans and fandoms drive our culture – from football to fan fiction, from sport to Spock, from music to the MCU, and from anime to activism. Documenting our fanlore is a contribution to recording and analysing our cultural life and its interactive nature.
I became involved in the Fanlore wiki because I felt that this was a good opportunity to publish tributes and memorials for deceased fan friends or to document past fan activities. I have subsequently come to see it also as a way of paying tribute for others who are still alive and significant in fandom. In my fifty years of being an SF fan, I have known people who have told me how fandom (including the local Star Trek club) literally saved their lives by giving them extended families, or who introduced them to fellow fen who became spouses or significant others in their own lives. Whole families and fresh generations of fans literally owe their existence to fandom because their parents met in the local Star Trek club or MSFC or wherever. Others have moved from writing fan fiction to becoming professional authors. Still others have explored career options because SF sparked an interest in science, technology, or working with people
In the two years (so far) that I have been involved with fanlore, I have created over fifty pages of material dedicated to individuals or clubs or fanzines, and I have contributed to over 120 other pages that already existed. It is fun and satisfying work. For one example, my page for the Melbourne Science Fiction Club has been selected to run as the “featured article’ on fanlore’s home page for the week from 2 to 8 December 2024, effectively advertising the club to fans around the world. In another example, a young fan told me:
“Hey Geoff, I’m also an Australian fan and recently stumbled across some of the pages you’ve created on here! I wanted to say thank you for your work documenting the history of SF fandom and its people in Melbourne. I really can’t express in words how I feel as a younger fan reading about people and communities I would have otherwise not even known existed, and it makes me so happy to see the care you’ve put into documenting them. Looking through the photos you’ve added in particular has given me a lot of joy, and has felt like I’m getting a bit of a glimpse into fandom back then even if I wasn’t there to experience it. I’ve just started watching Star Trek for the first time, and your contributions have inspired me to learn more about the fandom’s history in Australia — I might try and make it to an Austrek meeting sometime!”
Here is a list of the pages I have created or assisted so far:
Pages Created
2022
Spaced Out (club)
Solar Spectrum
2023
MASC Science Club
User: GeoffA (internal Fanlore admin page for myself)
Adrienne Losin
Helena Binns
Darren Maxwell
Betsi Ashton
Portals of Time
The Other Side of the Galaxy
Paul Murphy
Kate Doolan
Mervyn Binns
The Spiral Staircase (Australian Beauty and the Beast zine)
Greg Franklin
Out A Space
2024
Theresa de Gabriele
John Edwards Davies
Dennis W Nicholson
Male Pair-Bonds and Female Desire in Fan Slash Writing
Wynne Whiteford
Dick Jenssen
Ian Gunn
David McDonnell (AUS)
KRin Pender-Gunn
Space Association of Australia
From Queer to Eternity
Kinkon
Melbourne Science Fiction Club
Gaybase Alpha
Melanie Nemer
Bofcon
The Science Fiction and Fantasy and Horror Fan Resource Book
AURORA (Robert O’Reilly fan club)
Marc D Lewis
U. F. P. Australia (Star Trek RPG Group)
Lee Harding
Ellen Hamlyn-Harris
Concinnity 95
Perdition’s Flames
Julie Townsend
Race Mathews
Leigh Edmonds
Amateur Fantasy Publications of Australia
ANZAPA
Norma Hemming
SF Commentary
Marjorie Miller
Cienan Muir
Afrofuturism
Africanfuturism
Bruce Gillespie
Hope Eyrie
The Space Age
Club News
Melbourne LEGO User Group (MUGs)
Brickvention
Pages Assisted
2022
Geoff Tilley
Geoff Allshorn
Diane Marchant
Trekcon
Spock (zine)
These Are The Voyages (zine)
Trekkie Talk
Captain’s Log Supplamental
Spaced Out (zine)
Austrek
Starrag
The Star Gazer
MASC Newsletter
Interceptor
The Captain’s Log (Australian newsletter}
2023
Shayne McCormack
Fragments (Star Trek: TOS story)
Bob Johnson’s Star Trek Marathons
Life, But Not As We Know It: Star Trek, fan culture, slash fiction and the queering of Starfleet Command
Robert Jan
Gail Adams
Ish
Tuckerized
User:MeeDee
Doctor Who Club of Victoria
Beyond Antares (Australian Star Trek: TOS zine)
Supervoc
The Victorian Time Machine
Currents (UFO zine)
Time-Warped
Gene Roddenberry
Uhura/Chapel
The City on the Edge of the Yarra
Susan Sackett
AIDS and Fandom
Ditmar Award/Fan Winners
Mike McGann
Religion
Karen Lewis
Mary Sue
Worldcon
Ditmar Award
AussieTrek (Australian Star Trek con)
Film Clip Fandom
Galactic Tours Convention
The History of Austrek: How it all began…
Janice Rand
Zine
Star Walking Inc.
The Communicator (Star Trek Australian newsletter)
Diverse Universe
Auzwars Chronicles
Alliance (Star Wars zine published in Australia)
Sue Bursztynski
Multiverse Science Fiction Group
Spunk
The McCoy Tapes
K/S and Other Risque Stuff
Continuum (Australian convention)
Metaluna
H.A.M.I.L.L.S.
Strange Justice
Trek Hillbillies
Multiverse (multifandom zine)
Enterprise: The Star Trek Appreciation Society of Victoria
Susan Smith-Clarke
Betty Franklin
Aliens Made Them Do It
Sex Pollen
Gallifrey (Doctor Who fan club)
2024
Space: 1999
Hatstand
Medtrek (con)
The Garden Spot of Ceti Alpha V
Sarah J. Groenewegen
Star Trek Welcommittee
Slash vs. Gay
Genderswap
SinpOzium
Bjo Trimble
Kirk/Uhura (TOS)
Australian Science Fiction Convention
Katharine Shade
George Ivanoff
Shane Morrissey
Zencon
Star Walking Inc.
Force 2 (convention)
Multiverse (convention)
Ian Crozier
St. Elsewhere
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Edith Keeler
Harlan Ellison
Jeremy Sadler
Blake’s 7
Gilligan’s Island
I Dream of Jeannie
Grace Lee Whitney
Grace Lee Whitney Fan Club
The Invaders (TV)
Sherlock Holmes
Queer Fandom
Bewitched (TV series)
The Persuaders
The Time Tunnel
Land of the Giants
Filk
Space-Time Continuum (Star Trek newsletter)
Aurora
Mark Lenard
Alien (film series)
Margaret
Jan MacNally
Stingray (Supermarionation series)
Trans Characters in Fandom
Star Trek Fotonovels
Fandom Nickname
The Fantastic Journey
Off Centaur Publications
Minus Ten and Counting: Songs of the Space Age (filk songbook)
Star Trek Association of Fans and Friends
Autism and Fandom
Race and Fandom
You Are Receiving this Zine Because
Agatha Christie
T’Pau
Minus Ten and Counting: Songs of the Space Age (filk album)
Probe
Teen Wolf
Talk:Fragments (Star Trek: TOS story)
A Fragment Out of Time
Why do I mention this activity?
I invite others to get involved in contributing to this archive, recording the history of modern 21st centrury culture – and interacting with it, contributing to change. Documenting the people, events, and fan terminology reminds me of anthropologists recording Polari from past LGBT communities, or any of the thousands of endangered other languages and cultures. It’s a big job, but fun.
See also:
Nicolle Lamerichs, 2018. Productive Fandom: Intermediality and Affective Reception in Fan Cultures, Amsterdam University Press
©2024 Geoff Allshorn