I Don't Get Fanlistings
I don’t get fanlistings. You gather together a bunch of people who like the same thing and list their names, websites, emails, country of origin, etc., on a single page and call it a website. There’s no content, nothing to offer them aside from the promise of a few hits if they have a website. Well, that is if the fanlisting is small and gets a fair amount of hits from the main site, or if they’re up near the top of the page on a very popular fanlisting. Aside from that all you get are the bragging rights to being a member of a fanlisting. The point, please?
I get that if you’re a fan of something you’ll want to get together with like-minded people and talk about what you’re a fan of. That’s perfectly fine, nothing wrong with that, but fanlistings go about it in such a useless way that it’s mind-boggling that they’re still around. No forum, no gossip, no resources, nothing at all to entice a repeat visit. Just a list of fans who may or may not have a website. The only attractive thing about fanlistings is that if it’s popular enough and you’re near the top then you’ll probably receive a few clicks. I would imagine that’s rare, though, since fanlistings. have. nothing. to. look. at. There’s no common theme in the websites listed, one may be devoted to anime the other to web design, a listing of similar websites would be far more attractive than a fanlisting of completely random people who only joined because they’re a fan of something.
I can’t really think of any reason to open a fanlisting, I’ve owned one or two before and I still can’t justify it. So why are they so popular? Perhaps it’s so that you can proudly proclaim on your website “this is the official, TFL approved, fanlisting for Care Bears!" A sort of smug “haha, I got there before you and I am Queen (or King) of the internets. Haha!” Some victory you got there. Or maybe it’s to increase your network of sites, without any of the work associated with coming up with an idea and transforming it into a site. You don’t have to come up with a unique layout, just use the same one and change the colours a bit, you don’t have to write any content, the most work you’re going to do is install the script and then once you’ve been approved (or if you’re a rebel and don’t bother going that route) you’re good to go. Easiest thing in the world to do.
So, do you know why fanlistings are still so popular?
I think fanlistings are more about the fans than the listings themselves. If you’re a member of a fanlisting, you can proudly display a little “button” on your site to symbolise that. I think mainly they’re just a bit of harmless fun. They’re not dangerous, they’re not harmful, and there are far worse things you could spend your time on. :)
I never got the hype. I’d much rather go to a fansite and become a member there and browse the content than have my name listed somewhere. I think I’m a member of two listings — Jem’s and the Neonglow MB (it’s all about loyalty :D). Works just fine for me. If I wanted to proclaim I’m a fan of something, I’ll just list it on my website or make separate little fansites for it.
The first thing that popped into my head was the PR business of it all, but I can’t imagine that many fanlisting owners create one, well, for that. It’s also rare for a fanlisting to contain something MORE than “join, buttons, members”. It’d have more use if it had some content to pad it out. _
I’m not sure what the whole buzz of fanlistings, at the moment, is though. I find them very 2003. :P
I’ve joined some fanlistings before, and even tried to start a “collective”, but it really was just a big waste of time. Sometimes the buttons aren’t even that great looking. So I really don’t get it either. Now sometimes I’ll just join and that’ll be it. No putting a “code” on my site or anything. I’m confused about why they call the buttons “codes”.
Becky: You seem to be missing the point here, there is nothing to have fun with. You join, put the code on your site and that’s it. It takes all of, what, 1 minute to do. Fun, fun, fun!
You seem to be missing the point to… Things are only fun if you make them fun. No one’s forcing you to join fanlistings, you just do it because you want to… because it’s fun! If it’s not fun, then don’t do it. It doesn’t really matter either way. But with all the fanlistings and all the members out there… there has to be fun in it somewhere. :)
I used to be a part of a fanlisting that had a little chat area which was nice, and a bunch of links to other places where you could interact with fans. Also, some of the FLs for the more well-known actors are owned by fan sites, and therefore have integrated interaction features. Other than those exceptions, I essentially agree with you. There really is no point, except it’s maybe slightly more interesting to have a page of little buttons displaying your favourite things than a list.
I didn’t open one exactly, but rather taken over an existing one. As you could see(jem.lianko.com) I didn’t exactly kill myself thinking about the layout ( I couldn’t be bothered to make link hovers either). But considering that I own the Jem fanlisting it’s fairly popular.
When I used to join FLs like mad, I did it mainly for the buttons XP, yeah I know it’s stupid. But then I had this “badge” (e-badge?) thing to show off… and I found it super cool at the time.
But to be fair, I don’t think I’ll ever open (take over) another FL. Jem is a special case, because she helped me out tremendously a while ago.
When I was gungho about owning fanlistings, I did so for three reasons:
1) To improve my own coding/layout skillz0rz. In those days, if all my layouts had been made for my site, I would have had a new layout every week…having fanlistings allowed me to use these experimental layouts/code for them, rather than subjecting my blog visitors to new layouts every week.
2) To be part of a community. The TFL Board was and is very active. People there could help with coding matters and the like, but largely speaking, it was a board where you could talk about anything and everything. Owning fanlistings was a way to get a pass into entering such an active and closeknit community.
3) To discover new sites/blogs. I’ve discovered some real gems of a blog simply by flipping through the members list of fanlistings I’ve joined. The same is true even today – I still own four fanlistings, and I still visit the site of every single person who joins them. It’s a nice way of broadening one’s e-social horizons, instead of limiting yourself to only the blogs of people you associate with. :)
But of course, when it comes down to it, you have to ask, what’s the fun/point in doing ANYTHING on the Internet? What’s the point of the Qbee? What’s the point of even owning a blog? What’s the point of writing entries on Internet Police? In fact, what’s the point of doing ANYTHING offline either?
People have different interpretations of what fun is, of what “useful” is – and for me, fanlistings used to fit both the meanings of fun and useful because of the aforementioned reasons. :)
Come to think of it, nor do I! I used to join them, but then I got bored because they never meant anything and just took up tons of space on my site.
Fan FORUMS I can see the point in, if you’re actually communicating with fellow fans, but not a listing, where you just end up with a little button. o.O
I go with that ping back thing. I think I have a diminishing following on Twitter too.
#18 Kudzu Fire Jun 15, 05:01 Permalink
Comments are closed on this post (and most other older posts). If you'd still like to discuss this then please feel free to drop me a line using the contact form below.
Hi I'm Becky, often referred to as The Knitting Hillbilly and Pussybear, owner of this site and general nuisance. I'm a knitter, serial complainer, known whistle blower and I run the ever popular
Backlinks. Some fanlistings have a PR3 or 4. Join 200 fanlistings with that PR, you’ve got 200 PR3/4 backlinks to your site. Own a few fanlistings, lots of people link to it, that increases the PR for the fanlistings which is then passed back to the members. It’s all a big PR circle.
Or that’s my main reason anyway :P
#1 Jem Jun 13, 09:13 Permalink