Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Fandom Class

Hi all, so I know I've been sort of a lurker in this fandom, occasionally crawling out of my hole to make a comment or ask a question. But I'm currently taking a Fandom class for my writing credit (I'm a college student) and since this is the fandom I've been most drawn to over the past few years, I figured that I'd write about this one. I'm a little nervous because this isn't a very popular fandom among the masses and especially not among my peers in the course. Most people haven't even heard of the show itself so to learn about a whole community of people writing amazing fanfictions and keeping this fandom alive for nearly 25 years. Let's just say that this is very different from the more well known Supernatural, Marvel and Sherlock fandoms that others are writing about.

Basically for this class, I have do do research on the fan community and write my own fanfiction (with feedback/comments from others in the community) to be submitted for a grade. So I just wanted you all to know that you'll be seeing more of me this summer and that any help would be much appreciated!

Welcome to the boards, Eclectic!

Your class sounds fascinating! When you have a question or need help, just ask. I'm open to either responding publicly via a post, or you can PM me.

This group may be small but very welcoming and glad to help another fan. Who knows, maybe your interest will add some of your classmates to discover Lois and Clark.

Ooooh! How fun!

Welcome to the boards! Looking forward to reading your stuff, and also I'm very curious about the assignments you're going to have. I hope you'll share some of the questions and results you find. I'm always available to help out as well when I can. Shoot me a PM or email if you need anything!

Happy writing!

Sounds like a fun class; I wish I could either take it or teach it.

I, too, would be interested in the assignments -- both in participating in your survey(s) and in the finished products. Perhaps we'll see some of your classmates here at some point.

Joy,
Lynn

Ooooh that sounds like an awesome class! I wish I could take it too.

Happy writing! I look forward to seeing what you have to offer the boards.

That sounds like fun!

Hello! Thank you all for the support and offers to help. I will be taking you all up on that offer because I will be needing all the help I can get.

One question I do have right now is about how to post on the boards. If I write a fanfic where should I post it and how?

You will need to post it under Fanfic Forum as long as the rating is under PG-13. If it is for 18 or older post to the N-rated Forum.

There is typically a separate post for comments. The FAQ is here .

No problem! I'm sure there's a thread with way more details than I'm about to give you, quick breakdown. Fanfiction should be posted to the first tab under forums "Lois and Clark fanfic". Once in there, just hit the "new post" button near the top of the page and it'll take you into the screen you use for any sort of post (title/reply box). The only difference is that when you're posting fanfic, you want to be sure and select the blue arrow signifier from the list of icons above the text box, that way your fic stands out from regular threads of fdk. I personally also create my own thread for feedback (FDK) afterwards, but not all authors do.

Can't think of anything else right now, but I'll keep my eyes peeled for your fic!

Val beat me to it, and even provided the link! Follow her instructions first haha.

Thank you guys so much. You'll be seeing my story soon after I finish getting it at least somewhat decent (be warned that it definitely won't be as amazing as all the fanfictions here).

I'm also starting my final paper on this fandom and I was wondering if anyone could give me the history of this fandom or point me in the direction of where I would find it.
Some of the things I'd like to know are when the following for Lois and Clark first started, original website where the fans gathered, first fanfiction written for the fandom, and how the fandom has changed over the years.

Also, I'd like to know from all of your perspectives why you think that this fan community has maintained its steady active following to this day. It's been about 25 years since the show began and reruns of the show don't really air anymore, nor is it easily available on streaming services like Netflix. So what is it that keeps all of you attached to the fandom and fanfictions continuing to be written and posted.

Hi Eclectic,

I happened to see your post just now, and I thought I'd respond. I've been around the fandom since 1998/1999 (when I went to college and finally had an internet connection!). So while I don't think of myself as an "old-timer," I'm probably starting to get there!

As far as I can recall from stories I heard, there was always an online presence for Lois & Clark while it was on ABC, but I can't recall exactly where fans gathered. ABC chatroom? AOL chatroom? Not sure, but I remember that Dean and Teri would interact with fans from time to time via those outlets. You'd have to ask someone who was around when the show was airing - KathyB might know! I'll see if I can get in touch with her.

Anyway, when I joined the fandom, message boards and IRC were the two places FOLCs would gather. There were Zoom's boards (which you can access here) or later, these boards. Zoomway herself has passed away, I believe, but the boards and her other websites (the redboots website is here) are now run by another FoLC - not exactly sure who.

If you are interested in the fanfic side of things (which is mostly why I've always enjoyed this fandom), you can access our archive here. It has a history of the archive which you might be interested in - you can access that here. I've dabbled in other fandoms here and there, just to check out the fic, but honestly, I've always thought the L&C fic was just some of the highest quality out there. I love that our archive as general editors, so no matter what story you choose to read, it will at least be grammatically correct!

In answer to your other questions, I think one of things that kept me coming back to this fandom was the sense of community. In general, I think FoLCs are helpful, generous, and just all-around nice people. We all donate to help Annette keep these boards running. There have been fundraisers over the years to help out FoLCs who had medical issues. There are tributes on the archive and message boards to those FoLCs who have passed away. When I was most active in the fandom, I was in college, and during that time, there was a group of us who were around the same age. We bonded over our love of L&C, but it went beyond that, and many of us met up in real life. There were phone calls and road trips and beach vacations - all of which were so fun! Some of us still keep in touch to this day (now we are in our late 30s, with jobs and families and all sorts of craziness of life, but we stay connected on facebook or twitter). Anyway, there were - and are! - just some terrific, talented, smart, fun people around FoLCdom!

In answer to your last question, I love that the fandom has kept going - but honestly, I don't really know why, especially because the show is not very easily accessible beyond purchasing the DVDs. I don't know how people are still discovering the series, but I love that they are! I think the show itself represented a simpler time; it has an innocence about it that is still charming, 25 years later. I still love Dean and Teri's portrayal of Clark Kent and Lois Lane. It never gets old to me to watch those two characters fall in love. Superman was always quite secondary (to me, anyway) - the show was really about that relationship. There is drama, but in the end, the good guy always wins, and that theme that love conquers all is really so universal and timeless.

Hope that helps you! Thanks for giving me a chance to walk down memory lane

Tracey

Hi Electic. What a neat class you're taking. (And how old I feel that my younger years are now being taught in a class. ;)) Though I was a founding member of these forums and of the Fanfic Archive, I'm mostly a lurker these days, so thanks to Tracey for messaging me to see what I could add to her response. She gave you a bunch of great links to get you started. Obviously, with 25 years of history, relating the entire history would take as long as your entire paper, LOL, but I'll try to answer the questions you asked above.

The fanfic archive history link that Tracey linked above is a great place to start when it comes to the history of L&C fanfic. Ironically, as I was reading it again, I thought, "This is quite accurate; I wonder who wrote it?" Only to get to the bottom and see my own name. (In my defense, it was dated 15 years ago, LOL.)

I got online in early October 1995, right before the 3rd season episode "Contact" (3x03) aired on ABC. We'd had a computer at home for years, but never felt the need to get the internet at home (it was pretty new at that point!) until I was partway through my maternity leave with my oldest child and my office asked me to come back early by working from home. My husband was teaching me how a browser worked and suggested, "Now just search for something ... how about that TV show you like, "Lois and Clark." He had no idea that he was opening Pandora's Box, LOL.

At that point, the fandom had been going on for about a year or so. Very much our salad days, but also the salad days of online fandom in general. There had been 'zines (printed fanfic that was mailed to subscribers) but the internet added that "instant gratification" factor that was lacking before.

There were several ways of communicating back then: A "listserv" where fans could discuss the episodes via email; an IRC channel, which was most active on the nights the episodes aired (Sundays) but usually had at least a few people in it most of the time (many, MANY good friendships developed that way! As Tracey mentions above, I'm still in contact with a number of people I met through FoLCdom, all these years later); an AOL chat room (I didn't have AOL, so I didn't hang out there), and various Usenet groups (IIRC, they were more comics related, but branched into L&C a bit.)

Another very early information resource was "The Kryptonian Cybernet", which was an online magazine about Superman in general, which included a section on L&C when the show began airing. The earliest issues I have on my hard drive (.txt files!) date to mid-1994. (The last one I have is Nov 1997; not sure if they ended it then, or I just stopped following it after the show went off the air. I was most deeply invested in the fanfic by that point, and had started running the Fanfic Archive website, so that could have been a factor, too.)

This particular message board -- dedicated to fanfic about the show -- was created in the Spring of 2003. Before that were Zoomway's boards, which Tracey linked to above. I can't remember exactly when the ZMB got started, but it was likely the late 90's, as web-interface was evolving past the idea of Listservs into real-time discussion forums. These fanfic message boards were created as a result of a conflict within the fandom, sad to say ... there were some personality conflicts and differences of opinion on what kind of fanfic people wanted to be exposed to (the flashpoint, as I recall, was "real person fanfic", which had stories about Dean & Teri personally, vs the characters of Lois & Clark) and unfortunately things turned pretty ugly, with good friendships being ruined. But the bottom line was that Zoom rightfully got to make the rules on her own boards, so a group of fanfic writers decided to leave and start their own forum (this one) with different rules. At the time, it was all-consuming and extremely painful, though looking back after all these years, in the grand scheme of fandom wank, it was relatively tame.

OK, that's what I have time for this evening. I hope that it's helpful. If you get to the point where you have more specific questions, please ask, and I'll see what I can do. (Or others can do, since I'm not the only old-timer who lurks here, I'm sure. :))

Kathy

I'm sure we all look forward to seeing your story posted! And everyone here is super nice, so don't worry about how it will be received.

I'm fairly new here myself, but I think I have much the same reason for being here as the others, no matter how long it's been, and that's the relationship between Lois and Clark. There's just something so fundamentally right about it. Their partnership, friendship, romantic relationship. Watching it develop and grow and mature. Watching them screw it up and then figure it out. It gives me hope that maybe there can be things like that in real life, and that kind of hope never gets old, and we never get too old for it. Unfortunately that kind of hope isn't very popular these days. It's chic to be jaded and cynical and to attack everything that makes life worth living, and I think that makes the Superman fandom in general and the L&C fandom specifically much smaller than you would think given his fame. It also causes those who still appreciate that hope to draw together and enjoy a place away from all the cynicism that saturates the world. I think that's why we have lasted so long...

If you can post a copy of the paper here also.