Fan fiction scam?

[emmagrant01]

Anybody know anything about this? You have to take a survey to see what they have there, which I despise doing. They make it look like they're some sort of archive, but I find the whole thing a little suspicious.

http://fanfictionlibrary.org/

ETA: It's definitely a scam. darththalia took one for the team to find out. Wow, links to all sorts of sites where the fanfic is already free. Idiots.

Comments

[the-viper-room.livejournal.com]

Um, aren't all archives, comms, lists, etc., free sources of fanfiction? I suppose calling yourself a 'library' makes you special. Or something.

I'm too lazy to bother with the survey. What happens when you finally get in? Is the HTML paved with gold?

[helens78]

I'm with you. Too lazy to bother -- especially when most sources of fanfic don't make you jump through that hoop. I don't think they're going to get very far. (Although part of me is curious what they've got, because if they have stuff they don't have permission to archive, that's seriously uncool.)

[sulky-rhino.livejournal.com]

Aww, I can't access it! Apparently the "offer is not available in my area". That's not very fair. *is curious what's in there* :/

And it's not exactly "free" either if you have to give them something for it. Other archives don't make you fill out surveys in order to be allowed read. Bleh. :P

[batagur.livejournal.com]

That front page reminds me of the "hook" page for accessing porn sites. If it is a "free" library, you should just be able to come on in. These people want something, and that does feel suspicious.

[thalia]

Well, I took one for the team and attempted to get into the hypothetical archive. It dumps you into pages and pages of marketing offers. I ended up being forced to apply for a Discover Card, but there never was a "last page" of the survey. I think it's a scam.

Ha!

[thalia]

When you get in, this is what shows up:

---------------

Thanks for joining our site!

To get your Free Fan Fiction, just follow the links below. We have located the very best databases and resources for you here. Good luck!

FanFiction.Net Archive and forum where fanfic authors around the globe can chat and share their writing secrets.
www.fanfiction.net/

Harry Potter Fan Fiction - Stories by fans about the bestselling characters.
http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/

Slayer Fan Fiction - Wonderful fan fiction here!
http://www.slayerfanfic.com/

The Force Fan Fiction - Star Wars based fan fiction.
http://www.theforce.net/fanfiction/

Forever Knight Fan Fiction - We love this site.
www.fkfanfic.com/

Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction Archive Collection of regular, crossover and lemon (adult) fan fiction, as well as a voting booth, and mailing list.
www.tmffa.com/

Michael Biehn Fan Fiction Features fiction and other works by fans about characters played by actor Michael Biehn. Includes an email list, writer's resources, and more.
www.michaelbiehn.net/

Brenda Antrim's Fan Fiction Archive Multi-fandom fan fiction of science fiction and fantasy shows. All stories individually rated.
www.bantrim.net/

Fan Fiction FAQ From Chilling Effects Clearinghouse.
www.chillingeffects.org/fanfic/faq.cgi

Dark Angel Fan Fiction Archive (DAFF)
www.darkangelfic.org/



Heliopolis: The Stargate SG-1 Fan Fiction Archive
www.sg1-heliopolis.com/

Fan Fiction Links Index Directory listing all types of fan fiction.
www.fanfictionlinks.com/

Fiction Alley - Some very nice fan fiction here.
www.fictionalley.org/

CFAN: The Comic Fan-Fiction Authors Network
www.subreality.com/cfan.htm

Seventh Dimension Highlander Fan Fiction Archive Sorted by author, title, and character.
www.seventh-dimension.org/

Portkey.org: Harry Potter Fan Fiction Harry Potter fan fiction, artwork, and more for the relationships of Harry/Hermione, Lily/James, Draco/Ginny, and Ron/Luna.
www.portkey.org/

Fan Fic Net - You will find some wonderful fan fiction here.
http://www.fanfic.net/

Star Wars Fan Fiction Archive - TheForce.Net Large collection of Star Wars fan fiction set in the Star Wars universe.
fanfic.theforce.net/

Godawful Fan Fiction Guide to the absolute worst fan fiction on the Web.
www.godawful.net/

MuggleNet Fan Fiction Online collection of Harry Potter stories written by fans.
fanfiction.mugglenet.com/

The Ultimate Xena Fan Fiction Directory Offering detailed listings of Xena fan fiction, alternative fiction, uber fiction, and poetry.
www.xenafanfiction.com/

SWAT Kats Fan Fiction
www.geocities.com/SoHo/8850/fanfic.htm

Slash Fan Fiction Ring Webring is for any site that contains fan fiction of a slashy nature.
www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/3040/slash.html

Star Trek Fan Fiction Collection of stories based on the original and subsequent series, plus crossover fiction.
www.trekfanfiction.net/

Want more Free Fan Fiction? Try these great search engines:

Google.com

Yahoo.com

Ask.com

MSN.com

--------------

I can't believe Brenda Antrim's is listed. That should shock a few people.

Re: Ha!

[sulky-rhino.livejournal.com]

:O So it's basically just a list of links to fanfic archives. Meh. :D

Re: Ha!

[ktoth04.livejournal.com]

wow

Re: Ha!

[shezan.livejournal.com]

ICON LUV!!!!!!!!!

Re: Ha!

[ktoth04.livejournal.com]

:D

Re: Ha!

[remey.livejournal.com]

OMG.ICON. HOW?

Re: Ha!

[ktoth04.livejournal.com]

idk... one of my friends stole it from somewhere... and it seemed a shame not to use it

Re: Ha!

[remey.livejournal.com]

awesome though.

Re: Ha!

[shezan.livejournal.com]

I confess to being curious about the "worst fanfiction" archive...

Relmnd me who Brenda Antrim is

Re: Ha!

[thalia]

Brenda Antrim has written in a bunch of fandoms; she's famous for writing *very* smutty, NC-17 stories. She wrote as "Seeker" in HP, if that helps.

Re: Ha!

[twigged.livejournal.com]

There's using fanfic to pimp credit card offers now? I guess we really have gone mainstream.

Re: Ha!

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Wow, seriously? You really did take one for the team, Thalia!

A list of links, geez. What a scam!

Re: Ha!

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

FictionAlley did not authorize use of our name or any other inclusion of a link to our site in this.

I know I've been slammed for lawyering on fanfic matters, but tomorrow, these gits will be getting a cease & desist letter from FA and if they don't stop misrepresenting FA as an element of their machinations, we'll sue.

darththalia, do you have any screencaps or a cache of anything from the site? If you do, would you mind emailing it to me?

Re: Ha!

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Go Heidi! *shakes fandom pompoms*

Re: Ha!

[thalia]

No, sorry, and I'm not going to go back to it and get anything. You're welcome to wade through it yourself--I gave them a totally made up e-mail address, and it worked.

Re: Ha!

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Good to know! Will do, and thanks for your amazing info-gathering skills!

Re: Ha!

[brenantrim.livejournal.com]

Shocks me. A little. Then I looked at the links, and it looks like they just grabbed a listing from Open Directory, knocked off a few links, and are trying to charge for it. The funny thing is that site hasn't had any fanfic on it for months -- I changed over to the pen name glacis and moved everything to castleskeep.net last year. So anyone following it hoping for juicy smut will find... pictures of my cats and memorials to my Mom. Not exactly what they think they're getting (and all the images come from my camera, so it's not like the lawyers will care). Thank you, Elke, for showing me this -- I'll have to keep an eye on my stats looking for disappointed people. (snerf!)

Re: Ha!

[thalia]

That's even funnier, that their links aren't even up to date. What a scam. Your cats are adorable, though.

Re: Ha!

[brenantrim.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I admit to prejudice, but I think they're the cutest cats ever. :} Also, I sent an email to the admin at the "fanfic library" site to tell them to take my link down... and scolded them about courtesy and asking permission. I don't know if it helps that I laughed at them, but it felt good.

Re: Ha!

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Would you mind letting us know when you hear back from them? I'm curious. :-)

By the way, this was a sponsored link that appeared on my gmail page.

Re: Ha!

[brenantrim.livejournal.com]

Will do -- an automated "we care about our customers - will reply in 24 hours" blurb came back. It'll be interesting to see what that reply will entail!

Re: Ha!

[brenantrim.livejournal.com]

Apparently they don't like being laughed at. The full text of their reply:

Removed. Thank you.

Best regards,
admin@FanFictionLibrary.org
WebWorks

(snickering)

Re: Ha!

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

They actually said "(snickering)"?

Re: Ha!

[brenantrim.livejournal.com]

Nah, that was my editorial comment on their lack of comment.

Re: Ha!

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

LOL, oops. I should've gotten that. ;-)

[jedirita.livejournal.com]

That's...very weird. A marketing scam, yet an incredibly stupid one.

[furiosity.livejournal.com]

I whoised the domain and it's registered to WebWorks in New York, which appears to be a legit design/dev company; the nameservers, however, point to billionweb.net (which, as its own domain, is a placeholder). I am somehow positive that that "billion" doesn't refer to the words contained in all the fic they purport to host.

[remey.livejournal.com]

that looks exactly like a website i stumbled upon when i was looking for Fonts....
same exact layout, only replace fanfiction with fonts and there ya go.

[worn-words.livejournal.com]

that looks severely sketchy.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

I have a European IP and I don't even get access, as they tell me the offer (which I couldn't care less about) is not for my region!!!

[qurinas.livejournal.com]

I went to the site and before I even started the survey my spam program said that they received an average of 81 emails a week from the site when they had put their email in.

So, seems like it's just a way to give your email to spammers.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

And apply for a credit card you don't need. ;-)

Say... I wonder if I could get a credit card under my fandom name?

[qurinas.livejournal.com]

Dude! That would rule!

Especially if it was one where you got to pick a picture to be on the front. You could find the smuttiest H/D fanart you could and put that one there!

Oh the looks you would get at cons!

No, that is a true BNF! A credit card in your fannish name! Oh the squee when you paid for your con lunch on your H/D Mastercard!

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's all the wine I've drunk tonight, but my god that is sounding like a great idea! :-D

[godlikepiro.livejournal.com]

The uh.."free laptop" computer thing made me convinced it's a scam. Plus if you put like.."humping rhinos" in instead of "fan fiction" it could still work as an advertising gimmick. Like the mad libs of spamming.

[vichan.livejournal.com]

This part is f-ing hilarious, taken off the 100% FREE link on the front page:

JOIN OUR SITE TODAY FOR FREE! Our Members' Area contains links to Fan Fiction databases and resources that have have many of the same Fan Fiction works that you'll find on the other Fan Fiction sites, but instead of paying $19.99, $29.99, or $39.99+ to join our site, you can join our site 100% free and get unlimited access to our Members' Area containing the very best in Fan Fiction resources and databases. In our Members' Area we list links to sites where you can get Fan Fiction for free as well as fee-based Fan Fiction sources and sites. How can we afford to do this? Simple, we are sponsored by a major advertiser!

At what fanfiction site do you pay $20-40 to access? The most hassle I've ever had to go through was a simple age statement e-mail to the owner. O_O

I'm REAL tempted to e-mail them and just say 'you bunch of morons.'

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. That just shows how little they know about fanfic, doesn't it?

[painless-j.livejournal.com]

Looks like an incredibly stupid thing. And I mean, INCREDIBLY. :)