Ficlets

Last updated

Ficlets
FicletsLogo.png
FicletsScreenshot.png
Screenshot of Ficlets.com as of
15 December 2008
Type of site
 Flash fiction literature website
Dissolved 15 January 2009 (2009-01-15)
Owner AOL
Created byKevin Lawver
URL ficlets.com OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
CommercialNo
RegistrationOptional
Launched31 October 2006 (2006-10-31) [1]
Current statusOffline

Ficlets was a non-commercial AOL community website dedicated to publishing and archiving ficlets, which are similar to flash fiction. It was founded on 31 October 2006 by Kevin Lawver, although it did not become fully operational until early to mid-March 2007. [1] [2] [3] On 6 June 2008, Lawver severed his employment from AOL and, in turn, departed as system administrator for Ficlets. [4] No new administrator was announced to replace Lawver, leaving the respective duties for the site unmaintained. [5]

Contents

On 2 December 2008, it was announced on the People Connection Blog that Ficlets would permanently be closed, as of 15 January 2009. [6] On 6 December 2008, a banner was placed at the header of Ficlets pages that announced the closure of the site and a pop-up window was added to the main page that read "Ficlets is going away soon :(". [5] Lawver attempted to save the site to no avail, so he began a "Ficlets Graveyard" to archive all the ficlets written prior to the closing of the site. [7] [8]

Lawver announced on 10 January 2009 that, with the help of Ficlets.com programmer Jason Garber and design team Viget Labs, a replacement site entitled Ficly.com would be launched. At the time of the announcement, the Ficly front page consisted of a logo (subtitling the format "A better, shorter story"), a statement of not being active yet, and a form to sign up an e-mail address for notification of the official launch. Lawver stated that the Ficly.com team is "slowly making progress" in constructing the site, referencing the possible launch date as "maybe by ficlets' 2nd birthday at the beginning of March". [9] [10]

All content on ficlets.com was licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 license and viewable to any patron of the site. Users who completed the free registration process could submit their own ficlets (either completely original, inspired by a Creative Commons-licensed Flickr image, or as a prequel or sequel to another's ficlet), host a draft of a ficlet in progress which was not viewable by others, maintain a user profile, comment on and rate other's stories, contact other users via private messages, and maintain a list of favorite ficlet authors and stories. There was also a Ficlets blog wherein Lawver and science fiction author John Scalzi posted entries in an assortment of categories, including Book Tour Diaries, a Ficlets Spotlight, and interviews with published authors. [2] For registration, the site accepted OpenID and AOL/AIM screen names. [11]

Creation

The site was created in late 2006 by AOL system architect and lead developer Kevin Lawver, who handled the back end website programming, as a repository for ficlets. The concept for the site originated with Lawver being a "frustrated writer", unable to find the time to complete a fictional work; as an alternative, he conceived ficlets – a format that allowed a work to be written in "five or ten minutes at work during lunch or [during] a break" and the site was to provide "inspiration" via "pictures, phrases or other stories" as well as circumventing, through the prequel or sequel option, having "to start from scratch when I had time to write". [2] [12] [13] The name of the site and fiction form were derived from a unison of words: fiction and chiclets, specifically the "lets" part of the later meant to indicate "a small version of". [14]

An additional four-person AOL developer team provided time and effort in the creation of the website: [12]

Science fiction author John Scalzi was a principal contributor to the site from its launch as a blogger, though he departed that position at the end of 2007. [16] [17]

Content

The site hosted "ficlets", not strictly linear very short stories between 64- and 1,024-bytes in length. Ficlets are modular in that each is intended, but not required, to be a stand-alone story but once posted any registered user could continue the narrative thread by writing an indefinite number of prequels or sequels to the ficlet. All ficlets are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 License. [2] [18] [19] [20]

Mature Content was allowed within ficlet stories, but explicit pornography, obscenity and "hate speech" were banned. Ficlet stories with mature content were required to be designated as such, thus allowing only registered users who opted to view mature content the ability to read the stories. The use of the intellectual property of others, such as fan fiction allow, was likewise banned from Ficlets. The use of real people was also forbidden in ficlet stories, unless they were public figures, although slanderous or libelous remarks directed at those public figures were prohibited. [21]

As of 4 January 2009, the site hosted almost 49,000 ficlet stories, over 80,000 comments on those stories, and had in excess of 10,000 registered members. [5] [22]

Notable contributors

Several published authors, aside from blog contributor and science fiction author John Scalzi, participated on the site with original content. These included:

Awards

In 2008, Ficlets was a Gold Award Winner in the category of Social/Networking from W3 Awards. [28]

In March 2008, Ficlets won the CSS category and was nominated for the Community category of the SxSW Web Awards. [29] [30]

Critical reception

Within the site's first week of operation it had received nearly 400 blog posts regarding it, including a solicitation for new users from Boing Boing. [15] Mike Linksvayer of Creative Commons was particularly "excited" with the creation and usage of the site. [12] On 6 and 9 February 2008, the CBC Radio show Spark ran a profile on Ficlets, including an interview with Kevin Lawver and the reading of two ficlets from the site. [31] [32]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AOL</span> American web portal and online service provider

AOL is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AIM (software)</span> Instant messaging service

AIM was an instant messaging and presence computer program created by AOL, which used the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cory Doctorow</span> Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author

Cory Efram Doctorow is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, using some of their licences for his books. Some common themes of his work include digital rights management, file sharing, and post-scarcity economics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MapQuest</span> American free Internet mapping service (founded 1996)

MapQuest is an American free online web mapping service. It was launched in 1996 as the first commercial web mapping service. MapQuest vies for market share with competitors such as Google Maps and Here.

Boing Boing is a website, first established as a zine in 1988, later becoming a group blog. Common topics and themes include technology, futurism, science fiction, gadgets, intellectual property, Disney, and left-wing politics. It twice won the Bloggies for Weblog of the Year, in 2004 and 2005. The editors are Mark Frauenfelder, David Pescovitz, Carla Sinclair, and Rob Beschizza, and the publisher is Jason Weisberger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Scalzi</span> American science fiction writer

John Michael Scalzi II is an American science fiction author and former president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He is best known for his Old Man's War series, three novels of which have been nominated for the Hugo Award, and for his blog Whatever, where he has written on a number of topics since 1998. He won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 2008 based predominantly on that blog, which he has also used for several charity drives. His novel Redshirts won the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel. He has written non-fiction books and columns on diverse topics such as finance, video games, films, astronomy, writing and politics, and served as a creative consultant for the TV series Stargate Universe.

Weblogs, Inc. was a blog network that published content on a variety of subjects, including tech news, video games, automobiles and pop culture. At one point, the network had as many as 90 blogs, although the vast majority of its traffic could be attributed to a smaller number of breakout titles, as was typical of most large-scale successful blog networks of the mid-2000s. Popular blogs included: Engadget, Autoblog, TUAW, Joystiq, Luxist, Slashfood, Cinematical, TV Squad, Download Squad, Blogging Baby, Gadling, AdJab, and Blogging Stocks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim C. Hines</span> American novelist

Jim C. Hines is an American fantasy and science fiction writer.

In 2006, the internet company AOL released a large excerpt from its Web search query logs to the public. AOL did not identify users in the report, but personally identifiable information was present in many of the queries. This allowed some users to be identified by their search queries. Although AOL took down the file within a few days, it had already been widely copied and still remains available.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fark</span> Website launched 1999

Fark is a community website created by Drew Curtis that allows members to comment on a daily batch of news articles and other items from various websites. The site receives many story submissions per day and approximately 100 of them are publicly displayed on the site, spread out over the main page as well as topical tabs that are organized as entertainment, sports, geek, politics and business). Curtis says the stories are selected without intentional political bias, but that he tries to run both far-left and far-right articles.

<i>StarShipSofa</i> UK science fiction podcast

StarShipSofa is a science fiction audio magazine and podcast from the United Kingdom hosted by Tony C. Smith. It publishes audio short fiction, commentary, essays, and anthologies of transcribed material. StarShipSofa was the first ever podcast to be both nominated for and to win a Hugo Award for Best Fanzine. It was also nominated for Best Fan Podcast in the 2007 Parsec Awards. StarShipSofa is free directly from the web site and is available for subscription and automatic download through iTunes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digg</span> Social media/news aggregator website

Digg, stylized in lowercase as digg, is an American news aggregator with a curated front page, aiming to select stories specifically for the Internet audience such as science, trending political issues, and viral Internet issues. It was launched in its current form on July 31, 2012, with support for sharing content to other social platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

Ray Gun Revival (RGR) was a webzine of space opera and golden age science fiction. The first issue was published in July 2006. Founded by Johne Cook, L. S. King, and Paul Christian Glenn, who call themselves "Overlords", RGR was inspired in part by the Deep Magic PDF e-zine. Some of the same contributors who worked with Deep Magic now work with RGR. It features short stories and serials, and is known for its lavish, science-fiction-themed cover art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bebo</span> American social networking website

Bebo was an American social networking website that originally operated from 2005 until its bankruptcy in 2013 and relaunched in February 2021. The site relaunched several times after its bankruptcy with a number of short-lived offerings, including instant messaging and video streaming, until its acquisition by Amazon in July 2019 when it was shut down. It was announced in January 2021 that it would be returning as a new social media site the month after. By May 2022, it had been once again shutdown, without having ever left beta testing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fan fiction</span> Type of fiction created by fans of the original subject

Fan fiction or fanfiction is fictional writing written in an amateur capacity by fans, unauthorized by, but based on an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted characters, settings, or other intellectual properties from the original creator(s) as a basis for their writing. Fan fiction ranges from a couple of sentences to an entire novel, and fans can retain the creator's characters and settings and/or add their own. It is a form of fan labor. Fan fiction can be based on any fictional subject. Common bases for fan fiction include novels, movies, musical groups, cartoons, anime, manga, and video games.

Rachel Swirsky is an American literary, speculative fiction and fantasy writer, poet, and editor living in Oregon. She was the founding editor of the PodCastle podcast and served as editor from 2008 to 2010. She served as vice president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2013.

Popehat is a law-oriented blog. According to its tagline, Popehat is a "group complaint about law, liberty, and leisure". Its primary blogger, American attorney Ken White, writes about law, scams, and freedom of expression on the Internet. A Twitter account under the same name was later established, and has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers.

Twitterature is a literary use of the microblogging service of Twitter. It includes various genres, including aphorisms, poetry, and fiction written by individuals or collaboratively. The 280-character maximum imposed by the medium, upgraded from 140 characters in late 2017, provides a creative challenge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archive of Our Own</span> Nonprofit repository for fanfiction

Archive of Our Own is a nonprofit open source repository for fanfiction and other fanworks contributed by users. The site was created in 2008 by the Organization for Transformative Works and went into open beta in 2009. As of 28 November 2022, Archive of Our Own hosts 10,220,000 works in over 54,020 fandoms. The site has received positive reception for its curation, organization and design, mostly done by readers and writers of fanfiction.

<i>Half-Life: Full Life Consequences</i> 4-episode Machinima series

Half-Life: Full Life Consequences is a 4-episode Machinima series animated within the video game Garry's Mod and published on the video sharing website YouTube. Based on a fan fiction work of the same name, the series follows the exploits of the character "John Freeman", the unknown brother of Gordon Freeman from the Half-Life video game series. The first episode in the series was uploaded on January 23, 2008 by user Djy1991. The fourth and last episode was uploaded May 23, 2009. The series was praised for its humor and ability to elevate its poorly written source material.

References

  1. 1 2 "Whois Search – Domain name whois". Whois Search. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Lawver, Kevin (7 March 2007). "Welcome to Ficlets!". Ficlets Blog. Ficlets. Archived from the original on 20 July 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  3. ↑ Scalzi, John (16 March 2007). "How Deeply Ficlets Has Sunk into My Brain". Ficlets Blog. Ficlets. Archived from the original on 9 July 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2008. […]we’re getting together to discuss the first week of operation[…]
  4. ↑ Lawver, Kevin (29 May 2008). "News: Be well, do good work, and keep in touch". Ficlets Blog. Ficlets. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  5. 1 2 3 Meadows, Chris (4 January 2009). "Requiem for Ficlets.com". TeleRead. Archived from the original on 26 January 2009. Retrieved 8 January 2009.
  6. ↑ Wilson, Kelly (2 December 2008). "Ficlets Will Be Shut Down Permanently". People Connection Blog. Social Media Blog. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  7. ↑ Lawver, Kevin (3 December 2008). "Ficlets Will Be Shut Down Permanently". People Connection Blog. Social Media Blog. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2008. I tried, with the help of some great people, to get AOL to donate ficlets to a non-profit, with no luck. I asked them just to give it to me outright since I invented it and built it with the help of some spectacular developers and designers. All of this has gone nowhere.
  8. ↑ Lawver, Kevin (3 December 2008). "Ficlets Will Be Shut Down Permanently". People Connection Blog. Social Media Blog. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2008. I've already written an exporter and have all the stories (the ones not marked 'mature' anyway). I have pretty much all of the author bios too. Since I was smart enough to insist that AOL license all the content under Creative Commons, I'll be launching a 'ficlets graveyard' on 1/16 so at least the stories that people worked so hard one will live on.
  9. ↑ Lawver, Kevin (10 January 2009). "Ficly: Live After Ficlets". UltraNormal. Archived from the original on 22 January 2009. Retrieved 13 January 2009.
  10. ↑ "Ficley – A better, shorter story". Ficly.com. 10 January 2009. Archived from the original on 21 January 2009. Retrieved 13 January 2009.
  11. ↑ Scalzi, John (14 March 2007). "Ficlets: Creative Commons fiction fragments". Boing Boing. Archived from the original on 30 March 2009. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  12. 1 2 3 "Ficlets". The AOL Developer Network. AOL. 13 April 2007. Archived from the original on 21 August 2008. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  13. ↑ Scalzi, John (9 March 2007). "Hey! We DO Have a News Feed!". Ficlets Blog. Ficlets. Archived from the original on 9 July 2008. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  14. ↑ Marino, Jenna (16 April 2007). "Ficlets: the brand". Blog Archive. AIM Product Design Group. Archived from the original on 24 May 2007. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 Lawver, Kevin (16 March 2007). "Meet the Ficleteers". Ficlets Blog. Ficlets. Archived from the original on 6 July 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  16. ↑ Scalzi, John (8 March 2007). "Introducing Myself". Ficlets Blog. Ficlets. Archived from the original on 9 July 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  17. ↑ Scalzi, John (31 December 2007). "So Long, and Thanks for All the Ficlets". Ficlets Blog. Ficlets. Archived from the original on 6 July 2008. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  18. ↑ Lawver, Kevin. "Welcome to Ficlets!". Ficlets. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  19. ↑ Lawver, Kevin. "About Ficlets". Ficlets. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  20. ↑ Scalzi, John (14 March 2007). "Questions and etc., 3/14/07". Ficlets Blog. Ficlets. Archived from the original on 6 July 2008. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  21. ↑ Lawver, Kevin. "Community Standards". Ficlets. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  22. ↑ Wheaton, Wil (6 January 2009). "ficlets is going to the land of wind and ghosts. here's how to save your stories". WWdN: In Exile. Typepad. Archived from the original on 13 January 2009. Retrieved 8 January 2009.
  23. ↑ Scalzi, John (10 April 2007). "Ficlets Spotlight: Rachel Swirsky". Ficlets Blog. Ficlets. Archived from the original on 24 July 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  24. ↑ Swirsky, Rachel. "Rachel Swirsky's ficlets". Ficlets. Archived from the original on 11 October 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  25. ↑ Scalzi, John (29 May 2007). "Ficlets Spotlight: Brian Francis Slattery". Ficlets Blog. Ficlets. Archived from the original on 24 July 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  26. ↑ Slattery, Brian Francis Slattery. "Brian Francis Slattery's ficlets". Ficlets. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  27. ↑ Wheaton, Wil. "Wil Wheaton's ficlets". Ficlets. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  28. ↑ "Honoring Outstanding Website, Web Advertising and Web Marketing". W3 Awards. Archived from the original on 18 September 2008. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  29. ↑ Lawver, Kevin (8 February 2008). "It's an Honor Just to be Nominated". Ficlets Blog. Ficlets. Archived from the original on 4 July 2008. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  30. ↑ Lawver, Kevin (9 March 2008). "We Won!". Ficlets Blog. Ficlets. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  31. ↑ Lawver, Kevin (8 February 2008). "Ficlets on the Radio!". Ficlets Blog. Ficlets. Archived from the original on 24 July 2008. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  32. ↑ Misener, Dan (6 February 2008). "Episode 23 – February 6 & 9, 2008". Spark. CBC Radio. Archived from the original on 7 June 2008. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.