fickle | Myfandoms.com -- what the hell?

You know the new feature el-jay has that lets you know when you've been added to someone's friendslist? Well, I found out that

myfandoms added me to their flist so I toddled over to check them out on the off-chance that I wanted to friend them back.

It turned out that the journal is basically a big advertisment for a site, myfandoms.com, and that the guy running it is hyping it as:

MyFandoms.com is a new site opened in Beta phase while we’re making sure we have all the tools and features fan fic writers want and need. Later in the fall, we’ll be conducting a fan fiction contest that will be judged by several prominent Hollywood producers, directors, and writers. This is your chance to get YOUR fan fiction read by people who create and make TV shows and movies! By being among the first to add their fan fiction to the site, you are guaranteeing yourself maximum exposure to every member who comes behind you.

Wow. I'm so impressed.

I thought at first that this might violate el-jay TOS because technically, you could make a case for this to be considered spamming, but on the other hand, it's not like I have to read that journal or do anything about the fact that it friended me.

But then I checked my other e-mail, my personal one (which is different to the one that el-jay comments to this journal get sent to), and I found out that I had an e-mail there from him! Which made me go rather wtf?! because the only way for him to know that address is to have somehow got it from my ff.net records or my deadjournal. And if he got it from ff.net, then why did he friend my personal journal instead of my writing journal (

only_fiction)?

On the bright side, the e-mail at least cleared up how he'd found me:

Some people have written back to ask "how did you find me?" Basic Google searching is the answer. I just looked for people who had a healthy number of stories in popular fandoms. You're the people we want to join the myFandoms.com writers! We hope to see you soon. :-D

Also, what's a 'healthy number of stories'? I barely have fifty stories on my ff.net account and most of the good stuff is on my writing journal and not posted anywhere else. Though I suppose that I should be impressed that I popped up on Google (as did

cairnsy apparently since she got friended too) when I really think of myself as a relatively obscure writer sans the sort of BNF status that you think would be what would send people to the top of Google lists.

*confused and waaaaaaay too sleepy to be dealing with this right now*

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I call bullshit. There's no proof, other than the poster's word, that they're affiliated with the website, and nowhere on MyFandoms.com have I seen anything about writing for Hollywood. Also, Hollywood does not go grunging through the underbelly of the Internet to find good writers. The format of the journal is sloppy and unprofessional and there's no mention of corporate affiliation -- I'm not sure, but aren't those shows on different networks?

Troll troll troll. Inventive and creative troll, yeah, but still. Troll.

On the flipside of that would be that the guy who e-mailed me didn't say anything odd about my mentioning livejournal. So apparently the guy is actually on the level, just not very good at attracting people and using poor tactics (offering prizes that only promise exposure as per cairnsy's comment) to get writers.

BS. I'm not going too in-depth, but I'd expect a website supported by Hollywood of all places wouldn't have advertising on it. You know. Like how people who pay for their space on LJ aren't to see ads. Same concept -- those who can pay don't pay for advertisements.

Their site doesn't actually have advertising on it. O_o And I'm guessing they didn't want anything more than a Plus account until they found out if livejournal works for getting users interested or not.

And I don't think they're saying the site is supported by Hollywood, just that it has Hollywood-related prizes. *still hasn't made up her mind*

I certainly think it is legit to a point. If they were going to troll/create a fake system in an attempt to create lots of ad revenue they would have gone about it completely differently, I think. For one, they would have specified fan fiction only - they're main target audience for their scripts etc appears to be writers, and yet they've got other sections set up and running as well that they wouldn't need if this was a scam. Secondly, the advertising is way too unobtrusive for them to be attempting to make money that way through a scam, plus again the site wouldn't need the complexity it has. I honestly believe that they want to recreate a fandom version of myspace and make profit through traditional means. Lastly, they're not spamming huge amounts of people, the revealing of the site has been done in layers as opposed to friending thousands of people.

As for the connections ... I believe they may have a couple, and that's all they really need to make such a claim ^^. It's important I think to notice how they're only promising exposure and not anything more concrete.

*grin* As for the selection of us, I amost died when I was in the 20 or so person shortlist right at the beginning, especially when it was because of the amount of fanfic I'd written. I'm not sure if I almost died from laughter or horror, but either will do ^^. I just finished writing up a huge review of the site (what I thought worked/didn't work/suggestions etc) and emailed it to them - the site is still in the beta stage and they seem really eager for thoughts and suggestions.

*nods* Point about how it does seem to be a fairly well set up site, right down to auto-creating Photobucket accounts for people who make an account there. As for the advertising he's doing here on livejournal, I guess that's just his attempt to try to get writers interested?

*snickers* I swear, I haven't written that much fanfic! Certainly not enough to make it worth contacting me. Though if it makes you feel any better, I e-mailed the guy about exactly how he chose the people, and he answered:

I'm not sure where I found you. While I tend to start out searching on popular fandoms in all the categories (TV, books, movies, etc.), I always seem to digress by links and recommendations. I never seem to be able to retrace my steps. I need that GPS "etrex" in a cyber version. LOL.

So, there you go. Maybe someone recced you as opposed to you popping up as a productive author. XD

The site appears well-designed and is probably genuine. But again, there's no proof that the lj is actually affiliated with it. There's also no mention of contests or livejournals anywhere on the website. And if they're really pounding out agreements with Hollywood directors and scriptwriters, they probably shouldn't be yakking about it online. Things are usually kept quiet until everyone's signature is on paper and all the loose ends have been tied up.

I doubt that it's a financial scam, but I do think it could be someone wanting attention (yes, I realize that describes half of us in fandom, :P) or it could be someone who doesn't know what they're doing. There are much better ways to advertise than emailing random people, and as far as I know, fandom has never had many contests -- prizewinners would have to give out their names and addresses, which most people are reluctant to do.

Speaking of which, I wish LJ had a better way of searching by user. I want to plug in some names from his flist in and see what mutual friends come up. Six members of my flist are also on his, and I noticed

sterlingsylver has an account on the site. Curious curious curious. . . .

I do think it could be someone wanting attention [...] or it could be someone who doesn't know what they're doing

Seconded. That was my call after I figured out that the site and the owner both seem to be genuine.

And wow, clearly your flist is more BNF-friendly than mine :P Or maybe not BNF, just frequently recommended? ljseek is what I usually use for searches, but I'm not sure that'd be helpful in this case.

Ha. :D It's a tiny group of six people, actually: yourself, Cairnsy,

kay_cricketed,

ladyjaida,

misura, and

zaphkiel. Other than Jaida, they're all MNFs, really. ^^ That's why I wanted to know how

myfandoms came by them -- given that I have them all in common, they might also be a part of some community or site or something, and if we could figure that out, we might be able to tell where

myfandoms is coming from. But the six I know are pretty diverse -- Cairnsy, Kay, and Jaida are into HP, and have been recced a few places, you, Misura, and Britini are all into Yugioh, and Lucas from

zaphkiel has mostly written Naruto, as far as I can remember. So maybe research via the flist isn't the best way to go about it after all. . . .

Hey, d'you suppose I should just email and ask, if I'm so bloody curious? I mean, I haven't even been friended! I think I should sulk. Or do my homework and stop playing Nancy Drew. x_x

Oh, hey, I've heard of Kay and Misura! I think. Though I know about Kay from Animorphs, and Misura from YGO. And I'm amused at the idea of being a middle-name fan. Hm.

Personally, I don't think you should sulk. Your writing rocks. You already know how much I heart it by the fact that I keep leaving feedback that confesses to tearing up whenever you write something sweetly-sorrowful (the inside, outside and inbetween is what springs to mind most readily), so I'm guessing that he added me because I have a fanlisting? I mean, if you don't know that a friend of mine made it for me, you could take that as a sign of me being more popular than I really am. XD

But I think you should e-mail him, but that's at least partly because I'm way curious about his criteria now.

Myfandoms.com -- what the hell?

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject