(Post a new comment)

	rann 2003-07-10 11:53 pm UTC (link)
	It's the black oil aliens! They're the ones who are engineering all the wank! And they're smoking cigarettes and impregnating Scully while doing it! ... Or maybe they smoke the cigarettes AFTER impregnating Scully... (Reply to this)

	esorlehcar 2003-07-11 12:00 am UTC (link)
	Ah, X-Files fandom, how I do love thee. If only FW had been around during the TermAnal Desires wank... (Reply to this)(Thread)

	lancenerd 2003-07-11 02:34 am UTC (link)
	If only... (Reply to this)(Parent)

	amandatwop 2003-07-11 04:23 am UTC (link)
	Inquiring minds would like more details... (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

TermAnal Desires, pt. 1

esorlehcar
2003-07-11 07:41 am UTC (link)

Ah, where to begin.

First, a bit of background: There used to be an XF mailing list/archive with the oh-so-clever title Ter/ma, which stood for Truly Erotic Ratboy/Mulder Association. With such a witty and well-thought-out name, they were bound to have lots of adventures, and oh, they did.

The archive, created and maintained under the iron fist of one Ms. Fern Rowanne, was invitation-only, and advertised itself as a collection of the best XF slash available. But Ms. Fern Rowanne had truly deplorable taste (her favorite XF story, as an example, was Life from the Ashes), and the archive/mailing list quickly became known as the place where all the worst authors in the fandom and their inexplicably many fans gathered to post dreadful fiction and participate in endless, mutual-masturbatory discussions about how they were all goddesses. There were some good authors archived there, but they were the exception rather than the rule, and a lot of them were pulling their stories from the archive even before the wank in question.

Now, the wank begins. In the summer of 1999, Ms. Fern Rowanne announced that Ter/ma was going to publish its first zine and release it at the 2002 Escapade. There was massive support for the project, and it went forward smoothly for months. Then, a month or two before Escapade, Ms. Fern Rowanne proudly announced that she has chosen a name for the zine: Ter/ma's firstborn was to be known as - you guessed it - TermAnal Desires.

She evidently expected the news to be taken in the light all of her other pronouncements were taken (i.e. people calling her a goddess, offering their firstborns, generally sucking up in epic proportions), but for obvious reasons, that didn't happen. People got upset. People posted that they felt the title was crass, that it was disgusting, that it was offensive to gay men, and so on and so forth. IIRC, there was just about no one in favor in the title, though there were varying degrees of opposition. Ms. Fern Rowanne maintained a stony silence for several days (she later claimed that she had not had computer access and had had no idea about the situation at all, but a few of the other zine editors said that A) she'd been called and informed the minute dissent started on the list, and B) the other zine editors had been staunchly opposed to the title and tried to talk her out of it before she announced it to the list, but she refused to listen.

(continued)

(Reply to this)(Parent)

TermAnal Desires, pt. 2

esorlehcar
2003-07-11 07:45 am UTC (link)

Here's where my memory gets muddy, so I'm probably getting things slightly wrong and/or leaving things out. Again IIRC, originally Rowanne took a "fuck you all, my zine, my title" attitude, but, rocket scientist that she is, she'd been planning to have it bound and printed at Kinko's, and it had not occurred to her that they might refuse to produce volumes of in-copyright-violation gay porn, complete with pornographic photo manips. When they did refuse, she gave up (again, I think. I don't entirely remember the timing on all this - I just very clearly remember her being shocked and appalled that Kinko's would refuse her business). She withdrew from the fandom with a spectacularly wanky post to the Ter/ma list, which, IIRC, talked at length about everything she'd done for fandom and how ungrateful fandom was, how horribly she'd been treated and how every single person on the list owed her an apology. I think she had several paragraphs of the grand ol' "the lurkers support me in email" variety, as well. She said that she was killing the list and the archive, and that some of the other site maintainers could take it over by they couldn't the name. So the list archive became RatB - The Red and the Black, which is probably still around, though I've been out of XF for so long that I have no idea.

There was a lot more, though now we're getting into the realm of behind-closed-doors stuff and not material that was publicly available, so most of it is second- or third-hand. Ms. Fern Rowanne had promised a "special surprise" regarding the zine at Escapade. Because the zine never made it to Escapade, the surprise never materialized, but I have it on fairly good authority that the plan was to show up at Nick Lea's (the actor who played Krycek, on the off chance you don't know) house and present him with a copy of the zine, so he could appreciate all their hard work. I can't say with absolutely certainty that that's true, but I do know they had his home address - I heard that directly from the people who managed to steal it, who included one of the editors of TermAnal Desires, and I know said editor drove cartloads of people past his house during the Escapade.

There were many, many other little fun things... said zine editor worked for a travel agent, and explained to her public at Escapade that Nick Lea used her firm and that she used the databases to keep track of his every movement. The woman, who had tried unsuccessfully for years to get permission to run an official fan club for Nick, also told people about the novel she was writing about a frustrated fan who tries unsuccessfully for years to get permission to run an unofficial fan club for an actor, and finally snaps and kidnaps, rapes and kills him.

I'm sure I'm missing things, like I said... I knew these people were nuts well before the TermAnal Desires thing, so what all I saw was what got forwarded to me by people who knew I was laughing my ass off about the whole thing. But I think I covered most of the salient points.

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	Re: TermAnal Desires, pt. 2 chash 2003-07-11 08:13 am UTC (link)
	I was going to sleep, but now I'm going to get a fucking baseball bat and be awake all night, crying and being deeply, deeply afraid. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	Re: TermAnal Desires, pt. 2 darthhellokitty 2003-07-11 08:24 am UTC (link)
	Holy shit! Man, somebody needs to write a novel about THAT. XFiles was my very first online fandom. Ahhhh, memories... (Reply to this)(Parent)

	Re: TermAnal Desires, pt. 2 rann 2003-07-11 10:41 am UTC (link)
	... Okay, I bow to your wank, X-Files fandom is officially the wankiest and freakiest in existence, in my mind. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	Re: TermAnal Desires, pt. 2 phosfate 2003-07-11 04:42 pm UTC (link)
	O_O (Reply to this)(Parent)

	Re: TermAnal Desires, pt. 2 teapotgirl 2003-07-11 08:14 pm UTC (link)
	Da-yamn. Since I was only involved with the newsgroup and the FEB list, I was wondering about the wank you would mention because I didn't remember any massive wank. I am so blissful in my ignorance now. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: TermAnal Desires, pt. 2

ingrid
2003-07-11 10:26 pm UTC (link)

Oh, that's just the tippy tip of the iceberg. The Wicked X Witches, the Sheryl Martin wars, the Thank Mitch Pileggi brouhaha, JourneytoX against the world, Chael, Das List Nazi, the XFCreative Will Only Be MSR (and MY Kind of MSR) war -- the list is endless.

It was five years of spectacular wank, although some of the Nick Lea stalker stuff was kind of on the really scary side.

::: sighs ::: Memoriiiiees, like the wanking of my miiind ...

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: TermAnal Desires, pt. 2 kristenk2 2003-07-11 10:41 pm UTC (link)
	Oh God. I was involved in the Thank You Mitch brouhaha - and my eyelid had just stopped twitching over it. Thanks for the reminder. This TermAnal thing WAY beats all the other XF wanks, imho. (Reply to this)(Parent)

Re: TermAnal Desires, pt. 2

pradaloz
2003-07-11 11:23 pm UTC (link)

The Sheryl Martin wars? I was just becoming aware of online fandom right around the time she became a big name fanfic author, so my exposure was limited, but I remember wondering why I never ran across any comments that, gee, Jackie St. George might...just *might*...be a Mary Sue. Did I miss something by a country mile?

the XFCreative Will Only Be MSR (and MY Kind of MSR) war

I loved that one. That one was great. ...is there any action on XFC these days? I stopped going to ATXFC way back when it started being flooded with Haven-style MSR.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: TermAnal Desires, pt. 2

ingrid
2003-07-11 11:33 pm UTC (link)

She had a _huge_ kerfuffle with a list owner named Gil (??) who had the bit mailing list before Chael and it went onto ATXC and lasted for months. It was ugly as sin, especially since the list guy was this depressed sort, a sadsack kind of fellow and Sheryl had quite the anger management issues from what I remember.

I remember reading a least one essay that was a thinly disguised stab at Sheryl, er, Jackie St. George, under the guise of a general Mary Sue rant and it was hilarious. Called for shock treatments for her.

But it seems the character was well-liked enough by the "plebes" that even once recognized as a Mary Sue, it didn't matter. And Sheryl kept on writing them, endlessly, bless her black, Suey heart.

I loved that one. That one was great. ...is there any action on XFC these days? I stopped going to ATXFC way back when it started being flooded with Haven-style MSR.

Oh, lord, I don't know, but whatever's on ATXC is probably being forwarded from that very list, thus, the Haven-style MSR. It's a shame, since that universe could be as diverse as Trek, if not for the MSR dreck that's filled it since '96.

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Re: TermAnal Desires, pt. 2

deslea
2003-07-12 05:03 am UTC (link)

In fairness, XFC is a bit of a dirty word these days. Most of the ATXC stuff gets forwarded from all-xf (which was set up to counter XFC), or from the ATXC posting interface. It's mostly middle-of-the-road MSR, DRR and slash these days. Alternative fic is growing in popularity, and diversity is in a better state than it was, but you kind of need to know where to look. It's always going to suffer a bit from the cutesy fangirls who are so about the Luuuurve, though.

/me giggles at the memory of the Jackie Sue saga

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Re: TermAnal Desires, pt. 2

pradaloz
2003-07-14 07:05 pm UTC (link)

Hey, thanks for the info! Oh, the things I missed. F_W really needs to have an old skool wank nostalgia day.

I remember reading a least one essay that was a thinly disguised stab at Sheryl, er, Jackie St. George, under the guise of a general Mary Sue rant and it was hilarious.

Really? Now that's one I'd love to read. I remember seeing several essays about creating OCs in XF fanfic that cited Jackie St. George as the ideal OC to which all other OCs should be compared. My poor, little fandom newbie self could never quite understand that.

And Sheryl kept on writing them, endlessly, bless her black, Suey heart.

I think she still is. I remember seeing a post on ATXC a while back asking if people wanted her to keep writing. I guess if she's got the audience, then more power to her.

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	Re: TermAnal Desires, pt. 2 snacky 2003-07-12 12:16 am UTC (link)
	Don't forget the Debbilmice and the ORDOVER Wars! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: TermAnal Desires, pt. 2 ingrid 2003-07-12 12:18 am UTC (link)
	... the ORDOVER Wars! GAAAHHHHH! Shhhh! It might hear you and come back. ::: making sign of the cross ::: (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: TermAnal Desires, pt. 2 snacky 2003-07-12 02:03 am UTC (link)
	Oh my...do you think it could find us here? ::cowers in corner:: (Reply to this)(Parent)

Re: TermAnal Desires, pt. 2

lancenerd
2003-07-11 11:51 pm UTC (link)

Ahhh, it's all coming back to me now. I'll fill in the missing parts and clarify a couple of things. If I have missed anything, I'm sure there are others out there who also remember what went on.

1. The zine editor/travel agent employee (aka Dr.Ruthless) and Rowanne were in a tug-of-war from the beginning for the crown of "XF BNF Queen" and were frequently pulling each others hair and calling each other 'bitch' behind each others backs, not to mention pitting each others' supporters against each other.

2. Rowanne never wanted to present a copy to Nick Lea. I know that for a fact (she was a close friend until about a year ago). But yes, they did drive past Nick's house over and over and over again screaming as they went by. If anything, it was Dr.Ruthless who wanted to give Nick the zine. She had a habit of showing up at his Agent and Manager's office, hanging around and casually dropping RPS fic on their desk.

3. The catylist for meltdown was At Escapade 1999 in which there was an all-scale blowout between said Queens for a day (over the zine title among other things) and ended with Rowanne stomping off, telling everyone to fuck themselves and if they didn't like her title, they could do it themselves. Rowanne left fandom never to be heard from again and ThebanBand took over the TERMA list and archive, changed the name to RatB and still run it under that name today.

4. In the meantime, Dr.Ruthless took charge of the zine and created her own list where her and her minions could plot their domination of the universe AND ALL THINGS NICK!! One of her minions worked at a printing company and tried to get the zine printed there, but her boss freaked and she nearly got fired. But I digress. Dr.Ruthless somehow got it printed and contributers were left with a craptastic piece of shit. Who knows if she ever sold a copy. I have a copy holding up a broken leg of my bed.

5. Dr. Ruthless (supposedly) got fired from her travel agency for tracking Nick on a regualar basis.

If you thought this was funny from the sidelines, being in the middle was totally wakeriffic.

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esorlehcar
2003-07-14 10:48 pm UTC (link)

2. If anything, it was Dr.Ruthless who wanted to give Nick the zine. She had a habit of showing up at his Agent and Manager's office, hanging around and casually dropping RPS fic on their desk.

Good lord, really? And it never occurred to her that this might explain why she was never granted permission to create an official fan club?

I wouldn't be in the least surprised if the idea to present the zine to Nick came from Sue... the woman was more obsessed than (if not quite as delusional as) the tinhats. And of course Sue (with the help of a few others) was the one who managed to steal the address in the first place. I never actually knew Rowanne apart from what I saw on fandom lists - I'd always thought of her as something of brain donor (I about fell over when I learned her real name was Fern, as I'd previously made comments about how she had the intellectual capacity of a house plant), so I have no idea if she was as stalkerish as the company she kept or not.

5. Dr. Ruthless (supposedly) got fired from her travel agency for tracking Nick on a regualar basis.

I heard that she got fired, as well, though the version I heard wasn't Nick-specific - supposedly Sue was a receptionist, not actually a travel agent, who wasn't supposed to be accessing the databases, and she finally got caught and fired. That's a secondhand account, though, so I can't vouch for its accuracy.

If you thought this was funny from the sidelines, being in the middle was totally wakeriffic.

Oh, I was in the middle, just in a slightly different way. I never had anything to do with Ter/ma, but I was right in the thick of it with the people who stole the address and proceeded to engage what appeared to be escalating stalking behavior. It's not much fun when your friends suddenly go insane...

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	Re: TermAnal Desires, pt. 2 tintin 2003-07-12 12:17 am UTC (link)
	Yeah, this would be the reason I avoided Krycek fans like the plague when I was in that fandom. Ah, memories. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: TermAnal Desires, pt. 2 kristenk2 2003-07-12 01:21 am UTC (link)
	Hey, we're not all crazy... ;-) (Reply to this)(Parent)

	Re: TermAnal Desires, pt. 2 amandatwop 2003-07-12 01:27 am UTC (link)
	Wow. That's some spectacular wank right there. Thank you. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	[LJ user] (Anonymous) 2004-05-07 08:35 pm UTC (link)
	the archive/mailing list quickly became known as the place where all the worst authors in the fandom and their inexplicably many fans gathered to post dreadful fiction and participate in endless, mutual-masturbatory discussions about how they were all goddesses. This had me rolling, can I have your babies? Please? XD (Reply to this)(Parent)

	snacky 2003-07-11 06:11 am UTC (link)
	There's so many good XF flamewars - it's hard to pick just one. But yeah, TermAnal Desires was right up there with the best. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	ingrid 2003-07-11 12:08 am UTC (link)
	::: sobbing with nostalgia :::: Oh, XF. You'll always be the Wankiest of Them All. Right after the kiddie-porn death-threat mongering, text stealers. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	snacky 2003-07-11 06:12 am UTC (link)
	::offers you a hanky:: It's not quite the wanktastic days of old, but still, nice to remember, isn't it? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	(Anonymous) 2006-01-15 09:42 pm UTC (link)
	cries In the good ol' days of being involved in the fandom, I had no idea that it was sooo wanky... our Polish fandom was little and cosy and the wanks also had a small radius... thank god for that, I guess... (Reply to this)(Parent)

	nostalgia 2003-07-11 01:50 am UTC (link)
	I especially loved how the author defends herself because "It's not a plot device! It's just a way to make angst happen!" (Reply to this)

kristenk2
2003-07-11 02:51 am UTC (link)

WTG,

snacky! You found a most excellent XF wank! Rapefic...oh, that one NEVER goes away. And it had a side course of a tasty Header War! ;-)

It's a MSRshipper-centric site, and most of the posters on the fic board tend to be big fans of MSRfic, the schmoopier and smuttier and fluffier the better. A little angst (and a lot of Muldertorture) is okay, but there better be schmoop, damn it, because they won't read it without a guarantee of a happy ending.

That is the best explanation of the Haven I've ever read - that whole board is a perpetual wankfest, and there's a lot of familiar oldtimer moths still battering at the same flames. On a Question about slash thread, there's crazy old Hester/stormlantern still plugging away at offending and arguing with every person she possibly can. Hee.

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	ingrid 2003-07-11 03:50 am UTC (link)
	... there's crazy old Hester/stormlantern still plugging away at offending and arguing with every person she possibly can. STILL? goggling Wow. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	rikoshi 2003-07-11 04:21 am UTC (link)
	Your icon! I am slain with hysterics! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	kristenk2 2003-07-11 05:48 am UTC (link)
	Yep. Damn, you'd think by now she'd have followed the rest of y'all over to Smallville. g Oh wait, she wouldn't go there. It's too ~~full of pretty boys who inspire lots of "mischaracterized" slashy fic~~ full of people who aren't Mulder or Scully! "Mischaracterized" is Hester's word, not mine. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	snacky 2003-07-11 06:02 am UTC (link)
	Hester is the walking definition of "the wank that never ends." And if she hasn't left by now, she ain't leaving. g (Reply to this)(Parent)

snacky
2003-07-11 06:10 am UTC (link)

Yes, the rapefic/header war combo is always a delight, isn't it? And it's all part of the "Hold me, shield me from the Unfluffy!" Haven mindset.

And you know, I still might have let it go until they dragged Bone's story into it? WTF? How do you complain about a story that *had warnings* on it? Now people are only allowed to write something that won't personally upset you? Jim jammity Jesus, I can't take it!

On a Question about slash thread, there's crazy old Hester/stormlantern still plugging away at offending and arguing with every person she possibly can

Yeah, that thread's wanky too. I especially liked how Hester slipped in a dig at HP fandom in that one - she is, indeed, an equal opportunity offender. She could probably bring about peace in the Middle East, as warring parties will unite in their disgust over her.

And, hee! Did you notice "The Magician" thread? Just goes to prove, nothing (even incredibly weird fics) ever dies. *g*

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rann
2003-07-11 06:56 am UTC (link)

Now people are only allowed to write something that won't personally upset you?

Apparently. Had someone tell me something similar about one of my fics... lessee, here...
Ah, yes! "I consider myself a very tolerate person, but this fic is even too much for my taste. It scares me that people can write fics like this." Isn't it byootiful? *sniffle*
Whole thread is here: http://www.livejournal.com/users/ficbitches/10513.html?thread=36881 It's mildly wanky, I suppose, but 'tis a mostly personal wank.

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	snacky 2003-07-11 07:05 am UTC (link)
	Hee! I loved the repeated "tolerate." Entitlement. It's what's for dinner. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	esorlehcar 2003-07-11 07:51 am UTC (link)
	My god, Hester's still around? Hester is responsible for my favorite insult ever. She called me, and I quote, "an overbearing orifice of cyberspace." wipes away a tear Good times, good times... (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	snacky 2003-07-11 08:01 am UTC (link)
	"an overbearing orifice of cyberspace." Oh. My. God. I remember reading that. On ATXF, right? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	esorlehcar 2003-07-11 08:10 am UTC (link)
	Indeed. I'd completely forgotten (I don't know how... I laughed about it for WEEKS when it happened), but I recently reconnected with a old friend from the atxf days and she reminded me... :-) I'm thinking of renaming my journal, actually. Overbearing Orifice of Cyberspace has quite a ring to it... (Reply to this)(Parent)

	sorchar 2003-07-11 06:39 am UTC (link)
	Ahhh, I was just discussing with dine today how X-Files was the wankiest fandom that ever fanned a wank. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	snacky 2003-07-11 06:55 am UTC (link)
	Maybe we should have a F_W Nostalgia Day, in which we can post all our old favorite wanks from the days of yore! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	katemonkey 2003-07-11 02:08 pm UTC (link)
	Google Groups, man. It's allllllllll about the Old Skool Wank (Reply to this)(Parent)

	kristenk2 2003-07-11 06:55 am UTC (link)
	Weep with AprilakaMsAM, who is "tricked into reading rapefic...you'd be upset too!" OMG. Does anyone else see a Certain BNF Tinhat Name in that person's screen name? adjusts tinfoil beanie to sit at a jaunty angle Not that they're the same person of course, it's just kind of...unnerving. :) (Reply to this)

	kookaburra 2003-07-11 04:44 pm UTC (link)
	groan If there's one thing I can't stand it's whiners who don't read warning labels, and then come kvetching about it to the author. It's happened to me a few times, but fortunately I've managed to keep my braincells intact by ignoring them. (Reply to this)