Fandom Chronicle: 2007

The history of the Supernatural fandom on Livejournal
See also:

• Fandom Chronicle: 2005
• Fandom Chronicle: 2006

2007

January

• 01.02 - SPN on Fandom Wank: "But I'm not a meeeeaaaaan person!" - The year starts off with - not a bang, but at least a wank. la_folle_allure strikes with another hate meme. sevenfists has enough and sends her an open letter in which she calls her on her behavior. Source
• 01.07 - The first edition of Hell Quarterly is published.
• 01.15: More SPN on Fandom Wank: echoing0icons posts icons in which Sam is shown with a Hitler moustache. Fans are offended. Source
• 01.19: SPN on Fandom Wank:"It's canon: You're an asshole!" - someone posts Wincest on spn_brotherlove and people wonder about why no mod removes it. lia-van-helsing speaks up and manages to call all Wincest readers potential sex offenders. Source
• 01.31: How else should this wanktastic month end than with even more SPN on Fandom Wank? - la_folle_allure talks about her kink of having black people touch Dean - offense is taken. The wank is tiny, tiny. Source

February

• until June 2007. Supernatural and J-Squared Big Bang Challenge The goal of the challenge was for authors to write a Supernatural or Jared and Jensen rpf novella of at least 20,000 words. Artists and vidders paired up with the writers to create an accompanying piece of artwork or trailer vid to go along with the story. Forty-nine authors took part creating stories from around 20,000 to over 80,000 words in length. Posting of the finsihed fic and art commenced in June 2007.

March

• 03.19: SPN on Fandom Wank: "I don't like that fic, so you better stop writing it!"-wank - azewish thinks Wincest lovers smoke crack and claims that Wincest writing is like "raping canon in the ass". There is mild dissent - then azewish says that she just doesn't see the Sam/Dean subtext, therefore it doesn't exist, and nobody should write it. Source
• 03.31: Volume 2, Issue 1 of Hell Quarterly is online.
• - Voting begins on this year's E!Online SOS Poll by Kirsten (who claims that she always saves the show). SPN fans participate enthusiastically in the show, a lot of them hoping that Kirsten indeed has influence on the networks. While the Veronica Mars fandom cheats quite obviously with multi-voting macros and such (www.saveveronicamars.tv/sospoll.htm), SPN fans hold back, wanting to win the poll by being honest, afraid that they'll be banned if cheating is revealed.

April

• 04.07: Results of Kirsten's SOS Poll are revealed - even though they are meant to be posted a week later (maybe due to a programming mistake of the E!online webmasters?) - Gilmore Girls is surely in the lead with over 39% and Veronica Mars in second place with 33% - SPN far behind with 7% and the rest of the shows with mostly 0%. Fans claim cheating on Kirsten' poll.
• 04.13: Results of Kirsten's SOS Poll are in - Gilmore Girls wins, with Veronica Mars in second place with 1.9 million votes - interestingly enough, VM gets more votes than it has weekly viewers... SPN is in 4th place with over 400.000 votes. - No cheating is mentioned, but the SPN fandom isn't impressed, and finally, even the last hopeful fan gets that Kirsten's poll is a load of bull (about as reliable as her hysterical Foilers). Oh - and what satisfaction, for once, Kirsten didn't get to save the show, nor the show in second place. So much for credibility and showbiz influence. Source

May

• Fanlib - a site for fanfiction -is launched. A commercial site for the posting of fan fiction, this site has generated a lot of controversy, in particular the fact that the site is making money from the work of fic writers. Fanlib also owns the rights to the fiction published there, while the writers still bear any issues around copyright. jdsampson who is active in the Supernatural fandom is an employee of the corporation running the site. For insightful articles and discussion on the history and issues surrounding Fanlib see Henry Jenkins and icarusancalion. A number of fanfic writers join in order to 'park' their Live Journal or fanfiction nicknames and avoid other people posting under them.
• 05.11 - 05.13: The Asylum Convention takes place in Coventry at the Leofric Hotel. Attendees are: Jensen Ackles (Dean Winchester), Alona Tal (Jo Harvelle), Nicky Aycox (Meg) and Brooke Nevin (Kat in ep. Asylum). Incident(s): An overenthusiastic fan tackles Jensen and manages to throw him to the ground - she's banned from the convention (reportedly, Jensen feels sorry for that.) - Jensen, asked about fan fiction, brings up Wincest and mentions, that Kim Manners made him and Jared read it.
• 05.29: Day 1 of the great LJ Strikethrough 2007: Livejournal suspends over 500 journals which contain keywords including "incest", "rape" and "underage", targeting communities distributing or condoning child pornography. The shit hits the fan when they manage to delete several fan fiction communities. Fandom is outraged and panicked. SPN, as one of the biggest incest fandoms, is naturally concerned.
• 05.29: Over 70 challenge prompts are available at SPN Harlequin - they get claimed immediately, iniating a second round hours after the writing challenge is opened.
• 05.30: Day 2 of the great LJ Strikethrough 2007: Fandom strikes back. The revolt gains momentum - the events are on the news. Migration to other social blogging services start.
• 05.31: Day 3 of the great LJ Strikethrough 2007: LJ's CEO Barak Berkowitz apologizes for their actions and orders the immediate un-suspending of fandom journals.

June

• 06.04 - 06.10: Jensen stars in the Aaron Sorkin's play A Few Good Men at Casa Manana Theatre in Forth Worth, Texas. The fandom is enthusiastic about Jensen's foray into theatre work - quite a few take on the journey down to Texas to see him (among those going to see him is no other than Jared). Reports are collected in the one good man lj community. Some fans take still photos and make audio recordings during some performances. When these were posted on an LJ community, heated debate followed. Some of this was documented on Fandom Wank.
• 06.30: Volume 2, Issue 2 of Hell Quarterly goes online. Link
• June - The charitiy initiative Fandom Rocks starts to to raise funds and awareness for charities around the globe.

July

• 07.01: hanncoll announces the start of Operation: Winchester, a promote_spn project that encourages fans to send Season 1 DVD boxes to American troops stationed in the Middle East and Afghanistan, as "comfort for the troops". Source
• 07.01. SPN on Fandom Wank: "LOL Draft Horse"-wank - During a fan get-together, missyjack and friends post a notice that their friend nu_breed was trampled to death by a draft horse. The story isn't immediately detected as pure and utter crack - and people don't find it very funny. Source
• 07.03: Rumors that writer Raelle Tucker is leaving Supernatural for a new show about vampires by Alan Ball on HBO originate on the TWOP boards. There's no official confirmation yet, but the fans are very sad. Source
• 07.04: anteka starts Season 3 of the Plastic!Winchester Theatre. (Source)
• 07.06: Laurence Andries who has written and produced for Six feet Under, Alias and Millennium, is named as a new writer. (Source)
• 07.10 - 07.14: Origins debate on Media Village blogs: Peter Johnson talks about delibarate and accidental mistakes made in the Origins series so far. In the comment section of the Media Village article, he engages in a discurs with the fans, resulting in admittance of the mistakes on TPTBs parts and promising changes to the Origins box set. (Source) Some fans think that their input is valued too much, while others are simply happy that someone will actually listen. (Source)
• 07.11: The second The Padalecki Project comes to a close - this time around, fans were also invited to send in their videos, so a DVD could be made. 95 scrapbook entries were received. (Source)
• 07.22: Eric Kripke talks to TV Guide about the upcoming season and speaks of/to his fans: "First of all, I love our fans. I love them to death. I love how passionate they are. But they tend to worry unnecessarily. (...) We're making the show for the fans; we're not making the show for the network. We would never do anything to betray them. I'm not saying we're perfect. I'm not saying we don't make mistakes. But we're very conscious and aware. And when we do make mistakes, we course-correct." Source has Spoilers
• 07.23: SPN on Fandom Wank: I didn't bugger the lj-cut, you cock-sucking whore - see my attorney!-wank. On super_real, nixthedarkelf is offended by someone telling him he "buggered up (as in messed up) the lj-cut", claiming the commenter has called him a sodomite. People try to explain, he freaks out, calling the original commenter names and threatens to sue everyone, including the super_real mod, with his troll... oops, attorney.
• 07.28: Jensen, Eric Kripke, Ben Edlund and Sera Gamble attend Comic Con. Sadly, Jared and Peter Johnson aren't able to attend, making this the 3rd consecutive convention appearance Jared has to skip because he's been working on Supernatural until the wee hours of the morning. Some fans complain about how they are tired of only ever seeing Jensen show up - most of the fandom is baffled by this reaction. Source

August

• 08.01: Posting of SPN Harlequin begins.
• 08.02 - 08.05: KazCon 2007 is held in Lawrence, Kansas.
• 08.03: Boldthrough:Blogging Service Livejournal suspends fan artist ponderosa121 (who's quite popular in the Supernatural fandom for her Wincest Fan Art) for violation of their policy, referring explicitly to a Harry/Snape pic in the recently un-suspended Harry Potter community pornish_pixies, therefore re-enacting LJ Strikethrough 2007. pornish_pixies was one of the first victims of LJ Strikethrough 2007 but was later unsuspended after massive user protests. [Source)
• 08.08: SPN on Fandom Wank: ckll, mod of dean_sam boasts she received an e-mail from Eric Kripke's office, apparently telling her that she was contacted because she was an important member of the fan base. Because she failed to produce the rest of the letter, people didn't believe her - wank ensued. (Source) - As of the mid of August, nobody knows if that letter is real - no other fan services, among them such high-profile sites as supernatural_tv (who's reportedly known by TPTB) or Winchester Journals have reported similar e-mails.
• 08.13: Boldthrough: Livejournal unsuspends users elaboration (calling it another of their "big mistakes") and probably ponderosa, too (who claimed she doesn't want to be a LJ customer anymore), and publishes part of their new policy which states that non-photographic art will be reviewed using a two-strike policy. If they will keep their promise of warning offending parties before deletion - only time will tell.
• 08.30: TIME brings a brief article on fan fiction, claiming that #7 on the list of keywords searched in connection with fan fiction in June to August 2007 was Supernatural. (Source)

September

• - Supernatural wins the most awards in the CW Source Blog's Sourcie Awards.
• 09.06: estrella and tvm start the second ever Supernatural Gleeweek, which seems to be more of a whole gleemonth, as it counts down the days to the Supernatural Season 3 premiere on October, 4rd. Gleeweek is all about the joy of being involved with Supernatural and Supernatural fandom and celebrates the show. More info at spn_gleeweek.
• 09.08: Supernatural is nominated in 19 categories in the Television Without Pity Tubey Awards. (Source)
• 09.13: On September 13rd, the Supernatural Season 2 DVD is ranked #4 on amazon.com's DVD bestseller list.
• 09.13: Supernatural wins in the following categories at the 2007 Television Without Pity Tubey Awards: Best Badass - Dean Winchester and Best Performance by an Inanimate Object: Metallicar. Supernatural was runner-up in a couple of categories, e.g. for Best Relationship (Sam and Dean) and Best Chemistry (Sam and Dean) as well as Favorite Actor (Jensen Ackles). (Source: here and here.)
• 09.19: Supernatural on Fandom Wank: Oh noes, you cancelling the hotel room is my death sentence!-wank. ckll looks for a new roommate for the Creation Con in Chicago after her old one had to cancel the con. It doesn't go over without wank.
• 09.21: anteka and her Plastic!Winchester Theatre are featured a second time on the CW blog The CW Source, this time with an interview of anteka. (Source)
• 09.26: By way of pimping from Supernatural Underground and cross-posting, Supernatural came out on top in the Hey Nielsen! list, earning an increase in interest of over 7.000!!!%. (Source)

October

• 10.01: Supernatural on Fandom Wank: stele3 investigates the Stephanie Ware rumours.
• 10.2: Episode 3.01 is available for download from iTunes for US residents for free in advance.

--> anteka from Plastic!Winchester Theatre releases Plastic!Winchesters: The Musical.
--> Fans mirandler43 and kandkl paint the streets of their hometown with chalk in order to promote the Season Premiere of Supernatural. Source.

• 10.04 - Episode 3.01 is broadcast on the CW, starting Supernatural's 3rd Season.
  

--> The Supernatural Postcard Campaigns community calls for a campaign to celebrate the start of the 3rd Season. (Source)

• 10.12-14 The second WinchesterCon is held in Los Angeles.
• 10.21: DarkHouse initiates the first Supernatural Fangirl Awards for excellence in Supernatural fandom; the same phrase which has been used for the Lawrence Awards a year ago. Nominations will open in November, voting goes through December, 1st to December, 20th.
• 10.30: Dick-Cheney Wank: lj user supernation writes a letter of complaint to the Supernatural Producers (and posts it to dean_sam) because of the implication that Dick Cheney has a seat reserved for him in Hell. A (so far) minor wank about what is and what isn't political satire ensues. Source

November

• The Writers' Guild of America calls for a strike unless the studios raise the writer's shares. Key Issues are DVD and Home-vid residuals. For more info on the strike see the main Wikipedia entry.
• 11.05: hancoll from the Supernatural Underground contacts Sera Gamble about the Writer's Strike that's threatening to stop production of tv shows and films. Sera answers, telling hancoll that she feels she's not the right spokesperson to speak up about the strike, but that she is happy that Supernatural fans are supportive and that she hopes the strike will be a short-lived one. ^(Source)
• 11.06: Please Do Feed the Writers: Many members of Supernatural fandom support the writer's strike. Some fen donate money to send a fruit basket to the picket lines. (Source)
• 11.08-11.09: WGA Strike: spadada and devidarkwolf meet Sera Gamble, Ben Edlund, Jeremy Carver, Cathryn Humphris and Eric Kripkeat the rally. Eric tells them how they have shot episode 11, and have another script ready for episode 12, but after that, they run out of scripts to shoot. (Report found here and here). Meanwhile, spn_postcards has begun a postcard campaign, to let the writers, cast, and crew know that they support the strike.
• 11.09: spn_santa, a Secret Santa community, starts with a sign-up period until November 25. Gifts are to be sent starting November 27.
• 11.10-11.11: Creation Con takes place in Chicago. Jensen, Jared, and fan-favorites Frederic Lehne and Samantha Ferris attend. At the Con, Jensen and Jared are presented with a Honorary Special Forces coin by a guy claiming to be Special Forces Soldier Master Seargent Kevin Wise - turns out the guy is a fraud.
• 11.12 - SPNMedia reopens, stating "Five months ago SPNMedia had a disagreement with the LJ Community about the future release of additional photography and also some hosting problems." The disagreement arose when fans complained that access to SPNMedia photos required joining their message board "Seek the Truth" and making a minimum number of posts. This didn't sit well with a lot of fans who were of the opinion that fannish content should be made available by other fans to everybody without exclusion. Following a hissyfit from the site's management, the former site was closed. ^(Source)
• 11.15: News mags and blogs report that Katie Cassidy was arrested for underage drinking two weeks prior and lied to the arresting officers about her identity, claiming she was Taylor Cole (fellow Supernatural actress, who played Sarah in episode 1.19 Provenance). Some fans complain, "We never got embarrassing stories when it [the cast] was just Jared and Jensen." Shortly thereafter, a post is made in Fandom Wank, mocking what is perceived as the need to hate the new female additions. (Source)
• 11.15: Truckzilla is sold on Craigslist for $5500 (CAD).
• 11.17: WGA Strike: Hollywood United runs with the idea of several fan sites and blogs and starts Pencils2MediaMoguls where fans can buy boxes of pencils in support of the WGA Strike (all proceeds going to the Union Solidarity Fund, created to help non-WGA members affected by the strike).
• 11.19: WGA Strike: Media reports that Supernatural will be shutting down December 5. (Source)
• 11.19: Firefox.org starts a campaign called "Driver picks the music (and raises funds for charity)" which gives 100% of Firefox's affiliate sales from music purchases at iTunes to the Actor's Fund to support the strike. source
• 11.23/24: "Putsch" in the dean_sam community: oncidium and lostandalone, former-co moderators, post an entry about how ckll "is unable to maintain dean_sam with us any longer..". The post is later deleted. (Apparently, they took action against ckll because she defended another fan who had made lewd and hateful comments about Jensen.) Various sources report that ckll didn't know that she had been kicked out of her own community by her co-moderators and stripped of her maintainer rights. Following a (not-so public) outcry on dean_sam, the community was handed back to ckll in an almost "Western-ish" showdown at noon. ckll remains the sole maintainer and moderator of dean_sam. ^{(Source: ckll is back in business)}
• In the next couple of days it is revealed by different sources that something similar happened in the supernatural_tv community about a year and a half ago - although the community was never returned to its original owner. Interestingly enough, neither the dean_sam nor the renewed supernatural_tv kerfuffle makes it to Fandom Wank, possibly due to JournalFen being 'down' for the days the controversy occurred.

December

• The first couple of days leading up to the most wonderful time of year are filled with frustration for many Supernatural fans. Mid-October brings the idea of "chubby Jensen" (see also: this post by LiveJournal user memphis86). The fatty_jared community is born (albeit with only 3 members to date). By the start of December the situation between chubby!Jensen fans and fans who don't understand it escalates. The main criticism (apart from what some see as mocking of overweight people) is the notion of using the actors to fulfill that particular kink; while fans of Chubby!Jensen feel they should be allowed to gently mock, because they love the actors so much. The RESPECT campaign is started by dodger-winslow, adding to the controversy.

• December 8, 2007. Without notice, the system administrator and owner of GreatestJournal reduces everyone's icons from 100 to 10, disables comment notification (making role-playing via journals impossible - no one can tell when anyone has replied to anything) and makes a public post about how everyone should move to InsaneJournal because they are doing a "pretty good job" of running things over there. GreatestJournal has experienced some difficulty due to a large influx of new members (including some well-known Supernatural fen such as ponderosa121 and stele3) as a result of the LJ Strikethrough 2007 in May and June 2007.

• December 10, 2007 GreatestJournal goes down. Sites such as GF_refugees are set up on LiveJournal, to assist those from GJ in maintaining contact. The site is back up within a day.

• Read on: Fandom Chronicle: 2008