Fandom Chronicles

Fandom Chronicles. History of Supernatural Fandom

2005

July

• 07.01: The LJ community supernatural_tv is created.
• 07.16: The first entry to supernatural_tv is posted.
• at some point in July, the SPN pilot is available on the WB website.

September

• 09.11: The fan fiction community supernaturalfic (catering to gen, het + slash fans) is created.
• 09.13: The SPN Pilot airs on the WB.
• 09.14: Within hours of the Pilot airing the first Sam/Dean fic is posted as the first fic at supernatural_fic and sn_slash by janedavitt.
• 09.28: supernatural_tv counts 200+ members.
• - By the end of the month, several communities on all possible topics already exist, among them communities and fansites for Italian and French fans.

October

• 10.16 First recorded use of Wincest as a fic warning in Can’t just walk away by joyfulgirl14.

• 10.17: First outburst of "The Female Threat": Fans go nuts over casting spoilers/rumors for a female principle lead called "Lindsay".

• 10.25 Fic Community Wincest opens.

November

• 11.03: Supernatural added to TWOP
• 11.13: The SPN Newsletter posts the first link to a Jsquared fic, stoneprincess's postalleysnoggingbackatmyplacefic here. Two days later super_real is created.
• 11.27-11.29: The first SPN Genderswap stories are posted to the net. See a list here.
• - By the end of the month, supernatural_tv has over 500 members, and a new mod, monticora helps out stormbox.

December

• SPN fandom learns its first lessons on the path to being a fandom and not just individuals sharing the same interests. In the month of December, a few minor kerfuffles between fandom veterans and newbies, incest lovers and squicked Wincest-haters, lead to discussion about fandom unity and possible diaspora. [see e.g. stone-princess' post here (f-locked)]. The fandom split-up everybody expected to happen didn't happen - (events of May 2007's the BIG LJ Strikethrough 2007 show that SPN fandom knows how to stick together).

2006

January

• mid-January: The infamous UK Promo (ITV) with the "Scary just got sexy!" slogan (music: Echo & The Bunnymen: The Killing Moon) finds its way online and fries a couple of braincells. The general consensus is that the Brits surely know how to advertise TV shows - and that the WB should take a leaf out of their book. UK Promo Season 1
• 01.24: The WB unexpectedly sends out a press release, stating that they will merge with America's other, struggling teen-show network The UPN to build the CW in September 2006. In their press release, Supernatural is stated as one of the shows helping to shape the new network - still, fans are worried, as the merger means that SPN now has more competition for the 2006/2007 time slot.
• - approx. end of the month: Different media sources report that SPN is moving to a different timeslot starting March, 16th, from Tuesday nights (with 8 p.m. show Gilmore Girls as a lead-in) to Thursday nights 9 p.m. (with Smallville as a lead-in.) Fan reactions vary: While the sci-fi/supernatural show Smallville seems to be a more fitting lead-in than the romantic-comedy type Gilmore Girls, the 9 p.m. Thursday timeslot is the toughest on American television (with shows like CSI and favourite teen drama The OC as competition). Fans fear that SPN won't be able to hold viewers and that its ratings will drop to a point where its survival isn't guaranteed. (Ratings drop indeed, but the retention out of Smallville is high, satisfying the WB network.)

February

• The beginning of February sees the fandom's first brainstorming for "Save our Show" ideas - as far as sources go, none of them have been put into action. Among other issues, fans critique a lack of promotion from the WB network - something that'll be still a sore thumb even one and a half years later.
• 02.16: The community spnnewsletter is created, replacing the former sn_newsletter. More info here. spnnewsletter strives to bring daily updated SPN news as well as a collection of posted fan fic or fan art.
• at some point in February: A new trend in RPS fan fiction surfaces: Jensen's real life friend Christian Kane starts to appear in RPS - for a while, the Jensen/Chris pairing is VERY popular. One of the most prolific Jensen/Chris fic writers is ethrosdemon. See (FIC) Being Christian by ethrosdemon

March

• 03.04: Jared, Jensen, Kim Manners, John Shiban, Eric Kripke and Robert Singer all attend the Supernatural Panel at the William S. Paley Television Festival. The interview and panel session is later included on Best Buys' Supernatural DVD Season 1 edition. Predictably, the panel discussion spawns tons of Jsquared due to the adorableness of Jensen and Jared, as well as their "flirting" in front of the cameras. see Excerpts Paley Festival
• 03.21: SPN on Fandom Wank: "Everybody's a friggin' critic!" wank - in which people blame deanandsam for posting funny/not funny (depending on their opinion) screencap captions over and over again. (Source)

April

• 04.13: stormbox starts the first promotion day on spnnewsletter (Source)
• 04.18: minkmix's posts the first of urdsama's The Dean Show comics.
• 04.18: SPN on Fandom Wank: "I barely have any skin left on my palm!" wank - the infamous "we two BNFs should just get along for the sake of fandom, but don't"-fight between (former) traveler and ethrosdemon. (Source) - The reason this locked communication of mutual dislike ends up being a wank is that both parties stretch the notion of "being a Big Name Fan" too much - the rest of the fandom is perplexed ("SPN fandom is old enough to have BNFs? And who ARE traveler and ethrosdemon?") or finds their self-presumption assumptive.
• 04.20: potthead joins the ranks of the spnnewsletter mods. (Source)
• mid-to-end April: Kirsten's Save One Show campaign on E!online for 2006/2007 includes SPN - despite enthusiasm and multi-voting, the One Tree Hill fans beat Supernatural to it.

May

• 05.01: SPN on Fandom Wank: "Supernatural Wincest Wank, finally" - acostilow and writing partner post an underage, dub-con Wincest fic most people (among them a huge percentage of Wincest lovers) simply find "ewww" or "gross". Wank ensues as the writers defend their need to write this fic, while some readers defend their need to bleach their brains. (Source) - However, the wank is a contender: In a fandom that just enjoys their Wincest, everyone has waited for a wank like that to come along. - The fic that inspired such controversy itself has disappeared from the internet.
• 05.04: madam_rosmerta starts The Supernatural Scrapbook Project - with entries for Jensen, Jared and Eric Kripke. Source
• 05.04: The last episode of Season 1, Devil's Trap airs, leaving fans with quite a shocker of a cliffhanger. The fandom goes into summer hiatus with a desperation to find out what happened (mostly to Metallicar). The 4 1/2 month long hiatus will be spent by many pondering the fate of the characters and obsessively writing fan fiction, that will inevitably be jossed in September. All is not well on the fandom front - the CW has yet to announce its fall schedule. The fandom waits two weeks with bated breath whether the show is renewed, or not.
• 05.06: SPN on Fandom Wank: "My photoshop filter use is painting!" - basically SPN fandom's very own version of the |infamous Crystal wank- here dodger_winslow is accused of photoshopping photos and claiming they are paintings. Her explanation: Her paintings are digitally painted.(Source)
• 05.15: Nominations for the Lawrence Awards are opened and close May, 28th.
• 05.18: The first ever CW Upfronts are held in New York: SPN is officially renewed for a second season in its Thursday timeslot.
• 05.22: madam_rosmerta starts The Padalecki (Birthday) Project - Source
• 05.26: MediaWest*Con 26 starts on May 26 and lasts until May 29, 2006 - reportedly, there was a Supernatural Panel. Source

June

• 06.03: madam_rosmerta starts Jared Jives - a sub-project of The Padalecki Project, namely a mix tape collected by the fandom for Jared's birthday. Source
• 06.05: Early June sees the outbreak of hate memes all over fandom. It starts in SGA fandom and from there basically run like a wildfire through different fandoms. The idea behind the hate communities is that every fan was allowed to hate on everyone else, anonymously. Naturally, that can't go down well. Meant to be funny, the hate memes bring a lot of truth - and a lot of hurt, as the mood soon gets from gentle teasing to outright meanness. The community spn_hate didn't last even one day - it was tossed and deleted hours after its creation. (Source) To compensate for all the hate, the spn_love and spn porn communities are created soon after.
• 06.12: Someone buys supernatural_tv 12 months of a paid livejournal account. When noone steps forward to admit they gifted the community with a paid account, it is assumed that the gift comes from someone of the SPN production team.
• 06.17: madam_rosmerta introduces Paws for a Cause - another sub-project of The Padalecki Project. Source
• 06.19/20: Foilers about the new characters for season 2 (taken from the IMDB boards) start heavy discussions - in the end they turn out wrong. The rumored Sam or Dean girlfriend is heavily rejected by the fans. Source
• 06.26: Lawrence Awards: Runoff voting in categories with more than ten nominated works opened on Monday, June 26th and closed on Tuesday, July 11th (midnight, CST).
• 06.28: The first official spoilers (casting and sides for episode 2.01 In My Time Of Dying hit the net.
• - Super-wiki starts out as the website Super-canon.

July

• 07.08: Spoilers for 2.02 Everybody Loves a Clown appear online. Fans are especially pissed off at the fact that John Winchester is indeed dead and at the addition of the new, recurring character of 'Alex' (later Jo) - clearly the feared "Dean girlfriend". Source
• 07.12: Voting starts on the Jared Jives soundtrack: Source
• 07.13: The sides for episode 2.02 appear again, completely rewritten. Fans claim that even though there have been some improvements (e.g. Alex doesn't sound like a spoiled teenager anymore and the writing of the dialogue has improved by far, the main issues remain the same for most of the fandom. The fans excited about the new cast addition are in the minority. Even on the CW boards (where excitement about romance in Supernatural is expected), the reaction is rather lukewarm. Source
• 07.13: Lawrence Awards: Final voting opened on Thursday, July 13th and closed on Wednesday, July 26th (midnight, CST).
• 07.15: anteka posts Episode 1 of the Plastic!Winchester Theatre
• 07.24: SPN on Fandom Wank:"Talk to my GPA, fuckers!" - la_folle_allure rants about bad fan fic and how BNFs receive all the feedback and the recs, even if their stories suck. Furthermore, she wants certain standards (grammar, spelling, writing) to be met. While her intentions are noble, her rant isn't, and the wank hits its mark when she praises the spn_hate meme where people at least told the truth. Source
• 07.28: The winners of the 2006 Lawrence Awards are announced.

August

• 08.28 Supernatural Glee Week This community ran for a month up to the Season Two premier. They community featured both social activities such as friending memes, people's top five recs, fic challenges and competitions and a daily event for the entire week prior to the premiere, ending on Thursday, Sept. 28th.
• - Super-canon is converted into Super-wiki.

September

• 09.05: The Season 1 DVD comes out, including all episodes, a gag reel, two documentaries and audio commentaries. The Best Buy set also includes the William S. Paley Television Festival recording.
• 09.19: The CW Launch Party is held in New York. Both Jared and Jensen attend. Source
• 09.28: 2.01 In My Time Of Dying airs on the new CW network, one week after its original announced date. Reactions from the fandom are quite positive. Source
• 09.03/04: Final ratings for the first episode are in (3.9 million) and fans are quite content, as Grey's Anatomy is airing opposite it. Still, most of the fans want SPN to return to Tuesdays to its old spot. Source

October

• 10.05: 2.02 Everybody Loves a Clown (episode) airs - the initial reaction to the dreaded new characters isn't that bad - although the reception of Jo is a bit luke-warm, mostly wait-and-see with a few enthusiasts. Source- Later, the resentment increases: What would you change about Supernatural? 10.29.
• 10.10: The wank that wasn't: "Jensen Ackles is a coke-addict!" - starts out as a meme by la_folle_allure in which she makes up nonsense about Jensen Ackles; others continue the trend. Some people don't find it very amusing. Source
• 10.12: SPN on Fandom Wank: "More Supernatural Wank" - darkhekatemoon writes a post about incest in fanon and canon, and suggests, that those who like incest in fictional settings should morally support it in real life. Her argumentation just doesn't go through with most people, and thus, a really huge, but quite civilized wank ensues. Source
• 10.13-15 The first ever Supernatural Con known as WinchesterCon takes place in Nashville, TN. Organised by ethrosdemon and estrella30, over 130 people attend.
• mid-to-end October: The community Winchester Times is created with the main goal to promote SPN. Also, several other, smaller promotion ideas pop up, fueled by an interview of Eric Kripke, in which he says that more word-of-mouth might help them stay on the air for five or seven seasons.

November

• 11.02: The next episode with Jo in it has most of the fandom up in arms - on supernatural_tv the dislike is expressed so strongly (Source), that one of the mods issues a more than disappointed warning (post locked) for fans to behave themselves.

December

• 12.06: The Plastic!Winchester Theatre starts its second season. Source
• 12.15: During X-mas hiatus, the The CW Source blog enthusiastically reviews the Plastic!Winchester Theatre.
• 12.28: SPN on Fandom Wank: "Of SPN fandom and the incestuous faggot heathens" - mysfan4life blames Wincest for all the evil in the world, mixes up incest and homosexuality, bemoans everyone whose filthy mind gets off on it and blames society for letting women out of the house and kitchen, because that makes them think of such things in the first place. Source

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 nice 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

July

• 07.01: hanncoll announces the start of Operation: Winchester, a spn_promote 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)
• 07.23: 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 to use a "buggered 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, Jared, Eric Kripke, Ben Edlund and Peter Johnson attend Comic Con 07.

August

• 08.01: Posting of SPN Harlequin begins.
• 08.02 - 08.05: KazCon 2007 will be held in Lawrence, Kansas.

October

• 10.12-14 The second Winchester Convention is planned for Los Angeles.