The Sanctity of Fanfics a short essay by Rob Dalton Someone once asked what the big deal was with the Sanctity of Fanfics. Buried in the middle of the ASVS Rules and Regulations is a rule protecting the art of fanfiction, which makes tampering with them a punishable offense. "6: The Sanctity of Fanfics: One of ASVS's proudest traditions is that of crossover fan fiction. We have some of the best in the field, if not the best in the field. We have an entire awards system for it. It takes a long time and a great amount of effort on the part of the author. And while constructive criticism of the work is usually welcomed, changing the story to reflect your personal view is STRICTLY forbidden. What is the difference? That's up to the jury to decide, so tread lightly. The entire group feels very, very strongly about this, and this is the second vote in ASVS History that was unanimous." The reason why this was enacted was because of certain highly offensive actions by a local troll known as Sean P. Collins, a once- reasonable debater who earned the wrath of many regulars by vandalizing fanfics to further his arguments. The reason why he got pissed on was not the arguments themselves, but the vehicle he chose to present them in. Chuck Sonnenburg and Kenneth Lowe are two of the newsgroups most prolific authors, the former with a cadre of fans and a reputation as an epic writer for his Worlds Without End, and the latter the author of a comedic Star Trek vs Star Wars lexicon called Domination. Both of these fine authors put hours (and in some cases, days) of work into their creations, mainly for their enjoyment but also for the enjoyment of the group as a whole. Both authors are highly regarded, and it is understandable that with the destruction, the virtual castration even, of their efforts would come the wrath of the newsgroup upon the perpetrator. Chuck's work Balance of the Force, a sort of tide-over piece between Worlds Without End and Shadows of the Night, was the victim of such a troll attack. Sean Collins injected his own excrement after certain choice paragraphs, in particular those dealing with the concept of the Force. That crime can be found at: Later on, he raped a chapter of Domination, which can be found here: As a result of this second offense, anything he had on the archive was subsequently removed, and to this date he has the honor of being the first person on my permanent shit list and one of the only people in Chuck Sonnenburg's killfilter. True to form, he tried to laugh it off, but the doors of acceptance have clanged shut in his face ever since. But what was it about these acts that caused such an uproar among the readers? Sure, the story was changed, but why can't we just ignore it? Anton Polinger, one of the less respected regulars, doesn't see anything wrong with what Sean did: . Apparently, Mr. Polinger has not had any encounter with creativity, imagination or copyright law. I'm sure that if the source material in question was a published work, Mr. Collins would be in some very serious trouble indeed. But Anton says: why should it be such a big deal if the original document remains intact? Well, that's not the point. Anton Polinger has seemed adamant in his density and succeeds astoundingly in missing the point of the matter. It doesn't matter if the original document remains intact. What really matters is the blatant lack of respect for the original work. An author works hard on his fanfic, and it could either be praised or panned; constructive criticism and destructive are both very common, and it's not unusual to see a crappy fanfic such as Second Contact or Portal ripped to shreds or MiSTed. A fanfic that is poorly written or is so hopelessly one- sided that it seems a mockery is fair game, and MiSTing is a well-known and tolerated, even encouraged, pastime. Even ruthless criticism of a respected work is tolerated, more so if it's constructive and done tastefully, as is the case with Phong Nguyen. But ripping it off is not cool. Please respect the art of fanfic. NOTE: 5/24/2002: It has come to my attention that the crimes in question, mentioned above, have been either lost by Google or deliberately cancelled by persons unknown. You have only my assurance, and the eyewitness testimony of at least twenty other people, that these crimes have actually occurred. If anyone has actually saved copies of the crimes committed by Sean P. Collins, please send them to me.