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MsScribe drama

Discussion in 'Fanfic Discussion' started by Sorrows, Jul 25, 2020.

  1. Sorrows

    Sorrows Queen of the Flamingos Moderator

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    So I came across this looong video which details some of the shit that went down in the early 2000s days of HP fandom. Particularly with Gryffindor Tower, Cassandra Clare and the unmasking of Msscribe.



    I vaguely remember this being news but most of this was before I came into the fandom at around 2007/8 and even then I hardly hung around any of the shipping sites like SugarQuill and Fiction Alley.

    I was wondering if any of you old old timers remember all this blowing up? Either way it's an interesting window into the HP fanfic world back when things were really crazy and everyone had their own site.
     
  2. Joe

    Joe The Reminiscent Exile ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter ⭐⭐⭐

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    Yeah this was the reason I turned to drink.

    Honestly, I remember bits and pieces - I was still a kid at the time. I recall the plagiarism scandals more than the cliques and backstabbing. I think one likely led to the other.
     
  3. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

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    I hung around SugarQuill some back in the day, back before OotP came out. Here's the link I usually give people when the Cassandra Claire debacle comes up:
    https://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Cassandra_Claire_Plagiarism_Debacle

    I've always found it to be illuminating as it has some examples of what some of the plagiarism accusations were based on:
    upload_2020-7-24_22-11-16.png

    I don't remember a lot of the rest of it though... will watch your vid soon and see if more of the details come back to me. It feels nostalgic to think about almost.

    Edit: Watched video. Was surprised it kept my attention for an hour (while I played board games) but it did. I think it helped that I was 'around' back then and recognized some of the names/sites, though it's all a vague haze.
     
    Last edited: Jul 25, 2020
  4. Silirt

    Silirt Chief Warlock DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

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    >2006
    I don't think I had opened a browser window in that year.
     
  5. ScottPress

    ScottPress The Horny Sovereign –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

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    I've read the LJ and seen the video before. This was all before my time in the English-speaking fandom.
     
  6. Glimmervoid

    Glimmervoid Professor

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    First off, I highly recommend this video. It's really interesting. I watched it last week.

    On the drama itself, I've heard of MsScribe before. I think SlateStarCodex wrote about it a bit. I wasn't into fanfiction where this was actually happening, though, so I've only heard this second hand.

    If you want something similar, you can also look into the case of Requires Hate - A Report on Damage Done by One Individual Under Several Names. This happened in original lit, not fanfiction, though.
     
  7. sonder

    sonder Professor

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    I remember hearing about when I first joined fandom from my fandom "mom".

    This is such a nostalgic throwback for me and I'm going to light some incense for her on her FF.net.
     
  8. Mordecai

    Mordecai Drunken Scotsman –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

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    I vaguely remember this from back at the dawn of time, this happened right around when I was getting into the fandom and mostly spending time on Mugglenet. Such a blast from the past..bloody hell.
     
  9. KHAAAAAAAN!!

    KHAAAAAAAN!! Troll in the Dungeon –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

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    #IWasLiterallyThere@GryffindorTower

    And it's the reason I left.
     
  10. Sorrows

    Sorrows Queen of the Flamingos Moderator

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    Give us the low down then. Was GT a bunch of prudish homophobes? How did it all come crashing down? Was it all a vast sockpuppet conspiracy?

    I wants to know
     
  11. KHAAAAAAAN!!

    KHAAAAAAAN!! Troll in the Dungeon –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

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    I can't speak to most of the shit that went down outside on livejournal because A) I wasn't really friends with any of the 'big name fans / big name sinners' and B) I was still in middle school and didn't really care too much about 'the fandom'. But to my immediate knowledge, a lot of the homophobia stuff at GT was overblown. I'd liken it to DLP's own NoSlash/NoGinny period (which I only caught the tail end of), but it was considerably more aggressive.

    GT was a pretty tight-knit community and people there were largely oblivious to everything going on outside the archive, right up until msscribe started exploiting the old hatred between GT mods and Cassie Claire and co. As Carissa eventually discovered in the infamous IP dump, msscribe was creating the raging homophobic crazy christian sockpups like fermatojam and pottersginny that were all "loyal members of GT" to go and harass everybody on SQ and Fiction Alley.

    That said, yes, the mods were fairly strict and rigid about no slash content. No content outside of their approved ships really. It was H/G and R/Hermione or fuck off.

    The thing I remember that generated the most internal upset was the gt hidden room parody site msscribe made. To this day, I cannot unsee the bloody/shitty pegging avatar.

    I left well before GT collapsed though and cruised on over to FictionAlley. The drama was exhausting and my horny thirteen-year-old self just wanted to read lewd fanfiction.

    All I really know is a secondhand account of the Queens having a relatively petty fight (supposedly about website color schemes?) and using site privileges against each other, and then the site imploded.
     
    Last edited: Jul 26, 2020
  12. Xiph0

    Xiph0 Yoda Admin

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    It's really hilarious to look back on, but I wasn't remotely reading HP forums back then.
     
  13. Erotic Adventures of S

    Erotic Adventures of S Denarii Host

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    That was amazing. I wasn’t in the fandom then so expected to watch the first 2 minutes then tab out.... nah. Watched it all in one sitting. Fucking brilliant.
     
  14. Demonbuttersage

    Demonbuttersage First Year

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    This is like watching an ancient history documentary to someone who joined the fandom very late like me.
     
  15. Selethe

    Selethe normalphobe

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    Is the Arabella they mention in the video the same Arabella that wrote that one Ginny horror fic in the library? A Very Secret Diary? https://archiveofourown.org/works/2345300/chapters/5171522

    There's another fic of hers which mentions Zsenya, who's mentioned in the video as well. If they are the same person then that's pretty nuts/interesting. Arabella's stuff is some of the best in the fandom
     
  16. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

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    Arabella and Zsenya were two of the authors I remember most clearly from my time on SugarQuill. "After the End" was their big showpiece if I remember correctly, as it was a completed fic that 'finished' the HP story before JKR did and tried to predict canon. I recall being both impressed at their efforts and underwhelmed by the story.
     
  17. Nevermind

    Nevermind Headmaster

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    The video was amazing. All of that happened well before my time, but that just made it all the more fascinating.

    Truly a Golden Age of wank.*

    *That sounded better in my head.
     
  18. Arthellion

    Arthellion Lord of the Banned ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    I find it fascinating how DLP wasn't involved in any of the bullshit drama that went down during those era's. Y'all just said "fuck everyone" it seems lol

    Edit: Oh wait, DLP wasn't even around then were they?
     
  19. Crownworthy

    Crownworthy Banned

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    Sadly, the Hall of Shame has been removed, but it documented a fair bit of drama involving DLP.
     
  20. Sorrows

    Sorrows Queen of the Flamingos Moderator

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    This deals with 2001-2007, with most of the drama happening in the early 2000s. DLP was birthed in (I think) 2005. So it was a little late to this crazy pants party.

    At least I think it was. I wasn't here at the time.