The Here And Now

Baltimore Area Fans - Fandom History Rescue Help Needed

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 19:31:15 GMT

Fandom History Rescue Help Needed: Edgewood Maryland (1 hr north of Baltimore)

A Star Trek fan needs help retrieving her fandom history collection from her apartment now that she is in a nursing home. It consists of correspondence and fanzines dealing with Star Trek and Sime Gen fandom history in the 1970s and 1980s. If there are any volunteers willing to help sort and box for shipping, please send me a DM or email me at morgandawn @ gmail.com

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Fandom History Rescue Help - Phoenix Arizona

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 19:26:34 GMT

A few months ago Phoenix fans helped rescue a fanzine collection and were in the process of boxing the collection for shipping. The organizer/volunteer has been ill and we're looking for volunteers in the Phoenix area willing and able to help with the final push of boxing and shipping the zines to their final home. Please send me a message or email morgandawn @ gmail.com

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Persian/Farsi Speakers Needed For Yahoo Groups Rescue Project

Tue, 15 Jul 2025 00:07:39 GMT

Fandom History: Persian/Farsi Speakers Needed

In late 2019, TV, movie, anime, gaming, celebrity, music, and book fans assembled to save Yahoo Groups after Verizon decided to shut down the mailing list service. Approximately 300,000 fandom groups have been saved. The Yahoo Gedden project is working on identifying the fandoms of Persian language mailing lists and can use your help. We need people who can read Persian/Farsi natively* right now to help us identify the Unknown groups. You can work at your own pace and it is a low time commitment. Work is done on Discord, just reading the group description and a few messages and summarizing the messages in English, maybe answering a question of clarification ("is it talking about X or Y?"). No software or other tools needed besides your phone/computer and access to Discord.

Discord invite: https://discord.gg/UyJdffhw2b

*We're not certain if these mailing lists are using a specific dialect or standard modern Farsi

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Italian Speakers Need For Yahoo Groups Rescue Project

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 03:57:16 GMT

In late 2019, TV, movie, anime, gaming, celebrity, music, and book fans assembled to save Yahoo Groups after Verizon decided to shut down the mailing list service. Approximately 300,000 fandom groups have been saved. The Yahoo Gedden project is working on identifying the fandoms of Italian language mailing lists and can use your help. We need people who can read Italian natively right now to help us identify the Unknown groups. You can work at your own pace and it is a low time commitment. Work is done on Discord, just reading the Italian group description and a few messages and summarizing the messages in English, maybe answering a question of clarification ("is it talking about X or Y?"). No software or other tools needed besides your phone/computer and access to Discord.

Discord invite: https://discord.gg/UyJdffhw2b

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Flex Your Political Muscles

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 20:23:20 GMT

Feel free to copy and paste this and share with others

It is important to reach out to your State and Federal elected officials to let them know how unhappy you might be over some of the decisions they are making (or actions they are not taking). Here are simple tools that can make this process easier

1. Find out who represents you

Federal Level
https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member

For your state representatives, head over to your state legislature website. But see number #5 below, there is a easy to use service called Resistbot that will set you up for both federal and state legislature texting and emailing . You can also contact your governor through Resistbot and in some larger areas even your mayor. And yes you can also use it to reach out to the White House. Resistbot Is the Swiss army knife for poking your elected officials

https://www.facebook.com/resistbot?mibextid=ZbWKwL or https://resist.bot/
Text RESIST to 50409 to contact your federal, state, or local elected officials; create movements; and more. Over 30,000,000 letters deliver
Resistbot

2. If you can't get through your representative or senator offices, try calling after hours. If their voicemail boxes are full, you might have better luck at their state offices which is usually listed on their federal website

3. No matter their political party, your elected officials need to hear from you. Even if you know they will never ever budge or change their positions, they need to know what we want from them. We pay their salaries. We are their employers. Let's not make it easy for them to ignore us.

4. If you're unsure what to say, there are scripts available at 5Calls.org

5. If you don't want to make phone calls, join a texting service that will text or email your representatives from your phone. I recommend Resistbot which you can use easily from Facebook Messenger, Instagram or Telegram. There is a text option for your phone but they limit your text to 150 characters and that is a pain. Head over to Resistbot, send them a message through Facebook Messenger and they will walk you through how to set yourself up.

Resistbot https://resist.bot/
Text RESIST to 50409 to contact your federal, state, or local elected officials; create movements; and more. Over 30,000,000 letters deliver
Resistbot

6. Finally, some find 5calls.org to be a bit too fast paced and stressful. I recommend the Americans of Conscience Checklist. Every 2 weeks they release a list of 4 -5 issues to discuss with elected officials along with a list of people to thank which is a positive action. They also provide scripts and a way of tracking your progress.

https://americansofconscience.com/

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Support The Only Educational Filmstrip Preservation Project In The World

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 23:44:12 GMT

Please promote - help preserve educational filmstrips that no one else in the world is archiving. Link to video about the project. If you cannot donate, please share.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8SYb-GHii8

Link to the GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-me-save-an-almostlost-film-format

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Women In Fandom History

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 23:51:51 GMT

I am not affiliated with this fandom history group, but they do great work. Their focus is mainly literary sci-fi fandom which took off in the 1930s.

FANAC Fan History Zoom publicity release

"We have less than a week until the next FANAC Fan History Zoom program. We have some very knowledgeable fans on this program and it promises to be an enlightening subject in an often overlooked area of our field. This is the last FANAC Fan History Zoom for this season. Join us!.

Please get the word out to all your friends.

The Women Fen Don't See

Claire Brialey, Kate Heffner, and Leah Zeldes Smith

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Time: 3PM EDT, 2PM CDT, Noon PDT, 7PM London (GMT), and Mar 17 at 6AM AEDT in Melbourne

To attend, send a note to fanac@fanac.org

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No Safety Net - Elder Care In America

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 23:03:36 GMT

This is an actual conversation I had this morning. Note: the programs described are not actually for broken legs - I just simplified. Our state - which is more generous than most states - offers fragmented and complicated programs for seniors on low income. If you sign up for one, you are locked out of all the rest. Yes you can switch, but you go back to the end of the line. For some the wait list is 2 years.

Me: Hello, I understand there's a program that will help my mom if she breaks her leg again. Can you tell me more about it?

Social Worker: Oh you mean the program for people who break their ankles?

Me: No, the one for people who break their legs and need intensive care because they can't get in and out of bed

Social Worker: Oh that program, well does she have a broken leg now?

Me: No. She had one last year and it was a nightmare and she almost died because of it. We just want to find out what the program is all about so that we can plan ahead because she has fragile bones and is likely to fracture her leg again

Social Worker: Well that's handled by a different department and I don't know much about it. I'll refer you to Case Management Program A instead.

Me: I know the Case Management Program A. I reached out to them last week and they told me that they only handle cases where someone breaks their left leg.

Social Worker: Correct. For right legs we'd send your mom somewhere else when the time comes.

Me: Can you direct me to basic information about both the right and left broken leg programs. Are they the same? Are there any qualifying criteria? Does she have to be over 65 or have a certain income level? We just want to know what help we can expect when she breaks her leg again

Social Worker:. Well qualifying is complicated, and it takes a lot of work for us to figure out whether or not she belongs in the right broken leg or the left broken leg program and frankly whether she even qualifies for any broken leg program. So you just have to wait and find out. In the meantime, l can refer you to Case Management Program A to help guide you to the various options

Me: Will they be able to give me an overview about both broken leg programs?

Social Worker:. Are you only interested in the broken leg programs?

Me: I'd like to know about all the programs that my mom might be eligible for. Broken ankles, broken legs, broken arms, broken wrist, broken heads. Who can give me this overview?

Social Worker: Well it depends on what you're looking for

Me: (thinking: Help with broken things???) Okaaaaay... I'll talk to the Case Management Program A again. I think I spoke to a different case management program last year. They were called Case Management Program B and they had a 4-month waiting list

Social Worker: Oh yes that's Case Management Program B. They have a 4-month waiting list. I'll be sending you to Case Management Program A.

Me: Does Case Management A have a waiting list?

Social Worker: I don't know. You'll have to ask them

Me: What's the difference between the two case management programs?

Social Worker: Well they both offer case management services

Me: Yes? Do they offer any different types of case management services?

Social Worker: Case Management Program B can provide respite services and can get your Mom into adult day care programs. Case Management Program A can only tell you about the programs. They don't have any funding to get you into those programs

Me: So why would I want to go to Case Management Program A if they can't actually get my mom into these programs?

Social Worker: Well Case Management Program B has stricter criteria as to who they let in.

Me: . I guess that's why they have a 4 month waiting list. So once I start with one of the case management programs, can I switch? Could I start with Case Management Program A because they don't have a waiting list and then switch over to Case Management Program B once I get in?

Social Worker: You can switch but you can only pick one to apply to at a time

Me: So I either apply to one with a 4-month waiting list, wait for 4 months to find out if Mom qualifies. Or apply to one right away that is easier to get into but that doesn't provide that many services. But I cannot apply to both at the same time?

Social Worker: Yes.

Me: Who do I go to to switch? Do I contact you?

Social Worker: Well if you wanted to switch to Case Management Program A, then yes you would have to go through me first. But I think you can switch to Case Management Program B without going to me first. You'll have to ask them.

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Supernatural Fanfic/Podfic

Sun, 10 Mar 2024 07:31:16 GMT

Supernatural fans, if you collect fanfic and podfic, a large personal collection assembled by multiple fans will be going offline in 2 months. Details here and here

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Fandom History Grinds Onwards, But Hopefully Not To A Halt (2023 Year Of Fanzine Archives)

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 07:04:56 GMT

First up - my numbers are pulled from memory and are most likely off. By a lot.

My friend MPH and I spent last year helping an East Coast fan process the 1700+ zine collection that she had inherited from 3 older fans. This is still ongoing.

We identified every zine that needed scanning (a lot more than we thought there would be), then worked with the universities who are still accepting zines (so few now, see below) to find homes. Un-scanned zines were shipped to my friend MPH for scanning (around 700), then onwards to their destinations. We even recruited another University (Michigan State) to take a few unwanted zines. The collection owner is still in the process of shipping and MPH is still scanning. After all is done, the fan may have 400 zines that no university wants but will offer up to fans.

I also received a surprise donation (door to door delivery) of 180 zines over the summer. Those were also sent to MPH for scanning, then onwards to Texas A&M University.

In the midst of this I realized I had waited too long to donate my remaining zine collection - Iowa will not allow me to add any new items - even non duplicates or items they do not have. Texas A&M University would only take non-duplicated items and they already have the zines in my remaining collection. I shipped a small amount of zines to the UK K/S Project. I smile every time I think of my zines - with my name lightly penciled on the inside covers like a dog-eared copy of a favorite novel - wandering the world.

And finally, the escapade Fanzine Library was handed over to franzeska for safekeeping. I scanned a few of those zines myself but I could not scan the Velobound ones since I lack the machine to put them back together. She plans to keep the Library intact as a collection. I will most likely send my remaining fanzine collection over to her as well.

So there we have it - there are (or were) 4-5 universities in the US who collect fanzines.

Current Status

Iowa - will not take anything. Or maybe they will? My collection is sadly closed to me.
TAMU - only if not already in their collection
UC Riverside - only sci-fi and fantasy (sorry other TV and movie fandoms) and only if not duplicated
Bowling Green (Ohio) - ????Have not spoken to them in a while, need to check
Michigan State - only well known, recent fandoms (Buffy, Harry Potter, Z-Files) and they can only accept a few each year

There are other places listed on the Open Doors website

This is not to discourage fans from reaching out to any of the places listed on the Open Door's website to find homes for their zines. In fact, your collection may fit into gaps that a university needs to fill or they might have some other special interest.

Also, if you have Star Trek fanzines, KS Fanzine Library is still active. In the US they are rebuilding the library, the EU is still up and running. And if you have Beauty and the Beast fanzines they have a lending library. Blake's 7 fans have their own Discord server and trade fanzines. There is a small 300 person Facebook group for fanfiction fanzines (buy and sell). Dr Who fanzines were historically light on fanfiction, trending more towards essays and newsletters, but there is an active 1000 person Dr Who fanzine collector Facebook group.

And no matter what - we'd love to hear about your collection - there are thousands of zines that have never been scanned and you might just have the missing issues. Or you might have a better copy or one with the missing pages. We are always looking for newsletters, letterzines, APAs, flyers and convention program guides - the bits and bobs that show how we connected with one another before online communities

What happens to the scans?
They are used to support 3 projects:
1. The Sandy Hereld Memorial Digitized Fanzine Collection at Texas A&M University (mainly limited onsite access, deposited with publisher permission)
2. Open Door's Fanzine Scan Hosting Project
3. The Fanfiction Fanzine Collection on the Internet Archive (zines uploaded with publisher permission).

Can I Help?
Yes, you can! If you have zines, email us a list of the titles (we need Fandom and Titles). If you want to find homes for them, we ask that you allow us to scan ones that we do not already have. If you want to hold onto them, we still would love to see the list and borrow some for non-destructive scanning (we pay for the shipping).

What is our most urgent need?
We need project managers to help us inventory and add meta data about the zines we have scanned. We cannot recruit any volunteers until we have at least 2 fans willing to give a 1 year commitment to getting the inventory started. Right now our team is small (3 people) and we're all hands on deck scanning and preserving. Save first, count later.

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Uphill, In The Snow, Both Ways: Record Your Fandom History

Tue, 19 Dec 2023 05:58:11 GMT

Come record your fandom memories. The Media Fandom Oral History project is now open to anyone who wants to participate.

Details here

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Looking For "Rated T For Trans" Podcast

Sat, 28 Oct 2023 06:37:34 GMT

Audio recordings
https://fanlore.org/wiki/Rated_T_For_Trans

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Looking For Copies Of Slash Report Podcast

Sat, 28 Oct 2023 06:17:10 GMT

Season 1

14 August 2011 - Slash Cast

21 August 2011 - Comic books with The Hoyden

28 August 2011 - Hurricane Safari with Merelyn and Twentysomething

4 September 2011 - Anon Kink Memes and Writing with Leupagus

18 September 2011 - Rookie Seasons

25 September 2011 - Hawaii Five-0 with Leupagus

27 September 2011 - Emergency Delicious Broadcast

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Fan vid mentions in NY Times

Wed, 25 Oct 2023 21:18:20 GMT

Link that bypasses paywall
https://archive.ph/2023.10.25-144955/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/25/style/bottoms-fan-edits.html

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Looking For Fanzines

Mon, 23 Oct 2023 04:32:49 GMT

My friend Kathy Resch has been publishing fanzines since 1975. Many of her zine masters were lost in a house fire and we're looking for people with copies of the following willing to loan them to us for scanning for her

Please send me a message at my gmail address MorganDawn if interested.

Beauty and the Beast Mask: Tales from the Underground #2, 5, 7

Blake's 7 -A Delicate Balance (gen)

Blake's 7 -Checkers: (adult Het)

Blake's 7 -Fire and Ice #5, 8

Dark Shadows -Beginnings: the Island of Ghosts

Dark Shadows -Dark Shadows Concordance 1840

Dark Shadows -Dark Shadows Concordance 1897

Dark Shadows -Dark Shadows Concordance 1968

Dark Shadows -Dark Shadows Concordance 1970

Dark Shadows -Dark Shadows Concordance 1991

Dark Shadows -Dark Shadows Concordance Leviathan (2003)

Dark Shadows -DAVID HOFSTEDE'S DARK SHADOWS VIDEO REVIEWS

Dark Shadows -FROM THE SHADOWS – VIRGINIA WALDRON (DARK SHADOWS)

Dark Shadows -From the Shadows...Marcy Robin

Dark Shadows -If Tomorrow Never Comes

Dark Shadows -Jessica

Dark Shadows -My Boy Willie

Dark Shadows -Never and Again

Dark Shadows -Passion in the Shadows

Dark Shadows -Rebirth of the Undead

Dark Shadows -Secrets in the Shadows

Dark Shadows -Shadowed Beginnings

Dark Shadows -SHADOWS IN THE 90s

Dark Shadows -Summer’s Son

Dark Shadows -Tales from the Shadows # 1:

Dark Shadows -The Winds of Eternity

Dark Shadows -The Year the Fire Came

Dark Shadows -What If the Night Never Ended and the Day Never Came?

Horatio Hornblower -Adventure and Adversity # 1

Multiple Fandoms -No Holds Barred #5, 17

Star Trek -Kaleidoscope # 3-6

V “V” - Martin - a Novel of Reconciliation - V

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Livejournal Flagging Posts Linking To AO3

Thu, 28 Sep 2023 05:42:23 GMT

From snickfic 's post

Yesterday morning I woke up to two emails from Livejournal informing me of posts of mine that were determined to contain "pornographic materials involving minors." They told me access to these posts were now suspended, and if I tried to repost this content, they would close my account.

1. If you think I actually have that content on my blog, would you not fucking ALREADY CLOSE MY ACCOUNT.

2. The posts in question were the AO3 header info for two Gamora/Nebula stories. Not even the text of the fics! Just the headers, with links to AO3! Definitely no actual pornography of any kind involving real people.

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USA: Get Free Covid Tests

Tue, 26 Sep 2023 20:17:02 GMT

4 free Covid tests are now available again from the US government Covid info website: https://www.covid.gov/tests

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Signal Boost: Twitter/X to Bluesky

Tue, 26 Sep 2023 20:14:47 GMT

vivdunstan posted: Twitter/X to Bluesky

Fellow migrants to Bluesky from Twitter/X who still have accounts there may want to check out the Sky Follower Bridge add on for Firefox or Chrome. This lets you find more people you follow on the Bird site who are on Bluesky.

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Signal Boost: Give Back To Squidge Fundraiser

Sun, 20 Aug 2023 19:59:51 GMT

squidgestatus posted: Give Back To Squidge Fundraiser

Squidge.org could use your help!

While Squidge.org is much smaller than other fandom organizations, it still costs a couple thousand dollars a year to run and maintain. And that's where you come in. We're running a "Back to School? Give Back To Squidge!" fundraising campaign, and hope to raise money to keep us going. Any little bit helps.

There are two ways to give:

Through our fundraising platform Aplos by clicking this link

Through PayPal by clicking this link

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Signal Boost: Fanvids?

Sun, 06 Aug 2023 20:46:41 GMT

bethcarielle posted: Fanvids?

"Where do fanvids live now days? YouTube? I see a few on AO3 but just wondering if there's an archive devoted to vids. "

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Signal Boost: OTW Elections 2023 - First set of Q&A

Fri, 07 Jul 2023 04:32:45 GMT

elf posted: OTW Elections 2023 - First set of Q&A

There are currently six candidates for the OTW board. The first set of Q&As (there will be three more) are posted at the OTW Elections site - but not the main news feed or AO3. (Maybe there'll be a post later?)

Questions: Candidates were allowed 300 words each to answer; some questions contain sections sent in by multiple users.

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Fan Vid/Vidding Stats

Sun, 18 Jun 2023 22:47:50 GMT

I've been combining my vid show playlists (thank you to every convention that has ever offered their playlists to their convention attendees in any format ...and an even huger thank you to those using Google Sheets or Excel or some format that can be converted).

The Two Big Vidding Conventions

Vividcon (2002-2018), a fan run vidding convention showed approximately 4,737 vids.

VidUKon (2008-present), a similar vidding convention based in the UK has shown approximately 2,248 fanvids

You can find Vividcon's fanvid database here

VidUKon has combined its database with other conventions that run on the Conline.Club platform. You cannot search by convention year, but the dataset allows you to search by Fandom, Vidder and Title

Other Conventions
Below is the list of conventions where I am trying to gather the lists of fanvids that were shown - it ranges from 1979 through the present

Bascon
BistoCon
Cabrillo Con
Calicon
Con.txt
Confabulation
Connexions
Constrict
Convergence
DC SlashCon
Eastern Media Con
Eclecticon
Equinox Spring (a challenge, not a convention)
Equinox Fall (a challenge, not a convention)
Escapade
FanWorksCon
FemmeslashCon (TGIF/F)
FanStudies (an academic convention)
Festivids (a challenge, not a convention)
Friscon
Geek Media Expo
Hypericon
IDICon
Kiscon
Kismet
MediaWest
Nine Worlds
PacificCon/ Bitchin' Party
Revelcon
Slashcon (Australia)
Sharecon (SH10x)
Sherlock (Seattle)
Sirens Conference
Slashcon (AUS)
Slayage
Swancon (AUS)
Southern Media Con (VidCon until 2010)
VidUKon
Virgule
Vividcon
VegaSH Con
Wincon
Wiscon
WorldCon
ZebraCon

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Kindle Books $4 and under

Sun, 28 May 2023 19:18:46 GMT

I have $4 Kindle rewards that expire in 2 weeks. Rec me your favorite author - I prefer fantasy or sci-fi that focuses on characters/relationships but am not averse to world building/larger themes. Nothing grim or dystopia. OK if it is part of a series and if it is a few dollars more than $4 (up to $12). Plus if it supports a minority or LGBTQ author (or themes).

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Digital preservation: not fandom specific

Tue, 23 May 2023 17:39:51 GMT

Something near and dear to my heart, digital archival preservation. Here's a link to the GoFundMe. Note this is non-fandom specific, but this individual is the only person currently archiving educational film strips

"I am an independent media archivist saving obscure and lost media on vinyl, cassette, VHS, and especially sound filmstrip, an old educational slideshow-like format on 35mm film. I have more than a thousand items uploaded to the Internet Archive, with several thousand left to digitize. However, I am not connected to a university like most archivists and therefore don't have an unlimited budget.

Backups are super important to a project like this, and recently one of my backup destinations, Google Drive, set up a storage limit that is way too low for my needs. They did this suddenly and without warning. "

https://gofund.me/685d7218

If donating is not feasible, consider volunteering by helping him identify lost media either through the twice a week live Twitch streams

https://twitter.com/uncommnephemera

or by checking out the Uncommon Ephemera Haystack Media collection on the Internet Archive. This audio collection will be up for two more weeks while we work to identify unidentified off-air radio recordings or vinyl album recordings

https://archive.org/details/uncommon-ephemera-lost-media-haystack?tab=about&s=09

And if you just want to see something truly special check out this 1955 #Christian #filmstrip. It is from a series called "Parables From Nature," but it's about a fairy who eats the wrong mushroom and demands all mushrooms be destroyed.

https://archive.org/embed/uncommon-ephemera-filmstrip-pn-252b-the-fairy-ring-cathedral-films-1955

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Fanvid Videotape Conversion Project

Sat, 20 May 2023 00:44:28 GMT

OK time for stats on my #VHS #VideoTape #digitiztion project

1. I have 291 mainly #VHS videotapes of #fanvids (or #songtapes / #songvids

2. I received most of them back in the 2010s - my progress is glacial

3. I still have 178 more videotapes to convert. Some of these are duplicates but given the poor tape quality, the plan is to convert all of them

4. My lossless conversion setup no longer works (capture cards have grown worse over the years and the ones I had only worked with OS that no longer runs aka Win XP). So I am relying on DVD-Recorder to digitize what I can.

What is a songtape or a songvid?

https://fanlore.org/wiki/Songtape_Collection

#archiving #FandomHistory #vidding

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