I’m not going to get into the whole morality thing about FanHistory or even fanhistory. But (and here I am quoting from a source I agree with, as I refuse to touch the offender’s site as it will further her own ends):
Obviously, there’s no law that says unwanted information must be removed. Once you put something out there on the internet, it’s technically fair game. But fandom has always had a rather widely-accepted understanding about things. Certain things are Not Okay. If someone posts your fanworks on their archive without your permission and refuses to remove them when you ask, that is Not Okay. What I realize now is, with FanHistory, we now have an entity that flies in the face of all those mores. If it’s ever been revealed anywhere, FanHistory feels it has a right to print it, whether or not you object, and the precious line between fandom life and real life will not be respected. Even if it was posted under a friends lock. Even if it was said to a buddy in chat. If it’s out there, they’re taking it. All for the sake of, I assume, some pompous desire to bring The Truth to the world, whether or not it’s actually useful or relevant to anything. http://dejana.livejournal.com/152580.html?style=mine
Because seriously? Pseudonyms are handled by real people. Obviously, aspects of the pseudonym’s owner are going to leak. That does NOT mean the owner of the pseudonym wants his/her RL identity revealed. Despite what some may think, many pseudonyms are utilized for a reason, and that reason is privacy. Heard of it? -_- For the most part, fandom and online social communities are a friendly, generous bunch. If people are letting their RL names slip, it’s because they feel secure in the community and/or online friends/flist, and not because they “want their real life identity to be utilized by fandom.” *
Disregard of the friendly part of the community and the spirit of ‘holding laws to the letter and not the spirit’ is so indicative of a corporate mindset. Of the telemarketer/phishing type. Which no one likes.
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*In my personal case, my RL identity is ridiculously easy to find, to anyone who bothers looking at my eljay info page and who has access to facebook. This does not mean I am expecting my name to be “utilized in/by fandom” (-_-), I leave it obvious for purposes of communication, and I admit, in the vague hope making some RL friends through internet. (I’ve heard the intarweb is good for that.) The uninitiated always think that fanfiction is something to be ashamed of, and if I wrote copious amounts of pr0n or anything potentially embarrassing (like if I had a public image I needed to maintain), I might be inclined to that way of thinking, but my stance has always been that fanfiction is an outlet for creativity, and has the potential to serve as a practice in writing (the canon is all there; you don’t have to make it up). I don’t really see why some people give so much of a damn about their fan identities reflecting badly on their real one. Fanfiction is a self-indulgence in a lot of ways, yes, but it’s harmless one akin to an addiction to myspace. It’s writing. It’s creativity. I’ve always been told those were Good Things.
On a tangent, I liked this. It’s a short, but great piece on the ‘rules’ of fandom.