I've been following these debates a bit, and not commenting much, but something about your poll, and seeing RPF of living vs dead people right next to each other, made me think about the way historical fiction keeps coming up as a borderline case. Because my gut reaction was that historical RPF is original fic, and living people RPF is fanfic, but that flat-out doesn't make sense.
Historical RPF, more than music/actor/other living people RPF, is a place where I think fandom is defined by the community more than the source material. I'm barely even involved in historical RPF, but it seems like something that would be regarded by people outside of fandom as original fiction, but yet can rely on that fandom sense of community to be understood. It can have the fandom in-jokes, the discussion of canon, writers and beta-readers helping each other with canon nitpicking, everything that comes with writing fanfiction. I'm sure some historical RPF probably doesn't make sense to someone who isn't in fandom, because I'm sure some of it is written for a fandom audience. But I'm equally sure that some of it is probably completely comprehensible to someone who knows nothing about the fandom and reads like original, historical fiction.
It also raises some thoughts for me about how LJ/DW-based fandom seems to think of fanfiction as being about characters. I've been a part of fanfic-writing communities in other online spaces where it was just as common, and sometimes even the norm, to write fanfic that used only the setting of the canon we all liked, but telling stories with original characters. I can see that translating into historical fanfic as a particularly murky area. If you have a fannish community, a group of fans who are all fans of, I don't know, a particular part of history, and are all invested in the 'canon' of historical facts and like writing about them, I can see someone writing fanfic that has little to do with the 'canon characters', or features OCs or perhaps no characters at all, just to explore the time and place that makes up the 'setting' for that fandom. It would absolutely look like original fiction, because it has no 'canon' characters and isn't based in a made-up world, but to its audience, it's fanfic.
Hmmm. Long thoughts. I'm someone who's happy and actually eager to include people who write original fiction in fannish spaces, though I understand the aversion some people have in the case of AO3.
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Historical RPF, more than music/actor/other living people RPF, is a place where I think fandom is defined by the community more than the source material. I'm barely even involved in historical RPF, but it seems like something that would be regarded by people outside of fandom as original fiction, but yet can rely on that fandom sense of community to be understood. It can have the fandom in-jokes, the discussion of canon, writers and beta-readers helping each other with canon nitpicking, everything that comes with writing fanfiction. I'm sure some historical RPF probably doesn't make sense to someone who isn't in fandom, because I'm sure some of it is written for a fandom audience. But I'm equally sure that some of it is probably completely comprehensible to someone who knows nothing about the fandom and reads like original, historical fiction.
It also raises some thoughts for me about how LJ/DW-based fandom seems to think of fanfiction as being about characters. I've been a part of fanfic-writing communities in other online spaces where it was just as common, and sometimes even the norm, to write fanfic that used only the setting of the canon we all liked, but telling stories with original characters. I can see that translating into historical fanfic as a particularly murky area. If you have a fannish community, a group of fans who are all fans of, I don't know, a particular part of history, and are all invested in the 'canon' of historical facts and like writing about them, I can see someone writing fanfic that has little to do with the 'canon characters', or features OCs or perhaps no characters at all, just to explore the time and place that makes up the 'setting' for that fandom. It would absolutely look like original fiction, because it has no 'canon' characters and isn't based in a made-up world, but to its audience, it's fanfic.
Hmmm. Long thoughts. I'm someone who's happy and actually eager to include people who write original fiction in fannish spaces, though I understand the aversion some people have in the case of AO3.