What do you expect for a fansite?

[Cele]

What do you think is a must for a fansite?

[fLaMEd]

I've been thinking about this recently; here is my list:

- Homepage
Should describe the site:
-- Who it's about
-- what you can find within the pages.
-- You can also include a news feed to provide headlines or links to news articles.

About
-- Biography
-- Trivia
-- Quotes

Discography
should include links, descriptions, and info on all of their projects, e.g.
-- Albums
-- Movies
-- Books

Photo Gallery
Include photos from official appearances, magazines, photoshoots, and events. Never include paparazzi photos.

Media
Links to various forms of media:
-- Music videos
-- Movie trailers
-- Podcast appearances etc.

Online
-- Links to official websites, IMDb, Spotify, YouTube, socials etc.
-- Links to around the web, other fan sites, and your affiliate fansites

About
-- Info about your website
-- Credits to sources
-- Thanks to the fansite subject for being awesome to inspire the website etc.

This list should be an excellent basis to get you started.

[Cele]

Oh thank you, those are really good

[teatime]

fLaMEd has a good list! if its a fansite for something like a video game or movie it'd be a bit different. i imagine you could have different galleries of images, such as one for promotional images and one for images during development/production (if you can even find those!) 

[fLaMEd]

fLaMEd has a good list! if its a fansite for something like a video game or movie it'd be a bit different. i imagine you could have different galleries of images, such as one for promotional images and one for images during development/production (if you can even find those!)

Yeah 100%

A game fan site I would have character info, release dates, launch trailers, gameplay trailers, maps, walk-throughs, Easter eggs, cheat codes. 

For development/production images, lots of collectors editions of games would include an art book or a dvd with this type of material. 

[creaturefeature]

besides the typical standard stuff trivia about the show/band whatever, maybe a character gallery, and other stuff, to me a must would be a fanfic page, either fic you wrote yourself or even just ones you recommend linked backed to their creators, and maybe a fanart gallerly if you have some drawing skills

[debleb]

i would expect some information about the thing, pictures of it, what you like about it, who should try it, and maybe the origins of it. and of course show how much you like the thing!

[Tiffany]

What I've always like about fansites was (1)they keep updated with the subject, whether it was movie/tv show news, or something random, (2) dedicated forum to not only the subject but a community of fans, (3) gallery of high quality images, (4) the history and any relevant info on the subject, and (5) just being updated.

[Cele]

I made this topic when I was thinking of making a new fansite and now I have made it. Neocities seems to have plenty of personal websites, but on the fansite front... not as much. I ended up using many of the tips here I think and am planning on adding more in the future so thank you a lot

[Cele]

I also want to make fansites but I am afraid of getting sued.

People who are in the Telegram group already know this but a friend of mine got sued a few weeks ago, for €14000, for having some small GIF of a pixelart guy dancing on their neocities website without permission. A random lawyer who I don't even think has anything to do with the original author wrote a warning, they challenged, and eventually lost and had to pay up.

I can't imagine how terrible it would be being sued by a large publisher like Nintendo who takes offense to you using logos, screenshots or something from their game.
So I wrote an e-mail to Ubisoft asking what their policies are, but I did not get a response :/

One more reason why copyright on art shouldn't exist, or at least fair use should be expanded to fan work.

What on earth. Like was the pixel art of some copyrighted character? Or did the lawyer represent the artist?

I've had tons of different fansites ever since I was a kid and have never had any trouble at all. It's difficult to even imagine. Considering how common things like gaming wikis are for video games etc., sharing fanwork on sites like Reddit, gaming videos and the like, going after a fansite is about the dumbest thing a company can do (unless the site is distributing leaked or pirated material).

[Cele]

The lawyer claimed to represent the artist's collective bargaining union (like GEMA), although we have no idea if this is the truth. They got it off gifcities.

Ohh those. I guess in such a case with a fansite, you could just remove the image even if it wasn't a legit claim. I would generally consider official images to be "safe ground" (assuming the company aren't idiots) and if I include fanart/videos, I try to embed the artist's original post (or add credits if the artist permits reposts). Though of course with old pixel art, I don't do that and well most people don't, the case you described is pretty weird.

[Melooon]

Unfortunately they had no legal recourse but to pay the fine

I'm sorry, but are you saying someone went to court over their neocities sites having a gif and the court ordered them to pay a fine to an unknown authority? I find this EXTREMELY hard to believe, but if it is true it's a very serious incident that should be widely known. There is a long and established history of fair use within the arts and media industries that very much applies here. If it did not go to court then this was almost certainly a scam; if it did go to court there will be public records outlining the case in detail and I would like to see those records immediately.

[Cele]

Unfortunately they had no legal recourse but to pay the fine; it wasn't a warning, it was damages. But I can ask for more details... I don't know it all.

I think you said they got a warning from a lawyer and then challenged? So if you want to be very safe, don't challenge such a warning