Trivia
This page contains some random trivia relating to hanfic–top ten and twenty lists, firsts and more. For anyone who is a big nerd like me, this stuff will be interesting. For those who are new to hanfic, this might also help them get a feel for our world. And some of it might even surprise those who have been around since the beginning.
| Top Nationalities of Authors/Readers* 1. United States 2. Brazil 3. Australia 4. Canada 5. United Kingdom 6. Germany 7. France 8. Chile 9. Philippines 10. Mexico *Based on the directory, site hits and my recent survey. |
Top Archives* 1. Personal Websites (>16,700 still accessible/archived of ~160,000) 2. Mailing Lists (~4,000, almost none still available) 3. LiveJournal (>2,600) 4. Archive of Our Own (>1030) 5. FanFiction.net (~950-1000 pre-RPF removal) 6. Stay Dreaming/The Tightrope (>345 pre-closure) 7. Dreamwidth (>260) 8. Wattpad (>230) (187+28/15 oneshots) 9. Fandomination.net (>65 pre-closure) 10. Fiction @ Failed-To-Say.net (>49 pre-closure) *Numbers of stories are approximate. |
| Top Titles of Hanfic Stories*^ 1. Never Let Go 2. Friends Forever 3. More Than Anything 4. Save Me 5. If Only 6. Dream Come True 7. Smile 8. This Time Around 9. With You In Your Dreams 10. Runaway Run 11. A Song To Sing 12. Angel 13. Madeline 14. Thinking of You 15. Weird 16. Fallen Angel 17. Forever 18. Mmmbop 19. Perfect 20. I Will Come To You *Based on my own research while compiling the directory. |
Top Girls Names Used in Hanfic* 1. Jennifer 2. Sarah 3. Catherine 4. Christina 5. Ashley 6. Elizabeth 7. Julia 8. Lauren 9. Rebecca 10. Anne 11. Nicole 12. Amanda 13. Madeline 14. Rachel 15. Amy 16. Lucy 17. Samantha 18. Jessica 19. Melissa 20. Allison *Based on Michelle’s Hanfic Stats and my own research. Read more here. |
| Longest Single Hanfics* (by chapter count) 1. Forever and a Day 2 (700 chapters) 2. Air Waves (358 chapters) 3. Forever and a Day (200 chapters) 4. Here We Go Round Again (190 chapters) 5. Amazed (185 chapters) |
(by word count) 1. Forever and a Day 2 (~1.05mil words) 2.Infinity (587k words) 3. FUBAR (578k words) 4. Air Waves (~502k words) 5. Life Less Ordinary (~454k words) |
| Longest Hanfic Series (by story count) 1. Anomalies (21 fics) 2. Kindred Series (18 fics) 3. Logs (13 fics) 4. Hanson’s Creek et al (9 fics) 5. The Kitchen (8 fics) |
(by word count) 1. Forever and a Day (~1.35mil words) 2. SNAFUBAR (>1.25mil words) 3. Forbidden Love Series (1.1mil words) 4. As Long As I Come Home To You Series (~1mil words) 5. Logs (>782k words) |
| Longest Running Hanfics (Single Stories) 1. Embers (2004-2017) 2. Carter (1998-2008) and Oh, God (2000-2010) 3. The Consequence of Feeling (2004-2012) and Living Up The Ghost (2003-2011) 4. The Listener (2012-2019) and Perfect Fit (2012-2019) 5. Nearer to Thee (2004-2010) |
(Series) 1. Hanson’s Creek, et al (1998-present) 2. Ten Years And Muses, et al (2000-2015) 3. Runaway Run Series (2005-2017) 4. Damaged Series (2008-present), Forever and a Day (1998-2009) and The Story In Your Eyes (1999-2010) 5. SNAFUBAR (2010-present) and Strange and Beautiful Series (2006-2016) |
| Word counts are sometimes approximate, as exact information may not be available for some fics. For series, only the primary fics count towards fic/word count, not any sort of “lost chapters.” Year counts do include lost chapters, rewrites and reboots that may have several years lapse in between. If you spot any inaccuracies, please let me know. | |
Firsts
*First documented hanfic was Hanson and Hugo, published on July 14, 1997. This is also the first slash hanfic.
*Others cited as being the first hanfic include: Hanson Meets A Cockkroach, Return To Innocence, Some Changes Are Good, and Tulsa 74132. Most of these date from between July and September 1997, with the earliest exact date being Hanson Meets A Cockkroach on July 21.
*The first hanfic directory, Kim’s Stories and Links, opened in August 1997. It was later moved to HansonFiction.com and revamped under the name Various Artists.
*Possible first usage of the term hanfic occurs in December 1997, by this author.
*Zac and Tay, possibly the first Zaylor story, was published on January 2, 1998.
*The first hanfic community on LiveJournal, hanfic, was created on November 30, 2001.
*The first Hanson slash (not specifically hancest) centered LiveJournal community, hansonslash was created on April 5, 2004.
*The term “Hancest” may have been first used on November 4, 2004..
*The first hancest (or hansex, a term that cropped up around the same time) centered LiveJournal community, hansex_addicts was created on February 2, 2005.
*The term “Zaylor” was coined by readers of the Lost Without Each Other Trilogy on March 7, 2005.
*The first Zike-centric LiveJournal community, zacnike, was created on August 16, 2007.
*The first hanfic community on DreamWidth, hansonfiction, was created on May 23, 2009.
Other Trivia
*Taylor was quoted saying the following about fanfic in a June 1998 TV Guide interview:
“People are really wild. They write these fantasies about how they met us, how they did this with us or that with us -these complete elaborations- like it really happened!”
*In a November 1998 Yahoo Chat, they were asked about fic and said the following:
Taylor: We do check out a lot of websites …
Isaac: The fan fiction stuff is very creative…when that first started we found a few sites and we were very entertained.
Taylor: It’s amazing, there are a lot of cool sites out there.
*Again in February 1999, Isaac specifically was asked about fic in another Yahoo Chat:
Isaac: We have read several of them. There are so many at this point that it’s kind of hard to keep up with them. A lot are creative. We paid attention when they first came out.
Taylor: There are some amazing fans out there.
Isaac: In Moe, we try to pick out some web sites that are reeeally unique and cool. In every issue, we pick a special site. We try and surf the net to find cool things.
*And again in an AOL Australia chat in 2000, they were asked not only if they read fanfic but if they have favorites (why? why would you ask this?!). Read the expert dodge below:
Isaac: we have read some hanson fan fiction and you guys have a very creative imagination
The four above quotes were nicked from a page compiled by early author Keridwen Moonshadow.
*Zac had the following to say in 2007 when asked about slash fanfic:
“That’s one end of the spectrum, and the other end is people sending you death threats. I would go with fan fiction any day. And Taylor has that thing about him-and hopefully, he’ll forgive me for saying this in an interview-he’s just a good-looking pretty boy.”
Full text of his interview with The Advocate can be found here.
*On January 2, 2019 Nylon posted a video of Hanson playing Block Party. One of the blocks contained a question about fanfic, which they answered as follows:
Taylor: Have you ever read a fanfiction about yourself? What was the plot? I read part of a fanfiction years ago and let’s just say I… read enough… and I will not share what it was about.
*Several of the MOE Net Picks (Hanson fansites spotlighted in the official zine MOE) featured hanfic, such as Hanson Hotel, Ultimate Hanson Links Page and Masteriece of Hanson.
*All discussion of fan fiction was banned on Hanson.net forums on May 25, 2006 when a new rule was added to the forum rules. The rule currently reads:
10. Fan Fiction, including, but not limited to, links to fan fiction and posting stories in the forums, is not allowed.
Any threads that mention fanfic or use terms such as “zaylor” are deleted. Fanfic discussion was seemingly allowed on the Hanson App. Although accounts were banned for various reasons, fanfic discussion was seemingly never a reason for banning.
*PlaceToHide.net has been visited over 118,000 times since opening on December 9, 2009. The busiest year to date was 2015 with 22k hits, and the busiest month was January 2014, with 3,212 hits. The daily record is 471 hits; this record was set on July 9, 2015. The most popular time to visit PTH is on Sunday and at 7pm ET.
*Hanson is currently the 65th largest music fandom (not counting “umbrella” fandoms, albums, etc) on Archive Of Our Own. Before RPF was removed from Fanfiction.net in 2002, Hanson was around the 8th largest music fandom on the site.
*Just under 20,000 hanfics are still available online in some form, out of an estimated more than 160,000 written since 1997 (educated guesses based on the PTH directory size).