As I was looking over the anonymous masterlist for this year's hd_erised fest, I was struck by how many veterans of the HD fandom were still creating fanworks for the fest, even as many newcomers are joining for the first time. I think this speaks to how popular HD fandom has been and still remains!

So everyone can see what I mean, I've organized this year's participants into a table sorted by the year they first published an HD fic or artwork, so far as I know*

2002
marysiak	fic: The Marks We Bear (also on AO3)
2004
red_rahl	art: His Guiding Light
2005
alisanne	fic: Up Against The Wall
sugareey	fic: Hot and Heavy
zeitgeistic	fic: A Malfoy is Always Welcome
2006
femmequixotic	fic: Gone Down The Angel On A Lonely Night for hd_holidays
isinuyasha	art: untitled
sdkshelly	fic: Good Day To Be Alive for hpvamp
2007
blamebrampton	fic: An Act of Simple Devotion for hd_holidays
oceaxe	fic: What Best Friends Do
oldenuf2nb	fic: Anything for Charity
sassy_cissa	fic: Three Little Words for hds_beltane
sesheta_66	fic: Still Got It for slashfest
who_la_hoop	fic: 101 Ways to Heal Your Wizarding Woes for hd_holidays
2008
cassie_black12	fic: The Wedding Planner
harrysde	art: Fanart for Boys Don't Cry
2009
alafaye	fic: How A Catboy and a Hero Fell In Love
firethesound	fic: A Tune for Every Occasion
noeon	fic: Voices From the Fog for hp_summersmut
xerised	fic: Fade
2011
anokaba	art: Banner Art for do_me_veela
khalulu	fic: Seeing Draco Malfoy for hd_smoochfest
writcraft	fic: Cruppy Love for hd_fluff
2012
birdsofshore	fic: Hairway to Heaven for hd_fan_fair
cylsus	art: On a Winter's Eve for hd_holidays
fantasyfiend09	fic: Chasing Dreams for dracotops_harry
lq_traintracks	fic: Collision
nerak_rose	art: The Sound of a Little Hope for hp_harlequin
2013
disapparater	fic: Found A Way
dustmouth	art: Sticky Fingers for hd_smoochfest
keeper_of_stars	fic: We All Fall Apart for hd_erised
leontinabowie	fic: Sing, for the Sea Belongs to Me for dracotops_harry
lyonessheart	fic: Musings of a distracted mind
nobunakira	art: Harry-Draco-Harry Again for hd_smoochfest
persephoneapple	fic: New Year's Resolutions
themightyflynn	fic: Sanare
2014
8c	art: Book Buddies
agentmoppet	fic: Protection
anemonen	art: Just friends
blithelybonny	fic: Mister Potter for hpsolemnlysworn
dicta_contrion	fic: If Memory Serves for hd_hurtfest
huldrejenta	fic: Stories in E Minor for hd_fan_fair
lauren3210	fic: Life is a Twice Written Scroll for hd_smoochfest
limedumplr	art: untitled
2015
_melodic_	fic: One Year of Winter for hd_owlpost
carpemermaid	fic: It's all in the Technique
fulselden	fic: Veela Romance and the Literary Marketplace for do_me_veela
mybutterflower	art: Drarry Kiss
shiftylinguini	art: Hipster!Undercut!Man-bun!Draco
2016
apriicat	art: Draco
breath_of_mine	fic: Something stupid like I love you
glittering_git	fic: Where You Lead for hd_tropes
kaiosea	fic: ??? for hd_erised
kittyaugust	fic: Familia Est... for hd_familyfest
ravenclawsquill	fic: Impervius for hp_drizzle
sugar_screw	art: A Fine Predicament
thistle_verse	fic: Late Bloomers for dracotops_harry

*I tried really hard to get accurate data by stalking everyone's LJ and AO3 accounts, but I'm just one person and might have missed something, especially if your LJ is flocked or your early works were on a deleted archive somewhere. So if there are mistakes, just let me know and I'll fix them :)

Graph from destntoast's recent tumblr post: 2015 A Statistical Year in Fandom:



Take-away: Our fandom is not even close to dead!

:D

As I was reading fics during the recent harrydracompreg fest, it occurred to me that mpreg!Draco is much more prevalent than mpreg!Harry (indeed, one author actually pointed this out in her A/N!)

Because of all the stats I've been collecting on "Who Tops More" my immediate thought was that mpreg!Draco is more common because bottom!Draco is more common.

But when I suggested this to capitu, she disagreed, and gave me other reasons why Mpreg!Draco would be more common:

I'd say that even in those fics that are mpreg!Draco there's half bottom!draco and half switching. I think it comes down to the very popular trope that Draco being a pure-blood has far more chance to get pregnant, and that weird things happen with Harry, that he's powerful, whathaveyou, and that's why it happens. Of course, that's not the only reason, but it's a very common belief, you know?

I wonder, though, how separate these reasons really are. I can see that powerful!Harry = weird things happening = mpreg!Draco, but I can also be persuaded that powerful!Harry --> bottom!Draco for many people too. So these might go hand in hand. The pure-blood!Draco thing is a bit more separate, though, I admit. But still: mpreg!Draco is compatible with both bottom!Draco and switching, but doesn't work quite so well with bottom!Harry (though I'm sure some writer has pulled it off!)

So, since I'm such a fan of stats, I figured I whip some up for mpreg! I'm including in this dataset all the fics from all the past harrydracompreg fests, as well as the 2007 hd_inspired Mpreg challenge. I know that there are lots more mpreg fics out there, but there's no fast and unbiased way for me to sample those right now. So as always, we turn to the fests!

( Table )
( Graph )

As you can see, mpreg!Draco is always more common, though in both 2012 and 2013 it wasn't by all that much. Anyone else want to speculate about the reasons for these trends?

Also I'm super curious as to why the 2011 fest included 5 Spanish language fics. I've never seen that in a fest before!

Sorry for the delay in updating the status of the HD-smoochfest Crowd-Sourcing Data Project - I was away at a conference last week, and took a while to get back into the swing of things.

But you guys are awesome as usual! My last progress report was two weeks ago, and at that time we still had 37 NC-17 or R rated fics that needed top/bottom data. As of today, we're down to just ONE!

Thanks go to birdsofshore, cagnurit, iwao, khalulu, frnklymrshnkly, gracerene, laurelgreengras, lordhellebore, and nia_kantorka for all their hard work. You guys are amazing! And please let me know if I've forgotten to thank anyone who contributed!

So I'm getting ready to tally the data and create pretty charts. However, first I'm going to go through and double-check some of the fics that are currently listed as "bottom so-and-so implied" or "implied switching" or really, implied anything, to make sure that I count these fics in keeping with how we did it last time (and consistent with the poll results from last time).

I encourage everyone to have a look through the data as well and see if you spot any errors or labels you disagree with (find the link in this post, or PM me). Note that just like with the data from hd_fan_fair, the first word in the top/bottom field indicates how I will count the fic. If it says "bottom!Draco (implied)" then that will be counted as a bottom!Draco fic. If it says "switching; mostly bottom!Harry" then that will be counted as a switching fic. Etc.

Nothing is final yet, so if you see something you disagree with, now is the time to let me know. Either leave a comment below, or make a note in the spreadsheet (bolded or highlighted in some way so I will see it). I'd like to be able to post the final results by Sunday, if I can. Maybe Monday :)

---

More in this series:
Crowd-sourcing Smoochfest Proposal - Spreadsheet link (f-locked)
Progress Report #1
Progress Report #2 - Ratings chart
Progress Report #3 - Nearly There!
Progress Report #4 - Final data double-check!
Who Tops More in HD-smoochfest: Final Results

In a recent tumblr post, eidheann_writes mentioned that duplicate titles of fanfics are quite common, so when reccing a fic you really need to give the author's name and not just the title. (Actually, there are many reasons why you should always credit the author of a work when you rec it, but that's not the point of this post :)

She gave as examples her own fic Twelve Hours and dysonrules's Twelve Months, both from last year's hd_erised fest. And while these titles are certainly similar, I was intrigued enough by her observation that I wanted to see how many true duplicates I could find (because I'm crazy like that). Duplicate pairs are too numerous to list, so I decided stick with titles that came up at least three or more times in my database.

Common Drarry fanfic titles:

Home by alovelycupoftea
Home by shine_alive
Home by sesheta_66
Home by starpleiades
Home by bloodisshrp

The Ties That Bind by phoenix_writing
The Ties That Bind by killerangels13
The Ties That Bind by alisanne
The Ties That Bind by cathouse_mary
The Ties That Bind Us by faithwood
The Ties That Bind Us by dracoxlovesxharry

The List by lucilla_darkate
The List by tari_sue
The List by badcook
The List by lamerezouille

Resistance by silentauror
Resistance by diagonfloo
Resistance by all_not_well
Resistance by lamerezouille (added 9 May 2015)

The Wand Chooses the Wizard by treacle_tartlet
The Wand Chooses the Wizard by ravenna_c_tan
The Wand Chooses the Wizard by writcraft


And here are some that are just eerily similar:

Burn by EliraWinter
Burn by hdwriter
Burn, Burn by marguerite_26
Burn, Burn, Burn by josephinestone

Hidden in Plain Sight by momatu
Hiding in Plain Sight by okydoky
Hiding In Plain Sight by beren
Hiding in Plain Sight by gestaltrose
Hiding in Plain View by autumn_veela
In Plain Sight by taradiane
In Plain Sight by oldenuf2nb

I hope it's clear that I'm not making a criticism - these titles are all great, and I don't think the fics should have been called anything else. I'm merely supporting eidheann's point that giving the title alone is not enough to conclusively identify a fanfic.

---

Edit: amorette just pointed out another one to me in the comments:

Best Laid Plans by 6shotamericano
Best-Laid Plans by leo_draconis
The Best Laid Plans by winterstorrm
The Best Laid Plans by cassie_black12
The Best Laid Plans of Lucius Malfoy by erised_dreams
The Best Laid Plans of Scorpius Malfoy by amorette
The Best Laid Plans of Hufflepuffs by birdsofshore

 

Edit 2: found another set 4/26/2015:

Rumours by silentauror
Rumours by winterstorrm
Rumours by gatewaygirl
Rumor Has It by emmagrant01
Rumour Has It by patientiapudor
Rumour Has It by roelliej

In case you didn't know, we have started a new crowd-sourcing project! This time we are gathering data on all fics posted to hd_smoochfest from 2009-2014. Once again, the initial goal is to get more information to find out Who tops more?, but there's no reason these datasets couldn't be used to answer any number of interesting fandomstats questions in the future.

Background: Inspired by the comments on my original Who Tops More post, I decided to try running the same analysis just on the fics written for the hd_fan_fair fest from 2009-2014. Crowd-sourcing that data was a smashing success and you can read about the results here.

Once again I have set up a public Google spreadsheet where anyone who wants to can help fill in the gaps in the data. It's actually at the same URL as the first dataset, just in a new sheet beneath it. (Note: my original post suggesting the crowd-sourcing is f-locked to hide the spreadsheet URL from vandals, but if anyone is interested in helping with this project, just PM me so I can send you the link).

There are 348 fics from six years of Smoochfest now listed in the table (with huge thanks to cagnurit for helping add over 200 fics to my original list!) When I opened the sheet for crowd-sourcing 4 days ago, we still needed top/bottom data on 147 fics rated R or NC-17. Since then, frnklymrshnkly, gracerene, khalulu, lordhellebore, and nia_kantorka have whittled that number down to 128 (also adding data on several low-rated fics, and timeframe and theme data as well). As always, if I inadvertently left out anyone who contributed, please let me know so I can thank you.

Note that the dataset for HD Smoochfest is one and a half times larger than the dataset was for HD fan-fair (348 fics vs. 231) so this will be a commensurately larger project. But I know we can do it! The more people who contribute (the more 'crowd'-like we are) the less any one person has to do.

So even if you can only add one piece of information to our dataset, that is valuable and worthwhile. Just take a look at the spreadsheet (find the link in this post, or PM me) and enter data for any fics you may have read; every contribution is greatly appreciated.

**If you add or change any data, it is helpful to leave a note in the "data entry by" column so I know who to thank and what has been added. You can also add a comment right in the same cell if there's data you disagree with. Just highlight anything you do so I can see it and make a note of it. Thanks so much for all the help so far!

---

More in this series:
Crowd-sourcing Smoochfest Proposal - Spreadsheet link (f-locked)
Progress Report #1
Progress Report #2 - Ratings chart
Progress Report #3 - Nearly There!
Progress Report #4 - Final data double-check!
Who Tops More in HD-smoochfest: Final Results

This is the last update I'll make before posting the final results of the hd_fan_fair "Who Tops More" project, which I'll probably be posting in just a few hours if I can.

For anyone who hasn't followed the "Who Tops More" project, here's how you can get caught up:
Crowd-sourcing Fan-fair Proposal - Spreadsheet link (f-locked)
Progress Report #1
Progress Report #2 - My f-list rocks!
Progress Report #3 - Take a Poll
Only the first post with the spreadsheet link is f-locked. If you want the link, just PM me.

1: Spreadsheet Complete!
( Read more... )

2: Poll Results!
( Read more... )

I'm going to go work up the results and make some charts and graphs now. I invite you to take a look at the completed spreadsheet (find the link in this post, or PM me) and let me know ASAP if you find any errors. Note that I also went through and adjusted a few of the entries in the top/bottom field to better reflect the poll results, so you might want to double-check those fics if you're interested.

Off to do some math now :)

Edit: final results have now been posted!

Update #2 for those interested in the status of the HD-fan-fair Crowd-Sourcing Data Project where we're hoping to find the answer to the burning question: Who tops more?

( Click for background info )

In the previous progress report, I noted we were still lacking info on 66 fics rated R or NC-17 and only had inferential info for 20 more. In the four days since then, many more volunteers stepped up to fill in some of the gaps. Thanks to (in alpha order) birdsofshore, cagnurit, dicta_contrion, eidheann_writes, gracerene, iwao, khalulu, and vaysh, 36 more fics got complete info, leaving us with only 46 blanks and 4 partials. (I think cabinetcaligari helped too, but may not have left their name on the spreadsheet. If I left anyone else out, please let me know so I can thank you!)

The power of crowd-sourcing is truly awesome!

Hopefully soon we will have all the data we need so I can run the topping/bottoming numbers. But with all the data we *do* have, I can give you a quickie analysis of what proportion of the hd_fan_fair fest fics are rated NC-17, R, PG-13, or PG.



I don't have anything pithy to say about these numbers; if anyone else does, leave a comment :) Just one caveat: though the number of fics posted to the fest dropped significantly after 2009, it is important to note that since 2010 the number of HD fests throughout the year has gone way up. So perhaps less fics are posted to each fest, but there are many more fests to post to!

Once again, I invite anyone interested to take a look at the spreadsheet (find the link in this post, or PM me) and enter data for any fics you may have read. There are just 46 fics that we lack top/bottom data on!

**If you add or change any data, it is helpful to leave a note in the "data entry by" column so I know who to thank and what has been added. You can also add a comment right in the same cell if there's data you disagree with. Just highlight anything you do so I can see it and make a note of it. Thanks again for all the help so far!

More in this series:
Crowd-sourcing Fan-fair Proposal - Spreadsheet link (f-locked)
Progress Report #1
Progress Report #2 - My f-list rocks!
Progress Report #3 - Take a Poll
Progress Report #4 - Poll Results and Spreadsheet Complete!
Who Tops More in HD-fan-fair: Final Results

Yesterday I was having a discussion with vaysh about who tops more in fanfic, Draco or Harry (link here). I was of the opinion that it seemed fairly balanced, but that was from my perspective of mostly reading recent fic. Vaysh has been reading Drarry fanfiction for much longer than me, however, and she disagreed:

"statistical evidence is very clear: There is in no way a 50:50 balance between top and bottom!Draco fanworks. For many people, bottom!Draco remains the default."

Aha, I thought, a statistical challenge! As it turns out, I have a database of Drarry fics which I can consult, so I am in position to offer an answer to this pressing question. There are nearly 1500 Drarry fics written between 2002 and 2015 for which I have information about who tops or bottoms, and according to this data, we're both right :)

1. Who bottoms more across all fics in all years?
   Answer: Draco, clearly (point vaysh)


2. Has the proportion of bottom!Draco to bottom!Harry begun to balance out more in recent years?
   Answer: Yes, clearly (point snowgall)

Before I get to the fancy chart and graphs, let me explain a bit where my data comes from and how reliable and/or biased it could be.

( Click for explanation of the data )

Ok, enough caveats about the data, on to the chart! I hope it is self-explanatory, because I'm not going to waste more words explaining something you can see for yourself :) Just note that I'm including fics from 2015 too, even though we're only 3 months in.

( Click for Table )

 

And now for some pretty pie charts:

( Click for year-by-year pie charts )

 

As you can see, before 2010 bottom!Draco was much more common than bottom!Harry, but since then the proportion of bottom!Draco fics has gone down, to the point that of the works I've analyzed for 2014, there's a perfect balance between the two!

Is the influence of the dracotops_harry fest part of the reason for this change? It's possible. The DTH fest began in 2011, and my data seems to date the gradual shift to 2010.

It's also true that some of the disparity could be traced to a few big-name authors who tend(ed) to prefer one dynamic over another. Here's just a few examples I know of authors who seemed to prefer bottom!Draco but who haven't written as much in the last few years:

• ladyvader, active approx 2003 - 2010
• jennavere, active approx 2004 - 2006
• pir8fancier, active approx 2004 - 2013
• silentauror, active approx 2005 - 2009

There are many more bottom!Draco authors who are still actively writing HD, among them: enchanted_jae, oldenuf2nb, and samaelthekind.

But interestingly, I can only think of one long-time author who seems to prefer bottom!Harry: megyal.
(Edit: vaysh pointed out that lomonaaeren is also a bottom!Harry author. My bad!)

If you have any insights into this data, disagree about my analysis, or can think of something I missed, please leave a comment!

 

---

 

Edit: Inspired by suggestions in the comments section, I have re-run the numbers using just data from the hd_fan_fair fests. See my write-up here. The data was collected through crowd-sourcing, and we are currently working on building a second crowd-sourced spreadsheet of data from hd_smoochfest too!

Hey guys, check out this awesome stats post by fffinnagain on fandomstats: Harry Potter Fandom on AO3, Example Analysis

Takeaway: Reports of HP fandom death have been greatly exaggerated :)