Lois & Clark Fanfic Archive: FAQ on Archive History

Frequently Asked Questions About the History of the Lois & Clark Fanfic Archive

This FAQ page last updated Oct. 14, 2023

The very first Lois & Clark fanfic story was "Lois and Clark Meet the X-Files," written by Zoomway. She said her L&C/X-Files crossover story was written in 1994 and that it was a joke-type story "inspired by the fact that the same actor who played 'Deep Throat' on the X-Files that year also played farmer Wayne Irig in the episode 'Green Green Glow of Home' on Lois & Clark."

You set the bar very high, Zoom! Thank you.

Lois & Clark fanfiction has been around nearly as long as the show itself — from the very first season, fans were putting pens to paper (or fingers to keyboard!) and creating wonderful stories about our favorite couple.

In the early days of the fandom, there was an email distribution list to get the stories out to the fans. Beginning in 1994, Rhen Brink ran the listserv and every few months would compile an index of all the stories that had gone out. By 1995, past stories were archived on an automated majordomo server, and readers, after consulting Rhen's index of filenames and story descriptions, could send a command to the majordomo site via email, requesting that stories be sent to them. Then Rhen moved the stories into an FTP archive, which let readers more easily download stories.

In the spring of 1996, LaurenW came up with a Web-based front end to the FTP archive that allowed people to read stories from the FTP archive simply by clicking on a link. This website — which at the time was a huge innovation! — was the first incarnation of the Lois & Clark Fanfic Archive.

In the summer of 1997, Rhen decided to retire from fanfic, and L&C fanfic found itself at a crossroads — how would fans continue to get new stories? Fortunately, the answer came quickly. Demi emailed a group of people who were active in fanfic at the time with a proposal — why not form a committee to take over the running of the archive? By spreading the workload (which at that time was increasing rapidly) among several people, no one person would be have to shoulder all the work by themselves, as Rhen had done for so many years. (Sadly, Rhen passed a few years later, but she left FoLCdom with a wonderful legacy. Without her, L&C fanfic would not be what it is today.)

By September 1997, the new team was in place — including Kathy Brown in the newly created "Editor in Chief" position — and the L&C Fanfic Archive began to see a number of big changes. New stories were now uploaded once each weekend rather than sporadically as they came in. A new header format was added to each story, making it easier to find the author's name, email address, submission date, and — something else brand new to the archive — a G, PG or PG-13 content rating. Perhaps the biggest change to the way the archive operated, however, was the creation of a team of "General Editors" who began reviewing each story in order to correct grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes. All of these changes helped form the archive into the entity it is today.

In April 2001, Kathy Brown stepped down as Editor in Chief, passing the reins on to LabRat, who held the position for 22 years. The current Co-Editors-in-Chief are KSaraSara and SuperBek. Since its beginning, the archive has grown to include more than 4,000 stories, with still more being uploaded every year. The archive continues to be extremely popular, getting thousands of hits every month. And be sure to look out for the upcoming implementation of our newest feature — a keyword search function that will allow readers to generate lists of stories based on their specific tastes!

My most sincere thanks go to everyone who has contributed to the success of the L&C Fanfic Archive, either with their time or with their donation to our fundraiser. The outpouring of support that the archive has received over the years proves once again why FoLCdom is a wonderful place to be. :)

Kathy Brown
L&C Fanfic Archive
November 2003
(updated with new info in 2023)