s ever-increasing amounts of spam clog up the world's in-boxes, some denizens of the Web seek to ensure that they are not adding to the deluge. One of the best ways to ensure that an apparently important message is worthy of spreading to your friends and acquaintances is Snopes.com, a site that compiles urban legends and Web hoaxes.
An index to various falsehoods making their way around the Web, Snopes is definitely a first stop for any person considering whether to forward an e-mail to everyone they know. But more than that, the page is entertaining. Have you heard the one about Fidel Castro having a tryout with the Washington Senators baseball team? Sadly, it's not true. Neither is the one about the aircraft carrier ordering a lighthouse to change course if it wants to avoid a collision. Less amusing but more useful is the Snopes index to virus warnings, a handy guide that clarifies which warnings are about actual computer viruses and which are hoaxes intended to gum up the Web with spurious traffic.
While this site clearly offers an important public service, browsing its archives can make for hours of fun. Some of the rumors are the stuff of SF, tales that claim eating turkey can make a person drowsy, eelskin wallets will demagnetize credit cards or the average person swallows eight spiders per year. There are dozens of urban legends relating to categories or corporations including Disney and Coca-Cola, as well as topics like the Titanic, pregnancy and holiday myths. Photographic fakery, in all its various forms, is covered too. And if a popular Web rumor happens to be true, Snopes will say so, writing it up in as much detail as any of the tall tales.
For those who see cutting down the amount of extraneous traffic on the Web by a tiny amount as a pointless exercise, consider this: by choosing not to forward illegitimate e-mails, one can avoid the dreaded consequence of same: the condescending response from an acquaintance who wishes to inform you that you have been duped.
— A.M. Dellamonica
Site of the Week—June 16, 2003
vailable in both English and French, SciFlicks is an attractively laid out and endlessly fascinating treasure trove of data on SF films. Covering older flicks and new releases with equal ardor, the site employs a rigorous (many would say proper) definition of SF, one that largely excludes anything that might arguably be termed fantasy or horror instead. In other words, aliens are in and dragons out at SciFlicks—the movies discussed here must have a scientific premise, however flimsily delivered.
For a Web surfer curious about the breadth of science-fiction cinema, the movie profiles on SciFlicks are superb. They cover all of the important information about a picture without overwhelming the reader with trivia, with a concise, spoiler-free summary, data on directors, producers and actors, and short but thoughtful reviews. Most of the movie guides feature multimedia content, too, in the form of movie images, quotes and sound clips. There is a compilation of Web links related to each film along with information on where a visitor might purchase a video or DVD copy ... or any other merchandise the film has spawned.
SciFlicks has also just inaugurated a database of artists working in the SF genre—actors, screenwriters, directors and even composers are included. The site owners are actively soliciting suggestions as to whom should be included in this archive. The fledgling section of the site spotlights one SF artist each day, with a photo, a mini-profile, an SF filmography and, strangely, a chart of their biorhythms.
Visitors to the site will definitely want to check out the data on upcoming films, too, and perhaps complete their tour of this specialized and informative Web page by adding an entry or two to its vibrant discussion forum, SciFlicks Squad.
— A.M. Dellamonica
Site of the Week—June 9, 2003
n the beginning, writers of fan fiction primarily turned out stand-alone short stories—amateur attempts to recreate professional SF. But today, fan fiction has grown ineradicably linked to the notion of shared universes, as fans write additional scenarios for their favorite shows and books. Star Trek fandom pioneered this transition, with the infamous "slash" fiction devoted to homosexual relations between Kirk and Spock (abbreviated "K/S," and further shortened to "slash"). Now the medium has reached the stage where nearly every professionally produced drama or novel has its own corps of emulators, producing reams of new, unauthorized stories involving their favorites. And FanFiction.Net is the central place to find such works.
The organization, level of detail and ease of use of this site is highly impressive. Eight major categories—Anime, Cartoon, Game, Movie, Book, Misc, Comic, TV Show—form the gateways to thousands of stories, varying in length from a hundred words to several thousand. Each story is given a movie-style rating and blurb on the list screens. Links to each author contain creator profiles. Reviews of each piece are easily accessible. Additionally, nearly 20 regular columnists offer think pieces on the art of fan fiction. Searching and sorting is available as well.
The range and volume of fiction here boggles the mind. Over 15,000 Sailor Moon offerings. Over 75,000 Harry Potter episodes. Nearly 20,000 Lord of the Rings outings. But not only fantastical tales abound. Les Miserables, West Wing and even The Virgin Suicides all have their scribbling partisans. I was surprised and saddened to see that comic books have the fewest adherents, a reflection of their falling sales, I suppose. Even Spider-Man could muster only some 500 entries, although the X-Men achieve nearly 5,000.
Of course, Sturgeon's Law applies to the quality of these fictions. Some reek, others impress. Still, if you're bummed by, say, the cancellation of Futurama, you could do worse than solace yourself with "Quantum Cheap," by TwilightTears.
— Paul Di Filippo
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