In the Fan Data project, we collected data from online databases that archive media fan production (specifically, fictional fan texts). We developed software and visualization tools to analyze these archives. Digital analysis focused on counting and graphing the rate of the fan fiction production Downloaded from over time in three Hollywood blockbuster movie fandoms: The Avengers, the Batman trilogy, and Inception. We found that audiences grant a great deal of 'mindshare' to media texts and create fan works in response to those texts immediately after viewing a film but that what sustains fan productivity are the attractiveness of specific online archiving platforms and the liveliness of activity in a given fandom. Internet archives have a decisive function in offering the creative and conserving infrarstructure for 'unofficial' communication, art, and knowledge. Today, they are trendsetting organs and their impact verifies the assumption that the Hollywood studios' market strategies are not the sole, or most crucial, predictors or determinants of audience engagement.

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Because the history of fan fiction in Germany is not congruent with the more dominant Anglo-American history of fan fiction, it requires separate revision and evaluation. By outlining the history of fan fiction in Germany, we present and discuss certain national aspects in the development of the phenomenon, arguing that although the Internet globally links fans, the production of fan fiction is still strongly rooted in a national writing community.