Oooh, okay, all right, gather around, folks, let’s learn some history!
So before this hellsite existed, there were really cool websites to go to exclusively for Harry Potter content. Some of the top ones I can remember are MuggleNet, The Leaky Cauldron, SugarQuill, and, of course, HP Lexicon.
The Harry Potter Lexicon wasn’t just a website, it was a massive Wiki before Wikis even existed. And I still go to it over the Harry Potter Wiki. And I have gone to it ever since I was a kid. Here’s what it looked like in 2005:
One could (and I did) spend hours just searching through every single topic about the books, the plotpoints, the locations, the characters, all written out in journal-format, like an actual old-fashioned lexicon, each page featuring cool fanart that was used with permission and always linked back to the artist:
But the main reason to go onto the website was the essays. You think the SuperCarlinBrothers are impressive? They are. But so were the people who submitted to the HP Lexicon. I was just reading an essay this morning on the Weasley brothers’ ages. Every essay was brilliant. This is the website that made us all realize R.A.B. was really Regulus, that Snape was a double-agent, that Harry was a horcrux. This is a website that that J.K. Rowling used/praised:
She then promptly turned around and brought the creator to court. (She technically didn’t sue him, she sued the publication company, but he was still brought to court and put on the stand.) Here’s an article from The NY Times:
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/09/nyregion/09potter.html
Steven Vander Ark was allowed to publish a condensed version of the encyclopedia (which is currently sitting in my dusty attic). Link: x
He publicly claimed that he has no animosity towards Jo for taking him to court and he continues to update the Lexicon with essays/content to this day, so if you somehow have never gone onto the website, take a look: hp-lexicon.org
I tried to be as neutral as possible when presenting the facts of the court but if you want to know my actual opinion, here are my tags from the original post:
#harry potter#hp#hp lexicon#jowling kowling rowling#But he violated copyright! - You scream gayly because JK Rowling declared that you were gay#Look if anyone spent SEVEN years volunteering to create an entire website of essays/descriptions of every character and topic of my books#If they were that dedicated and resourceful#I’d give them a giant chunk of my own royalties#Like I’d still need to live but they deserve some of my own money for investing more works into my books than I probably did#That Lexicon was one of the best websites to ever come out of any fandom and we could have had it as a full-length novel#Affectionately made by someone who cares enough about an author to dedicate seven years to summarizing her work#Only for that author to sue him#It’s like the one quote from Twisted#‘I was in the right#But IS it right?
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