On Jan 1, 2026 no less I was alerted to a Bluesky post about the potential end of life for Livejournal. This reminded me of the year 2022. Russia was already tinkering with social networks back then so I set about to create an archive tool back then. Hours turned into days then weeks then months. I kept developing & improving it. It became an obsession. It worked really well but LJ was still up. I moved on. Change in administrations and all. The Jan 1st, 2026 post immediately reminded me I might have something relevant to the situation and if you are reading this then this Jan 11th, 2026 post may be relevant to you too.
What is it? What does it do?
Archives Public User Journals and Community Journals
If you are a member, you can sign in and archive member-only posts
Creates a spreadsheet inventory of every post that includes: date, time, post title, user who made the post if a community and total number of comments per post.
Offline html copy of all the posts saved in a generic theme for easy readability
It created offline links so you can navigate the journal using the previous < and next > links locally as if you were online.
We had time so we set about to master archiving Kink Memes. I didn't even know what they were, but I just knew they had lots and lots of comments. Lots. Did I say lots. I was surprised to here it archived over 300k thousand comments.
There is a mode called blender were you can stack a bunch of journals and click a button, and it will bulk archive multiple journals.
Someone asked if we could set up a method of just archiving a few individual pages not a whole journal. We added that too.
It can be found at LJArchivr.com
It does require a little setup which we are glad to help with but once that's done you are just clicking buttons. You need Windows or Parallels on the Mac and Microsoft Excel. Here is what someone said.
Ok, I am starting to feel like a salesman or influencer. I am only writing for those that may interest since this was also mentioned somewhere else here on Tumblr with the Caveat that it cost money. However, not much. Saying a little more about it here might help you determine if it's worth it. There was a lot of time spent developing it with feedback from Livejournal users and it's amazing how we keep seeing ways to make it better. This has now turned into a team project. On the horizon is archiving pics. For now, we recommend PDFing the HTMLs before the image links die (Ok, I think I am getting too technical. I should stop). We can also help you set it up because we want you to spend your time archiving. However, we included user friendly tutorials to do it yourself.
Can you archive my journal or community?
Yes! We know not everyone has Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Excel so if you have 1 or 2 smallish journals, you'd like us to archive let us know. We can put that in the blender and give you some nutritional nostalgia. However, please know if you want locked or private posts it's better you do it yourself using the tool. We don't want you to give us your username and password.
Fandom Archive Team
I did this on my own but with the help of one member of a team dedicated to preserving fandom works. However, there is a team if you are interested in helping with this project. Over 6600 journals have been archived already. You may not even need to archive because what you are looking to archive may have already been archived. This tool is useful for your own local copy of course. If you are interested in joining send an email to [email protected] and indicating that in your email.
Whether or not this is the end of Livejournal I think is better to archive during the less panicked days than during the last days where everyone is slamming the servers like it's a Black Friday sale. Don't wait for the next post on either here or Bluesky. Again, if you have any questions don't hesitate to contact us [email protected] I'll update this post based on feedback in case I need to add things I missed. Happy Archiving. 😊
The problem with being an archivist is that you collect a lot of video evidence and you need help to go through it all and tag it. You see back the day I had 3 loves. Archiving, X Files and chewing bubble gum. And you guessed it. I am all out of bubble gum, but I have a lot of video evidence that has been hidden from the public.
I need someone with experiences with the X Files to help me tag all of it. You will get exclusives access to all this video evidence and you experience with "ships", "character" profiling, audio identification, will assist with the categorization of this evidence. The pentagon is not the keeper of unreleased files. Your help would be greatly appreciated. If you are interested please register your interest at the following form. https://forms.gle/YBVtRXHSzJc5y3ek6
Hell of a Place - X-Files fanvid (Mulder/Scully) by Gianduja Kiss Smithee
"It's a Hell of Place. How we get by just blows my mind"
That just about sums it all up in this absolutely brilliant vid.
In the future, this vid is going to be removed from You Tube. However not today and yet it's just a matter of time. AI will get much better at removing copyrighted content if that's the goal of You Tube at some point. "Open Windows Project" is a wink and nod about the place fandom vids hold in Fandom History. This video will be history as much as VCR fanvids and isn't it wonderful some have been preserved.
If you are interested in the "Open Windows Project" contact me.
A few things about the video you are watching. It is released 16 years. April 9, 2010. The last the vidder uploaded on this channel was May 2015 (over 10 years ago). There is no contact info in the about section of the channel. Any channel is in danger of being removed under the cover of night and no one would notice. I consider this art and it is so easily dismissed by a majority of people. It's left to a few of us who see value in this to preserve it the same way any other art is preserved.
I have made a personal archive of the entire channel because who knows. It includes comments for every video. It's not as hard as you would think. If you enjoyed watching this video please know the internet is not forever and neither is fandom history. Again, if you are interested in helping with this effort message me. I don't expect any responses at all, but I have to ask just in case. If you can't assist if you know someone who would be interested or I should contact let me know.
In the age of rolling back legislation we take for granted history is more important than ever.
One last thing. Fandom History could be singing the song in this video. I know that incredibly manipulative I will admit 😉
"Some parts of the vids are out of sync...it happened when I uploaded it here" - AnthonyJGray
Video is from 16 years ago but holds up pretty well regardless.
For as long as your heart beats, may your heart beat the drums & symbols of life with the kind of passion exhibited in this video. (Better with headphones)
Become a Patron Vicky Fates
Always support what inspires you. It honors whatever it calls forth in you. If this inspired you, join their Patreon. It's free and you have the option to become s supporter. I did this myself today. Long overdue.
Submissions for Vidder's Choice, Premieres and the Themed Vidshow (Unfinished Business) are closing on Sunday, 19 April (23:59 UK time). We'd love to see your vids! Find out more about how to submit yours HERE. If you think you may need an extension, let us know.
Also just a quick note to say our AI policy is now up! We aren't fans of how generative AI, LLMs, agentic AI and related tech is being developed and made available for popular use, and we have good reason to believe that a large part of our regular attendees share our discomfort, hence the policy.
Lastly, sign-ups for the Vidding Workshop close on 20 April. If you'd like to participate in bringing this year's Frankenvid to life, you can find out more about it and sign up HERE.
🇺🇸recall of over 3.2 million metal wire bristle grill brushes due to dislodged wire bristles causing injuries requiring surgery; +bonus tumblr PSA: this is NOT a safe category of product🇺🇸
mouthful of a title, and a lot more detail than usual, because some absolutely horrifying nightmare fuel shit came up while making this post. thanks for your patience. no matter where you are in the world, if you have a grill or know anyone that does, you might want to read this.
the ultrafine bristles on weber metal wire grill brushes (and fine metal wire grill brushes as a whole) silently detach from the brush, stick to the grill, and eventually get stuck in food that people put in their mouth. these bristles are often difficult or impossible to spot in grilled food before it gets eaten. when food contaminated with even one single metal bristle gets eaten, the sharp bristle(s) easily and painfully pierce (and sometimes embed themselves in) victims' mouths, throats, and/or digestive tracts.
the recalled weber metal wire grill brushes were imported by weber-stephen products LLC and were sold online and in stores at lowe's, home depot, ace hardware, target, amazon.com, and weber.com from 2011 through 2026 for $10-$17. also sold on resale sites like ebay. this information is for whatever reason not actually listed in the CPSC recall announcement itself, but according to weber's official recall website, the recalled grill brushes were also sold at tractor supply, best buy, and "other" stores.
15 years of highly recommended, respected, 'good' metal wire grill brushes being recalled here. weber is offering free nylon wire grill brush replacements if you submit a photo and then promise to dispose of your recalled metal wire grill brushes. weber is aware of at least 38 reports and reviews of wire bristles coming off of the brushes. this includes 4 reports of people who ate food containing weber wire bristles and needed surgery to remove it from their throat or digestive tract.
so, I (rune) spent a few hours reading and summarizing the past 15 years of saferproducts.gov incident reports for metal wire bristles dislodging from grill brushes as a whole, both weber and non-weber metal wire grill brushes, to learn more about this category of product and the type of injuries they cause.
metal wire grill brush injuries (even from one single bristle!) often require weeks to months of agony, a ton of imaging, multiple different hospitals, several medical specialists, and multiple unsuccessful surgeries before the wire bristles get successfully removed...if surgery is ever successful. summarized incident reports and names of other hazardous metal wire grill brushes are compiled at the bottom of this post, under the cut, due to increasingly graphic injury descriptions and enormous number of reports.
for the US: please report unsafe products and please read reports of unsafe products at saferproducts.gov, which is run by the US consumer product safety commission (CPSC). you want that website bookmarked, as well as CPSC.gov/recalls and the ever-shitty recalls.gov/recent for a compilation of other official US recall links (click through the RSS feed links, the RSS recall feed previews are dangerously outdated). there are a shitload of unsafe products responsible for years of safety incidents, injuries, and sometimes deaths that have not yet been recalled and are often still actively being sold in the united states. many US product recalls only happen because safety incidents, including those involving injury or death, get reported on saferproducts.gov specifically. there have already been hundreds if not thousands of recalls across different US regulatory agencies in 2026 alone, as of march 2nd, 2026.
whether or not your metal wire grill brush is one of the ones involved in this weber recall, regardless of your brand or model of metal wire grill brush, and regardless of where you live in the world, please consider switching away from metal wire bristle grill brushes as a whole. clean your grill with anything else. try metal coil grill brushes, nylon grill brushes, bristle-free grill brushes, scrub pads, chainmail scrubbers, grill stones, ANYTHING other than grill brushes with metal wire bristles that can detach and land you or someone you care about in the hospital.
and in fact, if you have a safer recommendation for grill cleaning, leave it in a reply or reblog. holy fucking shit, nothing is worth the injuries caused by this entire category of product.
Hazard: Small metal wire bristles can detach from the brushes, stick to the grill or food, posing an ingestion hazard and risk of serious internal injuries that could require surgery.
Remedy: Replace
Recall Date: February 26, 2026
Units: About 3.2 million
these grills brushes are made up of tiny sharp metal wires, and are used to harshly scrub and clean grills. sometimes these bristles fall off the brush and wind up stuck to the grill. those bristles eventually wind up stuck in food cooked on that grill, and then that food goes into someone's mouth. do you normally remove the bun and use a magnifying glass and knife to carefully inspect and dissect an entire fucking burger handed to you by a grillmaster at a BBQ before trying to eat it? probably not!
and what happens next fucking sucks! the thin bristles pierce the mouth and can get lodged in throats or digestive tracts, and even one single bristle can require expensive scans and surgery. a lot of US emergency rooms are not equipped to successfully remove bristles this fine and make victims schedule an appointment with a specialist, even if the earliest appointment with someone covered by insurance is weeks or months away.
and the longer it takes a victim to find a medical professional who can successfully remove even one single fucking accidentally consumed metal wire grill brush bristle, the more likely that injury will become severe or even life-threatening. sometimes victims do not realize they even ate a bristle until days later when they are in agony and a lot of damage has already been done.
if you ever think you could have maybe swallowed a metal wire grill brush bristle: GO TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM IMMEDIATELY BEFORE THE BRISTLE GETS LODGED EVEN DEEPER, GETS FURTHER DOWN YOUR DIGESTIVE TRACT, OR POSSIBLY CAUSES A MAJOR INFECTION!
Description: This recall involves the metal wire bristle grill brushes with plastic or wood handles measuring between 12 and 21 inches long, as described below. The following model numbers are included in this recall and can be found on the product packaging: 6277, 6278, 6463, 6464, 6493, and 6494. Only the model numbers listed below are part of this recall.
some emphasis mine. not all weber grill brushes are being recalled, and most definitely not all metal wire grill brushes in the US are being recalled. unfortunately, the model numbers are on the product packaging. meaning, if you (very reasonably!) threw the packaging away, you just have to try and guess when and where your grill brushes were purchased, and compare the images to see if yours is eligible for a free replacement. all recalled grill brushes have either the weber grill logo or weber logo name somewhere on the brush or handle. might be a bit faded depending on how much yours was used.
but if you have a grill, this is a good opportunity to carefully check or ideally just replace all of your fine metal wire grill brushes. if you need more convincing, check saferproducts.gov incident reports involving grill brushes, or the summaries of those reports provided at the bottom of this post under the cut.
alright here comes my (rune!'s) eternal struggle: transcribing a table of recall information to tumblr. for a much more readable format, check out the recall announcement.
I (rune!!) cannot upload all the images in this recall because it exceeds tumblr's maximum image limit on mobile, but the recalled grill brush information is in the same order as the photos at the top of this post, and the missing images are also the ones at the top of this post. these 6 recalled grill brushes are basically the long and short versions of 3 different grill brush styles: one with a plastic black handle and a red ring, one made of bamboo that also has a metal scraper, and one with an all-black plastic handle.
recalled weber plastic handle metal wire grill brushes sold between 2021 and 2026:
Model Number: 6277
Brush Description: 12 inch black plastic handle with red ring stamped with Weber grill logo
Distribution Dates: 2021-2026
Model Number: 6278
Brush Description: 18 inch black plastic handle with red ring stamped with weber grill logo
Distribution Dates: 2021-2026
the full view of 6277 is image #1 at the top of this post, 6278 is image #2. they share the same grill logo. the CPSC recall announcement resuses the 6277 close-up for the 6278, and then also, in an apparent mistake, uses the grill logo for the overall picture of the 6278. (hopefully fixed by the time you see it...?)
recalled weber bamboo handle metal wire grill brushes sold between 2011 and 2021:
Model Number: 6463
Brush Description: 12 inch bamboo handle with silver metal scraper on the back branded with the Weber logo name
Distribution Dates: 2011-2021
and the weber logo name looks like this:
Model Number: 6464
Brush Description: 18 inch bamboo handle with silver metal scraper on the back branded with Weber logo name
Distribution Dates: 2011-2021
and once again, the image above was used as the close-up for both brushes. 6463 is image #3, 6464 is image #4 at the top of this post.
recalled weber plastic handle metal wire grill brushes sold between 2013 and 2021:
Model Number: 6493
Brush Description: 21 inch black plastic handle with black ring stamped with Weber grill logo and metal binder with Weber grill logo
Distribution Dates: 2013-2021
and the close-ups of the grill logos here:
Model Number: 6494
Brush Description: 12 inch black plastic handle with black ring stamped with Weber grill logo
Distribution Dates: 2013-2021
the 6494/shorter brush only shares the first close-up, because it is too short to have a metal binder in the style of the 6493/longer brush despite being the same style of grill brush. 6493 is image #5, 6494 is image #6 at the top of this post.
Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled grill brushes and contact Weber for a cold cleaning nylon bristle grill brush replacement. Consumers will be asked to discard the recalled grill brushes.
STOP using these. and possibly all metal wire grill brushes. weber is offering replacement nylon bristle grill brushes. in kind of a dick move/possible mistake, weber's contact information and how to get a replacement grill brush are not actually listed in this recall announcement. so I (rune!!!) tracked it down, for a quick detour about how to get a free replacement nylon grill brush:
weber.com has its own recall notice page, which is linked at the top of the homepage in a bright red banner. always like to see that. the recall notice page then links to this website, weberbrushrecall.com, for the recall of the grill brushes. to register for the recall, you do the following process:
Does your grill brush have one of the Weber logos seen in the image above? [Yes/No]
Select the photo that matches you Weber grill brush and click Register. Please confirm you are selecting the correct brush size.
then it takes you to a registration page where you fill out your address and an email and/or phone number for weber to keep in contact throughout this process. it asks you if your grill brush was purchased online or in store from ace, amazon, best buy, home depot, lowe's, target, tractor supply, weber, or somewhere else. and then it asks whether your grill brush was purchased in the past 12 months, 1-2 years ago, or longer than 2 years ago. if you bought it in a store, it was probably purchased within the year ranges listed in this post and on the recall announcement. you then check a box saying you promise to destroy your grill brush after you send in a photo and receive email confirmation from weber that your recall photo was accepted and a replacement nylon grill brush is on the way.
you must not chuck your recalled grill brush before you send weber the wiry felon's mugshot, if you want to receive the free replacement grill brush.
alright, back to the recall announcement! going to do this next bit out of order for reasons you will see in a second.
Sold At: The recalled grill brushes were sold online and in stores at Lowe's, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, and Target, and online at Amazon and Weber.com from 2011 through 2026 for between $10 and $17. The products have also been found on resale sites, such as eBay.com.
...and again, as was revealed during the incidentally explored registration process for a refund for the purpose of summarizing it for this post: these brushes were also sold at tractor supply, best buy, and "other". why is this not listed in the recall announcement?
Incidents/Injuries: Weber is aware of at least 38 reports and reviews where small wire bristles detached from the grill brushes, including four reports of consumers who swallowed metal bristles and sought medical treatment to remove the bristles from their digestive tract or throat.
weber is aware of at least 38 reports and reviews of these wire bristles detaching, including 4 reports of injuries requiring surgery. this is interesting wording, that "at least" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here.
this danger is not unique to weber metal wire grill brushes. metal wire grill brushes from many different stores, websites, brands, manufacturers, importers etc have been named in unsafe product reports. wire bristles become lodged in food and then eventually in people's bodies, resulting in horrific injuries.
I (rune!!!!) went and checked saferproducts.gov for incident reports of metal bristles detaching from grill brushes. the list wound up being fairly graphic and also extremely long, so they are under the cut. so for most of you, this is where we part.
but for those of you ready to read about detailed injuries, including those from other dangerous models of metal wire grill brushes, here we fucking go. reminder: these are only successful, vetted reports that were submitted specifically to saferproducts.gov. they required a specific, detailed process to be accepted. these injuries are undoubtedly far more numerous than the number of reports.
and despite the MANY non-weber metal wire grill brushes named in these incident reports...none of the dangerous grill brushes described below have apparently been recalled, at least according to CPSC.gov, aside from the 6 weber grill brushes described above. weber's recalled metal wire grill brushes are not even the ones involved in the most numerous or gruesome injury reports summarized below the cut.
these summaries start out very brief and without many details, and then eventually I (rune!!!!!) started including more details about the injuries because...hey holy shit, I realized these details needed to be shared. at least once incident report was from food served at a restaurant. I am now of the opinion that metal wire grill brushes should either be banned or have far stricter safety regulations, everywhere in the world. these injuries get fucking nasty and I regret not including more comprehensive details earlier for all of them. sorry this is all over the place, these injury reports wound up hitting me hard. so I hope these summaries help protect at least one person who reads them. fffuuuuuuuuck
the following are all incident reports involving metal wire grill brush bristles dislodging from the brush. these reports were all submitted specifically to saferproducts.gov. summary includes manufacturer, name/model of grill brush, retailer, incident year, and increasingly detailed description of injuries. (search query: "grill brush" sorted by newest. there may be other relevant saferproducts reports not listed in these summaries due to variations in descriptions and product names):
grill brush (bed bath & beyond, 2012, 78 year old injured in tooth and throat), the brinkmann corporation grill scrub brush (home depot, 2012, dislodged into a 5 year old's burger), L G sourcing inc master forge 3 in 1 grill brush (2012, 52 year old required major surgery for punctured ureter tube and torn bowel), lifetime brands farberware grill brush (unknown retailer, 2012, 48 year old required surgery days later for wire bristles embedded in intestines), weber-stephen products co's 18 inch grill brush and scraper 306422 (home depot, 2012, bristle became lodged in victim's mouth), weber grill brush (amazon, 2012, wire lodged in victim's mouth), char-broil's brush hawg steel grill cleaning brush (lowe's, 2012, 45 year old required surgery to remove wire bristle from intestine), L G sourcing inc's master forge 16 in 1 grill brush (lowe's, 2012, 30 year old required surgical removal from esophagus), mr. bar-b-q inc's wire bristle three point cleaning brush (grocery outlet, 2012, 62 year old injured in mouth), mr. bar-b-q inc's chef master grill brush (food services of america, 2012), L G sourcing inc's master forge 3 in 1 grill brush (lowe's, 2012, 67 year old injured in mouth), L G sourcing inc's master force (sic, presumably master forge) metal grill brush (lowe's, 2012), onward manufacturing company limiteds barbecue genius 15 inch 2 way grill brush (orchard supply hardward (sic??), 2012, 42 year old injured in tongue), LF LLC's master forge large grill brush (lowe's, 2012, 47 year old had multiple unsuccessful surgeries at different hospitals and as of incident report over $250,000 in medical bills with bristles still lodged in throat), backyard grill's grill cleaning brush (walmart, 2012, 59 year old required surgery for removal from small intestines days after not realizing he swallowed a bristle)
LF LLC's grill master brush (lowe's, 2013, 52 year old injured in mouth), mr. bar-b-q double header grill brush (unknown, 2013, 55 year old required surgery to remove bristle from throat), mr. bar-b-q's oversized triple action grill brush (bed bath and beyond, 2013, 46 year old had 2 unsuccessful surgeries from 2 different hospitals to remove bristles from throat, 3rd bristle removal surgery at another hospital was finally successful after it had perforated her esophagus)
fox run USA LLC kingsford grill cleaning brush (unknown store, 2014, 98 year old required surgery to remove bristle from throat), grill shop dual sided grill brush (menards, 2014, 38 year old required extensive scans and 2 surgeries before bristle removal from throat was successful), onward manufacturing company limiteds grill pro BBQ grill brush (bomgaars, 2014, 63 year old required 6 doctors and 6 months until surgery was successful at removing bristle in neck),
mr. bar-b-q double grill brush (grocery outlet, 2015, 50 year old had bristle pierce through intestine requiring emergency bowel resection to completely remove part of intestine), weber-stepen products LLC model 6463 weber steel grill brush (ace hardware, 2015)
the companion group's big head replacement grill brush head (amazon, 2017), the grill shop's grill brush (menards, 2017, 84 year old required surgery to remove 2 feet of intestines due to infection from one single dislodged bristle), grill marks tools for the outdoor cook BBQ grill brush (ace hardware, 2017, 66 year old fought for 2 months to get surgery to remove wire from tongue before a surgery was successful, this report has a plea to ban wire grill brushes in the US)
ocean state jobber inc dba ocean state job lot's roadhouse BBQ triple action grill brush (ocean state job lot, 2018, 58 year old got wire bristle lodged in tongue and throat, required a ton of scans, had 3 unsuccessful surgeries to remove the wire bristle. as of time of report, victim still had bristle lodged in tongue and throat and was no longer able to speak, swallow, or eat freely without severe pain. in report, victim was requesting information from the CPSC on the physician who successfully removed a wire bristle from the base of a patient's tongue in 2011. and also a plea to remove these products from the market),
mr. bar-b-q's replaceable grill brush (big lots!, 2019), onward manufacturing company limited's grill pro grill wire cleaning brush (walmart, 2019, 70 year old got bristle stuck in throat and tongue and "had to pull it thru my tongue to get it out"),
char-broil LLC's char-broil BBQ grill cleaning brush (lowe's, 2020, 61 year old ingested wire bristles), expert grills grill brush (walmart, 2020, 67 year old required surgery to remove bristle from throat),
nexgrill industries inc's nexgrill grill brush (lowe's, 2022, 70 year old had multiple unsuccessful surgeries to remove wires from throat and esophagus before surgical removal was successful),
birald's birald grill cleaning brush for grilling cookware & grill rotisseries (amazon, 2023, 37 year old injured when bristle became lodged in her gums),
kosciusko consulting inc's grillumaid BBQ grill brush and scraper, BBQ brush for grill cleaning - extra strong 3 in 1 safe wire bristles (amazon, 2025, 41 year old required the "safe wire bristles" to be surgically removed from lower throat), grill daddy grand platinum steam grill brush (amazon, 2024, victim nearly choked and pleads for a safety investigation about this type of product), weber-stephens products llc's weber grill brush model #6278 (home depot, 2025, 72 year old possibly ingested bristles), grill mark's wire grill brush (ace hardware, 2025)
...holy shitload of incident reports, batman. this post actually had to be written twice because the character limit for a block of text was exceeded, and then it failed to save on the mobile app, and deleted hours of text. but hopefully this helps raise some awareness about how fucking dangerous metal wire grill brushes are. just one single metal wire bristle in your food can possibly bankrupt you, uproot your life, disable you for life, and maybe even end your life.
please consider using anything other than a metal wire grill brush to clean your grill. your life, health, and happiness are worth so much more than all of this.
for more information about this recall, check the CSPC recall announcement.
thanks for reading (especially if you read all the incident report summaries, holy shit!!!), stay safe, and take care!
Two weeks left till premieres deadline, schedule now live, and more
Registration open
Registration is open for VidUKon 2026, taking place 5-7 June both in Birmingham and online. You can sign up HERE or find out more about pricing, this year's extras and available sponsorships HERE. The deadline to register for in-person attendance is on 30 April. Registration for online attendance closes 4 June.
Submissions for Vidder's Choice now open
Submissions for Vidder's Choice are now open (deadline is on 19 April). Find out more about how to submit your vids HERE. VJs and panelists, the deadline to submit programming is 30 April.
Upcoming submission deadlines
The submission deadline for Premieres and the Themed Vidshow (Unfinished Business) are about 2 weeks away on 19 April. For everyone planning to submit, good luck getting those vids over the line. And enjoy yourselves! We'll let everyone know as soon as submissions open – should be soon.
Register for the Group Vidding Workshop & Quiz
Signups for the pre-con Group Vidding Workshop are open and will close on 20 April. Assignments go out by 27 April and the submission deadline is 10 May. Find out more and sign up here. You can also register for Friday night's fiendishly difficult/fun Quiz by signing in at vidukon.org and going to your Dashboard. The questions and stream will be open to all attendees so if you want to follow along without officially signing up and joining a team, you can do that too!
Schedule now available
The schedule for this year's con is now available on the VidUKon platform HERE (you need to be logged in to view it). As always, we're really excited about this year's programming! Big breaks in the schedule (1pm-3pm and 6pm-8pm UK time) indicate lunch and dinner breaks.
Chaos Hour is back
The informal Chaos Hour chat is back to break up the long dinnertime slot on Saturday night BST. This year it follows the Then & Now vidshow and panel, so if people want to keep the discussion going, we'll have the time! Chaos Hour is a casual Zoom chat for online attendees to just hang out, so pop in to tell us about why all vidders should watch this one new (or old) show, talk about your favourite new effects trick, or anything else vid-related!
Thursday programming
There will again be some online-only programming on Thursday evening. An All-Virtual Vidder's Choice show will start at 20:00 UK time. The con will officially kick off on Friday afternoon around 15:00 UK time
Birmingham registration
If you're planning to join us in person, you need to register by Thursday 30 April if you haven't already. Find out more about the con hotel and find a roommate HERE.
Con Discord server
As in previous years, most of the weekend's online socialising will take place in the VidUKon Discord server, including chats during each vidshow and panel. You will receive an invitation to join the server on Thursday, 4 June. If you do not already have a Discord account, you will need to create one ahead of time to get the most out of the (virtual) con experience.
With more updates to come, make sure to keep an eye on our social media – you'll always find the latest info on Dreamwidth, plus you can keep tabs on us via Tumblr and Bluesky.
Those important dates one more time:
19 April – deadline to submit to Vidder’s Choice, Premieres and the themed submissions show (Unfinished Business)
30 April – deadline to register for in-person attendance
15 May – deadline to register for online attendance + add-ons (conbook; coasters)
4 June – deadline to register for online attendance only
Preface: If you are going to create something that have never existed before kudos to you. For visual artists the pushback is usually the blank canvas. The next phase of course is sharing what you've created and hoping it's received well.
If you are creating a community project, you do it in full view of the community. The pushback in that case may come from some in that community who may view what you do as a threat. In some cases, facts may not even matter when something new is upsetting the way things have always been done. Letting the project succeed or fail on its own merits in not a possibility when someone feels they need to protect hypothetical other people from this project would bring offense to.
The TV Menu Guide
Anyone who has used a cable tv remote is familiar with a guide like this. TV Shows, Movies and even Musical artists assembled in a grid view so "Viewer" or "Listeners" can select from their favorite "fandom". What if you could create this cover art using your own artistic creative freedom and represent your fandom. You have likely done something like this already but for some other purpose. What if your artwork could represent your fandom. I would view that as a creative art gallery where your work would be showcased.
Fanart Gallery
I want anyone who shares their work to get credit. Please understand I am sharing an idea that may not be fully formed without the feedback I may get from posting something like this. This is just the idea stage of something I think would be better than just using non-fanart for a fan focused project. I am imagining a guide for the core 3 media categories TV, Movies, and Music. I would like each image used to have a link to the original fan artist's page. Probably popular fandoms first but as the project grows who knows.
Share/Reblog with a Fan Artist
If you are a fan artist or know of a fan artist and are even a little bit interested and/or have questions, contact me. My vision is to create a fan created fandom directory showcasing the work of multiple fan artists and/or even creating collaboration among fellow artists. Like a Netflix like gallery of fan art. If this project doesn't interest you, that's okay too. If you have ideas or suggestions, then message me. Again, share this with whoever you may think is interested. I am not sure what this could turn into or lead to, but it is something that I think would be nice to have. Again, initial thoughts are fan art for TV, Movie, and Musical Artists fandoms. Initially for fanvids but could branch out beyond that.
Yeah, it's an obvious song choice, but that's cause it's perfect for this franchise and, more specifically, for these two adrenaline junky gays.AO3: https://arc
Vidrecs.com is Tumblr Friendly. You are looking at it right now. It is also AO3 Friendly. What do I mean? Well, you are going to have to watch the vid to find out. I must have played this video 20 times and I apologize if you do the same.
Submissions for Vidder's Choice are now open (Premieres and Themed Premieres coming soon)! Before we get into how to submit a vid, just a quick note to say that while we still recommend Firefox as your go-to browser, at this point you should be okay using most other browsers. However, we recommend iPhone users not use Safari Mobile to submit vids.
tl;dr
The name you enter in the vid submission form must match your username
We don't support 4K vids
When adding new sources/audio, fine to just add the title. Clicking "Submit" will take you to a page where you will add more complete info
Maximum of 25 sources/songs when submitting. You can add more later once the vid has been submitted successfully.
Eligibility
You must be registered for VidUKon to submit a vid. If you haven’t yet registered, you can do so at vidukon.org.
There are three submission-based vidshows: Vidder’s Choice, Premieres, and the Themed Premieres show. At the moment, you will only see the option to submit to Vidder's Choice on your Dashboard, but submissions to the Premieres and Themed Premieres shows will open soon. As the names imply, Premieres and Themed Premieres must be new vids that have never been posted publicly or shown at a con or similar event. Conversely, Vidder’s Choice vids cannot be premieres. Additionally, Vidder’s Choice submissions must be no longer than four minutes and thirty seconds in length.
Technical specifications
Please follow these if possible, as it makes it easier for us to set up the virtual vidshows. However, we do not want these specs to be a barrier to submission for anyone – if you’re having trouble, please contact us.
File format: MP4
Video codec: H264
Max video bitrate: 7-8 Mbps
Max resolution: 1080p
Audio codec: AAC
Max audio bitrate: 256 kbps
If you don't know how to follow these guidelines: If your vid is roughly under 350 MB and definitely not 4K, go ahead and upload it. If it’s not 4K but well over 350 MB in size and you don’t know how to reduce the file size, please contact us.
Please do not upload 4K vids. We don't support 4K on the platform, so your vid will be converted to 1080p and will likely end up with bleached colors, since that tends to happen with automated conversions from 4K to 1080p.
How to submit your vid
Please note that the name you enter in the vid submission form must match your username. If you chose a different username when you registered than the name you vid under, you can change it by going to your Profile and clicking on "Manage".
To submit a vid, go to your Dashboard, which will display all vidshows you can upload to. This is also where you will manage existing submissions. Click on “Submit”. This takes you to the page where you will enter your vid's details. You will see options to either select a vid from the database (any vids shown at last year's con), or to add a new vid. If you're adding something new, fill in all fields and hit "Submit".
If any sources, audio or vidders don't appear in the drop down, you can add your own. It's fine to just add the title of the source/song, as once you click on "Submit" you will be taken to a new page where you can fill in more details, such as media type (eg Movie, TV/Streaming, Commercial), full title in its original language, media year, etc. If you added a new vidder, you'll get to check that the details are correct here too. You'll also have the option to remove any entry in case you added it in error.
If you're uploading a multifandom vid, you can add a maximum of 25 new things per field at this stage. If your vid contains more than 25 sources, don't worry! You can add the extra sources once the vid has been submitted by using the "Manage" functionality.
In the description field, please enter a brief description of your vid. This doesn’t have to be comprehensive; for example a common approach is to choose a lyric from the vidsong that is particularly evocative of the vid, but it is also fine to write something like, “A Dylan G. character study” or “All the f/f ships in Xena”. Be as creative or straightforward as you like, but please keep this brief as every vid description has to fit in our printed conbook!
Please tick any of the mandatory content notes that apply to your vid. For custom content notes, you may provide additional detail about any of the mandatory notes as well as add any non-mandatory notes, e.g. warnings for spiders or snakes.
At this point you can hit "Submit", which will take you to a page where you can check and add more details to any new sources or audio and remove entries if needed. Make sure to hit "Save Sources & Continue" as well as "Save Audio & Continue" before clicking on "Submit All", which will take you to the page where you'll upload your file.
Here you can upload your vid and you also now have the option to upload subtitles (VTT or SRT format). You will also need to enter your password, so keep that on hand if it's not saved to your browser.
Once you've selected your files, click on "Upload". This might take a few minutes so don't navigate away from the page. Once complete you'll be redirected to your Dashboard, with a message to say you've successfully submitted your vid. You will now have the option to update your submission, either uploading a new file or updating info, including adding/removing sources/audio or updating the description or warnings.
You can add new uploads, and edit all other details of the vid, up until the submission deadline.
