Fanlistings
A fanlisting is a list of fans of a thing; a piece of media, a ship, an AU, etc. You can create a list of fans with links to their preferred social media, emails, country, and/or their own websites, and share those to any fans who may be passing by.
If you don’t want to make and manage your own fanlisting, you can browse thefanlistings.org and their partner sites for fanlistings! While many fanlistings are now defunct, the site offers many that are still going and you are able to apply to. It’s worth checking in there for existing ones before you start your own. If you want to create an entire site to host your own fanlisting, thefanlistings and their affiliates offer clear guidelines on what they expect from someone doing so.
But, while fanlistings would typically have their own dedicated site, there is nothing stopping you from hosting one on your own. It probably isn’t going to get on any of the lists, but they can’t stop you making one.
You can start off with your friends that share that interest and they can help with reaching out to others to see if anyone would be interested in being on the list. You can always try approaching people directly and seeing if they’re interested.
You can also set up some sort of form for people wanting to join. You can set this up with something like Google forms, an email address, enthusiast, or you can look into coding your own form to host on the site if you have the means to do so.
You can link a fanlisting in with the manifestos from the meta section; have a link from the meta to the fanlisting and that way any new fans can immediately find the community.
You might want to create some banners, stamps, blinkies, or other graphics for members of the listing to put on their websites. Everyone can chip in to do these and then you can share the code to copy and paste on their own website with it linking back to the main fanlisting. Of course, these don’t have to advertise the fanlisting itself; it can just be of the thing you’re all fans of and conveniently link back.
Remember, you don’t need to run this as an actual fanlisting. It can be a more casual thing, as long as you treat it as such. If you want, it can be more like a recommendations page for people to follow for a thing.
Hatelistings
Do I actually recommend doing a hatelisting? No, bonding over a common hatred is potentially unhealthy. That’s purely my opinion and it has shifted over the years, so I don’t hold it against anyone. I mainly wanted to address these because you may find them if you’re looking into older fansites.
A hatelisting is essentially a list of people who dislike a particular thing. So, if someone is reading your website and dislikes the same thing you do, they can find some like-minded individuals. If they like that thing, they know who to avoid. They can run the exact same way as a fanlisting, it is just showing a difference of opinion.
In the end, it is a case of “just let people dislike things”. If you need to be able to release your dislike of something, you can. And you can find similar people to you.
Cons of Fanlistings
The unfortunate side effect of fanlistings is that this is the internet, and people seem to really like being mean on the internet. Whether you make a fanlisting or hatelisting, whether it’s for something you find problematic or don’t; there is a potential someone may use it as a hitlist. Now, this isn’t more dangerous than existing on social media, posting about a thing, and interacting with other people on that account. There have been plenty of people who have been harassed because they’re mutuals with someone or shared a thing.
Such is existing in fandom on the internet.
Check with people before adding them to the list, make sure they feel comfortable being on it. If they contact you at any point, requesting to be removed, do so.
You may also want to set some rules. You might want people to have a clear, easy to find display of their interest in the thing or a link to the fanlisting. You might want to ban people from trying to make money through the link.
You might have a certain code of conduct regarding how they interact with other fans. That way, if someone ever turns out to be an issue for any reason, and you want to remove them, you have a code of conduct to cite that they agreed to when joining the list. If you do this though, you can not be listed on animefanlistings, and other fanlisting sites may also refuse you. It is up to you if you are treating this as a true by the book fanlisting, or just a listing of fans you are happy to endorse.
Webrings
A webring is essentially a group of websites that are linked to each other; usually based on a theme. There are webrings for specific content, styles, political ideology, beliefs, etc. They’re an easy way to connect your website to others and help bring people to your site as they’ll see you’re similar to a site they’re already interested in.
The easiest way to find a webring is to simply look at what webrings your friends are in. Webrings typically have some sort of banner that the members will put on their site and you can click through to find the list of everyone in the webring. If none of your friends are in any webrings relevant to your interests; look for fansites that are. Hosts like Neocities have search bars you can use to search for tags and you can see if you’re able to find any relevant webrings through that. You can also check social media sites that are popular with web developers (Fediverse at the time of writing, it may have moved on) and see if there are any users on there that are making fansites and check if they’re in any webrings.
Once you find a webring (regardless of if it’s relevant to you), you can then go through the users in that webring, check their websites and see what webrings they are in. Most people who are in a webring will be in multiple webrings, so you’ll be able to follow a path of relevancy. If there is a webring for BL, you might then find someone in that webring who is in a webring for a particular series and someone in that is in one for another thing you like, and it can keep going on if you’re lucky.
There is no cap on how many webrings you can be in. Be in as many as feels comfortable for you or as many as you can find that are relevant to you.
If you like, you can even start your own webring. The best advice I can give on that is the same as the fanlisting.
The difference between a webring and a fanlisting is a fanlisting does not require members to have a website. A webring also offers more control to the admin as they’re less likely to feel they need to comply to the rules of a listings page.