Spork Club

Sporking is a phenomenon that was phased out of fandom back in the early- to mid-2010s, generally deemed "too mean" for the encroaching kinder, gentler face of fandom. It involved the selection of an especially bad piece of fanfiction, which was then basically ripped to shreds in a comedic fashion, rather akin to MST3K and the proud tradition of RiffTrax.

There was really no right or wrong way to spork a badfic; some people sporked in-character, sort of roleplaying the characters in any given scene reacting to the egregiously out of character portrayals, others just did running commentary ala the bonus material tracks that can be overlaid on DVDs while watching a movie. However a spork was executed, it was only meant to serve one underlying purpose: flay the shit out of this poorly-written monstrosity, and make it as funny as possible in the process. The best fics for sporking were usually those that were So Bad They're Funny, Unintentionally Hilarious, or Way Too Serious For Their Own Good. Edgy modern AUs were therefore very common spork targets, but other frequently-sporked genres included SUGAR HIGH!!! SO RANDOM!!!!! fic, Thinly-Veiled Self-Insert/Isekai For No Reason fic, and I Don't Even Think You Tried At All fic, which is a very specific genre involving doing absolutely no research on a topic you clearly have zero knowledge of, and going Full Bullshit like a college essay.

Sporks were unkind, it's true, but also often the result of an author blatantly refusing genuine concrit that could have improved their work. I'm not saying sporkers weren't assholes, but hey, we were articulate assholes who wanted to help you suck less at writing, and you weren't interested. So here we are. I dunno what else to tell you.

Truly the only rule about sporking a badfic was that you did not tell the author about it. This is why we have the First Rule of Spork Club, which is essentially the only rule of Spork Club. This is a private, invitation-only community, and any sporkings within are never to leave these walls. We do not contact the authors to tell them they've been sporked. We do not link the authors to the sporking of their work. Ever. We laugh amongst ourselves, we enjoy the catharsis of tearing some bad writing apart, we have a good time popcorning about how OOC this story is, and no one's feelings get hurt. Fandom is a nasty place these days, filled with threats, hatred, and suicide bait; if this is the "kinder, gentler" face of fandom, then the sporkings of days past were downright complimentary.

Sporking is about harshly criticizing written works, but it should never be a roast of the writer. Let's make sure our private laughter at cringey fanfiction doesn't become a public representation of our greater position about the state of today's fandom atmosphere.

This is a closed community, for reasons that should be obvious if you read the above information. If you are interested in joining the community, please get in touch with me, the mod, via PM, for a short vetting process. This community is pro-ship, meaning we do not, under any circumstances, spork a story solely for the pairings it involves. If you do not consider yourself a pro-shipper, or do not believe that all ships are valid, regardless of whether or not you personally like them, you are not welcome here. I just want to make sure no one joins this community with the wrong idea of what it's for, or with deliberate intent to judge people's ships or kinks, hurt feelings, or cause drama. Thank you for your understanding.