Dr. Shaun Duke, Professional Nerd

Editor. Writer. Professor. Host.

Fan Fiction vs. Tie-In Fiction: A Framework

Every once in a while, fandom is beset upon by a series of somewhat aggressive arguments about the function of accuracy in film/tv adaptations. The best of these follow my own path, which involves assessing the work on its own terms before going back to look at how it functions as an adaptation. The worst […]

4 Things Twitter Could Do to Make Blue Worth Paying For (But Probably Won’t)

Over the past week, I’ve been thinking a lot about why Twitter Blue has not been the success its new owner had hoped for. While subscription numbers are hard to assess, Endgadget reported that as late as mid-January, Blue had only 290,000 subscribers worldwide, which doesn’t come close to Musk’s demand that the company get […]

2022 is Here (or, Hell, I Need a Different Year…)

1. 2021 is a Thing That Happened, But Nobody Wanted It 2021 is gone. It’s back there. Submitted to the book of time for appraisal, and it will be found guilty of being largely a miserable affair. Some scholars might even say it was an avoidable mistake. Now, we’re in 2022, and unlike 2021, when […]

On Ethics and Linking Policies (or, Yeah, DNL Doesn’t Work That Way)

The Internet is a wonderful place. The Internet is a terrible place. The Internet is where dreams go to live and die in a messy conglomeration of joy, hate, madness, rage, love, sadness, and bewilderment. We want this Internet place to be safe for everyone. Yet, so often it is not. Given the right prompting, […]

On Forgiveness and Redemption (Storify)

[Update:  since a number of people are reaching my blog via this page, please see this addendum post, which includes an apology and other things related to this post.] You’ll need to click the “read more” because the darn Storify is so long that it floods my main page. [View the story “On Forgiveness and […]

A Conversation with Josh Vogt About the Internet and Perverted Things

(Trigger warning for anyone bother STD analogies…) SCENE:  In the minutes before Shaun’s new editing website went live, an unsuspecting Josh Vogt is gifted an exchange of adolescent absurdity on Facebook. SHAUN:  I want to announce this thing, but I can’t do it if the stupid thing doesn’t propagate.  Make Internet love and spread already! […]