Creative versus technical work in virtual series

Abstract

When a group of fan volunteers created StillFlying.net, a site that hosted Virtual Firefly (VFF), a continuation of the Fox 2002–3 series Firefly, they organized their labor in a way that mirrored actual television production crews, dividing contributors into those with above-the-line creative titles like head writer and those with below-the-line technical titles like art director. By mapping industry hierarchies onto themselves, the VFF community reproduced problematic distinctions between creative and technical work, isolating the site's technical/infrastructural contributors from collaborative support.