"Shrine" or "Fan Site"?

[Robin]

COOL!! Fansite kits are completely new to me but I am def checking these out!

[Stefi]

For one of the last sites I revamped, I purposely strayed away from using the word "shrine" and switched to "fansite" in an experiment. At the time, I was working to cater to a more general audience, and using "fansite" seemed to return more hits from search engines. I will probably stick with this method, though I did leave a sentence about what it specifically is (a shrine) in the about section.

Like many people here, I refer to our sites as shrines within the community. Though I do feel a bit guilty not using "shrine" on my actual sites considering I started a whole community called "Character Shrines". I do it for the #SEO, I guess.

Side note, if you haven't seen it already, you guys also might find this interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fansite

However, several [fanlistings] are a part of a bigger fansite, used to amplify the fanbase's experience.

YOU'RE WELCOME, FANLISTINGS. (i'm kidding don't hurt me)

Anyway, this always a really interesting discussion that I've seen pop up over the years! It's really great to see what people think and what's changed, especially when time goes on.

[Destinie]

WOOHOO WE HAVE A WIKI PAGE!

[Fiona]

I use the words "shrine", "fansite" and "tribute" pretty much interchangeably, although back in the days (early 2000s), I would never call the character shrines I built "fansites", I tend to call them "tributes" on the actual sites themselves but would refer to them as "shrines" on my collective domain, kinda weird, I know. lol.

I used to think of "fansites" as somewhat well-known websites focused on news and general information rather than any particular character (for example, something like ffwa.eu) so I was hesitant to label my own character shrines as "fansites". However, nowadays, I do call my shrines "fansites" on the actual shrines themselves because my concept of "fansites" changed after Wikis became a thing. I think it's because I associate Wikis with my old concept of "fansites".