Fansite

A fansite (also spelled as fan site) is a RuneScape-related website that offers hints, guides, and often, forums for players. Most fansites offer the ability to have an account on the site, primarily for chatting with other users and use of their forums. An example of a fansite is the RuneScape Wiki.

Shortly after becoming Jagex's CEO, Mark Gerhard repeatedly said that Jagex will become more involved with fansites and their communities.

During April 2010 Jagex relaunched their Fansite Support Programme with a level system introduced which has 4 groups:  Platinum , Gold , Silver and Bronze .

Platinum sites

 * RuneHQ (runehq.com)
 * Sal's Realm of RuneScape (runescape.salmoneus.net)
 * Tip.it
 * RSCommunity.de (German)
 * Runepoli.org (Finnish)
 * RuneZone.com

Gold sites

 * Runecrypt.com
 * Runehints.com
 * Runewise.net
 * Global-rs.com
 * Runescapemedia.com
 * Rscave.se (Swedish)
 * RSPortugal.org (Portuguese)
 * Runescape.pc.pl (Polish)
 * Rslatinos.com (Spanish)
 * Hispanoscape.info (Spanish)
 * Francoscape.net (French)

Silver sites

 * Draynor.net
 * Rsbandb.com
 * RuneScape Wiki (runescape.wikia.com)
 * Runeslayer (runeslayer.com)
 * Pure-warfare (pure-warefare.com)
 * Lunagang.nl (Dutch)
 * Sw3guthix.webs.com (Swedish)
 * Rsdreamteam.se (Swedish)

Controversy
Fansites have been a source of controversy. While Jagex claims to "encourage" fansites, some also see Jagex trying to stop fansites, such as making rules against naming them.

Jagex used to contain links to fansites, but they were removed on 4 November 2001. Jagex later stated that "given the number of RuneScape fansites in existence it would be impossible for us to list them all and therefore in the interests of remaining fair and unbiased we will not list any."

With the relaunch of the fansite support programme a list of recognised fansites was put back onto the forums.

Fake fansites
Some fansites have security issues or cheating problems. A number of fake fansites have key-loggers or Trojans on them. Jagex gives some tips: