a very quick signal boost
May. 2nd, 2011 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seventheI've been meaning to post this for a while, and I wasn't around a computer much this weekend and didn't want to post it from my phone - I wanted to at least think about the words a little bit.
I use AO3; I like AO3, I like it a lot. I have friends who are on the OTW Board, who are involved in Tag Wrangling, who do other things I only vaguely know and understand. So I'm not really involved here - only peripherally.
But... that's kind of the problem (as I say in my comment), because I don't know much about AO3 or the OTW, and they really only appear in my personal fandom circle as "Here's a place you can post that has fixed most structural problems other sites have." They're not present, they're not visible, they're not welcoming. There's no community on AO3, and community is a big part of fandom.
And that sucks.
But it wouldn't be half as bad if I didn't keep hearing faint strains of, but we want you! We want to expand to tiny fandoms, to video games and anime, to non-Western fandoms; we want to involve you. But they don't, and they haven't, and it isn't like Final Fantasy fandom is dead, I compile![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
ff_press once a week, I run ff_exchange; it sure isn't dead and it keeps getting revived every time Squeenix wants another $30 from my wallet.
But they say this, and do nothing; and then other things happen that really make me feel strange and unwelcome.
I know my Circle/FList is full of non-Western media fans: Final Fantasy fans, Chrono Trigger fans, other video game fans; anime fans, Sailor Moon and Cowboy Bebop and I don't even know what else fans; even JPop and KPop and other things that just aren't represented at all on the AO3, that don't see it anywhere in their fandoms, in their daily fannish functioning. We aren't there. A lot of us got mad/hurt/upset at Yuletide this year, too. And we still aren't there. And if you look at their latest poll... we still aren't there.
And so to you guys, I'd like to invite some conversation. You're welcome to do it in this entry if you're more comfortable with me - I'll pass it on to the relevant post. But you're also welcome to do it in a more appropriate place if you can please (a) remember to keep this person's fannish and Board identities separate, as they desire; and (b) are respectful to someone who put a lot of thought, time, and work into compiling a really interesting, informative, helpful, and - you know what - downright painful entry.
I offer up here, for perusal, The OTW Server Poll and Fannish Diversity.
Thoughts welcome, and thank you to the Board member who took the time to put this public, transparent, honest document together.
I use AO3; I like AO3, I like it a lot. I have friends who are on the OTW Board, who are involved in Tag Wrangling, who do other things I only vaguely know and understand. So I'm not really involved here - only peripherally.
But... that's kind of the problem (as I say in my comment), because I don't know much about AO3 or the OTW, and they really only appear in my personal fandom circle as "Here's a place you can post that has fixed most structural problems other sites have." They're not present, they're not visible, they're not welcoming. There's no community on AO3, and community is a big part of fandom.
And that sucks.
But it wouldn't be half as bad if I didn't keep hearing faint strains of, but we want you! We want to expand to tiny fandoms, to video games and anime, to non-Western fandoms; we want to involve you. But they don't, and they haven't, and it isn't like Final Fantasy fandom is dead, I compile
ff_press once a week, I run ff_exchange; it sure isn't dead and it keeps getting revived every time Squeenix wants another $30 from my wallet. But they say this, and do nothing; and then other things happen that really make me feel strange and unwelcome.
I know my Circle/FList is full of non-Western media fans: Final Fantasy fans, Chrono Trigger fans, other video game fans; anime fans, Sailor Moon and Cowboy Bebop and I don't even know what else fans; even JPop and KPop and other things that just aren't represented at all on the AO3, that don't see it anywhere in their fandoms, in their daily fannish functioning. We aren't there. A lot of us got mad/hurt/upset at Yuletide this year, too. And we still aren't there. And if you look at their latest poll... we still aren't there.
And so to you guys, I'd like to invite some conversation. You're welcome to do it in this entry if you're more comfortable with me - I'll pass it on to the relevant post. But you're also welcome to do it in a more appropriate place if you can please (a) remember to keep this person's fannish and Board identities separate, as they desire; and (b) are respectful to someone who put a lot of thought, time, and work into compiling a really interesting, informative, helpful, and - you know what - downright painful entry.
I offer up here, for perusal, The OTW Server Poll and Fannish Diversity.
Thoughts welcome, and thank you to the Board member who took the time to put this public, transparent, honest document together.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Re: Hmm.
Date: 2011-05-03 03:51 pm (UTC)When I think of it this way, I can understand the OTW group having this sort of bias against the "younger" fan genres - the "Narutards" as I like to affectionately - OK, that was sarcastic - call them. I can tell from my own experience that a lot of these younger genres with younger themes and younger authors leads to the creation of sub-par works, if just for the simple fact that diversity, reality and life experience are lacking in what are basically an even split between romance and action stories coming out of those genres.
Not to say that there isn't a serious fanbase hidden within those groups too. I mean, I just have to point at myself here for that, haha! But then the question becomes, how do you siphon off the fandom elite, without sounding elitist? I don't think you can.
As an aside, I love learning, and I don't think the term ELITE is a derogatory one at all, in fact, I think of it as a compliment. But elitISM is a different beast entirely. I hate basing the legitimacy of things off of values such as higher education and the degrees associated with it. Perhaps this is just rub off from the tendency of politicians to demand that their PhDs be recognized to make them the more valid, intelligent candidate than the opposition, when in actuality the best politicians I have seen are usually the ones lacking the titles. For me, it seems a bit elitist to mention the boards' degrees of education in their writeups - what does that have to do with the price of rice in China?
As for taking fandom as a serious genre... see reply to Salarta about that for more detail, but I sometimes wonder if it really is a good idea to do that - especially in the case of women, I think it siphons off talent from the pool of original authors out there.
Thanks for the reply!
Re: Hmm.
Date: 2011-05-03 04:21 pm (UTC)If you're trying to get an "academic journal" off the ground, though, you really should be citing your qualifications to be editing an academic journal. And the academic journal aspect is not one that gets a lot of press in fandom circles, but it is there.
Re: Hmm.
Date: 2011-05-03 04:41 pm (UTC)Re: Hmm.
Date: 2011-05-03 04:59 pm (UTC)WIN WIN
Re: Hmm.
Date: 2011-05-03 05:01 pm (UTC)Re: Hmm.
Date: 2011-05-03 05:34 pm (UTC)Re: Hmm.
Date: 2011-05-03 06:58 pm (UTC)