seventhe: (Cats: I LIKE THEM)
[personal profile] seventhe
I'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] ff_press once a week, I run [community profile] 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.

Date: 2011-05-03 06:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] salarta.livejournal.com
A lot of what you listed for new things authors move to is relatively recent. :P

Considering that, my guess is they moved to those shows for the same reason I don't write many FF4 fics anymore even though I love the game to pieces. The old stuff can get a little boring to work with after a while, while the new stuff sucks (I mean in general, though in my personal opinion this applies to FF4:TA too). The shows you mentioned present something new to try out and enjoy, sort of like the thrill of opening a new box of chocolates video game and exploring that new world. There's also a fair amount of uniqueness to the new stuff, clever ideas and such, whereas Japanese video games and anime are starting to slip into finding out whatever seems to be popular at the time and recycling it.

Which makes it not too surprising that more video game companies are talking about how they want to enter the FPS market after seeing the success of Call of Duty. It's making Activision a lot of money, so these companies are going to milk it until it's dry. I miss the old Japanese creative appreciation and yearning.

That's my take on the situation anyway! :)

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