Reblogged owlsoap
Reblogged unloneliest
ok i did movies recently but what about BOOKS? anyway i just did fifty because thinking of one hundred books i like was either going to be an exercise of frustration or indecision, i had a hard enough time with fifty !!
Reblogged cesperanza
- David Duchovny
No one understood the shipper psyche better than 90s Duchovny
Reblogged transformativeworks
On the AO3 all these years later
The tenth anniversary of the OTW and all the AO3 discussion going around this week inspired me to go look at astolat’s original post about creating an An Archive Of Our Own, and found my comment on it:
“I think this is needed and long past needed.
There are of course huge fanfic archives out there like ff.net, but the bigger and more public the site, the more restrictive it is, the more stuff around the edges gets cut off. I don’t WANT the public face of fanfic to be only the most easily palatable stuff, with the smut and the kink and the controversial subjects marginalized and hidden under the table.
And I particularly don’t want to see us all sitting around feeling frustrated while this fabulous community is commodified out from underneath us.
I’m not fit to be a project manager, but I’m great with details and general organizational work. If someone takes this and runs with it, I’d love to help.“
Eleven years and rather a lot of volunteer-hours later, I stand by every single word.
And then I found my original post on the idea that became the OTW/AO3, which says in part:
“However, as I was reading the comments over there, I noticed a frustrating, but not surprising number of comments along the lines of “well, it’s a good idea, but it’s way too ambitious”
I’m not talking about the really useful and practical comments bringing up pitfalls and difficulties to be aware of from the get go with something this massive and complex, I’m talking about all the comments that go something like this:
–
Amen. I want a site like that. I’d pay money for an archive like that, and I’d invest time and effort to make sure it’s as great as it can be. […] But then I hit the realism switch in my brain and it goes ‘splodey. Because sadly it’s not a very realistic concept.
And this:
–
In a perfect world it could be an amazing thing and a great way to “rally the troops” so to speak and provide a sort-of one-stop shop for fan-fiction readers and writers. I see a couple potential problems, though.
Or this:
–
Oh god. I like what you’re saying, I really do, but I think it’s actually impossible to achieve.
and all the various comments that start with
“It sounds like a cool idea…but”
or words to that effect.
Taken separately, these comments don’t seem like much, but every time a new one showed up I couldn’t help but be reminded of
this post by commodorified, and her oh so brilliant and beautiful rant therein:
“WOMEN NEED TO LEARN TO ASK FOR EVERY DAMN THING THEY WANT.
And here are some notes:
Yes, you. Yes, everything. Yes, even that.
All of it. Because it’s true. We’re mostly raised to live on table scraps, to wait and see what’s going when everyone else has been served and then choose from what’s left. And that’s crap, and it’ll get you crap.
Forget the limited menu of things that you automatically assume is all that’s available given your (gender, looks, social class, education, financial position, reputation, family, damage level, etc etc etc), and start reading the whole menu instead.
Then figure out what you want. Then check what you’ve got and figure out how to get it. And then go after it baldheaded till either you make it happen or you decide that its real cost is more than it’s worth to you.”
And THAT is what Astolat’s post is about. It’s about saying “THIS is what we want, let’s make it happen.” It’s about aiming for the ideal, not for some artificially imposed, more “realistic” option.
And I think that’s fabulous. And I think we CAN do this, we CAN make this amazing, complicated idea happen. But in order to do so we’re going to have to be careful about those little voices inside our heads saying “well, it’s a nice idea, but” and “there’s no point in trying for that impossible thing, let’s aim for this ‘more realistic’ goal instead.”
Because, damn it, why shouldn't we ask for every damn thing we want. And why shouldn't we go out there and get it?”
I am so pleased to have been proved correct.
(And also, in the category of “women need to ask for every damn thing they want”? I took those words to heart, which is one of many reasons Marna/commodorified and I have been married for going on eight years.)
ETA: I know some of the links are broken, they copied over from my original post and I didn’t have the energy to either delete them or track them down elsewhere.
Asking for it and doing it!!!
So inspiring. And yes - at the time this seemed such a pipedream, but look at it now!
Yup. I remember saying I’d support it regardless, but it would only really be useful to me as a poster if it allowed every kind of content. Heh.
God this brings it back. People saying we couldn’t do it, that we would never be able to do it, etc. And then there was the sort of six months later moment where people were like, but where is it? (!) Dudes, we had to found a nonprofit company first! so we could be legal and raise money and pay taxes and have a bank account and enter contracts - and moreover, the archive was written from scratch: from a single blinking cursor on the screen, custom-designed from the ground up. I remember that I had the job of tracking wireframes in the early days as the real designers figured out how the flow of pages in the archive were going to go. Amazing.
Anyway, I want to say that the group that came together around the OTW /AO3 in those first years had a track record like WHOA: so many of those people had been archivists, web-admins, fannish fest-runners, newsletter compilers, community moderators, listmoms (kiddies, you won’t know what this is) or had other fannish roles that gave them enormous experience in working collaboratively in fandom and keeping something great going year after year. And OTW continues to attract great people–and so also, while I’m blathering, let me say that volunteering for the OTW also provides great, real world experience that you can put on your resume, because AO3 is one of the top sites in the world and TWC has been publishing on time for ten years and Fanlore is cited in books and journalism all the time and Open Doors has relationships with many meatspace university libraries and archives etc. so if you think you have something to bring to the table, please do think about volunteering somewhere. It’s work, believe me, but it’s also pretty g-d awesome.
I tell you what, if it weren’t for Ao3, 2013 would’ve been the last year I ever wrote anything for anyone other than myself. I was so disgusted and demoralized.
The first chapter of “This, You Protect” wasn’t a desperation move, exactly. It was the first time I’d had fun writing anything in months.
Putting it up, and those first few encouraging comments: that was the first time I’d had fun publishing in years.
And man, the people I have met through that place. I am eternally grateful.
So definitely 100% all of this, but I also have a question. And maybe it’s one of those stupid ones, but it’s something I’m honestly curious about. It has to do with this bit:
"I want to say that the group that came together around the OTW /AO3 in those first years had a track record like WHOA: so many of those people had been archivists, web-admins, fannish fest-runners, newsletter compilers, community moderators, listmoms (kiddies, you won’t know what this is) or had other fannish roles that gave them enormous experience in working collaboratively in fandom and keeping something great going year after year.“
My question is: how do you get there NOW?
And I don’t mean that like “how do you become astolat or esporanza”- because let’s face it, we only get one of them since they are, in fact, themselves, and I’d much rather people try to be themselves than somebody else- but I mean it as in how do you rack up that record now? Because so many of those roles have vanished or gotten diluted in fandom, like, I genuinely don’t know how you’d position yourself into this, and I kinda want to know if only so that I can see the next wave of such fans coming.
I was going to be like, I don’t know! except then I was like, wait, yes, I do know! IMO, the answer is a Mr. Rogers-type secret, which is that the way to do this is to help. Be a helper! Help other fans, boost other fans voices/art somehow. Run a fest or a challenge, do a recs page, reblog stuff, wave your arms in the air, encourage people to make things, offer to beta, make art, do podfics, offer to collaborate - and I’m sure the future will (for better and for worse) provide us new opportunities to help or think about helping each other. But one that comes to mind: help a fan navigate a new platform! Confused about Tumblr/Twitter/Youtube/Pillowfort - can someone help? Will you hold their hand, tell them they’re wanted, get them to come with us to the new land? (I HAVE EXPLAINED TUMBLR TO SO MANY PEOPLE). I remember when I got into fandom, I was posting my stories to a mailing list and I didn’t have a website (because who did?) and MerryLynne came to me and said, like, I like your stories, can I help you host them? I was SO GRATEFUL. Resonant made me a cheat sheet for html which is how I learned. The initial archives had what were called Archive Elves, people who behind the scenes had to format and upload every story by hand. So, to me, true fandom is always encouraging of others, it’s COME WRITE FOR MY SHOW, make the thing, try the thing, do the thing, I will help you do the thing!
Reblogged transformativeworks
hey gamers I’ve started watching star trek does anyone else see the romantic tension between captain kirk and mr. spock
watching the realization publicly dawn in real time in the comments is fucking amazing
op's tags:
comments:
I DIDN’T KNOWWWW
Reblogged transformativeworks
Oh guys, oh guys oh guys ohguysohguys
I found out a thing yesterday that's making me so very very very excited
And just in case you're the type who'd get excited too and like me two days ago you also don't know this important fact:
The Organization for @transformativeworks (OTW; the parent org of AO3) publishes a peer-reviewed academic journal, completely open-access, i.e. free for you to read
Cancel all my appointments forever this is where I'm going to be for the foreseeable lifetime gfasdafdhfgadgd
This post brought to you by "beardo needs to write a literature review about a certain number of a certain type of peer-reviewed paper, on otherwise whatever topics he likes, vaguely contained inside the concept of of 'library or information services', and yesterday he Found His Topic"
I'm so happy everyone, I'm going to write so many academic papers about fanfiction my lecturers are going to get sick of me 🥹🤩
I am Aziraphale rn
Relatedly, I've also just learnt that Dr Lyn Robinson, co-author of a book that's mandatory reading for like 80% of the courses in the academic programme I'm enrolled in, has published research about AO3. Not only does she seem to be into the same sort of information science stuff that I am, she's also researched fanfiction. She's my new idol
Reblogged
Transformative Works and Cultures Releases Issue No. 45
TWC's volume No. 45, a special issue on Sports Fandoms, is out! Read more at: https://otw-news.org/3afndf5m
Reblogged
I'm just curious about how many you have loaded up. Doesn't matter if you made them yourself or got them from someone else. Doesn't matter if they're half-complete or kind of broken. Doesn't matter if you actually use them. I'm just wondering how many site skins people tend to keep around at any given time.
(in case anyone gets inspired to look up skins)
Reblogged marypsue
Five Things orphan_account Said
In Five Things, orphan_account discusses having one of AO3's oldest accounts, preserving fanworks, and being mistaken for a real person. Read more on otw-news.org/yck7a29c
Reblogged bonersniper
truly, a cinematic masterpiece
Reblogged deputychairman
Anna May Wong photographed by Man Ray, c. 1930
Reblogged thepunkpanther
"... and lead by Diefenbaker we set off, Ray and I, we set off on an adventure."
Reblogged bemusedlybespectacled
My state is banning "obscene depictions of minors in content (or someone that looks like one)"
It's safe to say that they don't care about protecting real kids. If they did, child marriage and child beauty pageants would be outlawed.
More than likely, they're using this to conveniently label LGBT content as obscene and then ban it, regardless of context. But of course, if I question this, I'll be called a pedophile.
remember: They say a word like "obscene" and you think "Oh, when they say obscene, that means obscene. As in, you know, really bad things. Well, I definitely am against really bad things. This sounds like maybe a good idea."
Except the thing is that the are not using words in good faith. When they say "obscene", they mean the things that are obscene to *THEM*, not the things that are obscene to you.
Some things that conservatives find obscene: Queers existing anywhere. Women having the right to vote and medical control of their own bodies. Anyone having sexual autonomy. Interracial marriage. Equal pay. Immigrants breathing near them (anywhere within a 2500 mile radius). A Black person making eye contact with them. People speaking a different language where they can hear it.
By the definition they are thinking of, an "obscene depiction of a minor" could be a photograph of an interracial couple on their wedding day, smiling together with their daughter, the flower girl. You think this is a joke? Nope. This is Fascism 101, baby.
Your "obscene" and their "obscene" are not the same thing.
Reblogged fatphobiabusters
i haven't cut my hair in a month
Reblogged xipiti
hey everyone its april fools. but dont worry i dont have anything planned. just going to sit here and...