Meta Roundup

andreth_47: untitled post: "Is that what you mean when you all talk about your "muse"? That person who's doing the writing, because if it's not you, then who the hell is it?"

[Queer as Folk, detailed episode discussion, i.e. spoilers] xie_xie_xie: The great 513 debate: "Nothing I said here may apply to your reasons for loving or hating 513. But I think there ARE reasons why we do either, or even why we're ambivalent about it, and sometimes examining those reasons instead of just reacting emotionally can reveal new perspectives that we'd have otherwise missed."

blktauna: untitled post: "I think I'm missing what the consensus of misogyny is. Is it the dislike of _all_ female characters? Is it dislike solely because they're female? Can you not like them because they are crap characters or do you have to like them just because they're female?"

elfwreck: Bring on the political RPF: "So... anyone know any good RPF/RPS sites for political figures? About pundits? Anything that explores minor character traits, or takes promises to their extremes, or makes a plausible case for how they'd act in weird emergencies?"

Meta (with polls)

yourlibrarian: What is RPF anyway? About different strains of Real People Fiction and whether it is actually fanfic. Closes with an RPF opinion poll.

loqia: Porn for the Rest of Us: "People admitting that they "skim sex scenes" in fics is surprisingly common. Hell, I do it too; especially if it's getting in the way of some other type of porn. Identity Porn is one of my favourites, but it's only one of many ..."

carodee: Who you are is how you write: "I can see that my writing has real flaws; I also have strengths that I lean on a lot to cover the flaws. The not so strange thing is that I can see how my writing style is completely shaped by the way I walk through life."

xie_xie_xie: Please close the canon on your way out: "I love taking the whole, closed, completed work and then drawing strands out of it [...] I simply can't imagine feeling that way about a story that's still being written."

celandineb: Writing and reading chaptered fics: "One of the things about fanfic (besides the fact that we're all playing in someone else's sandbox) is that longer stories are frequently posted serially, either as each part is written or after the whole is complete (especially if it's really long). There are pluses and minuses to this, both from the reader's and writer's perspective." Also has a poll on reading/writing preferences.

Privacy / Legal Issues

For Gmail users (in case you haven't heard the news yet), a hacking tool has been introduced that automatically steals IDs of non-encrypted sessions and uses them to break into the accounts. The developer is planning to release it in a few days. You can protect your accounts by switching to SSL permanently. If you're unfamiliar with the procedure, blue_rose posted a step-by-step guide and also linked to a patch that would ensure that Gmail Notifier is still working afterwards. I'd like to include two off-site links, an article on HungryHackers.com which explains how Gmail and the hacking tool work, and for Firefox users there's the extension Customize Google, which can also help remove or block unwanted content, including ads and Google Analytics cookies.

skuf wrote a quick tutorial on how to block LJToys from tracking you on LJ/IJ/clones (Firefox only).

morgandawn mentions the RIAA’s Anti-Piracy Trade Agreement Wishlist.

Meta (posts are from the 15th and 23rd, but I don't want to pass them up -- my apologies for not including them earlier. I'm trying to change that, as stated in the previous entry.)

spacelogic: How Star Trek Made Me A Feminist, and Why I Don't Think STXI Is Going To Be Worth It: "I remember being freaked out by the first episode, being wary of the next several, and gradually being won over. And at some point during the entire process, I came to a shocking realization: Star Trek was more feminist than a lot of more modern TV/film productions."

the_willow: Watching The Show In Your Head (Pt 2): When You Can't: "I guess I feel like there probably needs to be respect for the fact that when you can't watch anymore, it means there's too much weighed on the side of dislike and disappointment. And those weights can be aspects of racism, sexism, classcism, national isolationism or just not enough plot ..." (talks about "Monk" and SGA as examples)

Hi! Uh, I suck at introductory stuff, so I'll get straight to the point, okay?

You'll have noticed that the updates have been very infrequent. Of course, I never started out with a strictly set posting schedule in the first place, but it's been getting worse. The overall posting activity on IJ has increased over the year, while my own spare time and energy have decreased, and I finally admit that I can't keep doing this newsletter on my own.

I'm really sorry that I didn't react earlier... I kept hoping that I'd soon have more time on my hands again and things would get back to normal, you know? Well, that was rather stupid of me, as it only reduced the usefulness of this asylum for everyone, and I apologize.

Fact is, if I want to maintain meta_roundup and do regular updates, I'll need help. I'd definitely need someone help me collect links, and perhaps even someone who'd help posting individual issues.

As a first step, I've created a poll in my journal to ask who'd be willing to become a compiler or editor, and see what I/we could work with in theory. Comments are open, for questions and discussion. All news and decisions will also get posted here.

The poll will stay open for a week. In the meantime, I'm going to post a regular roundup issue on Wednesday.

Thank you for your patience, and for sticking with this project over time; meta_roundup had its first 'birthday' a few days ago, actually (Aug 3rd), and I remember how anxious I was in the beginning whether it'd even get that far. *feels nostalgic*

[RPF / bandom] stele3: Thinky thoughts about the Wall Of Some Kind: "We might not be able to get those real people to stop reading our fanfiction (and the characters we write); but we can and should squarely define those two as separate and distinct."

caithyra (in fanficrants): Sex without consent is rape...: "I can't get over the non-consensual wave that's being written (not the one when the writer knows and is aiming for writing non-con, but rather, those who thinks it's a perfectly normal and healthy relationship), because it scares me. Are there really so many fans out there who believes that it is healthy?"

rubyfruit_pixie: Informal writing survey! :D: "What do you like to write when it comes to fanfiction?"

[Harry Potter] ravenna_c_tan asks whether there's any interest in a Snape/Draco/Harry Smut Fest, and for thoughts on format & participation.

IJ Note: The stats (http://www.insanejournal.com/stats/) hadn't updated in a while, but are now live again. Raw txt data: http://www.insanejournal.com/stats/stat s.txt.