Meta Roundup

viridescence: Harry Potter is addictive. ORLY?: "This was a research study to be published in a refereed psychological journal, so the authors are coming at this from that perspective: that some people show the symptoms of psychological dependence to Harry Potter. Their barely-there nod to the positive aspects of fandom are overshadowed by the idea that being a HP fan might be unhealthy. It seems clear to me that although they are aware of the fandom community, they don't understand it."

celandineb created a poll about fic/art reading/commenting and what determines whether you look at/read a fanwork.

Also, justhuman is asking for recommendations on slashiest / favourite McShep episodes (SGA).

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As usual, you can leave links to meta entries by commenting here or on the screened comments entry. General questions can be asked on the FAQ post. :)

Attention: because the following entries deal with a) character development or b) themes of a series over the course of all Seasons, there'll be SPOILERS.

[Supernatural] musesfool: dear mr. kripke and crew: "I'm not giving up the show - I love Sam and Dean too much, so I bear all of this and cringe, trying to remedy it for myself via fanfiction - but you are definitely on notice. I really wish during one of those many interviews and Q&As you like to do, some smart fan would ask you what the hell you are thinking (or, more pointedly, why are you NOT thinking) when it comes to race and gender ..."

[Stargate: Atlantis] pouncer: Tarnished Idealism: Elizabeth Weir in the Pegasus Galaxy: "In short, I was arguing that her time in the Pegasus Galaxy shifted Elizabeth's view of the way the world worked, which is incredibly significant if you're an international relations geek like me."

General, polls, etc.

telesilla: okay so here's the thing...: "This slash/fic/art/vids we make? It is transgressive. [...] But I hope you can all understand why, if you call it queer, I get hurt and angry."

As a follow-up to this post in the previous issue, reijamira set up a poll to determine interest in a Supernatural newsletter on IJ.

Deutschsprachiges Meta: rood schreibt über eine neue Fic-Archiv-Regel bei Animexx (Harry-Potter-Fanfictions mit "Verwaltigung an Minderjährigen [...] sind absofort verboten") und listet Kritikpunkte auf.

elfwreck: Meta, Race, and Censorship: "I am not important to these issues. And without a compelling reason, I haven't got the energy to submit to getting my hand slapped, over and over, as I try to figure out the dual issues of "what areas in myself could use improvement" and "what public expressions will get me bitched at."

yonmei: "I can't talk about race because I'm white": "So, I'm white, and I figure that while I might say the wrong thing or miss stuff or just get it wrong because I've got 41 years of white privilege behind me, it is still probably better to speak up rather than shut up. Because racism is everyone's problem."

amilliondays: I like:: "It's an acknowledgement, a concession that in a million fucking years I never would have expected, and yeah, I'm fucking grateful. I imagine every one of us is, and we have a right to be, because so few instances of fan outcry are listened to in comics that fans complaining TPTB don't listen to them is the easiest fucking punchline in the world." (Spoilers for Batman #673.)

ciaan: How to write hot and individual sex scenes: "I believe that the three key elements of a hot sex scene are physicality, emotionality, and intensity."

morgandawn: Meta: Vidders - Understanding Both Halves of Your Audience.: "And it would be a vastly over-simplified panel dividing the vidding audience into two "vastly oversimplified and somewhat random but let's just play along" groups: Kinetic Viewers and Narrative Viewers."

Polls / Journaling / Other

letmypidgeonsgo has a poll on your favourite New Who episodes.

brimac13 asks what content is or isn't acceptable in Harry Potter fic.

I've updated the Master List for index/directory asylums.

xie_xie_xie: Why I hate my friends: "I've read a lot of bloggish commentary over the years about the whole "friend" concept on social networking sites. (...) That word carries so much charge that it's pretty much impossible for any of us to use the feed reader without feeling like we're granting or witholding affection or approval."

ree created a blue userstyle for the IJ portal (needs Stylish or to be added to userContent.css for it to work).

There've been reports about a site called Spokeo.com that is designed to find people's content on social networking sites (using their email adresses to do so) and collects them into one handy feed-like format. 36 sites are trawled for content, including journaling sites like LJ and IJ. According to this post by ships_harry, the situation for journal owners isn't that bad unless you search for their URLs directly. But if you still want to reduce your output for feeds, or know more about the issue, see kabal42's or cluegirl's posts here and here, and I've added the instructions on how to opt out for asylums/communities here. This also makes you less "attractive" for content scrapers.

janecarnall: On writing PoC (when I am not one): "But there seems to be, in some people's minds, a barrier that says "I can't write about that because I'm not the right colour to do it" - and really; kick that crap out."

justhuman: Meta topic - Fictional Responsibility to Real Life Issues: "How much responsibility do authors have to present a controversial issue with all of its nuances? [...] Is the author required to insert a potential anvil of information in the fic to let you know the character is at risk?"

ingrid: "In writing, Viscount ...": "See, the problem with finding (and creating) the perfect rec community is that the responsibility of discovery is on the reader, not the reccer."

slashpine: Short rant on LJ suck-ups, and then a longer bit on OTW: "I. Lap dogs of LJ [...] I have a bone to pick *g* with the people ranting about LJ last summer and now quietly giving them money again. // II. OTW: Like LJ-Biz minus the cat macros [...] OTW stakes out new territory for fandom. Why is it doing it the same old mainstream society way?"

amireal: In which we talk about definitions and paths and all the stuff in between.: "I'm saying that there is a historically female dominated fandom space. [...] It wasn't a purposeful creation but a bunch of women fell together and realized they had a common way of playing."

Polls

letmypidgeonsgo has a short Doctor Who companion poll on Rose, Marta, and Donna.

tommygirl asks if there'd be interest in a MST3K/snark asylum for Supernatural.

Deutsch: lenija möchte einen "Porn Battle" im deutschen Fandom starten.

LiveJournal: The new LJ Explore Area

In short: this feature picks up public content from your journal/community and showcases it in the Explore Area categories. Communities can not opt out of it, only individual users. For more information (incl. how to opt-out), see xie_xie_xie's post in 07refugees. morgandawn and elfwreck both have examples for what kind of entries ended up in the spotlight.

morgandawn: Vidding: Why In The Old Days We Used Bearskins and Stone Knives!: "So every time I curse the difficulties with digital vidding - this vid reminds me it was never that easy."

bethbethbeth: Three HP Comm Notes and one Multi-fandom Thought: "I'm trying to come up with a Universal Theory of Spoiler Protection, but I'm not certain whether the key issue has more to do with the the number of fans of the show/book on your f'list or the significance of the spoiler."

darkrose: Not Your Granddad's Magical Negro: "If you really want to know how we can talk about race in fandom, here's how: White fans have to want to have the conversation with actual fans of color (we do exist!) rather than talking to each other."

telesilla: just don't expect fluffy bunnies: "I have an answer to the question (paraphrased) "why can't we discuss racial fetishes in fandom, the way we can discuss chan or non-con or incest as fetishes." This is a reply I posted to the flocked entry that started all this."

InsaneJournal

persecution created the Unofficial InsaneJournal User Poll Version 2.0. (FYI: 1.0 was this one, from August 2007.)

In regards to the new site schemes: squeaky is looking for volunteers familiar with CSS for IE 5 and 6.

mirabile_dictu: PEDTM: day twenty-four: love and the internet: "Shirky closes his talk with, "We have always loved one another. We're human; it's something we're good at." I think that's true. It doesn't mean we're not at times horrible to each other, and it certainly doesn't mean we don't disagree vehemently with each other. But I think it helps explain the existence of fandom."

happier_bunny: Weighing In: "Not everyone is going to like everything and a critical discussion of someone's work DOES NOT translate into a request that it not be written. It also doesn't translate into: I don't like you."

branchandroot: What is ‘in character’?: "But let me simplify it a little and specify more: should one stick with information presented in the anime/manga, which is frequently contradictory; or information presented in guide/info books, which often provides more background detail but may, again, be contradictory; or information pertaining to real life?"

telesilla: so if your characters wrote fanfic... "...what would they write?"

aristoboule created a poll about writing/RPing original characters and/or fandom characters.

sherlock explains how to tweak the new Worksafe site scheme (sidebar) with Firefox and Stylish.

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As usual, you can leave links to meta entries by commenting here or on the screened comments entry. General questions can be asked on the FAQ post. :)

Eta Jan. 22nd: removed one of the posts because the entry is now friendslocked.

elfwreck: Why fanfic?: "This is hard to explain. It's so obvious to us, that it took a comment from bohemianeditor for me to even notice that the question existed, separate from "why do you think it's legal" and "isn't it sleazy to use someone's creation without their permission" and the whacked "what makes you think you're better than the original author?"

branchandroot: Boys get to keep their power; big surprise: "The thing I particularly notice, though, is the gender division. The story the girls are told is that power brings pain and the answer is to get rid of it or, failing that, die. The story the boys are told is that power brings lack of control and the answer is to understand you are not actually that different from those around you." (Anime/Manga)

[German] das_dingsi (in deutschesfandom): Die Suche nach den eigenen Vorlieben: "Was mir aber diesmal wieder extrem aufgefallen war: ich bin außerstande, meine Vorlieben in griffige Worte zu packen, und schon gar nicht in Genres zu denken."

xie_xie_xie: Why I don't "miss" Queer as Folk: "I never saw it on the air; I got it all as one, completed work. [...] And in addition to having this tiny little comprehension gap when people say they "miss" the show, I also feel slightly protective of the show -- like, don't say anything to make it be less because no more episodes are being made."

rebeccama posted three meta essays as part of the Queer As Folk Emmet Celebration Weekend (not the exact title, but unfortunately I lost the link to the initial post): The Relationship between Emmett and Drew, Emmett: The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship, and Going beyond stereotypes to become partners. (Possible spoilers for all seasons, as it deals with the growth and change of characters.)

Lists, Polls, and Tutorials

brimac13 posted the second part of the Multifandom Fanfiction Poll ("How to choose a fic, cont'd").

persecution wrote a journaling guide about user icons.

envinyatar15 posted a list of Harry-Potter-centric IJ asylums.

[German] majikkuinki erklärt, wie man OpenID benutzt.

Journaling

nosselinfea checked out Scribbld.net's invite code system.

There's some discussion about LJ's and IJ's user stats: LiveJournal is dying. Literally. (by antiaol in 07refugees), and stewardess's InsaneJournal: Growing Like The Dickens. Also, LJ mentions the "Strikethrough 2007" in their news post, which aristoboule (in 07refugees) calls the understatement of the year.

watersword: why I Joined the OTW, part II: 'A lot of the comments directed at OTW over the last few weeks and months has been over the language in the mission statement (...) which states that media fandom is a "predominantly female community."'

lilithilien: Fanfic, the WGA, and the OTW: A Good Thing: "But I will never forget that moment, driving down a snow-blown country road, when the muse first struck me and I knew that I had a story worth telling...and the words to tell it. And you know, it's all due to fandom."

xie_xie_xie: What's love got to do with it? Everything.: "The New Fangirl agrees that the open ending, while she perhaps wishes it had been slightly different, left us a legacy of imagination that a tidy, bow-wrapped ending could never have inspired. (...) And so the New Fangirl recants her bitter snarky past, and embraces the not-blind but also not-bitter Season Five love." (Queer As Folk)

mirabile_dictu: PEDTM: day fourteen: Captain Obvious: "I'm re-watching Friday's SGA, but it still doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I think I expect too much from the show and that's why I'm so often disappointed in it. (...) I especially wish the show would genuinely engage the alien."

brimac13 has a poll on what you take into account when choosing a fic to read.

Yahoo and AOL are currently blocking email from IJ's servers. No messages will be lost, though.

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As usual, you can leave links to meta entries by commenting here or on the screened comments entry. General questions can be asked on the FAQ post. :)

IJ / Asylums / Community-building

greenwitch: Asylum Usage and Habits (poll and discussion) - "[A]sylums here have... not really taken off, and it seems like even asylum creation has dropped (or maybe just outnumbered by the RPGs that seem to be taking over.) So what's the reason? (...) Let's try and figure out what's going, and how we can work on improving the community here."

squeaky announced the purging of old, inactive accounts.

Misc. Fandom Meta

julia_linnea: "Genderswitch" and "Genderplay": What do you think they mean?"

branchandroot: Distribution of labor: "Writing isn’t just having a neat idea, it’s getting a story to coalesce around the idea, complete with transitions and motivations and all the parts that aren’t neat ideas but rather the bones of narrative (...) Given that, I find it a bit surprising that both professional and amateur writers will carry on in equal measure about writing being stolen and ideas being stolen."

Quuer As Folk:

xie_xie_xie: Why they fuck: "I've been thinking about the issue of sex in Brian and Justin fan fiction lately quite a bit ... Of fics that don't just suck totally, there are three broad categories into which I'd put their use of sex scenes ..."

rebeccama: Michael and Ben: "Ben's and Michael's relationship has some real difference from Brian's and Justin's, but that does not make either of the relationships inferior."

Organization of Transformative Works

alchemia: Why I'm not behind the OTW...: "While OTW claims to be inclusive of all, the emphasis has been on the female fanficcers and female vidders, and I wonder where that leaves fandoms that are not predominantly female, and fans that are men, transmen, queergendered, etc., or that enjoy fandom through other avenues, such as fanfilms, re-enactments, cosplay, etc."

Posts for the "Why I Joined The OTW" Week:

bethbethbeth's entry: "Helping to make things better fannishly - even helping to make a single story better - felt great (...) how could I not want to help?"

mirabile_dictu's entry: "I want those opportunities available to everyone possible: to girls of thirteen and women in their eighties, and I don't want them to have to pay for it except with time and energy and love. The world needs safe places for freaks, and fandom can -- no, fandom should! -- be one."

watersword's entry: "OTW's message of pride -- pride in fannishness, pride in the female space that fandom is, pride in the skill it takes us to be fans (meta is hard, y'all, and fiction is harder, I can't even begin to imagine how hard vidding is) -- is one that resonates deeply with me."

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As usual, you can leave links to meta entries by commenting here or on the screened comments entry. General questions can be asked on the FAQ post. :)

rebeccama has a poll: What makes you interested in a fictional couple?

Technical stuff, sorta:

ardath_rekha reports a change in IJ accounts in terms of age.

mercurychaos explains how to get comment notifications using OpenID.

nosselinfea reports issues with LJ-sec (could be it's a known bug, but I'm not an expert).

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As usual, you can leave links to meta entries by commenting here or on the screened comments entry. General questions can be asked on the FAQ post. :)

Misc. Fannish Meta

yayforjae: gender and fandom: "[T]he male vs female space and the gender of fandom are two really interesting topics ... I don't have any really coherent thoughts about gender in fandom at the moment, but I wanted to start writing about my experiences. So here's a bit about my first two fandoms ..."

elfwreck: Anti-Fanfic Bingo, Line three: "I look at this line on the card, and I just get hung up on one topic: Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. I want to weep."

And an entry that's from December, but I just it found today... gonewithoutjam: I'll Sail this Ship Alone: "So you're new to a fandom, or you're a lurker, and it seems everyone ships Y/Z. But hang on a minute. Are you sure about that?"

bethbethbeth wonders if there'd be interest in a Harry Potter Fic Fest that would let characters who are usually seen as too old or too ugly or in some other way undesirable get a little action for a change.

skuf: Bouncing off idea: fandom-related polls comm/archive

InsaneJournal / Siteschemes and Layouts

skuf: Poll: which IJ sitescheme are you using?

Also, the new sitescheme will soon be available as a template and go into beta-testing stage. There's a call for volunteers at ij_siteschemes (writing FAQs, Stylish, finding styles for different browsers).

sherlock suggested an S2 style contest in ideas. See also this post by pen.

Other

data_warrior has a detailed poll on icon creation, use and crediting.

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As usual, you can leave links to meta entries by commenting here or on the screened comments entry. General questions can be asked on the FAQ post. :)

I hope you made it all safe and sound into 2008. Happy New Year!

InsaneJournal

squeaky posted 2007 Year In Review in announcements. The stats alone are made of awesomecakes.

aristoboule (in asylum_promo) posted a list with Helpful Hints on Promoting Your Asylum.

Miscellaneous Meta

rubytuesday5681 did a poll: How do you keep track of your favorite fanfic, fanart, and porn?

dragovianknight asks how you "keep track of what you wrote during the year, much less exactly WHEN you wrote it?"

arionhunter: It was just a social experiment. Really!: "As part of my prep work, I read (and took) the official Sex Addiction Screening Test. (...) How would fandom score? So I task you, IJ, with letting me know."

helkamaria: The Weasleys' finances, or why their poverty is self-inflicted: "They aren't the only poor family in the series (cf. the Creeveys), but they are treated as some kind of an example of a good family that is cruelly deprived of the money they'd justly deserve. For myself, I think that their poverty is their own fault, a result of poor money management. And here's why."

thecaelum: Tie-in versus fandom, again?: "So, Lee Goldberg's at it again. Seems our brave and intrepid anti-fanfic writer has stumbled upon The Organization for Transformative Works, and is very displeased."

yonmei: Organisation for Transformative Works (aka "An Archive Of Their Own"): "But one of the things that definitely puts me off getting involved in any way with OTW is the fact that while the OTW crew mirror otw_news to IJ and GJ, they disable comments there, so that no community of fans interested in OTW can form anywhere other than on livejournal. It is a very pro-centralisation tactic, and very much in opposition to what I see as the major strength of fandom..."

elfwreck: HAPPY SOLSTICE! Have some meta to wake up from the longest night!: "There is something legitimate and valid about the cry of, "Hey! You can't DO THAT to my character!" And if we want to win not only a potential legal case, but public opinion, we need to acknowledge that concern, and with more than "Ooh, I'd be so thrilled if someone liked my writing enough to write fic about it; I'd let them do anything to my characters!"

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fleshdress asks in a poll whether there'd be any interest in a "epilogue and beyond specific art/fic exchange" for Harry Potter fandom.

InsaneJournal: new site schemes are in the works. squeaky mentioned it in this entry, and ij_siteschemes has been created, with branchandroot already testing a site scheme called Dramatic. (Asylum membership is moderated atm.)

shadowvalkyrie: Yuletide Countdown: 3 Days - Panic Time!: "Is it just me or does anybody else always get weird when they're almost done writing a story?"

musesfool: with a few red lights and a few old beds: "I've been thinking about porn lately, or, I should say, sex in fiction, and in fanfiction especially, and why it often doesn't work for me."

rebeccama posted a poll: Fandom is...

zulu: Hi fandom I love you.: "... I love it all the time and there are lots of reasons. But today I love fandom for something that has grown with me all my life, and that's simply my love of storytelling."

morgandawn expands on her earlier post about Read Only vs. Read Write culture (fans being members of the latter).

aristoboule wrote a post with notes and comparisons of the "LJ clones" out there.

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As usual, you can leave links to meta entries by commenting here or on the screened comments entry. General questions can be asked on the FAQ post. :)

telesilla created a poll about the idea of a (multifandom) porn battle type comm here on IJ...

... and wrote So Many Mixed Feelings: "So of course, with the most recent update from OTW--Organization of Transformative Works--there is discussion and yes, even wank. (...) I've been posting comments around the fannish journalsphere and I decided that I really wanted to try to get my feelings on this in one place."

And msilverstar linked to an Anti-fanfic Bingo Card created by ithiliana on LJ.

On LiveJournal's new Voluntary Adult Setting / Flagging Tools

elfwreck wrote a post with links and quotes -- Answers about the new policy (including info on how to change the settings).

According to msilverstar (in 07refugees), RSS feeds are unaffected. Eta one day later: no, apparently not. See this comment.

justhuman: LJ stuff: "My initial impression is that despite some inconveniences, it's a good thing (...) [B]oth of these work a lot like the security settings on LJ with the exception of no custom filters."

stewardess: This Post Contains Explicit Adult Ranting: "While the cynical Voluntary Adult Setting will do nothing to protect the delicate constitutions of America's youth, it will benefit Six Apart in the form of new accounts. (...) It also finally forces members to fill out the birthdate field—might not be valid, but it's still pretty to advertisers." (Note: post contains a link to WfI, users reported their site uses spyware.)

firefly124: Pondering the latest nonsense: "Now, as to stuff others might think ought to be flagged? This would be where I get pissy. I imagine the "gay marriage" tag would bring up a few such posts, for just one example, and now that can be flagged by anyone who wants to, and I wouldn't even know about it."

And last but not least, celandineb has a poll on the issue.

Other LJ-related News:

dragovianknight reports that the maximum number of tags are reduced to 1000.

shusu: unsolicited: "The problem with being a niche producer in fandom is that sometimes the big train chugs past your little alley and shakes the rafters, and then out of the half-dozen lovely people who always come around to shop, there's one who wanders in from nowhere and announces that I should perform like a trained monkey because I am the only person who produces a certain product."

aerynvala: OMFG!: "What the hell is up with the Rating NC-17 or R (just to be safe)?!"

lenija: not nano: "Modern drama-series tend to show every character as not "good" or "evil", but as ambivalent, which is great. But they seem to forget that ambivalent is not the same as having a VERY DARK AND TWISTED hidden personality part. Not everybody has a secret agenda."

babydraco: untitled: "Before calling something OOC, shouldn’t we pause to wonder whether it really is or not? Because a lot of the things we consider “in character” are still based on fanon, it’s just very old, very pervasive fanon."

elfwreck has some thoughts on the newly started fanfiction archive Fictionaire.com.

Misc.

Announcement by squeaky: For permanent InsaneJournal accounts, you can purchase 5.000 userpics.

djin7 needs to know who hosted the very first Gift Fic Fest on (livejournal), or similar.

celandineb has a poll about participation in holiday fic/art exchanges.

logovo has some thoughts on MXCON: "I've been thinking off and on about what to cover in the con, what the fan culture is in Mexico and what it isn't."

lore created a poll on smut/PWPs in Harry Potter fandom.

~

musesfool: it's much too late to save myself from falling: "Possibly my expectations for SPN have always been kind of low, so I am far easier to please, but I've never thought the show was particularly well-written, and a lot of the stuff people bring up as problems has always been present and I've always needed to handwave it. So. There's that." (Spoilers, esp. for ep. 3x06)

elfwreck: Why Harry Potter fic?: "A couple of comments were berating Potter fans for writing, well, slash and other erotica based on "children's stories." And I commented at one of them, and wanted to continue [...] Harry Potter is not a "child-centric, non-sexual" work. It's a coming of age story--a story about shifting from carefree childhood to the responsibilities of adulthood."

darkshimmer: Decision Time....: "There was a story posted there this week, a Severus/Harry story to be exact, in which Severus molests a six year-old Harry. [...] I'm not sure what sickens me more - the fact that people write that stuff because they think it's hot, or the fact that people read this stuff and think it's hot." [Eta Nov. 15th: link removed, author deleted entry]

the_willow: Spitting Angry: "The point of the linked post regards Chad from High School Musical and his curly, fluffy, 'fro. It's about a boy with my hair when it's not in dreads. And the people on this community and commenting to the post who think it's excessive and hypersensitive and too PC to have a mod post asking people to think before they include a hair joke."

slashpine: Squeeful, gleeful - but rarely female: fan slang in NYT Film review: "Fandom language is more often mocked than adopted. [...] Given that, it's nice to see film reviewers using fandom terms non-condescendingly. But while it's accurate enough to call a young male reader of 1800's dime novels a proto-fanboy ... where are the fangirls?"

As usual, you can leave links to meta entries by commenting here or on the screened comments entry. General questions can be asked on the FAQ post. :)

elfwreck: The other side: Oh Noes! Teh Gay has infested Hogwarts! (A link roundup, summarizing the negative reactions to JKR's outing of Dumbledore, ranging from open homophobia to denial.)

sapphoq: Dumbledore Love (an essay with lots and lots of links on GLBT issues, contrasting fiction with reality.)

seraphcelene posted a Meta-thon Masterlist (part fic commentary, part meta on writing or fandom).

mythdefied: Writing musings: "The problem is, I see it so clearly in my mind that I end up forgetting to mention things, and sometimes I just don't catch it until later because when I do a readthrough, I still see it in my head and my mind supplies the missing things."

seraphcelene; Fighting with Fandom: Characters who won't behave: "Then you sit down to write and suddenly the characters refuse to cooperate. They are difficult and unwieldy, and I'm not just talking about characters you don't like. I'm talking about even your most favoritest character ever in the history of the universe and fandom."

lilithilien: Season so far? 2-3: "I've been watching a lot of Farscape lately and I can't help but compare how the women are written/developed in that show vs. in SGA. [...] If you were called in as a consultant for SGA and you could make three improvements/suggestions, what would you say to them?" (minor episode spoilers for October)

skuf has a poll on Andy, Supernatural ep. 2x05.

yourlibrarian (in mind_over_meta): Between the dotted lines: "I will be interested to see if 2007 will bring more stories about a post-Shansu Spike. Given that AtS: After the Fall will start next month, the trend that seemed to build in 2005 may die out. [...] And I wonder if this is because, well, we really have no idea what he’d be like. We’ve seen all those other incarnations in canon, but from the sound of it we will never see a Shansu!Spike, so that one is left completely to our imagination."


Somewhat related:

- telesilla is compiling a list of Heroines Who Kick Ass.
- chal started a Supernatural Slash & Wincest Halloween Friending Meme of Doom.
- In obscurefandom, chichirinoda revealed the 2007 Challenge (requesting and fulfilling fic wishes in rare or small fandoms).
- holiday_wishes is now officially open for posting your fannish (or even non-fannish) wishlists.

General

aerynvala: Why I like conventions: "But in person, at cons, you can meet people that you've only barely encountered online and they're just so...awesome and neat and cool and *real* and you can fall for them in entirely new ways."

das_dingsi: New Fandom Blues: "Walking into a new Fandom is weird. I mean, on the one hand? It's awesome. [...] On the other hand? [...] It might just be me, but whenever I try to immerse myself in a pre-existing fandom, I feel extremely shy and self-conscious."

Fandom-specific

thenyxie: SPN Thoughts RE: Arc and Theme: "Now, align that theme with Sammy, and you have a very compelling arc for this season, because it spells out in neon letters what we can expect later. Namely, the shades of gray in the younger Winchester." (Spoilers)

empink: untitled post: "WHY IS THERE WIZARD RADIO IN HP??? I am guessing it is there for plot reasons— so Molly could listen to it in CS. Because it sure as hell doesn’t fit into the HP world in a way that makes initial sense."

Also, celandineb has a Friday random poll where not all, but some questions are fannish (Harry Potter / the Dumbledore issue).

LiveJournal

das_dingsi: A Reminder About Snap.com // Info: "Many users here still have a LiveJournal, and there were several people on my flist who reported those weird pop-up thingies appearing when they hover over a link. Well, that's because Six Apart partnered with Snap.com a while ago."