[Archive] Meta Roundup: Fannish Stuff of Interest

May 2010

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Posts Tagged: 'conventions'

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Issue #128

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General Meta:

[info]the_shoshanna: A handy guide to media fan convention art shows: "So just as fans shared fanfic and art in the zines that were and are displayed, shared, bought, and sold in convention dealers' rooms, one of the places that fans shared, admired, and bought and sold fan art was in convention art shows."

[info]elfwreck: Ethics of commenting: "Is it proper to comment (squeefully) on the fic of people you know don't like you? How about people who you suspect don't like you and might rather just forget you exist?"

[info]beccastareyes has some short thoughts on Flash Fiction.

Fandom-specific:

[Supernatural] [info]yourlibrarian: SPN 5.11- Where have I seen this before?: "One of the issues I have with all the Kripkeing that goes on in this fandom is that more often than not the fan version is better. And as we head through S5, I have often read/seen the fan version first, so the show really needs to do something special with its take." (With quite detailed episode discussion starting after the first three paragraphs, is therefore spoiler-heavy)

[Queer as Folk] [info]xie_xie_xie: I love my big gay show... (commenting on InsaneJournal QaF fandom): "We all have our favorites, and our least-favorites, but true character hate is just not something we see a lot of here."

General Meta related to the debates about a) m/m slash and b) misogyny in fandom:

[info]tigresslilly: A Few Questions I Haven't Seen Asked or Answered: "... it occurred to me that I haven't seen anything about threesomes. It all seems focused on m/m or f/f pairing and I wondered if it had a place that had been excluded here too."

[info]magpyr: Half-baked thoughts on the male slash debate: "Can't we ditch the m/m debate everybody's so sick of, and talk about the serious lack of femslash in any fandom but The L Word? Why is it so easy for people to see "queer subtext" in a work concerning straight male characters, but not females?"

[info]musesfool: it's all how you use it: "It never fails to amaze me that we place female characters in such an awful catch-22." (One example given in the text: "They can't be interested in (ew!) traditionally feminine pursuits or they're setting back the cause, but they can't be too tomboyish, 'cause then they're just men with boobs!")

[info]havocthecat: Misogyny is wrong. Who knew?: "You know, just because I can generally structure my fandom experience to avoid misogynistic jerks - by avoiding adding them to my friendslist or circle - doesn't mean I can avoid misogyny in fandom altogether."
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Issue #115

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[info]lastscorpion suggests in an untitled entry: "Part of the reason why SG-1 and SGA and AtS were cancelled, even though they still had strong overall ratings, was that there were too many women watching -- we messed up their desired demographics."

[info]yourlibrarian: Invisible women: "I thought it surprising that in the [Newsarama.com] series on "The Fangirl Invasion" they don't discuss how involved women have been in fandoms for decades."

Also by [info]yourlibrarian, Targeting the fans: "But what the article reveals is the death of ComicCon as anything resembling a fan event, as opposed to a marketing trade-show for the entertainment industry."


The Fan Fiction Survey by Ogi Ogas ("The Cognitive Neuroscience of Fan Fiction")

Note: these are all InsaneJournal posts about this topic that I am aware of at the moment. Some of these mainly just copy from or redirect to entries on DW or LJ, but I've included them because there is (or still might be) discussion happening in comments. [info]metafandom covers non-IJ links, as does the Linkspam community on DW, which you can follow via [info]linkspam_dw_rss (created today).

1. Link posts / signal boosting, mostly short, but some with quotes and/or a bit of commentary:

[info]alchemia: That fandom survery going around... DONT TAKE IT

[info]yohjideranged: Fanfiction Survey = Failboat

[info]shadowvalkyrie: Important Fannish PSA

[info]oconel: About the fandom survey

[info]keieeeye: lol guys

[info]the_shoshanna: signal boost: do not take the "neurobiological" fan fiction survey.

[info]aerynvala: Signal Boost: Why NOT to take the "Neurobiological" Fandom Survey

2. More in-depth posts, dealing with specific survey questions, background information, underlying theory and assumptions made, that sort of thing:

[info]slashpine: Some scientists sure have nerve, or, How Not To Study Fandom

and a follow-up, How many kinds of fail in this question? Or, Are You Smarter Than A Neuroscientist?

[info]zellieh: Another "survey" of fans by outsiders who FAIL rather spectacularly.
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Issue #94

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[macross, final fantasy] In Strong Female Characters Part 1, [info]caithyra takes a detailed look at Sheryl Nome and Ranka Lee in the anime Macross Frontier, and Rydia and Rosa in the Final Fantasy IV video game, to analyze what makes them weak or strong characters. Contains heavy spoilers for both.

[info]cluegirl: Fandom Terminology Quandary -- and a proposal for addressing same.: "Pimps aren't clever, dashing scapegraces, and I think we all know this. So WHY are we so willing to use that word in reference to our chosen passtime?"

[info]justhuman: The Friends we Make: ". . . being part of the fannish community in the blogsphere is different than being a fan in other places."
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Issue #29

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[info]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."

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

~

[info]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)

[info]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."

[info]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]

[info]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."

[info]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. :)
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Issue #26

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General

[info]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."

[info]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

[info]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)

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

LiveJournal

[info]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."

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Issue #19

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[info]elfwreck: Collecting info on copyright misuse: "I know there are several teachers on my f'list; I'm hoping some of them (or their associates) will have stories or even documented incidents related to this. [...] For example, a teacher who chose not to use a television, movie, or music clip in the classroom out of fear that his or her actions violated copyright law."

[info]gueneiriol: Ideas for The Con (tm): "So, if you were going to attend a virtual con, what would you like to see happen at it?"

[info]mizbean: Harry/Draco Clichés: "So what is your favorite Harry/Draco cliché, and which is your least favorite?"

[info]musesfool: you think i'm gorgeous, you wanna date me: "I write and read slash, and I have some slash OTPs, and I am a fan of slash, but I am not a slasher, and I often have to preface my contributions to fannish discussions that way, and sometimes it feels weird."

[info]deborak: Why I'm Not a Grammar Nazi: "When it comes to fan fiction, there are those who want to be strict about spelling, punctuation and grammar. As a historian, I cannot get worked up about textual correctness. The rules and spellings that are cherished today will mean nothing a few centuries from now."

[info]loud99: I'm annoyed.: "It's one thing to create a community for the sake of creating it, but to do it out of some sense that the fandom is dying because some things have moved out of LJ is completely and utterly ridiculous. LJ is NOT fandom. Fans make fandom."

[info]dmitchell1985: And we're hypocritically together ever after!: "For a stretch there, everyone seemed to be all over this racism business, but would cry bloody murder if someone ever nudged them to say that something they may have said or written was offensive. Where is the ability to step back and write reflective meta then; when a situation that truly calls for sincere thought has arrived? Where is the moment where the person doesn't simply jump to the defensive and have all of their fangirls swoop in and attack?"

On Warner Brothers' president of production Jeff Robinov's new decree that "We are no longer doing movies with women in the lead":

[info]spacelogic (in [info]feminism): women in entertainment: "When my family picked up the first DVD of Star Trek: Enterprise [...] we played a guessing game. I held the DVD box where nobody could see it, and asked a series of questions: How many women are there on the DVD box? How many people of Asian ancestry? Are those people male or female? How many of African ancestry?"

[info]yourlibrarian: The future of the female hero?: "Other issues are being brought up in the gender in fan studies discussion, namely that men have less reason to transform material that is being created for them whereas women modify it or focus on certain parts to satisfy their own interests. It’s not like that’s an exclusively gendered practice, since any minority group is likely to do so with entertainment targeted at a different/larger audience."

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Issue #11

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[info]gueneiriol wants to host a virtual convention. Help would be greatly appreciated.

[info]celandineb has a Friday Fandom Poll with a few diverse, not fandom-specific, questions.

[info]the_willow:

On Anglinization & Westernization Of Texts: "There are things that are lost by such mis- translations. And yes they are small things. But they are small things that add to the richness of the world building."

Random Harry Potter Thoughts. "The House System, to me (in my real life and as I perceive reflected in the HP books), seems a good focus for school spirit and for a boarding school second family/house spirit and togetherness. But it's not, and I can't believe I'm meant to think it's a sets up of a kind of blind mass prejudice; an organized otherness."

[info]xie_xie_xie:

Please explain: RPGs: "And one of the things that makes no sense to me, holds no appeal, seems like an incomprehensible idea, is role playing games for TV shows. (...) So tell me, what is it that you like about playing them or reading them?"

Fannish thoughts before a marathon: "I simply feel that looking at the show itself is what is important and useful in analyzing the story, especially for me as someone writing in the world of the show. I also don't think it matters very much -- or at all -- what exactly was intended by the multiple creators of the show (writers, actors, etc.) as far as interpretation goes ..."


LiveJournal/6A

On [info]07refugees: Barak resigns as CEO of Six Apart. [info]elfwreck offers a translation of parts of 6A's press release. [info]ms_katonic informs us about the fandom_lounge thread on JournalFen dealing with the subject.

[info]nosselinfea has some additional info on LJ's forthcoming Flag As Adult Content option.

Other:

[info]morgandawn: Blogging: I "See" You!": About various search engine tools to find someone's entries, including journal posts.

I'd like to add that some of those search engines store public posts in their entirety, including images. Usually they use the built-in feed url for one's journal, so it can be helpful to change your feed settings to "title" or "summary". Simply go to http://www.insanejournal.com/admin/console , type in set synlevel title or set synlevel summary and hit "execute".
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Roundup Issue #6

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[info]brimac13: Random About Fandom: "I'm going to post a list of various things about fandom that I find either annoying or implausible--or both, actually. As a precursor, this list is meant to be funny, not to offend." (Example: "5. Writtn' in accents is annoyin', doncha thahnk?")

[info]entrenous88: the return of fannish glee!: "Maybe we should challenge each other in exchanges -- if this person updates her fic, that person might make a set of icons; if one fan posts thoughts on a show or book she's been vaguely meaning to post for a while, another fan will do a great picspam that will get more people invigorated and excited about a particular aspect of one or more fandoms."

[info]babydraco: untitled post: "I have met some of the darker parts of myself in my fic writing and reading-stuff I’d never have otherwise told people I thought about and found that not only did tons of other people understand, but lots of people thought up stuff that was even darker or scarier or more perverted. And that taught me about my limits too."

[info]dfasgiles (in [info]fandom_love): Bless you.: "I have also noticed that there is absolutely no room in fandom for those of us who have mental disabilities and/or illnesses. We are considered to be the people to ban, rather than the people to put on moderation (even if we ask to be)."

[info]morgandawn: Ode To Vid Shows And Fan-Run Conventions, part one and part two. Deals with con expectations and promises, as well as gender and what is it like to be a woman and a fan of popular culture. Part 2 ends with some general questions: "So why do you all attend fan conventions? What do you want out of your vid shows?"

[info]musesfool: still trying to change this mold: "There's a lot of discussion going on about sisabet and sockkpuppett's SPN vid "Women's Work" (...) In looking at it, I don't think the vid is saying, "This show we love is anti-women," so much as it is saying, "Look at how endemic sexualized violence towards women is in our society - this is our culture, our entertainment - and it's so prevalent that we often don't even notice unless we're hit in the face with it."

[info]yourlibrarian (in [info]mind_over_meta): Becoming a fan: Supernatural: "In fact SPN was hardly ever mentioned in reviews at all. This is where fandom comes in. (...) What did make a difference was the fact that people’s posts about SPN kept reminding me of it, whereas otherwise it would just be another vague name on a TV schedule."

[info]telesilla: art vs child porn and why fandom needs to stand with our artists: "Right now, LJ is home to a pretty vast fannish population. I don't know how the actual fan artists on my flist feel about this, but if I were one of them and LJ/6A said "we're going after art only" I'd fucking bail. (...) And if the fan artists start leaving, fandom is diminished."

[info]diachrony: the latest and greatest: highlights in the "LJ shenanigans show" (a very informative rundown / link roundup on recent events, including the new v-gifts advertising strategy).


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