[Archive] Meta Roundup: Fannish Stuff of Interest

May 2010

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Posts Tagged: 'deutsch'

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Issue #119

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[info]yourlibrarian: Random fandom tangents: "There was a lot of attention paid to Merriam Webster's addition of fan fiction into its entries this year [...] What do you think of the definition though?"

[info]branchandroot: 'Training wheels' my ass: "I am sick and fucking tired of fanfic being presented as "training wheels". That's a load of BS."

Deutsches Meta: [info]mllesatine (in [info]deutschesfandom): Wie koordiniert man seine Betaleser?: "Ich habe also Probleme mit der Reihen- oder Rangfolge der Betas, mit der Zeit und mit dem Aufwand. Wie geht ihr vor? "

InsaneJournal issues: There've been instances of comment notifications not getting through, or only belatedly. You can check the Recent Comments page for replies to entries on your own journal; there the notifications seem to be listed correctly. In the message center (Inbox), they showed up as well but with a delay of up to 10 hours.
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Issue #105

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[info]branchandroot: Id-candy safety: "I’m all in favor of having books that are id-candy, brain-fluff, that demand nothing from your intellect and instead go straight on to punch your emoporn joybuttons. [But] id-candy is a different thing from good writing."

[info]rood: Living Two Lives – A Story of Bilingual Fan-dom: "I suppose all of you who are multifannish know at least to some degree what I am talking about, because essentially, I am talking about being in two fandoms at once. But while most people experience two fandoms as two different things they’re interested in, for me, it is the same thing, in two languages." Has comments in english and german.

[info]bethbethbeth: Won't someone think of the reccers?: "No, it's not your job to maintain recs pages for reccers, and yes, some of you writers clearly wish your older stories would disappear from memory, and yes, some of my favorite authors have, themselves, disappeared (at least from fandom). However, for those of you who do have a stake in your stories continuing to be read, see what you can do to make it easy for the readers to find you and reccers to update their links."

[info]celandineb's Friday poll was about the etiquette of pimping fic/art, and [info]skuf's poll about tiered recs (i.e. "recs lists where the reccer's favourites are singled out/marked in some way").

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Issue #103

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[info]rood: Meine Kritik an Fanfiktion.de, von Rodo, einer enttäuschten Nutzerin.

[info]the_rck wrote an untitled post about entering new fandoms through fic, without knowing the canon, and the downsides to it.

[info]elfwreck wrote about the Fanlore wiki: "I love fanlore, the idea of it, the way it does work in some areas. I just haven't figured out how to be involved with it."

[info]celandineb's Fandom Friday Poll is asking the question of fic length, i.e. how do you define a drabble, and a fic novel?

[Pro Wrestling] [info]mllesatine: meta: I will try and analyse one of my "quilty pleasures" today.

[Coraline (movie)] [info]yayforjae describes "a strange phenomenon in the Coraline fandom - Portraying Wybie as white".

[Supernatural] [info]yourlibrarian: Missing the Music: Song Use in SPN: "I'm sure everyone has favorite songs in the series. I definitely have my own, but I wanted to think about what we're losing when we don't have music, which goes beyond just having a kick soundtrack. So, just for fun, I decided to do a little meta on what the 10 most significant uses of music have been so far."

Posts about Dreamwidth:

[info]telesilla: Because I'm just a cock-eyed optimist; or why I'm going to be paying for Dreamwidth (also deals with JournalFen and InsaneJournal for comparison/background)

[info]branchandroot, in a post titled In which Dreamwidth is not Microsoft, explains the difference between open beta and site launch.

[info]skuf: April Posting Pact Meta Post the Firste: Dreamwidth's Subscribe/Grant Access To and You (thoughts on Dreamwidth's filtering/friending system and wondering how to handle it)

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Issue #101

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Posts about race and cultural appropriation:

[info]brownbetty: Dear racefail apologists: "Please stop making the argument from capitalism." She also wrote a post on the 'tone' argument and how "for a lot of people 'polite' means not upsetting the status-quo".

[info]branchandroot: One more try: when it’s not about you: "In any discussion of privilege, stereotypes, oppression, agency, if you are on the plus side of the particular issue, do not try to join in with comments about your experience. It may seem like a gesture of sympathy and solidarity, but it isn’t. It’s you taking the focus away from the injured party."

[info]spacelogic: two separate thoughts on Racefail '09: "In brief, I believe that the correct action if you are an ally and your actions or words are deemed racist/representative of cultural racism is to apologize and try to not do it again, and that everyone should have a right to decide whether to disclose their real name, but that the emphasis on pseudonyms may be excessive."

[info]amilliondays posted a summary titled fifteen simple steps to poison your own well: "Elizabeth Bear did it, and now you can, too!"

[info]ms_treesap: A question: "Would you say that Avatar (the original cartoon, not the fail!film in production) was appropriative of Asian cultures? My first thought was 'no', but the (white, male) creators took influences from many aspects of Chinese, Japanese, Tao etc. cultures which I'm not particularly familiar with."

Other:

[Supernatural] [info]yourlibrarian: It's About Power - Hospitalization in SPN: "So even though realistically speaking Sam and Dean should both be ending up in a hospital on a regular basis, why is it Dean that's always lying there near death?"

[Queer as Folk] [info]xie_xie_xie: Justin Taylor is not a "girl" -- and neither are you: "I put 'girl' in quotes because I don't mean, Justin isn't female, although of course, he's not. But being a 'girl' isn't about being a young woman; it's about that stereotypical dependent stand-by-your-man 'girl' of the old-fashioned romance novel, the one for whom love is the rock on which her life is built, and everything else comes second."

[Gilmore Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer] [info]zombieallomorph: Buffy, Gilmore Girls und Transamerica. Massive Spoiler. (vergleicht die beiden Serien in Bezug auf deren Darstellung von Frauen, Sexualität und sexueller Gewalt, sowie im Hinblick auf Idenitifikationspotential.)

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Issue #86

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[info]cluegirl: Fandom Things I Miss: "Raising a toast to those things I remember with persistent, undimmed fondness from times when fandom seemed very different to me."

[info]the_obscure: Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him.: "The melodramatic, almost operatic crescendo and sudden, swift demise of a fictional person we have loved does not give us an emotional high, it makes us callous on the ten-billionth time it's done, overdone, chewed, spat out, and paraded once more in the guise of originality."

[info]yourlibrarian: The Wheel of Television Fortune: "There's something rather depressing about seeing a show which had a strong, even stellar, first season turn into a mess. There's something incredibly rewarding about seeing a show that stumbled pick itself up again. There's something even more depressing about seeing a show that botched its second season learning all the wrong messages from that fiasco." (Spoilers; talks mainly about "Heroes" and "Supernatural", also mentions "Veronica Mars" and "Chuck")

Zwei Einträge von [info]frogspace: 1. Über den Start des Fanlore Wikis und der Frage nach Objektivität/Bewertung sowie den Vorteilen der User ID, 2. Wenn sich draußen die Blätter verfärben: "Apropos Form, ich bin derzeit dabei, meine alten Metalinks aus einem nur zu diesem Zweck bestehenden Zweitjournal in einen Delicious-Account zu übertragen. [...] Delicious wird von Google erfasst. Wenn ich diese ganzen Wayback-Links jetzt in einem Account sammle und öffentlich mache, dann verändert das den Grad der Öffentlichkeit und ich weiß nicht, wie ich damit umgehen soll."

LiveJournal: [info]greenwitch posted in [info]07refugees that "what appears to be Russian hackers have been taking down journals and communities over on LJ" and asks if anyone has further information on the number of affected journals and/or LJ's actions against the attacks.

InsaneJournal: A security update to the 2.0 version of Firefox (2.0.0.17) is causing problems with the Rich Text Editor. [info]squeaky suggests using the mobile update page on IJ or change browser versions, until there's a better solution.
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Issue #85

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[Brokeback Mountain] [info]yourlibrarian: Things that made me go "Hmm" today (1. details on Annie Proulx's disapproval of the fanfic that was sent to her, 2. Torchwood fandom; on LJers' reviews being quoted without permission in a for-profit book [see also next link]: "I had to wonder if part of the upset over both cases had to do with the format change rather than the copying issue itself."

[info]branchandroot: Ruminations on copyright and blogs: "So, in the wake of The Telos Affair, I’ve been thinking about the astonishing tangle that is copyright law and the even more astonishing tangle that is copyright law applied to online documents." (gives information on whether it's possible to copyright one's personal blog)

[info]stele3: Everything I know about Clay Aiken I learned from F_W.: "So, in case anyone hasn't heard yet, Clay Aiken is gay. [...] I do think, however, that his fanbase reaction is an earmarker for how America stands at the moment vis-a-vis the queer community and people coming out."

Two posts by [info]xie_xie_xie:

Preserving fandom history and heritage: "Of course it's your site and your work and you can do with it what you want, but it's also a part of our history and legacy, and people have a strong stake in it. It is, whether you meant it that way or not, our heritage. Think hard before you take that away."

The Big Chill: How LiveJournal's culture of invisibility threatens fandom: "By going along with the sort of hybrid requirement/cultural norm that all "adult" content needs to be locked away from anyone but your "friends list," you both increase the invisibility of fandom in general and remove fandom works -- fic, vids, icons, graphics, meta -- from public view, particularly that of new fans and those seeking information on the fandom."

Poll: [info]only_gremo: I learn, because I am a fan - The impact of fan identities on learning (has discussion in english and german)

Mini-Meta:

[info]ms_treesap ponders "[t]he shipping plotline of 'Two characters get together because one is really awesome and deserves the romantic and/or sexual attentions of the other'".

[info]spacelogic did some number-crunching for GLAAD's new "Where We Are On TV" report (ethnic minorities, GLBT characters)

Meta tied to Episode Reactions (contain spoilers!)

[Bones] [info]justhuman: This week's Bones: "Dear Bones Writers, Either find your balls [or] give them up completely. You went the "dark" route. You came out of it looking mighty dim, but you went there. Now you want to be all sweetness and light again?"

[Supernatural] [info]yourlibrarian: Review of SPN 4.01: "Perhaps because of the diminished expectations set up by S3, this opener seemed both richer in content and an interesting set-up for things to come."
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Issue #84

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[info]duskpeterson: To slash and yaoi folk: How has Hurricane Ike affected you?: "I'm working on a story for my Hurricanes Gustav and Ike Report at True Tales about how Hurricane Ike has affected the slash and yaoi communities. Anyone here want to contribute their anecdotes, for the record?"

[Final Fantasy games] [info]lassarina: [meta] I think too much: "So, my biggest fundamental assumption about FF6 is that the Magi-Tek infusion affects not just body but also personality, because it's forcing your genetic structure to alter to accept this new ability."

[info]frogspace gibt kurz ihre (positiven) Impressionen zur ersten Ausgabe des Journals Transformative Works and Cultures (des OTW) wieder.

InsaneJournal

[info]squeaky announced a Permanently Insane Account Sale, starting on the 15th and lasting one week. Prices have been lowered back to $40 for a permanent account and $120 for the Insane Userpics option.
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Issue #77

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[info]the_willow: More On Nice vs Mean (Fannish): "Do only one set of feelings matter? Or only one set of feelings from one group of people?"

[Harry Potter] [info]iamisaac (in [info]metametameta): Severus/Remus in canon: "3000 words or so of meta about moments in canon where a relationship between Severus and Remus looks like a real possibility."

[Queer-as-Folk-centric, but also general discussion] [info]xie_xie_xie: Wherein I am intolerant in the extreme: "If you ever wanted proof that I do not in fact rule the universe nor even this tiny little molecule of it that is the Queer as Folk fandom, the existence of QAF mpreg is it. [...] I think there's something really, truly scary and strange about serious "real world" mpreg fic."

[Dr. Horrible] [info]andreth_47: Dr. Horrible Meta: The Goggles of Disguise: "I was thinking about that in regard to Dr. Horrible, 'cause supervillains wear costumes too of course, and I suddenly realized that disguises/costumes/illusions are a pervasive theme in Joss's latest work of genius."

Refresher course: [info]branchandroot explains how to use OpenID when you don't have an IJ account.

[allgemeine Diskussion, plus Eindrücke über Generation Kill] [info]mllesatine: Heut mach ich mir kein Abendbrot, heut mach ich mir Gedanken!: "Jedenfalls geht mir in letzter Zeit so einiges zum Thema Slash, Feminismus und meinen Fandoms im Kopf rum. Warum sind zum Beispiel die Fandoms, die ich am meisten liebe, nur von Männern bevölkert?"
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Issue #67

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[Battlestar Galactica] [info]amilliondays: thoughts on BSG, short version: "I still love it. I still love the women from it. I'll watch it to the end, because ultimately my problems with it aren't enough to dampen my fondness and adoration for the things I love about it, for the addiction it feeds. -- But it's still got problems."

[Smallville] [info]odditycollector: A hero's best archenemies are a study in opposites. That's why Clark fights *Brainiac*.: "But then I realized that the problem was just that I was working from the wrong mental model. I'd tuned in expecting some sort of superhero drama, when really I was watching a comedy. It's a parody about these characters who've been sucked into the orbit of Our Hero Who Has An Important Destiny Trust Us... only Our Hero has the brains of a guinea pig and the characters spend most of their time making sure he doesn't walk around with his underwear on the outside of his pants or something."

[cartoon animation in general / Avatar: The Last Airbender] [info]branchandroot: Avatar pick up, VA musings: "The other thing that trips me up, unfortunately, seems to be endemic to US cartoons, and that’s the voice acting. [...] You know. That problem. The one where you listen and think “s/he’s not acting; s/he’s just reading”.

[info]firefly124: Neat bit of meta, found via [info]a_bees_buzz, and some of my related thoughts on AU's: "As with the examples I gave, sometimes you choose to go with the unrealistic option that most people will buy anyway because that's what will work without bogging things down."

[info]rood: Why I think the FanFictionNetBot is a Bad Idea: "Some of you may have heard of it, some may not. The Fan History Wiki now uses a bot to integrate ff.net user data into their database."

[info]lenija: Retrospektion. Spirale geht nicht zu. ;): "2003 habe ich angefangen, Fanfic zu lesen, doch ich wußte damals noch nicht, daß es eine große Internetgemeinde gibt, die auf allen möglichen Niveaus über ihre geliebten Texte diskutiert und deren Mitglieder sich zu einem großen Teil auch darüber definieren, Teil des Fandoms zu sein."

This week's prompts on [info]metametameta are disability-related (inspired by the Blog Against Disablism Day).

Userpics were temporarily switched off because IJ's slowly getting moved to the new server, but should be back up now. Some icons might have gotten lost in the process, but after the move is completed, it shouldn't happen again, ever. [info]squeaky's cleaning up the ads, too. Busy week.

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Issue #58

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[info]aerynvala: Interaction Protocol Query: "How the fuck do I interact with bandpeoples? I don't know these kids, just their work and occasionally their blog posts. ... [I]s there a way to glee all over the bandpeoples without being a total stalkery tool?"

InsaneJournal

IJ has some issues with tagging entries (tags won't show up, the tags management page is missing some options et cetera), but there's a way to work around that by [temporarily] using the Lynx sitescheme. Here's a tutorial (in English and German).

LiveJournal

LJ finally posted new policy guidelines. There's a discussion on [info]07refugees with some links.

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Issue #55

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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] [info]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] [info]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.

[info]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, [info]reijamira set up a poll to determine interest in a Supernatural newsletter on IJ.

Deutschsprachiges Meta: [info]rood schreibt über eine neue Fic-Archiv-Regel bei Animexx (Harry-Potter-Fanfictions mit "Verwaltigung an Minderjährigen [...] sind absofort verboten") und listet Kritikpunkte auf.
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Issue #52

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[info]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."

[info]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?"

[info]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."

[info]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?"

[info]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

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

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

Deutsch: [info]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 [info]xie_xie_xie's post in [info]07refugees. [info]morgandawn and [info]elfwreck both have examples for what kind of entries ended up in the spotlight.

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Issue #48

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

[info]elfwreck: Why fanfic?: "This is hard to explain. It's so obvious to us, that it took a comment from [info]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?"

[info]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] [info]das_dingsi (in [info]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."

[info]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."

[info]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

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

[info]persecution wrote a journaling guide about user icons.

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

[German] [info]majikkuinki erklärt, wie man OpenID benutzt.

Journaling

[info]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 [info]antiaol in [info]07refugees), and [info]stewardess's InsaneJournal: Growing Like The Dickens. Also, LJ mentions the "Strikethrough 2007" in their news post, which [info]aristoboule (in [info]07refugees) calls the understatement of the year.
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Issue #34

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General Fannish Meta

[info]spacelogic: '"obviously Chinese" is not the same!': "So I've been thinking about Babylon 5, and how humans generally can be divided into three groups in that universe: Anglophones (mostly American,) Russians, and... Japanese."

Journaling / IJ

[info]greenwitch: DAMMIT: "Okay, frustration point here -- I've noticed several times now that when people create a community for a fandom, they're forgetting one major thing -- ENTERING SAID FANDOM'S NAME INTO THE COMMUNITY INTEREST LIST."

[info]the_willow: When I compare Scribblit to iJay...: "Part of me thinks it may be because Scribblit isn't open yet to making your own communities on the spur of the moment, that I'm left feeling a little loose."

Tutorial: [info]das_dingsi: How to Restore Lost Icons / Verlorene Icons wiederherstellen

LiveJournal

[info]dragovianknight: To all the people saying "LJ, did you learn nothing from Strikethrough?": "Of course they learned. They learned that 99.9% of their users will pitch a fit, and then stay."

[info]stewardess explains in Flagging Tool Fall-out why setting your LiveJournal to "Adult Concepts / Explicit Adult Content" is a bad idea.

[info]diachrony: livejournal adult-content flagging highlights: "Users will NOT be notified if an individual entry of theirs is marked "explicit" by LJ Abuse. (...) The new "Adult" warning pages might get the entire LJ site blocked in some workplaces (and libraries) for being NSFW, as they use keywords that cause sites to be restricted."

Also, [info]the_willow reports that feeds from LJ are not accessible anymore. (Explained further in this comment in [info]07refugees.)

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Issue #20

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[info]amilliondays: on fandom (and, as is usually the case, fandumb, too): "We all have stories we know are wrongheaded and possibly terrifying in their portrayals of gender, race, sexuality, religion, what-have-you but that we still love, anyway. [...] It's okay to admit it makes you uncomfortable that you like those stories, because those stories make people uncomfortable and that's nothing to be ashamed of. It's not okay to tell other parts of fandom who want to get some acknowledgment that this is the case that they're just seeing things and getting butthurt over nothing because you don't see the problem."


[info]aerynvala: Judging the Content of Their Character: "The heroes of my show, whichever show, don't have to be perfect (actually god fucking forfend). But I don't want them being constantly shown up." (Spoilers for SPN 3x01 and Tru Calling)

[info]rabbitboy: untitled post: "How many of you are still using Livejournal, and get a better response from that community than from here or from other journals/blogs you may have?"

German:

[info]mllesatine (in [info]deutschesfandom: Strikethrough 07 - eine Chronik

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 #15

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This issue is quite LJ-centric...

LiveJournal and Autopayments

Apparently LJ has set several people's accounts to "Autopay" without their permission. [info]elfwreck has a link roundup. [info]ldybastet also comments on the claim that it's just user stupidity / a confusing payment page.

LiveJournal partnering with Snap.com

... which resulted in the new "Snap Shots" feature. [info]nosselinfea has a nice summary of the issue. (I better mention it right here, because the info is buried somewhere in the linked threads: disabling Snap Shots the way it's explained in the FAQ means that Snap.com will set a tracking cookie to collect information about your browsing preferences. Apparently there's no other way to block it, unless you use, say, Firefox's Adblock Plus to get rid of it.)

[info]ldybastet draws a connection to 6A's new link policy.

Informationen dazu auf deutsch: [info]das_dingsi: LiveJournal und Snap.com: wieder ein unerwünschtes "Feature" mehr

Fandom Meta

[info]alchemia: Love love love....?: Harry-Potter-centric questions about the forms and definitions of love. Taken from the ETA: "While fb on love in fanfic, inc ABP is welcomed for examples about your concepts of love, the questions originally came from pondering canon, and how our feelings about love either agree or disagree or something in between with what JKR shows us!"

[info]das_dingsi
[info]meta_roundup
[info]das_dingsi
[info]meta_roundup

Roundup Issue #8

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[info]meta_roundup


InsaneJournal

In [info]07refugees, [info]keieeeye says there'll be a major code update soon, which should fix several site issues. Apparently, the days of miraculously disappearing comments will soon be over. (And as a personal comment: I love it that [info]squeaky works on the site issues, instead of giving us "extras" and "features" we didn't ask for.)

[info]djin7 compares the IJ user stats before and after the LiveJournal Strikeout/Boldthrough. It's insane (pun was not intended, I swear).

[info]bethbethbeth mentions issues with IJ's friending feature.

Fandom Stuff

[info]yourlibrarian: Ads and You: "And vidders will probably be affected by ads soon as well, since YouTube is now planning to run ads embedded in the video content they host. Given that the advertising push on LJ seems to have led to a greater concern about content, it seems to me that monetizing sites through ads is likely to be the biggest problem to fandom in finding spaces to host their content."

[info]das_dingsi: Dark!fic vs. Dark Themes and My Fictional Landscape: "'Darkfic' (as according to the above definitions) doesn't do it for me, but 'dark themes' certainly do. And I like it here. It's an interesting, sometimes a bit clichéd (I guess), but very satisfying place. I wouldn't want it any other way. Probably I couldn't want it any other way, because (as with most of our preferences) it's not even a concscious act."

Two posts by [info]musesfool:
we got each other and that's a lot: "All fanfic is in some way in conversation with the source text, but AUs tend to force the intertexuality of the conversation, because without some knowledge of the source (and often, the deeper the knowledge the better), the reader can't be aware of the changes and, more importantly, what those changes mean. (Though with the rather large change of making an always male character always female, there are larger issues at play)." - Mostly Supernatural-centric, dealing with X-as-a-girl AUs.

you've got to roll with the punches to get to what's real: "I think making a big public display of it riles people up, and yeah, it's rude, but seriously, people who think fans aren't saving their favorite stories to their hard drives for rereading are naive at best (...) Reposting or redistributing it publicly is a fannish faux pas, but I think it's really hilarious and hypocritical for fanfic writers to be screaming about copyright violations and lack of permissions."

[info]bethbethbeth explains why friending a community's watcher journal is a bad idea.

[info]cluegirl started a Fandom Happiness Is... meme.

Deutschsprachiges Meta

[info]mllesatine: Das UHT Mysterium: "Ich lese jede Menge SPN Fanfic und was mich immer wieder überrascht, ist die Bemerkung, dass die Winchester-Brüder eine sehr körperliche Beziehung haben (im Gegensatz zu dem, was man on-screen sieht). (...) Der körperliche Kontakt zwischen ihnen ist praktisch nicht vorhanden. Und ich werde damit einfach nicht fertig. (...) Es ist nur so *beunruhigend* eine Familie zu sehen, deren Mitglieder sich gegenseitig wie Fremde behandeln."

[info]lenija: Migrationsströme zielsicher. Résistance putzt Brille.: "Wo sind eigentlich all die interessanten Diskussionen und Pläne geblieben bezüglich der Frage, wohin das Fandom nun umziehen will?"

If you've got a fannish entry you'd like to see included, be it yours or posts of other fandomers, just leave a comment with the link. You can also use the suggestion post with screened comments if you're more comfortable with that.

[info]das_dingsi
[info]meta_roundup
[info]das_dingsi
[info]meta_roundup

Roundup Issue #4

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General Fandom Meta

[info]ignazwisdom: Great Ways to Get People to Not Read Your Story, #7: 'Put something like this in as your author's note: "Again... Not very good. I'll try to do better next time."'

[info]thete1: On Fanart, Graphic and Otherwise.: "When we say to ourselves, "well, it's not like they're going after the *writers*," what we're really saying is that fanart isn't important. We're saying the fanartists are, at best, second-class fans, undeserving of the rights and appreciation due to the rest of us."

[info]rubyfruit_pixie: Your thoughts?: "If there's no profanity, and there's no sexual content beyond hand-holding and kissing, is it possible to give a G-rating to those fics and art with a gay couple, or does it get bumped up a rating because of the fact that there's an M/M or F/F couple?"

[info]shannon730 (on [info]fandom_love): Intro and Artisitc/Literary Merit?: "Artistic and Literary merit to me are about the story the work tells. That's why art is being hit harder. It's not about the art being good or bad, it's because there isn't a story behind it."

[info]hphaeton: The Warnings Discussion: "First of all I have to say that I want - no, need - to read warnings before I start reading a fic. (...) When I read an original novel/book I haven't invested any emotion yet. (...) But fanfiction is something completely different for me. (...) Often enough warnings are either too specific or not specific enough for my taste."

[info]bitterfig: delusions?: "Basically, the recent controversy about Livejournals suspension of users for posting sexually explicit fan art is making me take a look at the role fandom has come to play in my life and what my shadow career as a fan fiction writer means to me."

[info]thete1: Fannish Activities As Therapy: Making It Better: "One of the things that keeps me in fandom is the opportunity to therapize myself, and one of my favorite ways to do that is to make some of favorite characters happier. Just plain 'happy' is, for a lot of these guys, asking far too much, but *happier* is possible. (...) Do you find yourselves doing this sort of thing? If so, how do you set out to make characters happy? What's your perfect story of both personal and virtual fulfillment?"

[info]zulu: Writing Bad Habits: "Any bad habits you know you have to go looking for on an edit, or avoid during writing?"

[info]luzzu: Fuck's sake fandom: "Fandom hypocrisy for the lose. When you find yourself the victim of a witchhunt, the answer is, to start another!"


InsaneJournal

[info]emilie_burns collected links to various statements by [info]squeaky, regarding InsaneJournal's policies and stance towards fandom.

Also, [info]squeaky just upped the friends limit, as well as the links limit for the sidebar.

[info]snakeling: IJ Siteschemes and how to modify them. Tutorials for Firefox, Epiphany, and Opera.

[info]tinnidawg found two Firefox add-ons that help you download all your memories and userpics/scrapbook pictures.

[info]guiltyred (on [info]07refugees) points us towards the email notification center, which also has the option for new friend notices. Unfortunately, it does not work (yet).

[info]telesilla shares her thoughts on the various journaling options (InsaneJournal, GreatestJournal, JournalFen, Blurty and Scribblit).

[info]mythicdove: Poll: "For those of you who have/had a LJ and wrote fic, curious as to what you are doing currently."


LiveJournal

[info]diachrony started a discussion (on [info]07refugees) about Matthew Skala's online article, "The Terrible Secret of LiveJournal".

[info]p_zeitgeist: You know that thing about killing all the lawyers? (crossposted from LJ): "But horribly, thanks to a potential flamewar I turned away from at the last possible moment, I have a new hypothesis about what's been going on with 6A. And I almost resent the fact that if it's correct, it will mean that I was right in the first instance, they really do mean well, and every single thing we've objected to is by way of being a hideous accident."

[info]justhuman: I should be sleeping, but I’m going to post potentially fannishly unpopular stuff first: "Back in June sometime between Strikethrough and Boldthrough, I said in a comment somewhere that it was good fandom was pushing back, but eventually we’d need to back down on some of the issues because freedom of speech has never been absolute in the US and there are laws against distributing certain types of images and content. (...) Getting the California Attorney General involved in Fandom vs. LJ ... this cannot end well."

[info]diachrony: now about making text or hyperlinks, and what LJ thinks of that ...: "It seems (...) that there is now a strong possibility that LiveJournal will summarily ban and delete users for merely providing a text link to another site that hosts content LiveJournal deems 'objectionable.'"


Other

[info]the_willow: IBARW: Grab Your CoC meme - C. Fillmore: "A cop's show with a black title character, who despite the laughs, is an intelligent hero. How could he not be one of my absolute favourite Characters of Colour."

[german] Da bei LiveJournal nun auch Links zu illegalen/obszönen Inhalten zur Suspendierung führen können, hat [info]mllesatine sich mit der Rechtslage zu Verweisen und Hyperlinks im deutschen Raum beschäftigt.
[info]das_dingsi
[info]meta_roundup
[info]das_dingsi
[info]meta_roundup

Roundup Issue #3

[info]das_dingsi
[info]meta_roundup


LiveJournal / 6A

[info]kieeeeye (on [info]07refugees) linked to an online article from German newspaper "Der Spiegel" about the LJ Strikethrough. Link to a translation included.

[info]bemysty (untitled): "What IS happening, however, is that independent bloggers (...) take note of this affair (...) And while the fanfic community is nearly universally disregarded as freakish, the issues themselves are being discussed from a different angle - it's not about fandom for those people because they don't belong it; they see the business and customer relations side of things."

[info]babydraco: throwing rocks and stuff. skip if you're on my LJ: "YOU'RE normal, YOU'RE not a pervert who draws pictures of naked seventeen year old boys. -- What happens when they change the rules? And they will, because they already have more than once. Here is a list of things Livejournal has done to their customers in the four years that I've been on here."

[info]p_zeitgeist: But, why are y'all assuming that getting rid of fic would be good for an IPO?: "I keep seeing the this line of reasoning around LJ today: Six Apart is known, or suspected, to be getting ready to do an initial public offering. (...) But I have to wonder, because it seems to me that a damned good argument can be made that getting rid of fandom would be ghastly for that projected IPO."

[info]emilie_burns: 6A is sailing the failboat in the sea of stupid.: "However, 6A has determined that while fictional porn is harmful, illegal, and dangerous, and should be removed from their servers, there is nothing wrong with communities which advocate dangerous eating disorders and assist other users in 'tips' for self-starvation and purging."

[info]ketchupblood (untitled): "Frankly, I'm kind of upset at how incredibly immature the fandom is being. I saw a post where they were trying to max out LJ's bandwidth or something by flooding pictures onto LJ servers. That completely reminded me of something I did in fifth grade with my fifth grade class, where we tried to cost the cafeteria some money by boycotting school lunch."



InsaneJournal / Fandom Migration

[[info]scorienne: settling in: "I really probably ought to try to post something in the communities I've joined, because it's possible that everyone's expecting someone else to do it (the same way that I am)."] Journal has apparently been deleted by its user.

[info]entrenous88: fannish squee and glee, part the first: "For all that keeping up with the situation and taking action is very, very important, something I'm not seeing as much right now -- and dude, this is highly important stuff -- is fannish squee and glee. To me, that's part of the fight to keep fandom alive and strong, keeping vital the reason we all started out in various fandoms to begin with -- our love for various canons, our excitement for fannish products, and our interaction with both of those resources as well as with other fans."

[info]anniemoon asks whether we'd be interested in a fandom-oriented friending community.

[info]ceruleagos has a poll about InsaneJournal usage.

[info]das_dingsi: Asylums and Tags / Kategorien in Communities (tutorial on the usage of tags on InsaneJournal and how to change the tag permission level for asylums directly at the admin console)

[info]brown_betty links to a tool that migrates not just journals, but communities.

[info]chrome327 links to source codes / layout help for the Flexible Squares and Smooth Sailing S2 styles. Eta Aug. 15th: These layouts are NOT licensed under the GPL, which means it's illegal to use them on a site other than LiveJournal. (source)

[info]quiltyred (on [info]07refugees) reminds us of the navigation strip feature.

[info]liz_marcs found a Fake LJ-User Tag Generator to get rid of all those not-working journal links in posts.


General Fandom Meta

[info]jadeblood: Would You Want To Be Shipped That Way?: "I have a question for people that write fan fiction, make art, or just generally ship real life celebrities together: would you want someone to see you and a friend together and begin pairing you up?"

[info]mahoganyhandle: something that leaves me confuzzled...: "I've read a few slave fics recently and I noticed a theme that rather baffles me. In a slave fic, people seem to think that the slave would be bound so much that they'd want to serve. (...) I don't, however, see the point in making the slave so helpless and dependent on his master that he can't even take care of himself, let alone anyone else."

[info]baffledking: Babbling about Authorial Intent: "At some point the phrase 'authorial intent' has become dirty to me. I am firmly, firmly of the opinion that the minute a text (text in this usage meaning source material) becomes available to me in it's finished form then the author's opinions are no more valid than the average internet Joe's."

[info]yourlibrarian: How do you like your stories?: "[T]he profic/fanfic differences to me generally come out in favor of fanfic. And this is mostly because fanfic can do what profic does but the reverse is not true. One thing, for example, that I can't ever imagine seeing in a tie-in novel is a truly dark story."

[info]purplefeen: It's rant time: Sex is not a dirty word - or a dirty act!!: "Hon, if you're going to make Willow (or any other character) ashamed, you're giving in to the small-minded toadies of the world who once told women that they were whores if they made a sound during sex."


As usual, you can leave comments with interesting links or use the screened entry mentioned in the FAQ. Older meta entries are fair game, as long as they're on InsaneJournal and from 2007.