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Posts Tagged: 'fandom+and+-isms'

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Issue #134

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In Slash vs het vs gen, [info]helkamaria asks: "Do you know if anyone has ever tried to estimate what percentage of fanfiction is slash? And what is het and gen?"

[Supernatural] [info]nostariel: SPN 5.17, AKA "How the bleep does this show keep getting past the censors?": "Several people who smarter than I am have already pointed out all the ways in which this episode is offensive, so I'm going to skip that and go straight to the other thing that's pissing me off, and that is the utter bullshit that certain portions of SPN fandom spew forth in the face of astonishingly blatant misogyny on the part of their show."
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Issue #132

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[info]the_willow: Once We Let 'Those People' Into The Neighbhourhood It Was All Downhill: "And it all boils down in my ears to "The Meta In Fandom Is Moving In Directions I Don't Like." And I cannot even say then those people should instigate the meta they do like to see, because the fact is, fandom and fans are changing (slower than molasses in winter, but still). And the old meta was rather one sided and privileged and exclusionary."

[info]das_dingsi: Yup. With all that talk about Isms and Oppression, Fandom has become soooooo toxic nowadays.: (list) "OPINIONS AND HABITS DINGSI DOES NOT APPROVE OF: ... labeling all discussions of racism, sexism, et al (e.g. Racefail '09) in Fandom as "wank" - yes, because faking one's death to get money or screaming at people who don't share your OTP is totes the same as discussing how racism in Fandom hurts you as a non-white person. AMIRITE?"

[info]torino10154: Canon vs. Fanon vs. OMC/OFC: "How far can you take a character from canon before the character is no longer himself or herself but is in fact an OMC or OFC?"

[info]elfwreck: Comm idea: Kid-friendly fanfic (what it says on the tin -- outlining the basic idea, looking for feedback)
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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 #125

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[comics, DC/Marvel] [info]caithyra: By ANY other name?: "I know that the companies are there to make money, but the fact that the Big 2 manages to consistently choose negative words for their female-centred labels feel like deliberate sabotage."

Two posts by [info]tigresslilly:

Isms in Fandom and the On Going Meta-Fandom Inspired Debate (Couldn't pick a suitable quote as the post touches on so many aspects of the discussion and finishes with some questions to people on either 'side')

[Dollhouse] Who/How is Echo and Other "Dolls" Whom Have Displayed Personality Throughout Dollhouse (Spoiler warning for the series, esp. second season)

[info]rubyfruit_pixie: On Fic Lengths: "TL;DR Version: I don't think that fic length makes fic quality."
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Issue #124

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Note: I'm away for two days (family visit), so if there's a post you don't want me to miss, you can leave a (screened) reply here.

[info]scratchingpost1: Thoughts on writing: "Those of you that write, how do you approach it? How long do you take to write? How do you know when to post?"

In House/Wilson: First Shot, [info]yonmei explains the difference between canon and cannon.

[info]rubyfruit_pixie: Also I Am A Horrible, Horrible Person (And That's Okay).: "Fandom should be fun, but it's not when I am basically told I don't know myself and should be offended by things that do not offend me personally because everyone else in my minority is, or even could be, offended by that thing."

[info]maureenlycaon's Food for thought deals with, among other things, J.R.R. Tolkien's writing, MMORPGs, creativity vs. marketing, and the otherness of elves.
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Issue #123

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Fandom-specific

[DCU] [info]shadowvalkyrie: DCU musings: "Specifically, porn. [...] Even more specifically, kinky porn. And the discrepancy of why the Bruce/Tim variety tends to be a great deal more popular than the Bruce/Jason one."

[Torchwood, Buffy the Vampire Slayer] [info]firefly124: Okay, so everybody else has probably already read this AfterElton article (the article compared Torchwood and BtVS in regards to character death, and the post builds on that. I'm not being more specific because I'm unsure whether details about Torchwood's third season are still considered spoilers.)

General

[info]thete1: "I know it's racist, Te, but the special effects look awesome!": "This has been on my mind -- harshing *my* squee -- since that first Transformers movie came out and so many of you were full of excuses about why you were going to see it anyway. Despite the racism."

In a post titled Saying Goodbye, [info]yourlibrarian talks about important changes in TV, reality shows, the demise of the WB, and that the cause for the popularity decline in music games could be "a stranglehold on copyright".

[info]cluegirl: Thoughts Contingent on Reader Entitlement; the fandom edition: "So what is it that makes us as readers so much more ready to be spiteful about work we DID NOT have to pay for? Other than the fact that we can, and the writer in question is unlikely to have highly paid lawyers who might give us a telling-off for acting like arseholes, I mean?"

[info]skuf: Where's all the meta?: "Remember back in the day - e.g. 2006 - when [metafandom] issues were posted about every other day and had shitloads of links? What happened? Brainstorming: ..." (Cross-posted to DW, where the big discussion obviously seems to happen, but I decided to link the IJ version on principle.)

[info]xie_xie_xie: metafandom and its discontents: "But the last three or four times I submitted a link, either mine or someone else's, either QAF-specific or "big picture" fandom meta, it was just ignored. I never knew if they just didn't like it, or didn't get it, or what the problem was."

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Issue #116 a: Miscellaneous

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Note: I have a backlog of links dealing with Survey!Fail and its fallout, but for easier navigation I'm going to put them in a separate entry.


[Stargate SG-1] [info]catness: thoughts on design: " ... By using a device (the Stargate) which allows instant transportation to various planets, the authors do not need to invent the interstellar travel and all the technology associated with it ... So the show is either an 'away mission' or 'medical mystery' ..."

[Disney movies] [info]dragovianknight: Thots. I haz dem.: "...I don't think I've EVER been in Disney's target demographic."

[info]spacelogic: why I love Babylon 5

In Making stats public, [info]yourlibrarian discusses activity on Dreamwidth and compares it to InsaneJournal (and a bit of LJ).

[info]skuf created a poll titled Do you self-identify as a 100% heterosexual woman?: "The outsider assumption about slash fen that annoys me the most is that we're 100% heterosexual women. I polled on this back in my LJ-posting days, but since my f-lists have changed, I thought it'd be interesting to re-poll."

On -isms in Fandom / Acafen discussion

[info]logovo: That word might not mean what we think it means.: "Are people now using that word [acafen] interchangeably with fans who are just into meta?"

[info]telesilla: too many acafans, not enough porns: "Those of us who are either lacking in certain privileges or who just give a damn about our fellow fans who lack privilege don't have the luxury of playing Pretend."

[info]the_willow: And then there are these assholes: "But it's not as if I'm important as a human being or anything and deserve a place where I don't see crap flung in my face for other's squee all the damn time."

[info]morgandawn: The Person On The Other Side - My Thank You To Fandom: "In all of this, we often forget that there is a person on the other side of the debate."

[info]telesilla: "no, this is how it works/you peer inside yourself": "One of the discouraging things that I've seen come out of the latest round of meta about meta and how it harshes squee is a couple of comments I read somewhere about how discussing about Important Issues in fandom is a waste of time because you're not going to change the world doing it."
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Issue #106

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[info]telesilla: it's like rain on your wedding day*: "Apparently it's okay to dismiss/ignore copyright law when it's, oh say, Acme Shark's copyright on everything connected with the SG universe, but if it's comments on an LJ being moved without your permission? OMG UR IN MAH COPYRIGHT VIOLATIN ME!"

[info]bridgetmkennit: Fandom, you're doing it wrong: "You know, I come to fandom to escape real life, just as most people do. But the fact that I, other PoCs, and white allies have to see your skeeve all over the fics they read? [...] These characters that are written about and the PoCs who read about them deserve better."

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Issue #102

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[Harry Potter] [info]magpyr: Some scattered thoughts on languages in HP: "I'm in the middle of re-reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Here's some language-related things I've been thinking about ..."

[Watchmen movie] [info]stele3: "No" means "no" means "I will stab you in the fucking face.": "Thank you, Mr. Hayter, but NO, I do not want to have your movie 'bend [me] over the pool table,' and I will not be going back to see it, 'just like Sally' (classic trope of a woman falling in love with her rapist, hi there)."

[info]brownbetty: Let's talk about books!: "Today's topic: Oh My God, I Can See Your Id!"

[info]spacelogic: reading historical fandom battles: we need more [x]!: "The thing I found myself thinking most about, though, was that the thing dealt with some people getting very upset over the prevalence of [het/slash/saffic] vs. other types of fic in a particular fandom, and I bethought myself of my past experience going between fandoms, and wondered: why didn't they just find a different fandom to supplement?"

[info]betbethbeth has a post on everyday cultural appropriation.
[info]stewardess wrote about Reckless Eyeballing in the 21st Century: "While RaceFail09 has many similarities to imbroglios about race and racism in the past, I believe its events have gained a unique momentum because they are not focused on one instance of racial prejudice, but spring from something enormous: challenging white authority. I didn't grasp this until I compared RaceFail09 to Jim Crow era reckless eyeballing ..." (Has lots of links and a timeline, too.)

Also, [info]bridgetmkennit is looking for submissions (and/or suggestions) for the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, e.g. character spotlights, fic focusing on Asian/Pacific Islander characters, and the like.

As for the recent username purge, all asylums should have been reinstated - they actually weren't supposed to get deleted and future purges won't affect them.

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Issue #97

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General Fannish Meta

[info]branchandroot: Stop trying to be on my side: "Let’s be clear about this: “you’re reading it wrong” is not an academic argument."

[info]arionhunter: Slash: It's like a plague. A Gay Plague.: "Whenever someone engages with a text in some shape or form (unless they're using it as, say, wallpaper, which doesn't actually count), they are partaking in analysis. They are questioning something about a text, and then making an argument in support of their reading, even if it's just that adamantium can totally outlast Superman's heat vision."

[info]spacelogic: "why we write ____fic": "Here I attempt to work out why I read, and write in my head, shipperfic."

[info]branchandroot: Femslash: cross it up: "I think part of the reason for this trend in my own writing is that the f/f pairings tend to have hidden stories. You have to dig for them, for the possibilities, for the way these two women might interact. Rukia/Orihime, for example, has marvelous possibilities, but none of them are obvious because the two of them don’t interact enough in canon to create a strong template. Most of my m/m, on the other hand, comes out of dynamics that are pretty much shoved up the viewer/reader’s nose."

[info]xie_xie_xie: Meanwhile out in Greater Fandom...: "I think that finding same-sex attraction and sex arousing in and of themselves is a kink -- to try a less judgmental word than "fetish." I don't think it has anything at all to do with wanting to insert yourself into the action or be one of the participants or anything. It's just a little thing in your brain that finds it hot. - I also don't think that liking a particular kind of pairing says anything about your own sexual orientation, and I furthermore don't think that liking a pairing that is made up of the gender opposite to your own means you have any kind of kink at all."

[info]celandineb has a Fandom Friday Poll on Fandom involvement.


Fandom-specific

[QaF] [info]not_yet_defined wrote a list of essential Queer as Folk asylums on IJ, including asylums that might not be focusing on QaF but have lots of QaF fans participating or hanging out.

[Supernatural, Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel the Series] [info]yourlibrarian (in [info]mind_over_meta): Sibling Rivalry: Spike&Angel and Dean&Sam (comparing their relationships from the canonical, as well as the behind-the-scenes angle)

[Criminal Minds] spoilers for 4x13, "Bloodline" [info]brownbetty: later, ask me what I think about keen little gadgets in the shape of dismembered women. (Guess.): "To expand: Criminal Minds has had white serial killers and black serial killers and Hispanic serial killers. It has also had bystanders, cops-of-the-week, victims and white and heroes from all those groups. The Roma turn up, in this one episode, as bad guys."


Race & aspects of discussing race in Fandom

[info]telesilla: Dear bare-assed white people: "When a POC tells me, a white person, that something I've done or said has racist overtones or reflects the racism that is sadly still a part of our society, it behooves me to listen because even being married to a Black woman doesn't give me the experience with racism that POCs have. I don't live with it day to day and even the fact that I am a member of a minority doesn't give me a true understanding of the ingrained racism because it's a very different dynamic. - We're all ignorant in one way or another, but to ignore someone who is, probably while heaving a sigh at having to do this yet again, attempting to educate me, moves me from ignorance into actual stupidity."

[info]amilliondays: notes from the underworld: "I find it really fascinating, and by "fascinating" I mean incredibly disheartening, that in the recent discussion on race and racism in fiction of all kinds, when well-intentioned, smart, thoughtful white folks get up and say "no, you know, I thought I got it right but in listening, I clearly got it wrong" and these are, again, smart, thoughtful people, that barely two comments in other white people jump on them and say "YOU HAVE NOTHING TO APOLOGIZE FOR THESE MINORITIES JUST WANNA WHUP SOMEONE FOR BEING WHITE"." (There's a follow-up post of sorts, in the war on flame.)

[info]stewardess: How to use white privilege to make racism disappear.: "Surprisingly, making the discussion about you is the only strategy you will ever need to make racism disappear; you can rely on it for years without repeating yourself. Here are some variations, but remember this is not a complete inventory. Use it as a springboard!"

[surrounding the Teresa Nielsen Hayden debate] [info]elfwreck: How insulting can it be, if the audience doesn't understand you?: "Point of information: 'nithing' is not a cute LOLCAT crossover of 'nitwit' and 'nothing.' It's an old Norse/Germanic word. Our modern word 'nothing' is possibly somewhat derived from it... but it doesn't mean 'you don't exist to me.' It's a lot closer to 'you are so vile and horrific, the universe should re-arrange itself so you don't exist.' [...] And she expects--counts on--much of her audience not understanding some of her words, and is hoping this one will fly under the radar as 'mild insult,' so that only her nearest & dearest will recognize what she's really saying."


InsaneJournal:

The site performance issue should be fixed now (i.e. no blank screens during peak hours or similar), so [info]squeaky expects having more time for looking into other issues. At the moment he's trying to find out more about the causes of comment rot (comments disappearing for seemingly no reason), if you experienced it you can leave a reply here.

Also, IJ now offers 1 month of paid account time for $5, which might be useful for people who want to make quick layout changes - when your paid time runs out, the layout you were using last stays as it is (until you make further changes).

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Issue #79

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Privacy / Legal Issues

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

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

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

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

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

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

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I decided to split the issue, not just because the list of meta links is unusually long (sorry), but also so that the people who are either thoroughly up-to-date on the whole FanHistory.com/partly_bouncy debate, or just fed up with it, can just skip part a (which appears below this one).

[Queer as Folk] Two posts by [info]xie_xie_xie:
The Dreaded B/J FF Syndrome: "I don't believe it's possible to understand any of the characters, pairings, or storylines in isolation. I think that nearly all of the arcs are interwoven, and issues in one pairing -- say, Drew and Emmett -- are reflected in and reflect issues in another -- say, Brian and Justin."
and A Writerly Reflection on Post-Series Fic: "I watch 513 now and every bit of what happens after in my own fic feels foreshadowed and certain to me. It permeates my viewing of the series finale. [...] Do other writers feel this way, if you write post-series fic?"

[The X-Files] [info]musesfool: mulder, it's me: "And while in some ways the entire show was about how we all lack agency, that larger forces are always working against us, one of the things I always loved about Scully was that she was her own woman - she evaluated the evidence and came to her own conclusions."

[info]versaphile: Fandom FTW: "No matter how good you are, there is always someone who does it better, or can write snappier dialogue or more amazing plots or vivid descriptions. And whatever they're amazing at, there's something they're not amazing at that someone else is better at. It can't be a competition."

[info]the_willow: My Fandom: "... when at the end my constructive thoughts and analysis result in utter frustration because nothing changes in the source and I feel personally hurt by the exclusion of people of colour, or the inclusion of stereotypes and just plain foolishness - I walk away."

[info]elfwreck (in [info]metametameta): OTW discussions: "... I don't think any kind of agreement will be reached if only the pro-OTW posts are allowing unlimited discussions. And that's disappointing--because I don't want those who want privacy, or who fear legal reprisals, to be entirely sidelined."

[info]telesilla: Sit down, suck it up and STFU: "Since it's apparently perfectly all right to tell other people how they should and should not participate in fandom, I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon."

[info]xie_xie_xie: On opinions: "What it really is, is this: I'm an editor and all day long, I get articles sent to me by amateur writers -- experts in their fields, but not professional writers. And I can usually tell which were written by women, and which by men, because only the women qualify every fucking thing they say with "I feel," "it seems," "I believe," and "in my view."

[info]brownbetty: Cheater's guide to Conlang in fiction: "Okay, so, you want your work of fiction to have a language in it that isn't an Earth language. Unfortunately, all the languages you speak are Earth-languages! (Except if you speak Klingon or Quenya, I'll grant.) How to get around this?"

[info]elfwreck (in [info]metametameta: Back to Basics: Slash Thoughts (a list of slash-related questions to spark conversation)

[info]andreth_47: A Tongue-in-Cheek Plea to Slash Writers: "I'm here to beg, oh writers of smut, you people who bring me porn and whom I adore, that you stop and think really, really hard before writing any of the following things into your hot manlovin' sex scenes. Because they make Ianto cry."
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Issue #72

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Meta

[info]alchemia posted a list of mainstream/canonical Mpreg examples.

[info]elfwreck (in [info]metametameta): Class issues in U.S. television: "Okay, let's make it a game. The rules are: Name a show, or if we're really lucky, some shows, that are centered around lower-class or working-class characters, and are not sitcoms."

[SGA] [info]telesilla: it's been 3.4 weeks since the last time my fandom showed its ass: "In a conversation--which has since been frozen--elsewhere today, more than one person said they were glad the dreads stayed because they made Ronon look more alien. Actually, the word "non-human" was used. I'm sorry, but what?!"

[Harry Potter] In [info]snapedom, there were two recent posts comparing anti-Muggle sentiment in HP to racism; Playing the Race Card: Is Anti-Muggle Prejudice Really the Unpardonable Sin? by [info]bohemianspirit, and an untitled followup commentary by [info]ether_bunny.

Other

[info]squeaky started a Weekend Sale for Permanent Accounts and Insane Userpics, ending on Sunday at 8:00 p.m., and also asks for reports on still existing site bugs.

For Firefox users who also use LJlogin to manage their InsaneJournal accounts: Firefox 3 does not support LJlogin. I've read about at least ten other addons not working, either (e.g. CookieSafe), but apparently there's a workaround for at least some of those. [info]darkrose posted about it here.
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Issue #68

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First, there have been issues with e-mail notifications. A few of the comments to one's own journal can be seen at this page, which shows up to 50 of the most recent comments.

Second, I apologize for making you wait so long for a new update. At first it was due to issues with the site resulting from the move to different servers, meaning I couldn't access it, nor the part of my journal that stores the link roundups. But the rest of the delay is entirely my own fault, and I'm truly sorry for that.
So, because of this, there are a few entries that are (by newsletter standards) practically ancient by now. But I'd feel bad for not including them. Those are:


More Recent Meta

[info]elwing_alcyone: But of course: "Like I said, I like Joss Whedon's work, and I consider myself a fan. But I think he's coasting by on the perception that he's a feminist, without really thinking things through carefully."

[info]vain: Musings on concrit and the nature and necessity of wank: "You have to either stand by what you said and agree to disagree or concede the point. In either case, there's no need to ram your opinion down anyone's throat. Doing so leads back to step four of this cycle: Wank."

[Supernatural] [info]brownbetty: The way to insult a demon is to call it a woman: "People have argued that this is a difference merely of degree, and Dean's lack of respect for women has been apparent from season one. This is true, but the difference between lack of respect and contempt is one of degree, and I can tolerate the first, but not the second in my entertainment."

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Issue #54

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[info]helkamaria: Lj-ing vs. blogging: "A couple of weeks ago I set up a Finnish language blog, with my family and RL friends as the intended audience. Unexpectedly, it has illustrated the differences between LJ-ing and more traditional blogging."

[info]thete1: Talking About Race vs. Playing the Race Card: "But, see, what certain people in fandom don't seem to be able to understand is that there's a *difference* between playing the race card and trying to have a discussion about race. The former is all about *ending* discussion, the latter -- well."

[info]akai_senshi: OMG THOUGHTS ON YAOI: "I am simply going to consider some possibilities as to its popularity [...] Also, I will point out some inconsistencies in American girls’ perceptions of yaoi versus real-life gay men and gay male culture that may be of interest."

Also, [info]morgandawn wonders if there are "Supernatural" fandom newsletters that are also covering IJ and JF posts.

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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. :)
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Issue #53

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[info]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."

[info]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."

[info]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.)

[info]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."

[info]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

[info]letmypidgeonsgo has a poll on your favourite New Who episodes.

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

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

[info]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."

[info]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 [info]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 [info]kabal42's or [info]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.

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Issue #51

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[info]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."

[info]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."

[info]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."

[info]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

[info]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: [info]squeaky is looking for volunteers familiar with CSS for IE 5 and 6.

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Issue #49

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First, a note on asylums:

When Fandom-with-a-capital-F was still relatively* new on IJ (and so was [info]meta_roundup), I often included friending memes or new asylums. Now I feel that Fandom has gained its own momentum, the number of asylum creations has increased greatly, and at this point it would be difficult for me to decide where to draw the line. At the same time, users have tried to come up with their own solutions by creating index asylums and/or master list posts beyond the [info]fandomdirectory or [info]07refugees. (* I say "relatively" because I don't want to imply that before the Strikethrough et al there were no Fandom people at all on IJ.)

So, what I'd like to do in the future: stop promoting asylums individually in the roundup posts, instead create a fixed post with a reference list for available indexes, promotion asylums, and other relevant lists that can help you get an overview as well as getting the word out. A Meta Index, so to speak. (Probably one for tutorials as well, there's still a demand for that because of the influx of newcomers and the slight but important differences between the LJ and IJ code versions.)

Somewhat related; I'm going to create an editor account for [info]meta_roundup, for two reasons: 1. in case it might become too much work for one person and I need co-editors; 2. in case I might have to give up working on the roundups completely -- I want others to be able to update the index lists et cetera after I'm gone. Starting with the next issue, all entries (regular roundups, not news) will be posted with the new editor account.



On with today's Meta:

[info]liz_marcs: You did not just go there...: "Look, I understand that the Organization for Transformative Works (hereafter referred to as the OTW) is a big deal to some people. I've read the various arguments in support of it, and I'm still not horribly impressed. [...] That said, posts like "fanfiction is like gay marriage" is not going to win me over."

[info]the_willow: Is Fusion Only For Cuisine?: "And I've found myself thinking of the experiences I wanted to have in certain rpgs I was a part of. [...] So, was I trying to have Fannish AU Experiences in the wrong venue?"

[info]diyanni: Fan fiction pet peeve #7: "Every relationship story has to end in sex." (Link removed Feb-1st-2009 as the journal has been deleted)

[info]yourlibrarian (in [info]mind_over_meta): The long-haul girl?: "A conversation with shadowscast about her drabble at the LJ site churchofjoss led me to think about religion, Riley and his relationship with Buffy." (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, deals with character development over the course of several Seasons)

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For the people using Hotmail accounts and having their IJ mails blocked: [info]squeaky contacted Microsoft and the issue should be resolved soon.

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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. :)