Meta Roundup

In Slash vs het vs gen, 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] 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."

(Note: might contain spoilers, either in the post itself or possibly in comments)

[Gakuen Alice] caithyra: How to groom kids into victim blaming sexists 101 (rant about the recurring themes of victim-blaming and sexual assault as part of 'romance')

[Supernatural] neotoma: What do the Horsemen of Apocalypse drive? and other Supernatural speculations... (what it says on the tin)

General Meta:

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."

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?"

beccastareyes has some short thoughts on Flash Fiction.

Fandom-specific:

[Supernatural] 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] 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:

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."

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?"

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!")

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."

Help & writing resources

In an untitled post, bridgetmkennit explains the tags system and the four different types of warnings at the Archive Of Our Own, and how to use them.

lore: BloMo18: Tis the season of saving stories....: tips on saving fanfic stories "in a format that can be easily transferred to most reading devices without losing the author's intended passages of emphasis".

There have been a few posts on BDSM, community rules and terminology, intended as resources for writers and to clear up some common misunderstandings. In Hi! My name is Minxie…, florida_minxie talks about general rules and some stereotypes. irana wrote On BDSM, Part I to explain the abbreviations SCC and RACK, and to talk about consent. On BDSM, Part II covers negotiation (both Scene and Relationship negotiation).

InsaneJournal

An InsaneJournal Holiday Sale just started. Self-Committed (i.e. paid) accounts and Extra Userpics will be available at reduced prices until November 27th. Friday the 27th will also have a short sale on Permanently Insane accounts.

das_dingsi: Updating habits: "The interesting part is how it made me view the update page more closely than usual and I consciously noticed all the things I don't use [on InsaneJournal]."

Other

bitterfig: where do they make subtext?: "I always wonder where stuff like (i.e. homoerotic and/or incestuous subtext) this comes from, is it intentional or just a quirk of chemistry?"

lilithilien: Why do we do it?, a short commentary on an AfterElton.com article titled "Why are Women Interested in Gay Men? It's Not Because They Want to Sleep With Them!", with discussion in comments.

novembermond: has a question about friending meme[s]: "[W]hat are the dos and don'ts ... ?"

[Supernatural] ep. 5x10 meta-ish reaction posts - SPOILERS galore!
the_shoshanna: Supernatural 5.10, "Abandon All Hope...": "Thanks SO MUCH for making women just the underbrush to be cleared away before the real stuff happens."
musesfool: lacrimae volvuntur inanes: "I would like to be able to talk about the episode on its own merits, because I thought it was a fantastic episode emotionally and a great way to go into hiatus, but I am SO FUCKING SICK of the way this show treats female characters."
yourlibrarian (in mind_over_meta): SPN 5.10 - A sign of hope: "There's nothing there right now for an audience to cling to, any more than a clear plot direction for Sam and Dean."

spacelogic: [SPOILERS] Babylon 5 and Women

[Harry Potter] cluegirl: Fanfic evolutions... a thinky-post.: "So... for awhile now, there's been something happening in the Snarry ship that distresses me, and it's only been just recently that I've been able to put words to it; Harry has become a moron."

[Supernatural] yourlibrarian (in mind_over_meta): Victimhood in SPN: "The end result of the four seasons of SPN so far, has been to equate the supernatural and those who fight it to a lower class status, and those who are victimized by it to higher classes."

[Twilight, Urban Fantasy genre] the_willow: Twilight & Other Creepy Thoughts: "I think I've figured out the appeal of Edward Cullen."

General:

rood: Why the AO3 needs to be translated (looking at it from a German, EFL speaker, perspective)

stele3: Meta: Movie recasts in fic: "So that got me wondering: what do people get out of those sorts of stories? Is it sorta like re-watching a favorite movie, but on your computer screen? Do you prefer your movie recast AUs to be changed fundamentally, or straight-up?"

InsaneJournal: in case you missed the news in announcements, there's a weekend-long sale of Permanent accounts, at the price of $40.

squeaky is also doing daily backups of the databases on the site, which causes "about 15 minutes of downtime each day". They're currently scheduled at 2:30PM (Eastern/US time).

LiveJournal: the_shoshanna: LJ search can turn up locked posts.

skuf started a Mini Meta Fest, "geared towards those of us who want to post more informal meta, but need a little kick in the butt to get going", with user-generated prompts. The rules are detailed here. It's posted to both DW and IJ, but not all prompts on DW have been taken, and the IJ post had no prompts at all.
Responses on IJ so far:

helkamaria: Youth/minors-appropriate fanfic and Incest Fanfiction.

ishtar79 wrote about Geek social fallacies and Character bashing.

elfwreck: Fannish Entitlement and Chapters vs. long oneshots.

yourlibrarian (in mind_over_meta): Drug use, alcohol, smoking in fanfic, with special focus on BtVS and SPN.

Other

das_dingsi has questions about syndicated feeds.

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

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

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."

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

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

[Supernatural] 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:

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)

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

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)

Posts about race and cultural appropriation:

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".

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."

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."

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

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] 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] 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] 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.)

General Fannish Meta

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

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."

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

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."

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."

celandineb has a Fandom Friday Poll on Fandom involvement.


Fandom-specific

[QaF] 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] yourlibrarian (in 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" 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

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."

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.)

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] 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 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).

.

[Katekyou Hitman Reborn] branchandroot: Women in KHR, a rant: "I can engage with a series that leaves the women out, but I can’t fully engage when women are so explicitly positioned as inferior." (Spoilers!)

[Harry Potter] beccastareyes: Harry Potter Houses...: "So, I said on Fanficrants that I tended to think of Happy Potter Houses by 'what they want and how they prefer to get it', and was asked for details... so, here goes."

alchemia has an untitled post about naming conventions in genderswap fic and how they (don't) relate to actual transsexual experience. (Uses Harry Potter characters as examples, but the topic itself isn't fandom-specific.)

[Supernatural] There've been lots of episode reviews/reactions for SPN 4x09, and what I found interesting is how many people mentioned it as either bringing the fanservice or having a fanfiction feel. (Heavy spoilers for that episode, of course, as people talk about all kinds of things they liked or disliked, including plot and various relationships.)
the_shoshanna: Wow, it's like they were taking notes on everything that had been pissing people off.
musesfool: Which one of you is Sera Gamble? Because that was totally fanfic on my tv laptop last night.
ann_tara: And last night's episode was practically a word for word fan conversation I've read more than once - so much so that I think they wrote a lot of this episode based on TWoP conversations and what they thought fans wanted to see and what they had to do to get us all to accept Ruby.
(And speaking of Ruby, yourlibrarian's review dedicates several paragraphs to the direction of the character as compared to S3.)

LiveJournal: more hacking attacks occured, apparently targeting high-traffic communities/journals and/or the people who moderate them. maureenlycaon wrote a summary with helpful links.

[Doctor Who] versaphile ponders Journey's End might-have-beens, in regards to the Doctor's regeneration and what it might have meant for the series.

[Prince of Tennis] branchandroot: Problematic: "The thing about shounen sports is that it is, by dramatic necessity, limited to one season unless downright heroic measures are taken to alter the venue and cast. One season tends to exhaust the dramatic tension."

[Supernatural] bridgetmkennit: Because I feel I am right on this and I really don't want to be: "Would Castiel have been as popular if he'd been played by a woman (as one meta questioned) or by a person of color? [...] Will I see the same amount of attention on Uriel that I've seen on Castiel?"

[The Matrix Trilogy] jazzymegster wrote a post on Neo as a canon Sue (or Stu).

brownbetty has quick thoughts on fandom timelines and "fandoms-that-ate-fandom", and whether there are ways to measure them objectively.

[Harry Potter] cluegirl: A wee little fandom 'argh': "I know that people don't like to feel obligated to warnings on their fics, and I know people's character perceptions are highly subjective, but if I was Empress of the Internet, fan writers would have to warn for Chump!Harry."

[Supernatural] brownbetty started a list of instances of racialized violence in SPN.

rood: Meta (Again?): "Most of my personal archive (about 75%, I'd guess) consists of abandoned WIPs. [...] I also tried to find new fics to read via rec-lists, and more often than not I ended up following a dead link. Websites vanish or aren't updated, and that makes me feel as if fandom is like Venice with its dead-ends and canals and narrow streets. Just without the signs that make Venice less of a maze."

musesfool: i know the words that you long to hear: "No one ever got more X-type fic by demanding people stop writing Y. Telling someone their way of engaging with fandom is wrong and that it's somehow oppressing you when you don't ever have to see it or participate in it is completely anathema to what fandom is."

For people who also have LJs: there's a new FanHistory bot intended to scrape LJ userinfos, apparently it uses member lists of fannish communities to do so. It's opt-out, meaning you have to change your journal settings if you want the bot to leave your journal alone. morgandawn provides "How to" info/links, elfwreck muses on the possible outcome of the endeavour.

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."

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."

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 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: greenwitch posted in 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. squeaky suggests using the mobile update page on IJ or change browser versions, until there's a better solution.

[Brokeback Mountain] 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."

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)

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

Mini-Meta:

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'".

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] 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] 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."

InsaneJournal

There've been some discussions on ideas worth mentioning. viridescence asked for a way to better organize and edit userpics, e.g. by implementing a tagging system. 15 discusses the need for a paid support staff and if/how this could be managed.

Meta

cluegirl: Oh, now that's just sad...: "I've just figured out something rather awful; fanfic has spoiled me for 'real' books."

tigresslilly: Fanfiction Post: "Question: Does anyone else find that they are reading R, NC-17, X, or whatever adult rating for fanfiction porn reasons and then skipping the porn? [...] And as long as I'm unleashing my fanfiction secrets, anyone else read so much fanfiction that they can't keep the canon straight anymore?"

the_rck wrote three (untitled) entries with thoughts on fic writing: about inspiration (be it taken from canon or the fic of others), narrative kinks, and what you need to get the feeling you can write fic for a specific fandom.

opengoal posted on Mpreg, its appeal and possible precedents (or lack thereof).

torino10154 has questions about threesomes in fic (the given examples are from Harry Potter, but the questions are more general).

stewardess comments on the upcoming Dreamwidth Studios, based on the LiveJournal Open Source codebase, in Dreamwidth: Not The Answer For Me.

[Supernatural] yourlibrarian wrote about supporting characters in SPN and the way they relate(d) to the two main characters.

Polls

A while ago, reijamira created a poll to gather information on how people feel about a Supernatural newsletter on IJ. Follow-up poll and discussion of the options so far.

lilithilien's poll on journalling preferences was linked in the previous issue; in this post she discusses the results.

First things first: InsaneJournal's ads have been reverted back to using Google text ads only. (announcement)

Now, on to the meta ...

[Spoiler] lenija: Y: The Last Man, über Enden. Potentielle Minispoiler ohne Cut. Weil.: "Früher mochte ich keine offenen Enden, weil ich immer wissen wollte, was weiter passiert. Und daß es nicht aufhört."

das_dingsi: Meandering thoughts on the "watch something else" argument: "Inevitably, someone responds with "well, why are you still watching it? can't be that bad, then, huh?!" or "meh, just watch something else / something better". -- And I get where they're coming from, I just think it's not that simple."

yourlibrarian: SPN Writing in S3: "Some months ago I wrote about what I thought were the best written episodes of S1 and S2, and I thought I'd do the same with S3 now that it's ended. Since we have nearly a third fewer episodes this season I'm going to choose the top 2 instead of top 3 – Mystery Spot by Jeremy Carver and Jus in Bello by Sera Gamble."

musesfool: have you come to raise the dead?: "But I was also thinking about season 3 of Supernatural, and a couple of conversations I've had about it recently, specifically, about the structural and pacing issues, and how Kripke really does remind me of a fanfic writer."

In F-List By Stealth, loqia explains how to bulk import someone's entire f-list into GoogleReader, and talks a little about friending/feed lists in general. (Note: I know that it's mirrored from a blog and says that comments are preferred on the original, but as comments on IJ aren't disabled, I'm listing it here.)


On LiveJournal's updated policy quidelines

bethbethbeth posted the guidelines in her journal, the original post on the lj_policy community is here.

elfwreck ponders whether it's worth "switching back" (or what would be needed to reach that point).

In light of LJ's announcement, lilithilien created a poll on journaling preferences and the factors that would possibly influence one's posting habits.

shadowvalkyrie: Feedback thoughts: "Somehow, when you write a fic for someone, you expect getting a reaction -- any reaction -- from them."

yonmei: Class on TV: "Just out of interest, what's your impression, imaginary Internet people, of the difference between class representation on British TV and American TV?"

kabal42: US laws that fandom, no, heck that everyone! needs to be aware of: "Yesterday it was brought to my attention that security personnel at US airports now can search, copy and keep (a copy of) any data you carry with you into the States. [...] The staff are not necessarily educated in knowing the difference between lawful and unlawful use and transport of copyrighted material, nor in the difference between fiction and reality with regards to certain laws."

elfwreck (in metametameta): Warnings for "chan;" archive content policies: 'So... while I'm pondering, I'll open it up to the f'list: what do you consider "chan" is? Or "underage sex" in fanfic? [...] For a rating system of "chan/not-chan," where do/would you draw the lines, epecially when normal human biology isn't involved?'

the_willow: How Slash Changed My Feminism: "The best thing about reading slash and slashy coming out stories was watching male character after male character do this questioning of self and this questioning of what they'd learned from society. And I realized that I'd never questioned what I'd learned from society about men."

[Supernatural] chal created a wishlist of "Things I Would Love to See ..." in Season 4. (Discusses some events from S1-3.)

Polls:

aristoboule asks how you find new communities/asylums, and what factors influence your participation (or lack thereof).

celandineb on the use of sensory description in fic, particularly smutty fic, and reading preferences.

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:

• yourlibrarian's In praise of comments, discussing feedback from the perspective of a reader who also likes reading the comments, and with a poll on it
• branchandroot's Machina, pathos and conflict, on disability in anime and the symbolic components of the portrayals
• nekocat's "House, M.D." character meta Amber as a Feminist Icon? (Or: Why Amber is Awesome)
• the_willow's Meta thoughts on usage of the word "pimp" in fandom
• stele3's "Girl" is not an insult

More Recent Meta

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."

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] 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."

[Supernatural] yourlibrarian: Story types in SPN: "This is not just an essay but a question to the group. [...] Now that I've been reading around in SPN fic for a while I think I can identify a few categories, but I'm interested in other ideas. I'm not focusing on what typical fanfic plots tend to get used [...] but rather, how canon and characters tend to get repeatedly reshaped."

musesfool: the calliope crashed to the ground: 'See, the thing is, I really don't like the "feedback = payment" equation.'

[on IP law] branchandroot: Oddities of ownership: "[O]ne thing I find curious is any author getting wound up over what another author does with “their” character. As though it were the same character. Which, of course, it isn’t."

InsaneJournal's move to another provider is on the way. According to this post in announcements, although the prices of Self-Commited (paid) accounts will have to get raised in the future, it won't be as much as previously stated, and squeaky said they'll "work on delivering some new products" instead.

In ideas, sweetsorcery asks for an increase in interest slots. (YES, PLEASE.)

Updated the Asylum Master List (+1 general asylum promotion).

[BtVS, SPN] yourlibrarian: The Emotional Bottom (discusses Dean and Spike in terms of characterization and relationships on the show and top/bottom preferences in fic -- might contain spoilers!)

rubyfruit_pixie: An Anti-Redemptionist's Confession: "Or, How I Learned To Give Up The Ghost And Love Getting Our Heroes To Join The Dark Side."

telesilla: It's 5pm somewhere in the Pegasus Galaxy!: "Discussion in chat this afternoon about booze and SGA characters led me to think about my personal fanon (which is subject to change depending on the requirements of a fic) about the SGA characters and booze ..." (open for other fandoms in the comments)

brimac13 has a poll on shipping, namely if certain shipping preferences have a negative stigma in fandom.

Older posts I didn't want to leave behind:

The recent prompts on metametameta have been job-related (canon jobs, careers in fanfic, and "going pro") and previously elfwreck discussed in-canon parenting (or the lack thereof), for Trek!verse and Harry Potter in particular.

yourlibrarian: Posting habits and fanfic reading (deals with cross-posting content, IJ as a political choice, and journal readership esp. with meta content)

apotheosis: The place of OEL manga: "I thought this might be of interest to us as American mangaka and the fact that no, I don't see that as a contradiction or taboo to refer to myself as one. [...] I still can't help but see a rather hypocritical double-standard."

Journal News:

InsaneJournal has reached 200,000 accounts in just three months. The site was running slow at times, squeaky adresses the issue here. Also, insanity asks people for their ideas on virtual gifts.

rusty_halo made a turorial: How to migrate from LiveJournal to WordPress (and crosspost to InsaneJournal). (Link in the post goes to WordPress, but I'm using this one so people can leave IJ comments.)

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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. :)