[Archive] Meta Roundup: Fannish Stuff of Interest

May 2010

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Posts Tagged: 'fannishness'

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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 #99

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[info]spacelogic: fannish distinctions II: the difference between liking something and being a fan of it: "I used to be an admin on a very active Harry Potter forum and spent most of the day, every day, there, enough to worry my parents. Because it wasn't about the books or the films, really. It was about the culture."

[Merlin] [info]lilithilien: Merlin and the Tarot: "But I do love symbolism and I think a greater awareness of it can help illuminate patterns and make sense of things. By looking at some of the physical manifestations of these symbols [of Tarot] in, say, a television show, we can often glean some additional meaning that (hopefully) will add to our appreciation of it."

[Dollhouse, Alias] [info]bitterfig: echoes in the dollhouse (feminist analysis of the series, notes similarities and differences to "Alias". Contains spoilers for the first episode.)

[info]celandineb has a poll that's partly non-fannish, but also has questions about fic reading and kink preferences.

InsaneJournal: the Permanent Account Sale is still going on (including the option to get Insane Userpics). Perm accounts cost 50$ this time, and the sale will last through the end of the month.
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Issue #98

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[info]spacelogic: fannish distinctions I: the difference between liking a creator and liking their creation: "Basically, what I'm talking about here is the conflation of creator and creation. I know a lot of people do it, either in deciding to consume/not consume someone's creations, or in deciding how they feel about the creator. It makes a certain level of sense -- I'd rather not help to make a bigoted jerk rich, if I can instead help a nice person."

[info]torino10154: Betas: What is their job? What sort of credit do they desire?: "When they rephrase a line, are you still the author? Should you change their changes to make it your own?"

[info]xie_xie_xie:
[Queer as Folk, but also RPF/RPS-related] The actor thing: "When people watch Queer as Folk and see Gale and Randy instead of Brian and Justin, and talk about the scene that way, it makes me feel that they don't care about the characters, their stories, their reality above and beyond the artistry and craft of their creators."
Luring our muses back when they have wandered off: "Now, I know I haven't covered all the ways muses can be enticed to return from whatever safari, cruise, or spa vacation they're spending your hard-earned money on... how have the rest of you -- writers, icon-makers, vidders, artists -- gotten them back when they've gone missing?"

[info]brown_betty uses animal metaphors to describe fandoms. (It's funnier than I make it sound.)

Tangentially fannish topic: A lot of people use bookmarking services such as Del.icio.us, Simpy, or Ma.Gnolia. Apparently Ma.Gnolia.com had an outage that resulted in data loss. [info]elke_tanzer posted a collection of links describing ways to export/backup your Del.icio.us bookmarks, and some places where Ma.Gnolia users discuss data recovery.
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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 #94

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

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

[info]justhuman: The Friends we Make: ". . . being part of the fannish community in the blogsphere is different than being a fan in other places."
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Issue #88

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[info]branchandroot: We’re here, we’re academic, get over it: "I will make this simple in hopes that it gets through this time: For academics, writing articles about things is how we fan."

[info]twistedchick: untitled post: "I have yet to hear of anyone who reads or writes science fiction being told they're not smart enough to understand the discussion of their own work -- but it has happened to me, and to several other people I know, more than once, with the stories we wrote in media fandom."

Eta: whoops, after posting and refreshing the friendslist I saw this:

[info]elfwreck (in [info]metametameta): Acafen vs Squeefen, round 235: "The last few rounds of [info]metafandom have focused on the aca-fen vs anti-aca perspectives on enjoying fic. And it's moving along in predictable patterns. (Not because they're inane or boring patterns--I find them fascinating every time--but because they've been done before, and there's only so many directions this can go.)"

[info]lilithilien: New US shows; or How To Drop A Few Stone Crossing the Pond: "... this is about the fact that Americans are not allowed to see fat. Don't believe me? Take Annie Cartwright from Life On Mars."

[info]rood: Why Heroes is disappointing.: "One of the reasons I liked Heroes so much more than any other superhero story was that it was about normal people with normal lives who happen to have superpowers."
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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 #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 #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 #75

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Note: Spoilers for the TV fandom posts (definitely for Doctor Who, quite possibly for Avatar and Scrubs).

[info]stele3: Freedom of Speech? Not Online: "There is no such thing as free speech online, not in places like LJ, IJ, MySpace, or Facebook. There is only what they allow us to say."

[info]brownbetty asks: "If you were designing a 6 credit, second year course on "Our Fannish Heritage", that is to say, in imaginary Fandom U where you inculcate fresh young fans, what would the syllabus look like?"

[info]lore: Coming out of the Yaoi closet....: "So, you want to read some Yaoi manga, do you? Well, here's what I know, based on my usual roam-and-learn web-surfing."

[Doctor Who] [info]yonmei posted about the S4 finale in regards to Donna and the Doctor's character / characterization.

[Avatar: The Last Airbender] [info]beccastareyes discussed parenting and parent/child issues in the series, with focus on Toph.

[Scrubs] [info]shadowvalkyrie wrote about the perceived change in tone and focus in the later Seasons.


InsaneJournal:
News about siteschemes: there's now an option to remove (or add) Tweak and Tweak says via the browser settings. Additionally, CSS style sheets to do the same in user styles are listed here.

LiveJournal [links go to LJ]:
SUP are going to bring Basic Accounts back, but with ads (see original LJ news post). This goes for ALL Basic accounts, old or new. There's a discussion in [info]07refugees.
Also, spam on LJ seems to be increasing - not just anonymous spam comments, but from registered journals, who also use off-site links "disguised" as tags in their posts. Liz_marcs has more info, and a list of the mentioned journals to copy-and-paste into the admin console is here. For a list of other measures to take, read voiceboxx' comment. Most of these apply to InsaneJournal, too.
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Issue #70

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

Now, on to the meta ...

[Spoiler] [info]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."

[info]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."

[info]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."

[info]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, [info]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

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

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

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

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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 #50

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

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

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

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

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

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

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As usual, you can leave links to meta entries by commenting here or on the screened comments entry. General questions can be asked on the FAQ post. :)
[info]das_dingsi
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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 #47

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

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

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

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

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

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

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As usual, you can leave links to meta entries by commenting here or on the screened comments entry. General questions can be asked on the FAQ post. :)
[info]das_dingsi
[info]meta_roundup
[info]das_dingsi
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Issue #38

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Fan Fiction & the OTW


[info]elfwreck: Some arguments against fanfic: "It's fascinating watching the anti-fanfic crowd; here in my niche in fandom, I tend to forget what a lot of people think about our beloved hobby."

[info]morgandawn: Fandom: Stop Breathing This Instant! (on why Corporate America is still stuck inside the paper bag): "I suspect that many who are objecting to the OTW's work (and fandom as well) aren't looking at fandom as part of a larger global trend of moving away from passive consuming and towards participatory culture."

RPF

Two entries by [info]hector_rashbaum:

RPF Wives and Girlfriends: "I've never really liked the idea of nonfamous wives/girlfriends showing up in fic (...) But a post championing the use of nonfamous wives/girlfriends ... had me examining why I don't like it, because I wanted to jump into the discussion with more than "it's bad because it is."

The Fourth Fence, Blurry Boundaries, and...Something Else Alliterative: "We, and by we I mean RPFers (although maybe I should specify sane RPFers ;]), do have a fourth wall. (...) Our fourth wall is more of a fence and our respect issues have some pretty significant differences; but we have a fence and we understand respect."

Vidding

[info]elfwreck: Fannish news - Change in YouTube TOS

[info]morgandawn wrote Vidding Basics (PC Version) (including links to basic tutorials).

Other

[info]kaesa: untitled post: "They're clearly not, you know, the voice of God or the Devil or, like, soulbonds or otherkin or Things from Another World. (...) I know they're just made of brainclay -- but they're there in my head, little cordoned-off bits of mind that say "This is how so-and-so thinks, feels, acts, what hir quirks are, why sie's an asshole to this person but not to that person."

Link removed 2009/01, IJ got deleted [[info]prophet_maid: "I have spent many an hour writing, researching, analyzing, and railing about the media's portrayal of women. Hell, I wrote my thesis on it (in medieval England), and I am sorely disappointed with what the Pirates franchise did to [Elizabeth]."]

[info]aristoboule created feeds for the News communities on DeadJournal, GreatestJournal, and CommieJournal.

[info]morgandawn explains how to move your Journal memories to Del.icio.us (Firefox only).

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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. :)
[info]das_dingsi
[info]meta_roundup
[info]das_dingsi
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Issue #36 b

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[info]yonmei: Copyright and plagiarism and derivative use: "Certainly, while (for example) Paramount could step in and say "Wait, we own the copyright of Star Trek and we are claiming this work is unfairly derivative of Trek" a third person who doesn't own the copyright of Trek cannot step in and say "Hey, this story is illegal, that means I can steal it."

[info]mythicdove: please to be helping dove for she hath questions on life mystery: "Have any of you ever developed a crush on a fandom character, or an actor, sports figure, musician, ect and you can't figure out WHY?"

[info]das_dingsi: InsaneJournal: A Beginner's Guide

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Issue #28

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[info]amalthia: Very Puzzled about something in SPN fandom: "Is this finally the non-con that is acceptable to fandom? Do they like the idea that the good guys in the show would have sex with not only a demon but a woman who can't consent to sex because she's not in control over her body? What would they say to her afterwards if they ever got her un-possessed, well assuming she survives that is?" (Spoilers for mainly S3, esp. in the comments)

[info]rebeccama: Women in stories: "I do not identify or have an interest in a character simply because they are female. Give me Justin Taylor over a female character whose sole purpose in life is to "find a man". It is rare for me to find a female character in film or television with whom I connect at all."

[info]tigresslilly: Meh: " The bf and I were watching Batman Forever when I blurted out "I think it would be healthier for a girl to have Cat Woman as a role model instead of Wonder woman". He turned to me with the usual "I'm waiting" look and I realized I should probably explain that a little."

~

[info]madam_minnie: [NaBloPoMo] Fanfic and Fandom: "It is a world where we can live out fantasies, explore new ideas and expand our vocabulary and writing prowess. A world where friendships are forged and lifelong ties are made." (mostly focusing on Harry Potter, though)

[info]morgandawn: Vid Shows: The *Real* Story: "Have you ever wondered what actually goes through the hive mind of an audience that is watching a vid show? It is something like this ..."

[info]artisticentropy: On Artist participation in fandom and fests: "As a fanartist living with a pretty prevalent writer and who has been online for over a decade, I've had occasion to observe some stuff that I'd like to share and discuss, while hopefully pointing out some things you might not have thought about concerning fanartists and why there aren't a lot of us out there and participating."

~

[info]lore: BloMo5: Ship maintenance and Snupin in 10 years....: "I think the key to making a ship "live" and keeping it alive is sheer effort and interest. I think the Snupin ship grew to the size it is because there were several of us who saw the Snape/Lupin potential from canon, and who started lobbying for more Snupin in our own ways at the same time."

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Issue #26

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General

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

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

Fandom-specific

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

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

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

LiveJournal

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