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Posts Tagged: 'helpful+stuff'

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Issue #121

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Help & writing resources

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

[info]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…, [info]florida_minxie talks about general rules and some stereotypes. [info]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.

[info]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

[info]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?"

[info]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.

[info]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!
[info]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."
[info]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."
[info]yourlibrarian (in [info]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."

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Issue #107

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First, the cause for comment rot on the site seems to have been found and fixed by [info]squeaky. You can take a look at the bit of code that gave us all so much trouble in the news post.
However, the issue as such might still persist a few days because when the code sets some comments to disappear they aren't gone immediately, they are still in the memory cache for a while. So we might have a few remaining instances from back when the code was still there but after those are gone it should finally be over for good. (source)
To celebrate all this, there's a week-long Permanent Account sale (50$ each).

Changes have been made to the message/notification center - items in your inbox can now be marked as read and deleted, and the maximum number of subscriptions ("notices") has been increased.

Tangentially related: [info]squeaky said he's working on a multiple icon uploader next, and via the comments I found an old resource post by [info]sherlock with a third-party tool you can use in the meantime.

~

With the issues and discussion surrounding exporting LJ comments to Dreamwidth, [info]stewardess wrote a post on content syndication/aggregation and LiveJournal, titled Exporting comments from LJ to DW: is there a money?

[info]bridgetmkennit: counters and me (and maybe you): "Every time I see a meta post about comments, whether lack thereof or not, I just want to create a meta post about how people should learn to love counters."

[info]the_rck posted "a list of thoughts inspired by reading (mostly bad) fics" -- "A few of the items in here are mini rants about genuinely offensive stuff regarding race and transsexuality. The rest mainly complain about sillier stuff."

[info]rubyfruit_pixie: WTF?: "And not only do people think that it isn't complete bullshit to say that one writes yaoi only because het is icky or that girls are icky, people actually state this as a point of pride."

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[info]brownbetty: re: Thirteenth Child, and a million other things: "But you have, actually, a higher responsibility than being a writer, and that is your responsibility as a human being."

[info]magpyr: Growing pains: "You see, I used to be ignorant and happy. I read books, watched films, and listened to songs, never once pausing to think about their attitude toward race and gender."

[info]telesilla: No, we aren't the freakin' Thought Police: "Because honestly, I am so sick of people yelling "censorship!" as if professional writers somehow had an inalienable right to show their asses and not get called on it."
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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 #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 #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 #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 #62

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First, let me direct you once more to the master list of meta posts at [info]metametameta, which collects all contributions to the Meta Friday event. Also, it's been such a success that it's going to be a weekly feature with prompts; you can read the rules in this post. As the asylum is open for posts all week round, not just on Fridays, there've been more meta entries, such as [info]purplepopple's FanLib: One Year Later, or [info]elfwreck's Slashfic: because women can't recognize their sexuality.* For the rest of this roundup, to avoid double posts I'm going to list the links that haven't been a part of the Meta Friday or haven't been posted to [info]metametameta.

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* [info]yourlibrarian has written more on the subject of "slash as anti-feminist", dissecting the blog post that started it in detail.

[info]roz_morgan: Meta! Meta! Lovely Meta!: "Writers, producers and advertisers like to pidgin hole their demographics. When they get a group they can’t explain for example a large amount of women watching a show about space-ships or monsters they don’t look at it as an indication of having tapped a new market. They seem actually baffled by it."

[info]musesfool: dancing gets her higher than anything else she knows: "But aside from the big huge things that make me click or not click (or click out when they appear), there are smaller, mostly throwaway details, that can cause me to have kneejerk reaction of the bad sort, where I am just completely jarred out of the story and end up clicking out."

IJ, LJ, journaling/archiving in general, Tutorials

[info]brimac13 wonders if people would be interested in an index for friending asylums on IJ. (poll)

[info]schattenstern: untitled post: "I think that IJ is a temporary solution for Fandom at best. [...] Fandom as a whole, and forgive the blantant simplification for a moment, has always wandered from one kind of platform to the next when there was some kind of technological advancement, when the new platform offered more than the old one did."

[info]tabakat: untitled post: "The thing is I feel as though I am being forced to keep a presence [on LJ] because there is nowhere else for me to go to be involved in my other fandoms. With the popularity of journal communities rising the availability of actual website archives and the like for fandoms has gone down."

[info]elance: Decentralize me!: "I don't think I'm alone when I say that the amount of fanfiction which is *solely* posted to LiveJournal communities and not archived anywhere else worries me. I believe strongly that fandom should never be centralized, never be dependent on one site alone to carry it."

Also, [info]maureenlycaon did a post on data backups to store your stories and/or artwork off of your computer, and [info]elke_tanzer wrote a step-by-step tutorial on moving LJ memories into del.icio.us.

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Issue #58

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

InsaneJournal

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

LiveJournal

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

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Issue #57

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Most of the links are fandom-specific today:

[info]blue_rose: On Rose Tyler, the Doctor, his companions and relationships in Doctor Who in general.

[Naruto] [info]caithyra explains why Sasuke is an Uber Gary Stu. (Spoiler alert for the manga, especially for the latest chapters)

[info]beccastareyes: My Love-Hate Relationship with Eureka 7: "So, there you have it. I'd like Eureka 7 a lot more if the gender roles didn't make me want to throw things."

[info]celandineb expanded on last week's poll: which Harry Potter characters make you read or ignore a fic/fan art?

General:

[info]stele3 shares information on how you can receive comment notifications and have icons with OpenID.

The issue of IJ's comment rot has been brought up again (this time in [info]ideas), and [info]branchandroot mentions things you could do to help here.

The master list post has been updated (+2 asylums).
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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 #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 #43

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I hope you made it all safe and sound into 2008. Happy New Year!

InsaneJournal

[info]squeaky posted 2007 Year In Review in [info]announcements. The stats alone are made of awesomecakes.

[info]aristoboule (in [info]asylum_promo) posted a list with Helpful Hints on Promoting Your Asylum.

Miscellaneous Meta

[info]rubytuesday5681 did a poll: How do you keep track of your favorite fanfic, fanart, and porn?

[info]dragovianknight asks how you "keep track of what you wrote during the year, much less exactly WHEN you wrote it?"

[info]arionhunter: It was just a social experiment. Really!: "As part of my prep work, I read (and took) the official Sex Addiction Screening Test. (...) How would fandom score? So I task you, IJ, with letting me know."

[info]helkamaria: The Weasleys' finances, or why their poverty is self-inflicted: "They aren't the only poor family in the series (cf. the Creeveys), but they are treated as some kind of an example of a good family that is cruelly deprived of the money they'd justly deserve. For myself, I think that their poverty is their own fault, a result of poor money management. And here's why."

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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. :)
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Issue 37 a: Journaling Edition

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Note: general fandom meta will follow in Issue 37 b.

InsaneJournal / Journal Migration / Misc

[info]squeaky extends the holiday sale until Friday. Also, IJ has a new server, with "about 4x the horsepower" as the old one.
By the way, if IJ is down, you can visit [info]squeaky's Twitter account to see what's going on.

[info]seshen reports that LJ iJournal client for Mac OS X also works on IJ.

[info]sherlock has links on backup/ migration tools for journals and communities.

And although it's on LJ, I decided to include this link to florahart's LJ, because she's posting about IJ's stats and the numbers of newly created accounts.

LiveJournal

[info]diachrony: stuff from the livejournal policy update thread (quotes and summaries).

[info]elfwreck: Discussion between 6A and APT, about the flagging feature (mostly satire).

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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 #11

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

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

[info]the_willow:

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

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

[info]xie_xie_xie:

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

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


LiveJournal/6A

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

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

Other:

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

I'd like to add that some of those search engines store public posts in their entirety, including images. Usually they use the built-in feed url for one's journal, so it can be helpful to change your feed settings to "title" or "summary". Simply go to http://www.insanejournal.com/admin/console , type in set synlevel title or set synlevel summary and hit "execute".
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Roundup Issue #9

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The InsaneJournal FAQ has been updated, specifically #132: "To what level of decency are journals held?" -- I'd also like to use this opportunity to say that the rumours of IJ using the Miller Test to determine obscene content are NOT true ([info]ceruleagos explained it in this thread).

[info]reijamira: Rambling about the genre "hurt/comfort": "I think if one is confronted with the mortality and vulnerability of the other only then would he show his truest feelings. It's the aspect of recognizing how much the other really means to you, of recognizing how close you came to losing your beloved one which let's us express our deepest and innermost emotions."

[info]das_dingsi: Slash Fic As Much-Needed Escapism: "E.g., if Tim and Dick in the DCU Batverse decide to fuck each other senseless, their conflict in the story usually is NOT based on "oh shit am I gay? will society hate me? how will my life be as a gay superhero?", but on dynamics which stem from their issues as characters -- their previous relationships, their emotions, their needs and obligations. The focus is not on the outside (society, moral values, etc.) but on the inside. From that perspective, slash is a sort of safe haven for me."

Three posts by [info]xie_xie_xie (some might not be worksafe due to images/icons):

Teh Evil!Censorship: "Maybe I love words too much. Maybe the thought that someone might try to control or limit what I can write is so terrifying to me that it makes me feel like throwing up, and I don't understand why anyone would feel any other way. But I don't think it's just about words. I think it's about ideas and creativity and liberty and communication."

Labels: "I write queer fanfic. That's what I write. My pairings are canonical and queer and are not slash. (...) So I want another word!"

Wherein Xie rants: "But really, more than I'm upset at the authors of these crappy fics, I'm upset at the readers who suck them down like teenagers at the mall suck down high fructose corn syrup. (...) For the love of god, would it freaking kill you to learn to use some form of critical thinking?"

[info]yourlibrarian has taken a look at some statistics on fan fiction sites.

[info]brownbetty has gotten the script called "lj instant tag" to work on other LJ clones. (Needs the Greasemonkey script.)

Also: the [info]potter_prophet, an IJ-specific HP newsletter, is looking for editors.

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Roundup Issue #7

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[info]reijamira: Instructions On How To Upload Mood Themes: "First of, as far as I know, uploading mood themes is only possible for user with permanent or payed accounts. There are actually two ways how to upload your mood theme! You can use the Mood Theme Editor or the Admin Console. Personally, I like the Admin Console more, because it's much faster and it's not half as difficult to use as it sounds."

[info]ilysah: Tags Might Not Be Your Friend: "As a fandom, are we exposing our hobby to mainstream public by tagging our posts? (...) I suspect, though, the owner of this site is using some type of software, trawling the net and gathering up data based on Tags."

[info]lordhellebore: Fanfic =/= Inferior writing: "So, that doesn't mean, as I said, that I expect everyone to like fanfic, or even really get why we do it. But the "OMG you could do so much BETTER!" and "You're just afraid/incapable of doing something of your own!" comments are ridiculous and condescending and show that those people have no clue and no interest in learning about the WHY."

[info]otempora01 (in [info]writers_cafe): let's talk harry potter: "I mean, sure, every book in the world is always compared to at least one other book, but does it bother anyone else that you can't even say the word witch/wizard in relation to your own novel without someone mentioning Harry Potter? I'm not speaking out against Harry Potter as I'm a fan, but I was just wondering."

[info]babydraco: OOh! Have I won the insane Welshman?: "Don't the Malfoys and their friends strike you as the sort of people who would normally be bothered by the presence of a Person of Color in their midst? I guess skin color doesn’t matter as much when the issue is more who has magic and who doesn’t. The wizarding world considers wizard as their race."

[info]its_art: Minor Characters: Are They Original or Canon?: "So I have to ask all of my HP fen... When does a canon character ceased being canon and start being original?"

Two [info]07refugees posts:

[info]calime: On fandom migration, safe spaces and keeping in touch with your flist: "I'd love a place that would make it easy for readers to follow them - a kind of all-in-one project that could host content, but also could serve just as an linking hub with a profile page, an address book etc. So, for me the [squidge.org] project sounds very appealing."

[info]emilie_burns asks: "Is it, or is it not, more or less mandatory on IJ to flock explicit material?"

And last but not least, [info]j_crew_guy informs us that Dan Didio, Senior Vice-President and Executive Editor of DC Comics, has no idea what the word "fan-fiction" means, but likes to use it anyway.

Additional note for the people who are members of the [info]fandomdirectory, but don't have it on their friendslist because of the many new entries each update: I'd like to know if fandom asylums that only cross-post from LJ should be included in some way.

Coming soon: general fandom poll. Stay tuned.

[info]das_dingsi
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Roundup Issue #5

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InsaneJournal / other journaling services

Layout issues: [info]uniquewonders posted about some journal layouts, namely Smooth Sailing, Nebula, and Flexible Squares, that using them on any other site than livejournal.com is illegal. [info]lilbreck asks for clarification. The discussion thread on [info]nameless_layout can be found here.

[info]fizzyblogic: livejournal / insanejournal / scribblit / fic: Four parts: Why I Left Livejournal (And Why I'm Not Going Back) / Why I Am Using Insanejournal And Intend To Continue Doing So / Why I Am Excited About Scribblit (And Will Be Over There Like A Shot When It Goes Live) / Scribblit, Those Canadian Laws, How It Applies To Me, And Why My Fic Will Be On Scribblit

[info]luzzu: Is it just me?: "I like this site, a lot. I came here to get away from LJ and it's like some of fandom are trying to bring all the wank with them rather than leave it where it should be - on LJ."

[info]buggery: Hold that 'yay' -- everything is NOT suddenly okay.: "Yays, LiveJournal/SixApart are being reasonable again! -- or are they? -- Let's have a look."

[info]ishtar79: Lie to me some more, I LIKE it!: "Granted, the ingenuous code they use might be hard to crack, but fear not-- I speak fluent Bullshit. So in the interests of clarity: ..."

[info]lilbreck posted a tutorial (with screenshots): How To: Getting Semagic to Post Tags to InsaneJournal.


General Fannish Meta

[info]rubytuesday5681: *CLAPS HANDS LOUDLY**: "i know that the situation sucks right now and we are all angry and bitter. but going on and on and on about it is not going to fix anything. let's show the world that we can't be held down! it's time for everyone to do their best to brighten the mood a bit!"

[info]elfwreck: Stop Calling Yourselves Criminals!: "Copyright infringement is illegal. Is fanfiction 'copyright infringement?' Plenty of authors think so. Plenty of fanficcers think so. But that doesn't make it true."

[info]nosselinfea: fandomcrazy: "So now, in comes the California State Attorney General, and suddenly fandom is pulled out of hiding, kicking and screaming into the glare of public scrutiny. (...) It'll be DMCA takedown notices flying like confetti (...) Ironically, RPS isn't covered by copyright law, so it is probably the only area of fandom that's actually relatively safe."

[info]elgraves would like to know if there's some sort of fannish newspaper covering news that may effect fandom community (e.g. DMCA notices).

[info]badonkatonks: Why I approve of sexually graphic young adult literature, novels, and fanfiction: "There are many more young adult novels published than we realize that deal with teen sexuality and how it affects self-image, especially for young girls. I happen to believe there is an area of fanfiction that should be included in a 'safety net' that would protect the writer and the fanfiction from being banned and deleted only because of the fact that the character(s) are teenaged minors."

[info]rubyfruit_pixie: Fannish Thoughts from Jordi: "I wonder why there's such an outcry among fans of female characters when one chooses a different character, be they male, female, or humanoid creature of indeterminate gender, to pair her up with than there is for male characters."

[info]ranalore: today's psa brought to you by the reactions to my latest posted story: "More angsty =/= more realistic."

[info]florida_minxie set up an Art/Fic Collaboration Poll and needs some input.

So does [info]greenwitch, regarding possible issues (and solutions) of the [info]holiday_wishes project. "Any thoughts or comments, even if you weren't involved in the project in the past, would be appreciated."

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Roundup Issue #4

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General Fandom Meta

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


InsaneJournal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


LiveJournal

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

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

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

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


Other

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

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