[Archive] Meta Roundup: Fannish Stuff of Interest

May 2010

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Posts Tagged: 'reading+preferences'

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Issue #117

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[info]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:

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

[info]ishtar79 wrote about Geek social fallacies and Character bashing.

[info]elfwreck: Fannish Entitlement and Chapters vs. long oneshots.

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

Other

[info]das_dingsi has questions about syndicated feeds.
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Issue #112

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[info]amalthia: Reading Habits / Rant: "The ability to save a fic quickly is very very nice for the readers. If you want to set your story apart from others in a big way, make your story easy to save."

[info]rubyfruit_pixie: I can has Genre Rant?: "I love romance, as a genre of both books and fanfictional forms, in varying configurations of het, and slash, and femmeslash. But there are things that I wish would just go away ..."

In Romance in Fiction, [info]beccastareyes asks if anyone knows examples of characters in long-running series that hook up and are still having adventures as couples.

After iMeem closed its doors, [info]morgandawn posted Copyright Policies: Blip.TV, BAM Video Vault & Viddler (Updated 7/2/2009), with short notes and links on these alternative sites for vidders.

P.S.: if some of you were wondering why there suddenly was a huge influx of post-by-email entries on your flist, or notifications, the reason was possibly that the post-by-email feature has been fixed and all the queued-up content got through now.

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Issue #108

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Asylum news: during the recent account sale I purchased a permanent account for [info]meta_roundup and switched the layout to Complete Style, which offers tags on the sidebar. (Soon I'm going to re-organize the tags slightly for better readability.)

~

Two posts by [info]yourlibrarian:
Fanfic hostility (notes on an article about fandom where it's "the fact that fans are writing romantic stories about the leads that has [the author] hyperventilating, not the incessant tales of rape, pedophilia, and exploitation")
Tracing usage: "I've mentioned in my personal blog that I think 2009 is the year when fan fiction has become, if not a mainstream pastime, at least a term understood by many in the media and requiring less explanation in the press. What interests me though, is how this term is being re-interpreted by a wider audience to become, less about actual fan fiction, than about what the speaker sees as related issues."

[info]rood: Fandom, Zines & Profit: "I am rather new school when it comes to fandom, but that doesn't mean I don't understand the appeal of zines (even though I don't own a single one). In fact, I wish I had the money to buy them, because zines have some advantages."

[info]elethian: untitled post (on changing attitudes towards short vs. long fics, uses stats from the Severus Snape Fuh-Q Fest)
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Issue #95

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[info]spacelogic: on whitewashing: "Let's just take a moment to review the damage done by whitewashing, shall we?"

[info]yourlibrarian is not only looking for The Dresden Files fanfic recs (as the post title suggests), but also created a poll to discuss what factors a canon text might have that contribute to also having lots of good fanfic.

In a post titled How Much For That Fan Fiction In The Window?, [info]morgandawn talks about 'binding' fic for offline reading, and also asks "What's your favorite way of assembling your fan fiction to read offline?"

[Queer as Folk] [info]vl_redreign created a fun 'crossover' poll to sort QaF characters into Harry Potter houses.

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Issue #80

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Meta (with polls)

[info]yourlibrarian: What is RPF anyway? About different strains of Real People Fiction and whether it is actually fanfic. Closes with an RPF opinion poll.

[info]loqia: Porn for the Rest of Us: "People admitting that they "skim sex scenes" in fics is surprisingly common. Hell, I do it too; especially if it's getting in the way of some other type of porn. Identity Porn is one of my favourites, but it's only one of many ..."

[info]carodee: Who you are is how you write: "I can see that my writing has real flaws; I also have strengths that I lean on a lot to cover the flaws. The not so strange thing is that I can see how my writing style is completely shaped by the way I walk through life."

[info]xie_xie_xie: Please close the canon on your way out: "I love taking the whole, closed, completed work and then drawing strands out of it [...] I simply can't imagine feeling that way about a story that's still being written."

[info]celandineb: Writing and reading chaptered fics: "One of the things about fanfic (besides the fact that we're all playing in someone else's sandbox) is that longer stories are frequently posted serially, either as each part is written or after the whole is complete (especially if it's really long). There are pluses and minuses to this, both from the reader's and writer's perspective." Also has a poll on reading/writing preferences.
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Issue #71

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InsaneJournal

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

Meta

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

[info]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?"

[info]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.

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

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

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

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

Polls

A while ago, [info]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.

[info]lilithilien's poll on journalling preferences was linked in the previous issue; in this post she discusses the results.
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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 #69

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

[info]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?"

[info]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."

[info]elfwreck (in [info]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?'

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

Polls:

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

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

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Issue #66

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[info]stele3: The Dreaded Meta: Fic Warnings and Literary Ambitions: "The topic for today: warnings on fanfiction for character death, rape, child abuse, the romantic pairing, and other plot points." (Spoiler for the fourth book of The Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett -- there's a warning, though, so that you can skip the paragraph in question.)

[info]lilithilien: World Cup thoughts: "I've been consuming massive quantities of fic lately with the [info]hd_worldcup. Being asked to judge/grade them has been such an interesting experience, and I'm learning more about what I like about fics. [...] I'd be very interested to hear how the rest of you read fanfic (even if you're in a different fandom), and particularly how you are scoring fics in this competition."

And [info]helkamaria is looking for due South and SGA reccers.

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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 #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 #56

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[info]viridescence: Harry Potter is addictive. ORLY?: "This was a research study to be published in a refereed psychological journal, so the authors are coming at this from that perspective: that some people show the symptoms of psychological dependence to Harry Potter. Their barely-there nod to the positive aspects of fandom are overshadowed by the idea that being a HP fan might be unhealthy. It seems clear to me that although they are aware of the fandom community, they don't understand it."

[info]celandineb created a poll about fic/art reading/commenting and what determines whether you look at/read a fanwork.

Also, [info]justhuman is asking for recommendations on slashiest / favourite McShep episodes (SGA).

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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 #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.