[Archive] Meta Roundup: Fannish Stuff of Interest

May 2010

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Posts Tagged: 'terminology'

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Issue #126

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InsaneJournal's daily backups have been moved from 1:30PM (EST) to 5:00AM (EST).

[info]xie_xie_xie: Where on the fail spectrum am I?: "What is a lesbian who doesn't "write slash" generally but does have this strange fascination for one male/male couple and writes about them constantly, for years? Am I on the side of the outraged disenfranchised queers, or the women squeeing softly at the buttsex?"

[info]spacelogic: what is a gamer?: "The reason girls/women don't play games, Serious Gamers? It's because you've defined "games" as the sort that (mostly men) play on consoles, and written us out of the history books for good measure." (Also about the definition of "serious" gamer.)

[info]morgandawn: I'm Gonna Wash That Fandom Right Outta My Hair....or Dive! Dive! Dive! or Marketing Speak?: "What do we call it when a fan starts selectively 'scrubbing' her online presence (systematically removing some content from both online as well as archived blog/websites/mailing lists/forums) without actually leaving fandom?"
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Issue #124

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

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

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

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

[info]maureenlycaon's Food for thought deals with, among other things, J.R.R. Tolkien's writing, MMORPGs, creativity vs. marketing, and the otherness of elves.
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Issue #119

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[info]yourlibrarian: Random fandom tangents: "There was a lot of attention paid to Merriam Webster's addition of fan fiction into its entries this year [...] What do you think of the definition though?"

[info]branchandroot: 'Training wheels' my ass: "I am sick and fucking tired of fanfic being presented as "training wheels". That's a load of BS."

Deutsches Meta: [info]mllesatine (in [info]deutschesfandom): Wie koordiniert man seine Betaleser?: "Ich habe also Probleme mit der Reihen- oder Rangfolge der Betas, mit der Zeit und mit dem Aufwand. Wie geht ihr vor? "

InsaneJournal issues: There've been instances of comment notifications not getting through, or only belatedly. You can check the Recent Comments page for replies to entries on your own journal; there the notifications seem to be listed correctly. In the message center (Inbox), they showed up as well but with a delay of up to 10 hours.
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Issue #116 a: Miscellaneous

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


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

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

[info]spacelogic: why I love Babylon 5

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

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

On -isms in Fandom / Acafen discussion

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

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

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

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

[info]telesilla: "no, this is how it works/you peer inside yourself": "One of the discouraging things that I've seen come out of the latest round of meta about meta and how it harshes squee is a couple of comments I read somewhere about how discussing about Important Issues in fandom is a waste of time because you're not going to change the world doing it."
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Issue #109

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[general & Torchwood] [info]snakeling: Linguistics for fandom 101 (a quick guide to Ye Olde Englishe for fanfic writers, and that Jack Harkness is not American)

[True Blood] [info]bitterfig: True Blood as fan fiction: "The world of the books remains recognizable, the characters have the same names and many of the major events remain intact, but everything has been sexed up to the max and minor characters have been given personalities, histories and stories of their own in no way suggested by the source material."

[general & Star Trek] [info]elfwreck posted a few quick thoughts inspired by converting old Trek fanzines.

[info]prettysock: Thinky Thoughts on Age and Fandom: "There are two important things I think adult fans could do to make fandom as a whole more welcoming to young fans." Also: "So that's the other thing I wanted to say: Fandom is good for young fans."

[info]the_willow: Was Pre-Slash Originally Meant As A Rating?: "So what is pre-slash? I've picked up a meaning through osmosis, but considering how much history of slash I didn't pick up, I feel a need to ask questions."

[info]accioslash: More Comments About...Comments: (on favouriting/reccing something without also commenting) "As an author or artist, does this type of behavior bother you? As a reader/viewer, have you ever done something similar?"

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Issue #103

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

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

[info]elfwreck wrote about the Fanlore wiki: "I love fanlore, the idea of it, the way it does work in some areas. I just haven't figured out how to be involved with it."

[info]celandineb's Fandom Friday Poll is asking the question of fic length, i.e. how do you define a drabble, and a fic novel?

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

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

[Supernatural] [info]yourlibrarian: Missing the Music: Song Use in SPN: "I'm sure everyone has favorite songs in the series. I definitely have my own, but I wanted to think about what we're losing when we don't have music, which goes beyond just having a kick soundtrack. So, just for fun, I decided to do a little meta on what the 10 most significant uses of music have been so far."

Posts about Dreamwidth:

[info]telesilla: Because I'm just a cock-eyed optimist; or why I'm going to be paying for Dreamwidth (also deals with JournalFen and InsaneJournal for comparison/background)

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

[info]skuf: April Posting Pact Meta Post the Firste: Dreamwidth's Subscribe/Grant Access To and You (thoughts on Dreamwidth's filtering/friending system and wondering how to handle it)

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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 #92

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

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

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

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

LiveJournal: more hacking attacks occured, apparently targeting high-traffic communities/journals and/or the people who moderate them. [info]maureenlycaon wrote a summary with helpful links.
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Issue #74

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[Harry Potter] [info]helkamaria: Voldemort and the Ministry: "Anonymous commented on DTCL that villains are scarier when we don't see them, personally, but rather their sinister influence, which got me to think about the two main villains in Harry Potter: Voldemort and the Ministry."

[Stargate] [info]justhuman has a theory and poll on gender bias in genre writing, mainly SF&F, and how (if) that relates to SG1/SG:A.

[info]branchandroot wrote a follow-up post on the previous entry about ratings, and the comments received: Let’s get the requirements issue out in the open, then.

[info]skuf has a poll on the spelling and definition of fic-kink/fic!kink.

IJ news: In [info]announcements, there's a poll on the available siteschemes and which one should be the official default look of the site. Additionally, a new alternate sitescheme has been uploaded: "a black and white theme (sans-tweak and tweak-says for those that don't like him)", called Monodramatic.
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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 #68

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

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


More Recent Meta

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

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

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

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Issue #18

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General Fannish Meta

[info]lenija: ExcorcismMetaPuzzle (1) - recipient positions: "There are at least two levels on which you can like or dislike a character. [...] I suspect that people who have one OTP and one favourite character in a fandom tend to read that fandom mainly on Level One, especially when they fight over who is to be seen as the "best character" and which ship is most "true"."

[info]yourlibrarian: Ship stats reviewed: "I was curious about where the SPN fandom, which seems active and growing, stood in comparison. And it kicked up something interesting. In most of the Buffyverse pairings there was clearly a preferred order for the characters to be listed in. Yet for SPN, whose biggest pairing are its main characters, there is a virtually equal number of Sam/Dean (493) Dean/Sam (492) and Wincest (491) listings on LJ."

[info]rebeccama: QAF: The more things change the more they stay the same: "I have changed my mind about a number of things both since I started watching QAF, since I joined the fandom, and since the show ended. [...] However some of my opinions, views, and interests have remained the same from either 101 or at least early in the show. [...] Does anyone else have a list of things that have stayed consistent?"

[info]babydraco: untitled post: "As someone who writes erotica with older teens frequently, but has only ever once written a story that involved what I thought chan was- I don't like people just lumping all of that together. It makes you as bad as the anti Potter porn people, because you're taking away the "Sorry, but I don't write chan" defense - don't call it chan when it isn't."

Other

[info]elfwreck: Strikethrough links: it's not about law: "Links to prove that LJ's new interpretations of their polices aren't based on avoiding liability; they're based on management's content preferences."

Perhaps relevant to fandom: The Karen Fletcher Case. Miss Fletcher published original fiction online which was pretty graphic and dealt with the sexual abuse of minors, torture, and murder. She is believed to be "the first person in Western Pennsylvania charged with exclusively text based obscenity" (emphasis mine).

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Issue #14

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[info]skuf has a follow-up poll on the Canon / Fandom question.

[info]greenwitch: Thoughts regarding Holiday Wishes project...: "I'm contemplating the ways running [info]holiday_wishes on IJ might be different from LJ. [...] Basically, I'm wondering if the two communities should have the same structure, or a different structure. IE, should one be for fannish items, and the other be for any items?"

[info]xanister (in [info]qaf_cofeeclub): Define "crack!fic" without a drug reference...: "On my own IJ I was pondering what defines "crack!fic" since it's a term that I'm relatively unfamiliar with. I know that horribly outlandish fics are crack!fics but aside from that I'm kinda lost."

[info]fickle: Convo snippet with Savior.: "The weird thing is, I think that I really like that dynamic. [...] it's not the sort of thing I'd RP, because it's a going-nowhere-downwards-spiral-locked-together relationship that's far from cheerful, but I love reading about it. It's not even about the sex, in those relationships, and maybe that's why it works for me as an asexual. It's about the emotion, and the confusion of it."

[info]luzzu: Because I'm not run off my feet...: "I was browsing through fandom secrets over on LJ on one of my rare meanderings over there. [...] So this is my not really secret version of fandom/not fandom secrets, minus the pictures."

[info]ldybastet: Discussion post 1- unresolved issues in HP: "After all, that is why we have theorised, discussed and ranted, and written fic and meta for so long, no? [...] Is there anything from the previous books that you feel was left unresolved, or cleared up in an unsatisfactory manner?"
(For the discussion rules, please read this post.)

LiveJournal-specific

[info]skuf: LJ news - apparently now with screening/deletion of dissentient comments. Several links, also mentions the new Customize Journal area (which apparently does not support overrides) and the DVD/movie advertising in the news community.

Other

[info]gueneiriol is looking for fan-friendly, affordable web hosts.

Also, IJlogin has now been incorporated into LJlogin, so you can use the same program for both journaling types. The bug that made IJ logged you out when you opened a new window has been fixed.

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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.