Meta Roundup

branchandroot: Id-candy safety: "I’m all in favor of having books that are id-candy, brain-fluff, that demand nothing from your intellect and instead go straight on to punch your emoporn joybuttons. [But] id-candy is a different thing from good writing."

rood: Living Two Lives – A Story of Bilingual Fan-dom: "I suppose all of you who are multifannish know at least to some degree what I am talking about, because essentially, I am talking about being in two fandoms at once. But while most people experience two fandoms as two different things they’re interested in, for me, it is the same thing, in two languages." Has comments in english and german.

bethbethbeth: Won't someone think of the reccers?: "No, it's not your job to maintain recs pages for reccers, and yes, some of you writers clearly wish your older stories would disappear from memory, and yes, some of my favorite authors have, themselves, disappeared (at least from fandom). However, for those of you who do have a stake in your stories continuing to be read, see what you can do to make it easy for the readers to find you and reccers to update their links."

celandineb's Friday poll was about the etiquette of pimping fic/art, and skuf's poll about tiered recs (i.e. "recs lists where the reccer's favourites are singled out/marked in some way").

The InsaneJournal Holiday Sale (including the offering of permanent accounts) starts on Friday the 28th this month, running in two phases with different prices. For details, read this post in announcements.

aristoboule reports that the official "True Blood" site on HBO actively encourages fan fiction/fan works in general, and wonders "if there's something out there the precedes this".

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

cluegirl: Fandom Things I Miss: "Raising a toast to those things I remember with persistent, undimmed fondness from times when fandom seemed very different to me."

the_obscure: Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him.: "The melodramatic, almost operatic crescendo and sudden, swift demise of a fictional person we have loved does not give us an emotional high, it makes us callous on the ten-billionth time it's done, overdone, chewed, spat out, and paraded once more in the guise of originality."

yourlibrarian: The Wheel of Television Fortune: "There's something rather depressing about seeing a show which had a strong, even stellar, first season turn into a mess. There's something incredibly rewarding about seeing a show that stumbled pick itself up again. There's something even more depressing about seeing a show that botched its second season learning all the wrong messages from that fiasco." (Spoilers; talks mainly about "Heroes" and "Supernatural", also mentions "Veronica Mars" and "Chuck")

Zwei Einträge von frogspace: 1. Über den Start des Fanlore Wikis und der Frage nach Objektivität/Bewertung sowie den Vorteilen der User ID, 2. Wenn sich draußen die Blätter verfärben: "Apropos Form, ich bin derzeit dabei, meine alten Metalinks aus einem nur zu diesem Zweck bestehenden Zweitjournal in einen Delicious-Account zu übertragen. [...] Delicious wird von Google erfasst. Wenn ich diese ganzen Wayback-Links jetzt in einem Account sammle und öffentlich mache, dann verändert das den Grad der Öffentlichkeit und ich weiß nicht, wie ich damit umgehen soll."

LiveJournal: greenwitch posted in 07refugees that "what appears to be Russian hackers have been taking down journals and communities over on LJ" and asks if anyone has further information on the number of affected journals and/or LJ's actions against the attacks.

InsaneJournal: A security update to the 2.0 version of Firefox (2.0.0.17) is causing problems with the Rich Text Editor. squeaky suggests using the mobile update page on IJ or change browser versions, until there's a better solution.

[Brokeback Mountain] yourlibrarian: Things that made me go "Hmm" today (1. details on Annie Proulx's disapproval of the fanfic that was sent to her, 2. Torchwood fandom; on LJers' reviews being quoted without permission in a for-profit book [see also next link]: "I had to wonder if part of the upset over both cases had to do with the format change rather than the copying issue itself."

branchandroot: Ruminations on copyright and blogs: "So, in the wake of The Telos Affair, I’ve been thinking about the astonishing tangle that is copyright law and the even more astonishing tangle that is copyright law applied to online documents." (gives information on whether it's possible to copyright one's personal blog)

stele3: Everything I know about Clay Aiken I learned from F_W.: "So, in case anyone hasn't heard yet, Clay Aiken is gay. [...] I do think, however, that his fanbase reaction is an earmarker for how America stands at the moment vis-a-vis the queer community and people coming out."

Two posts by xie_xie_xie:

Preserving fandom history and heritage: "Of course it's your site and your work and you can do with it what you want, but it's also a part of our history and legacy, and people have a strong stake in it. It is, whether you meant it that way or not, our heritage. Think hard before you take that away."

The Big Chill: How LiveJournal's culture of invisibility threatens fandom: "By going along with the sort of hybrid requirement/cultural norm that all "adult" content needs to be locked away from anyone but your "friends list," you both increase the invisibility of fandom in general and remove fandom works -- fic, vids, icons, graphics, meta -- from public view, particularly that of new fans and those seeking information on the fandom."

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

Mini-Meta:

ms_treesap ponders "[t]he shipping plotline of 'Two characters get together because one is really awesome and deserves the romantic and/or sexual attentions of the other'".

spacelogic did some number-crunching for GLAAD's new "Where We Are On TV" report (ethnic minorities, GLBT characters)

Meta tied to Episode Reactions (contain spoilers!)

[Bones] justhuman: This week's Bones: "Dear Bones Writers, Either find your balls [or] give them up completely. You went the "dark" route. You came out of it looking mighty dim, but you went there. Now you want to be all sweetness and light again?"

[Supernatural] yourlibrarian: Review of SPN 4.01: "Perhaps because of the diminished expectations set up by S3, this opener seemed both richer in content and an interesting set-up for things to come."

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

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."

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?"

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

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

[Scrubs] 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 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.

Misc. Fannish Meta

yayforjae: gender and fandom: "[T]he male vs female space and the gender of fandom are two really interesting topics ... I don't have any really coherent thoughts about gender in fandom at the moment, but I wanted to start writing about my experiences. So here's a bit about my first two fandoms ..."

elfwreck: Anti-Fanfic Bingo, Line three: "I look at this line on the card, and I just get hung up on one topic: Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. I want to weep."

And an entry that's from December, but I just it found today... gonewithoutjam: I'll Sail this Ship Alone: "So you're new to a fandom, or you're a lurker, and it seems everyone ships Y/Z. But hang on a minute. Are you sure about that?"

bethbethbeth wonders if there'd be interest in a Harry Potter Fic Fest that would let characters who are usually seen as too old or too ugly or in some other way undesirable get a little action for a change.

skuf: Bouncing off idea: fandom-related polls comm/archive

InsaneJournal / Siteschemes and Layouts

skuf: Poll: which IJ sitescheme are you using?

Also, the new sitescheme will soon be available as a template and go into beta-testing stage. There's a call for volunteers at ij_siteschemes (writing FAQs, Stylish, finding styles for different browsers).

sherlock suggested an S2 style contest in ideas. See also this post by pen.

Other

data_warrior has a detailed poll on icon creation, use and crediting.

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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. :)

shusu: unsolicited: "The problem with being a niche producer in fandom is that sometimes the big train chugs past your little alley and shakes the rafters, and then out of the half-dozen lovely people who always come around to shop, there's one who wanders in from nowhere and announces that I should perform like a trained monkey because I am the only person who produces a certain product."

aerynvala: OMFG!: "What the hell is up with the Rating NC-17 or R (just to be safe)?!"

lenija: not nano: "Modern drama-series tend to show every character as not "good" or "evil", but as ambivalent, which is great. But they seem to forget that ambivalent is not the same as having a VERY DARK AND TWISTED hidden personality part. Not everybody has a secret agenda."

babydraco: untitled: "Before calling something OOC, shouldn’t we pause to wonder whether it really is or not? Because a lot of the things we consider “in character” are still based on fanon, it’s just very old, very pervasive fanon."

elfwreck has some thoughts on the newly started fanfiction archive Fictionaire.com.

Misc.

Announcement by squeaky: For permanent InsaneJournal accounts, you can purchase 5.000 userpics.

djin7 needs to know who hosted the very first Gift Fic Fest on (livejournal), or similar.

celandineb has a poll about participation in holiday fic/art exchanges.