Meta Roundup

General Meta:

the_shoshanna: A handy guide to media fan convention art shows: "So just as fans shared fanfic and art in the zines that were and are displayed, shared, bought, and sold in convention dealers' rooms, one of the places that fans shared, admired, and bought and sold fan art was in convention art shows."

elfwreck: Ethics of commenting: "Is it proper to comment (squeefully) on the fic of people you know don't like you? How about people who you suspect don't like you and might rather just forget you exist?"

beccastareyes has some short thoughts on Flash Fiction.

Fandom-specific:

[Supernatural] yourlibrarian: SPN 5.11- Where have I seen this before?: "One of the issues I have with all the Kripkeing that goes on in this fandom is that more often than not the fan version is better. And as we head through S5, I have often read/seen the fan version first, so the show really needs to do something special with its take." (With quite detailed episode discussion starting after the first three paragraphs, is therefore spoiler-heavy)

[Queer as Folk] xie_xie_xie: I love my big gay show... (commenting on InsaneJournal QaF fandom): "We all have our favorites, and our least-favorites, but true character hate is just not something we see a lot of here."

General Meta related to the debates about a) m/m slash and b) misogyny in fandom:

tigresslilly: A Few Questions I Haven't Seen Asked or Answered: "... it occurred to me that I haven't seen anything about threesomes. It all seems focused on m/m or f/f pairing and I wondered if it had a place that had been excluded here too."

magpyr: Half-baked thoughts on the male slash debate: "Can't we ditch the m/m debate everybody's so sick of, and talk about the serious lack of femslash in any fandom but The L Word? Why is it so easy for people to see "queer subtext" in a work concerning straight male characters, but not females?"

musesfool: it's all how you use it: "It never fails to amaze me that we place female characters in such an awful catch-22." (One example given in the text: "They can't be interested in (ew!) traditionally feminine pursuits or they're setting back the cause, but they can't be too tomboyish, 'cause then they're just men with boobs!")

havocthecat: Misogyny is wrong. Who knew?: "You know, just because I can generally structure my fandom experience to avoid misogynistic jerks - by avoiding adding them to my friendslist or circle - doesn't mean I can avoid misogyny in fandom altogether."

Fandom-specific

[DCU] shadowvalkyrie: DCU musings: "Specifically, porn. [...] Even more specifically, kinky porn. And the discrepancy of why the Bruce/Tim variety tends to be a great deal more popular than the Bruce/Jason one."

[Torchwood, Buffy the Vampire Slayer] firefly124: Okay, so everybody else has probably already read this AfterElton article (the article compared Torchwood and BtVS in regards to character death, and the post builds on that. I'm not being more specific because I'm unsure whether details about Torchwood's third season are still considered spoilers.)

General

thete1: "I know it's racist, Te, but the special effects look awesome!": "This has been on my mind -- harshing *my* squee -- since that first Transformers movie came out and so many of you were full of excuses about why you were going to see it anyway. Despite the racism."

In a post titled Saying Goodbye, yourlibrarian talks about important changes in TV, reality shows, the demise of the WB, and that the cause for the popularity decline in music games could be "a stranglehold on copyright".

cluegirl: Thoughts Contingent on Reader Entitlement; the fandom edition: "So what is it that makes us as readers so much more ready to be spiteful about work we DID NOT have to pay for? Other than the fact that we can, and the writer in question is unlikely to have highly paid lawyers who might give us a telling-off for acting like arseholes, I mean?"

skuf: Where's all the meta?: "Remember back in the day - e.g. 2006 - when [metafandom] issues were posted about every other day and had shitloads of links? What happened? Brainstorming: ..." (Cross-posted to DW, where the big discussion obviously seems to happen, but I decided to link the IJ version on principle.)

xie_xie_xie: metafandom and its discontents: "But the last three or four times I submitted a link, either mine or someone else's, either QAF-specific or "big picture" fandom meta, it was just ignored. I never knew if they just didn't like it, or didn't get it, or what the problem was."

[Babylon 5] spacelogic: meta: squicks and siblings: "Claudia Christian mentioned in a blog post the other day that a B5 director (...) had told her to play her scenes with Sheridan more "sexy and coquettish" and I had such a strong "EWNOGROSS" reaction that I had to step back and analyze why."

[Stargate/SGA] rood: On Stargate And Why It Will Never Be Among My Favourite Series: "And not only are the languages pure decoration and occasional plot device: the cultures are, too."

As part of her reply to a five-questions meme, the_rck responds to Does it feel weird being a 'mom' in fandom?

IJ-related:

Permanently Insane accounts are on sale throughout December, until January 3rd.

squeaky explained that the issues with email notifications are apparently caused by spammers using the site. Some sub threads deal with different email providers and how to circumvent their blocking of IJ messages. It also says that, if your account is being suspended by mistake, you should open a support request in the Abuse category.

spacelogic: [SPOILERS] Babylon 5 and Women

[Harry Potter] cluegirl: Fanfic evolutions... a thinky-post.: "So... for awhile now, there's been something happening in the Snarry ship that distresses me, and it's only been just recently that I've been able to put words to it; Harry has become a moron."

[Supernatural] yourlibrarian (in mind_over_meta): Victimhood in SPN: "The end result of the four seasons of SPN so far, has been to equate the supernatural and those who fight it to a lower class status, and those who are victimized by it to higher classes."

[Twilight, Urban Fantasy genre] the_willow: Twilight & Other Creepy Thoughts: "I think I've figured out the appeal of Edward Cullen."

General:

rood: Why the AO3 needs to be translated (looking at it from a German, EFL speaker, perspective)

stele3: Meta: Movie recasts in fic: "So that got me wondering: what do people get out of those sorts of stories? Is it sorta like re-watching a favorite movie, but on your computer screen? Do you prefer your movie recast AUs to be changed fundamentally, or straight-up?"

InsaneJournal: in case you missed the news in announcements, there's a weekend-long sale of Permanent accounts, at the price of $40.

squeaky is also doing daily backups of the databases on the site, which causes "about 15 minutes of downtime each day". They're currently scheduled at 2:30PM (Eastern/US time).

LiveJournal: the_shoshanna: LJ search can turn up locked posts.

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."

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, 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, 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.

This time all fandom-specific posts contain SPOILERS, some more, some less.

[Fruits Basket] branchandroot: Hell in a Fruits Basket: "No, the part that really gets my goat is twofold. One is the whirlwind of heteronormativity ..., foreclosing any possibility of expressing the homoeroticism that is waved in our faces all the way through, or even just continuing to dangle the possibility. Two is the lack of consequences."

[Dollhouse] tigresslilly: Feminst take on The Dollhouse (takes a look at Cast and Creation, and Show Content)

[Dollhouse, but also fandom in general] the_willow: Got Answers?: "I'm wondering at the difference between telling a good story and setting up a series - in television. Is it possible to have both in genre television, barring spin-offs and sequels were a built in audience is already assumed?"

[Gundam 00] caithyra wrote two posts dealing with the most recent episode, comparing Lyle and Anew to Neil and Tieria, and speculating on further events.

Multifandom: this week, celandineb's Fandom Friday Poll is about cross-posting to communities.

One place for discussion of the deletion of the scans_daily LJ community is here in 07refugees (started by stewardess).

On the subject of pseudonymity on the internet and race fail '09:

telesilla: That James Tiptree, Jr was one heck of a fella...oh wait....: "Pseudonyms are part of the rich, proud SF/F tradition. For two people--and before them both TNH and PNH--so involved in SF/F as Shetterly and Cramer- to pretend that pseudonyms are A Very Bad Thing is mind-boggling."

darkrose: "I am she as she is me...: "Everyone understands that Mistress Super Domme and Sir Gary of House Stuart are really Mary Sue and Gary Stu when they're not at a playparty or an SCA event, but if you've interacted with them in those contexts, then you use the name that's most familar, the one that they've chosen to use in said context. / And you know what? / Shetterly and Cramer have been around long enough to know that."

musesfool: just stand there in your wrongness and be wrong: "The conflation of pseudonymity with anonymity, the sheer stupidity and hypocrisy of the arguments used to justify outing someone who has chosen to keep her online life and her professional and/or personal life separate, and the insistence that they be apologized to when they were the people who fucked up and were wrong in the first place is such a huge display of ass-baring entitlement and privilege that I don't even have words."

General Fannish Meta

branchandroot: Stop trying to be on my side: "Let’s be clear about this: “you’re reading it wrong” is not an academic argument."

arionhunter: Slash: It's like a plague. A Gay Plague.: "Whenever someone engages with a text in some shape or form (unless they're using it as, say, wallpaper, which doesn't actually count), they are partaking in analysis. They are questioning something about a text, and then making an argument in support of their reading, even if it's just that adamantium can totally outlast Superman's heat vision."

spacelogic: "why we write ____fic": "Here I attempt to work out why I read, and write in my head, shipperfic."

branchandroot: Femslash: cross it up: "I think part of the reason for this trend in my own writing is that the f/f pairings tend to have hidden stories. You have to dig for them, for the possibilities, for the way these two women might interact. Rukia/Orihime, for example, has marvelous possibilities, but none of them are obvious because the two of them don’t interact enough in canon to create a strong template. Most of my m/m, on the other hand, comes out of dynamics that are pretty much shoved up the viewer/reader’s nose."

xie_xie_xie: Meanwhile out in Greater Fandom...: "I think that finding same-sex attraction and sex arousing in and of themselves is a kink -- to try a less judgmental word than "fetish." I don't think it has anything at all to do with wanting to insert yourself into the action or be one of the participants or anything. It's just a little thing in your brain that finds it hot. - I also don't think that liking a particular kind of pairing says anything about your own sexual orientation, and I furthermore don't think that liking a pairing that is made up of the gender opposite to your own means you have any kind of kink at all."

celandineb has a Fandom Friday Poll on Fandom involvement.


Fandom-specific

[QaF] not_yet_defined wrote a list of essential Queer as Folk asylums on IJ, including asylums that might not be focusing on QaF but have lots of QaF fans participating or hanging out.

[Supernatural, Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel the Series] yourlibrarian (in mind_over_meta): Sibling Rivalry: Spike&Angel and Dean&Sam (comparing their relationships from the canonical, as well as the behind-the-scenes angle)

[Criminal Minds] spoilers for 4x13, "Bloodline" brownbetty: later, ask me what I think about keen little gadgets in the shape of dismembered women. (Guess.): "To expand: Criminal Minds has had white serial killers and black serial killers and Hispanic serial killers. It has also had bystanders, cops-of-the-week, victims and white and heroes from all those groups. The Roma turn up, in this one episode, as bad guys."


Race & aspects of discussing race in Fandom

telesilla: Dear bare-assed white people: "When a POC tells me, a white person, that something I've done or said has racist overtones or reflects the racism that is sadly still a part of our society, it behooves me to listen because even being married to a Black woman doesn't give me the experience with racism that POCs have. I don't live with it day to day and even the fact that I am a member of a minority doesn't give me a true understanding of the ingrained racism because it's a very different dynamic. - We're all ignorant in one way or another, but to ignore someone who is, probably while heaving a sigh at having to do this yet again, attempting to educate me, moves me from ignorance into actual stupidity."

amilliondays: notes from the underworld: "I find it really fascinating, and by "fascinating" I mean incredibly disheartening, that in the recent discussion on race and racism in fiction of all kinds, when well-intentioned, smart, thoughtful white folks get up and say "no, you know, I thought I got it right but in listening, I clearly got it wrong" and these are, again, smart, thoughtful people, that barely two comments in other white people jump on them and say "YOU HAVE NOTHING TO APOLOGIZE FOR THESE MINORITIES JUST WANNA WHUP SOMEONE FOR BEING WHITE"." (There's a follow-up post of sorts, in the war on flame.)

stewardess: How to use white privilege to make racism disappear.: "Surprisingly, making the discussion about you is the only strategy you will ever need to make racism disappear; you can rely on it for years without repeating yourself. Here are some variations, but remember this is not a complete inventory. Use it as a springboard!"

[surrounding the Teresa Nielsen Hayden debate] elfwreck: How insulting can it be, if the audience doesn't understand you?: "Point of information: 'nithing' is not a cute LOLCAT crossover of 'nitwit' and 'nothing.' It's an old Norse/Germanic word. Our modern word 'nothing' is possibly somewhat derived from it... but it doesn't mean 'you don't exist to me.' It's a lot closer to 'you are so vile and horrific, the universe should re-arrange itself so you don't exist.' [...] And she expects--counts on--much of her audience not understanding some of her words, and is hoping this one will fly under the radar as 'mild insult,' so that only her nearest & dearest will recognize what she's really saying."


InsaneJournal:

The site performance issue should be fixed now (i.e. no blank screens during peak hours or similar), so squeaky expects having more time for looking into other issues. At the moment he's trying to find out more about the causes of comment rot (comments disappearing for seemingly no reason), if you experienced it you can leave a reply here.

Also, IJ now offers 1 month of paid account time for $5, which might be useful for people who want to make quick layout changes - when your paid time runs out, the layout you were using last stays as it is (until you make further changes).

.

[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."

[RPF / bandom] stele3: Thinky thoughts about the Wall Of Some Kind: "We might not be able to get those real people to stop reading our fanfiction (and the characters we write); but we can and should squarely define those two as separate and distinct."

caithyra (in fanficrants): Sex without consent is rape...: "I can't get over the non-consensual wave that's being written (not the one when the writer knows and is aiming for writing non-con, but rather, those who thinks it's a perfectly normal and healthy relationship), because it scares me. Are there really so many fans out there who believes that it is healthy?"

rubyfruit_pixie: Informal writing survey! :D: "What do you like to write when it comes to fanfiction?"

[Harry Potter] ravenna_c_tan asks whether there's any interest in a Snape/Draco/Harry Smut Fest, and for thoughts on format & participation.

IJ Note: The stats (http://www.insanejournal.com/stats/) hadn't updated in a while, but are now live again. Raw txt data: http://www.insanejournal.com/stats/stat s.txt.

the_willow: More On Nice vs Mean (Fannish): "Do only one set of feelings matter? Or only one set of feelings from one group of people?"

[Harry Potter] iamisaac (in metametameta): Severus/Remus in canon: "3000 words or so of meta about moments in canon where a relationship between Severus and Remus looks like a real possibility."

[Queer-as-Folk-centric, but also general discussion] xie_xie_xie: Wherein I am intolerant in the extreme: "If you ever wanted proof that I do not in fact rule the universe nor even this tiny little molecule of it that is the Queer as Folk fandom, the existence of QAF mpreg is it. [...] I think there's something really, truly scary and strange about serious "real world" mpreg fic."

[Dr. Horrible] andreth_47: Dr. Horrible Meta: The Goggles of Disguise: "I was thinking about that in regard to Dr. Horrible, 'cause supervillains wear costumes too of course, and I suddenly realized that disguises/costumes/illusions are a pervasive theme in Joss's latest work of genius."

Refresher course: branchandroot explains how to use OpenID when you don't have an IJ account.

[allgemeine Diskussion, plus Eindrücke über Generation Kill] mllesatine: Heut mach ich mir kein Abendbrot, heut mach ich mir Gedanken!: "Jedenfalls geht mir in letzter Zeit so einiges zum Thema Slash, Feminismus und meinen Fandoms im Kopf rum. Warum sind zum Beispiel die Fandoms, die ich am meisten liebe, nur von Männern bevölkert?"

InsaneJournal

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

Meta

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

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?"

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.

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

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

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

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

Polls

A while ago, 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.

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

[BtVS, SPN] yourlibrarian: The Emotional Bottom (discusses Dean and Spike in terms of characterization and relationships on the show and top/bottom preferences in fic -- might contain spoilers!)

rubyfruit_pixie: An Anti-Redemptionist's Confession: "Or, How I Learned To Give Up The Ghost And Love Getting Our Heroes To Join The Dark Side."

telesilla: It's 5pm somewhere in the Pegasus Galaxy!: "Discussion in chat this afternoon about booze and SGA characters led me to think about my personal fanon (which is subject to change depending on the requirements of a fic) about the SGA characters and booze ..." (open for other fandoms in the comments)

brimac13 has a poll on shipping, namely if certain shipping preferences have a negative stigma in fandom.

Older posts I didn't want to leave behind:

The recent prompts on metametameta have been job-related (canon jobs, careers in fanfic, and "going pro") and previously elfwreck discussed in-canon parenting (or the lack thereof), for Trek!verse and Harry Potter in particular.

yourlibrarian: Posting habits and fanfic reading (deals with cross-posting content, IJ as a political choice, and journal readership esp. with meta content)

apotheosis: The place of OEL manga: "I thought this might be of interest to us as American mangaka and the fact that no, I don't see that as a contradiction or taboo to refer to myself as one. [...] I still can't help but see a rather hypocritical double-standard."

Journal News:

InsaneJournal has reached 200,000 accounts in just three months. The site was running slow at times, squeaky adresses the issue here. Also, insanity asks people for their ideas on virtual gifts.

rusty_halo made a turorial: How to migrate from LiveJournal to WordPress (and crosspost to InsaneJournal). (Link in the post goes to WordPress, but I'm using this one so people can leave IJ comments.)

----------

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. :)

General Fannish Meta

[bandom: Panic! at the Disco] stele3 wrote a Spencer/Ryan ship manifesto.

On plagiarism:

msilverstar: Plagiarism in fandom: "My problem with this the situation is that the author accepted the praise, awards, and publication as though she deserved credit. If she'd said something about how great a writer Charlotte Brontë was, and explained that a huge part of the story was lifted from the original, that would have been appropriate attribution."

mirabile_dictu: lusus naturae: "It seems to follow a pattern; there's almost always an excuse given. I didn't know it was plagiarism. It's just a coincidence. I had to do it. The excuse is invariably followed by support from friends. What's odd about this case is the studied silence of the plagiarist."

IJ, LJ, Journaling in general

Note: After the InsaneJournal code update, you are now able to track posts/threads and receive notifications when someone friends you. Edit your subscriptions here. (I'm also working on updating the beginner's guide to IJ; it should be finished this evening.)

Many posts deal not only with LJ/SUP's latest move, but also IJ and comparisons between the two platforms.

yourlibrarian: The IJ Only Post: "Given the latest boneheaded move by LJ, there's been a resurgence of talk about why people aren't coming over to IJ. [...] From what I'm seeing the problem isn't a lack of journal moves, it's a lack of community moves."

xie_xie_xie: El Jay: "Because the expansion potential of its userbase is teens and very young 20s, LJ is moving towards increasing the social network component and decreasing the blogging/community component, in the hope they can build a site that is competitive in a Facebook/MySpace universe. [...] IJ doesn't need the kind of userbase that LJ does to succeed, because it's more niche-focused."

telesilla: You don't just pay for LJ, you work for them.: "We're giving them the fruit of our labor, we're giving them our fiction and our meta and, more importantly as I see it, our thoughts about dealing with depression and our posts what it's like to live with chronic pain or what the daily life of a bisexual person is like and they are making money off of that labor. All while pretending that we don't exist."

On the Interests Censorship issue, we have stewardess' entry Circle the one that doesn't belong: (Porn) (Hardcore) (Bondage) (Faeries), and viridescence wrote more on LJ interest censoring. So far it looks like SUP has a strong bias against alternative sexuality (including homosexuality) and, well, fandom.
Last but not least, yourlibrarian compared popular interests on LJ vs. IJ.

Fannish Meta

nosselinfea: Plagiarism in fandom: "We are on the whole, writers of fanfiction, which in itself stands on shaky ground from a copyright point of view. It takes a brave person to point fingers when you fear that the same fingers can be pointed right back at you for writing stories that rightly belong to JRR Tolkien or JK Rowling etc. We can argue Fair Use til we're blue in the face, but the truth is no-one knows where that line is drawn."

celandineb: Writing Plausible Rare Pairs: "So the question is, then, how does an author make a pairing plausible? I'm going to try to talk in non-fandom-specific terms here, because I think that the two basic aspects I see as necessary, proximity and cause, apply across fandoms when it comes to writing rare pairs."

[Torchwood] andreth_47: TW: Better or Worse When Subtext Becomes Text?: "What happens to slash when, suddenly, it's canon? Where's my delicious subtext gone?"

[Death Note] branchandroot: Death Note: Duology: "You know, I quite liked the first half of the Death Note manga. And I might well have liked the second half if it hadn’t followed the first. My problem with DN is that it’s two stories in very different styles, and those styles don’t go very well together–certainly not in the order they fall."

[SG1 / Stargate: Atlantis] mirabile_dictu: Do not read this post; guaranteed to harsh your SGA squee: "I have a friend who has gently pointed out that SGA is television, and that, as such, I'm expecting too much from it. I say no, I'm not. I'm not wrong to demand more than the shit-flavored pabulum that we're fed each Friday night."

General: mercurychaos wrote a tutorial: OpenID Explained (with screenshots!).

LiveJournal-related

(Note: because there's been so many posts about this, I tried to include mainly the ones that summarise issues and/or collect a lot of links for further reading.)

diachrony: that really wasn't a good move, SUP. (rant on LJ failboating)

Two posts by stewardess: Nostalgia: 6A/SUP's Greatest Fuck-Ups (a timeline) and Six Apart/SUP Erases Porn, Sex... and Fandom (on the change/removal of interests).

rood has a déjà-vu: It's LJ-drama again, surprise, surprise: "Every time I read sentences like "I just renewed my paid account because I believed you last time" or "You have to work on your communication skills!" I just want to tell the poster to shut up already because LJ proved that they won't do that."

And skuf has a poll on general LJ vs. IJ usage.

yourlibrarian: Hey, you've got your canon in my fanfic!: "So in the rare cases where it actually does happen, I find it disconcerting to see canon following fic. And I'm not entirely sure I like it." (spoilers for the Buffy comic issue #12)

caithyra (in fanficrants): I would like a moment of silence for Canon... Also, childish=/=sexy: "But maybe it's only me that doesn't find it sexy when the man in the relationship is the strong, smart, wise, powerful, domineering, alpha, saviour one and the woman is the weak, protected, whiny, childish, in denial, beta and not knowing her own feelings and wishes one." (spoilers for Naruto & Inuyasha, as the post deals with character development)

madlodger_007 (in fandom_how_to) has a poll on IP-logging and whether it influences commenting.

On InsaneJournal's code update:
squeaky is asking for your input here, mainly on whether the update should be pushed out asap (with major bug fixes done, but there will be some errors and bug fixing work on the live site) or first finish it completely (which would also include notifications).

Most of the links are fandom-specific today:

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

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

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."

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

General:

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 ideas), and branchandroot mentions things you could do to help here.

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

First, a note on asylums:

When Fandom-with-a-capital-F was still relatively* new on IJ (and so was meta_roundup), I often included friending memes or new asylums. Now I feel that Fandom has gained its own momentum, the number of asylum creations has increased greatly, and at this point it would be difficult for me to decide where to draw the line. At the same time, users have tried to come up with their own solutions by creating index asylums and/or master list posts beyond the fandomdirectory or 07refugees. (* I say "relatively" because I don't want to imply that before the Strikethrough et al there were no Fandom people at all on IJ.)

So, what I'd like to do in the future: stop promoting asylums individually in the roundup posts, instead create a fixed post with a reference list for available indexes, promotion asylums, and other relevant lists that can help you get an overview as well as getting the word out. A Meta Index, so to speak. (Probably one for tutorials as well, there's still a demand for that because of the influx of newcomers and the slight but important differences between the LJ and IJ code versions.)

Somewhat related; I'm going to create an editor account for meta_roundup, for two reasons: 1. in case it might become too much work for one person and I need co-editors; 2. in case I might have to give up working on the roundups completely -- I want others to be able to update the index lists et cetera after I'm gone. Starting with the next issue, all entries (regular roundups, not news) will be posted with the new editor account.



On with today's Meta:

liz_marcs: You did not just go there...: "Look, I understand that the Organization for Transformative Works (hereafter referred to as the OTW) is a big deal to some people. I've read the various arguments in support of it, and I'm still not horribly impressed. [...] That said, posts like "fanfiction is like gay marriage" is not going to win me over."

the_willow: Is Fusion Only For Cuisine?: "And I've found myself thinking of the experiences I wanted to have in certain rpgs I was a part of. [...] So, was I trying to have Fannish AU Experiences in the wrong venue?"

diyanni: Fan fiction pet peeve #7: "Every relationship story has to end in sex." (Link removed Feb-1st-2009 as the journal has been deleted)

yourlibrarian (in mind_over_meta): The long-haul girl?: "A conversation with shadowscast about her drabble at the LJ site churchofjoss led me to think about religion, Riley and his relationship with Buffy." (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, deals with character development over the course of several Seasons)

---------

For the people using Hotmail accounts and having their IJ mails blocked: squeaky contacted Microsoft and the issue should be resolved soon.

Eta Jan. 22nd: removed one of the posts because the entry is now friendslocked.

elfwreck: Why fanfic?: "This is hard to explain. It's so obvious to us, that it took a comment from 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?"

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] das_dingsi (in 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."

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."

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

brimac13 posted the second part of the Multifandom Fanfiction Poll ("How to choose a fic, cont'd").

persecution wrote a journaling guide about user icons.

envinyatar15 posted a list of Harry-Potter-centric IJ asylums.

[German] majikkuinki erklärt, wie man OpenID benutzt.

Journaling

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 antiaol in 07refugees), and stewardess's InsaneJournal: Growing Like The Dickens. Also, LJ mentions the "Strikethrough 2007" in their news post, which aristoboule (in 07refugees) calls the understatement of the year.

IJ / Asylums / Community-building

greenwitch: Asylum Usage and Habits (poll and discussion) - "[A]sylums here have... not really taken off, and it seems like even asylum creation has dropped (or maybe just outnumbered by the RPGs that seem to be taking over.) So what's the reason? (...) Let's try and figure out what's going, and how we can work on improving the community here."

squeaky announced the purging of old, inactive accounts.

Misc. Fandom Meta

julia_linnea: "Genderswitch" and "Genderplay": What do you think they mean?"

branchandroot: Distribution of labor: "Writing isn’t just having a neat idea, it’s getting a story to coalesce around the idea, complete with transitions and motivations and all the parts that aren’t neat ideas but rather the bones of narrative (...) Given that, I find it a bit surprising that both professional and amateur writers will carry on in equal measure about writing being stolen and ideas being stolen."

Quuer As Folk:

xie_xie_xie: Why they fuck: "I've been thinking about the issue of sex in Brian and Justin fan fiction lately quite a bit ... Of fics that don't just suck totally, there are three broad categories into which I'd put their use of sex scenes ..."

rebeccama: Michael and Ben: "Ben's and Michael's relationship has some real difference from Brian's and Justin's, but that does not make either of the relationships inferior."

Organization of Transformative Works

alchemia: Why I'm not behind the OTW...: "While OTW claims to be inclusive of all, the emphasis has been on the female fanficcers and female vidders, and I wonder where that leaves fandoms that are not predominantly female, and fans that are men, transmen, queergendered, etc., or that enjoy fandom through other avenues, such as fanfilms, re-enactments, cosplay, etc."

Posts for the "Why I Joined The OTW" Week:

bethbethbeth's entry: "Helping to make things better fannishly - even helping to make a single story better - felt great (...) how could I not want to help?"

mirabile_dictu's entry: "I want those opportunities available to everyone possible: to girls of thirteen and women in their eighties, and I don't want them to have to pay for it except with time and energy and love. The world needs safe places for freaks, and fandom can -- no, fandom should! -- be one."

watersword's entry: "OTW's message of pride -- pride in fannishness, pride in the female space that fandom is, pride in the skill it takes us to be fans (meta is hard, y'all, and fiction is harder, I can't even begin to imagine how hard vidding is) -- is one that resonates deeply with me."

---------------------

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. :)

rebeccama has a poll: What makes you interested in a fictional couple?

Technical stuff, sorta:

ardath_rekha reports a change in IJ accounts in terms of age.

mercurychaos explains how to get comment notifications using OpenID.

nosselinfea reports issues with LJ-sec (could be it's a known bug, but I'm not an expert).

---------------------

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. :)