Meta Roundup

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

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.

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

IJ news: In 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.

[Doctor Who] versaphile: Claws of Axos: "An interesting contrast between New Who and Classic Who is that while Classic!Master came up with increasingly crazy schemes that usually backfired on him, technically Simm!Master bucked that trend."

[Harry Potter] In continuation of the discussion generated by previous posts, bohemianspirit (in snapedom) wrote Still Further Thoughts on Prejudice in the Potterverse and Snape's Worst Memory: "'Prejudice against Muggles and Muggleborns,' 'On using the term 'racism,' and 'Ethical considerations in the scene in Snape's Worst Memory' are discussed behind the cut ..."

carlanime: Gossip and history and attention, oh my.: "I don't have a favourite soap opera; I have fandom." (Also discusses the Fan History Wiki.)

On ratings:

elfwreck (in metametameta): Ratings: Worksafe, Standard, Mature, Explicit: "... I don't like rating the reader rather than the content. I want fics (and arts and vids) rated by what's inside them, not by who's expected to find that most appealing."

branchandroot: First, the purpose of the system: "My impression in my own fandom sector, anime fandom, is that [the NC-17] rating is used more as advertising than for restriction. [...] In some ways, then, it seems to me that we have taken in the MPAA focus on sex and subverted it."

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

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?"

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."

elfwreck (in 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?'

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

Polls:

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

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

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.

General Fandom Meta

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


InsaneJournal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


LiveJournal

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

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

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

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


Other

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

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

InsaneJournal

stewardess: ALERT: Use Caution When Naming An RSS Feed. (Further information in the comments. Also, see grimmhill's post.)

qem_chibati: RSS Feeders (talking about Firefox livebookmarks, Google Reader, including flocked posts and more -- post is a constant work in progress)

only_gremo describes a problem with uploading user pics when using Firefox, and how to solve it.

yourlibrarian asks about possible (virtual) gifts for InsaneJournal users, and sylumgator wonders if a Holiday Wish List site would be a good idea.

Fandom / Fanworks

jaybee65: Meta: Looking on the bright side of recent fannish upheavals: "It's possible that this is one of those watershed moments for fandom, although I think it's impossible to tell right now what direction things will move in. (...) [The] assumption is that it's better if fandom congregates at a single, agreed-upon-by-consensus space. But is it, really? I'm not so sure."

millstone1005 (on fanficrants): ratings: "It really annoys me when people rate all of their stories R (Mature) for "safety", regardless of the actual content of the fic."

ketchupblood thinks about three types of painful fic.

ingrid [on the so-called 'miscegenation debate']: (untitled): "It's okay to say you've never heard it. It's pseudo-clinical and rather old. But when someone (or a few dozen someones) informs you that this word represents a Very Not Nice School of Thought and in all honesty, has nothing to do with what you are trying to put across for a stupid fic contest, that, in fact, you used the wrong word entirely you really ought to listen to them."

spacelogic: fannish stuff: "I'm starting to wonder if there is or has been any good sci-fi TV show that actually had a gender-balanced or female-majority cast. Anyone know?"

babydraco: Meta post #1: HP/Other: Occlumency/Identifying with Characters: "I think lots of fen identify with Snape. Come on...he was a socially awkward child who masks this with sarcasm as an adult. He's an academic, as many fen are, but even the ones who aren't still like reading, and researching and arguing over obscure stuff. He's not conventionally attractive (okay, he's sort of ugly) and many fen identify with that, but even those who don't, have to contend constantly with the *stereotype* that they are ugly or out of shape. Before anyone's even seen them."

Sometimes the same people write several meta entries. It happens.

yourlibrarian:

Insiders and outsiders: who's who?: "There's been a lot of talk in the Gender Aca-Fan discussion going on at fandebate about the lines between producers and fans but less on those in between, which at one point a participant suggests may be academics. (...) I'm applying these points primarily to the Buffyverse since that's what I currently know about, but I suspect that there's truth there for a number of fandoms."

From great characters come great fandoms: "I have on occasion been able to continue watching a show for the sake of a character alone, or a pair of characters. And I have watched many shows in which I enjoyed the show but had no real desire to go further than just viewing. But if it’s a good show and it’s got a great character, that to me is the equation for fannish interest."

Reviewing the Past: "To me [American Gothic]’s not that old, but it aired a year or so before BtVS came on the air. (...) At the time it was felt that references to pop culture would take viewers out of the show because it reminded them of real life. Instead he argued, this actually makes the characters seem more real because they live in the same world we do. He noted that BtVS was a major show that served to make this change on TV."


zulu:

You know what I like? Being productive.: "I think I want to learn, but I also want to sit back and say, 'You know what? It's crack, and it makes me happy. I HAVE MADE IT FOR THE LULZ.'"

Writing, you know, that stuff.: "It's really hard to write a medical plot interspersed with the usual shippy stuff I write (...) the problem is making it real-ish and still interesting for the shippers."


LiveJournal

das_dingsi: LJers are freaked out. Brad is unimpressed.: "You probably read that ValleyWag story by now (...) that LJ founder Brad Fitzpatrick is going to leave LiveJournal. And he probably is. (...) Of course, he's been asked on his opinion about the on-going kerfluffles."

liz_marcs: Here Are My Thots...Let Me Show You Them: "While the latest LJ kerfluffle is going in full-swing, let me make clear my stance here, especially since there seems to me to be a certain amount of misinterpreting what I'm saying. Personally, I think the artists in question who got perma-banned from LJ were, to put it kindly, stupid. (...) My perception that the artists in question acted stupidly, however, is nothing compared to what I currently think about LJ/6A."

ranalore: okay, seriously, y'all are not helping: "Posts with explanations for the possible logic of 6A/LJ's actions are good and useful. Posts about how to back up your memories, flists, posts, comments, and how to cross-post to multiple journal services are good and useful. You know what I don't think are good and useful? Posts berating other fans for choosing to leave LJ or choosing to stay."

emilie_burns makes a good point about community management: "If the only maintainer is suspended, that's bad news for a comm's survival, so I'm just taking care of that."


Other

blasphemy_blue started a Multifandom Friending Meme.

bubble_blunder: A Question For Those Who Read My journal: "I mean thoughts, opinions, viewpoints and the like about things like censorship, sex offenders, vigilante groups (...), fandom, parenting (...) So, my question to those reading is this: If I were to make a series of Editorial style posts about these types of issues would you read and discuss them, or would you be more likely to say, 'TL;DR' and move on by?"



As usual, you can leave comments with meta links here or on the screened post. Older posts qualify -- basically, all meta from 2007 posted on InsaneJournal is fair game.