metafandom's Journal

1:29am: Back from hiatus! - Wednesday, September 23, 2010
Metafandom is back from our unplanned late-summer hiatus. We compilers are slowly crawling out from under the various stresses and commitments that have been devouring us, and posting should resume as normal shortly. This post is a compilation of some missed links dating back several weeks, so some of these posts are older than we usually link to.

As always, metafandom is actively seeking additional compilers to help gather links and post daily updates. We are especially seeking candidates who read widely in comics, anime, or gaming sections of fandom. If you're interested in helping out, you can leave a comment on this post or email us at metafandom@gmail.com

• elf [in notfic]: Getting Medieval On Your Ass - What were sex toys—especially subtle sex toys—like, before rubber and steel springs? -
  
  (tags: kink history)


• enigel: I've just realised why I sometimes keep - I've just realised why I sometimes keep the browser tabs with fics that sound exactly like The Greatest Idea Ever open for days without reading them, while I read immediately those that merely sound like interesting fic.It's because I hate, hate, hate to see a great idea done bad, or even just done in a mediocre way. -
  
  (tags: reading writing)


• cimorene: Conservation of Expectations, or: auto-adjustment of reading standards in different fandoms - After reading consistently in just one fandom for a while, we start to adjust our expectations to the body of work. In a large, highly active media fandom, we may reject out-of-hand a story which is exactly as well-written as another story that might, being one of the best-written in a smaller fandom, become one of our favorites. -
  
  (tags: reading)


• paraka: Fandom's Unwritten Rules - I want to have a general discussion about the "rules" of fandom. -
  
  (tags: fandom)


• mithrigil: THE SPARRING LEADS TO SEX: a Manifest - What I want to do in this post is unpack the trope--"The Sparring Leads to Sex"--as a thing unto itself, and also as it relates to my writing and personal preferences. And I'd like to share recommendations for good past and potential applications of this trope. -
  
  (tags: tropes fanfic)


• happydork: How I can write more of the stories I say I want to read - So far, what I've done has been based around three principles: challenging my own defaults, widening my scope, and shaping fandom. -
  
  (tags: writing fanfic race gender)


• nikkiscarlet: A Tale of Two Internets - There really does seem to be a certain degree of polarization happening on the whole of the internet right now, and the LJ problem is a representation of how the "two internets" don't always necessarily mesh well, and how Web 2.0's current reign, while certainly not a BAD thing, isn't necessarily a wholly GOOD thing, either. -
  
  (tags: web2.0)


• espreite: Hello Fandom. - We need to discuss your annoying habit of opening posts with things like, "Hey Girls!" and generally assuming that all of the people in your fandom are female. Because you see, they're not. And some of them are mighty irritated with this habit. -
  
  (tags: fandom gender)


• amalthia: Ebook Conversions - Quality Control - this post is for people who are merging fan fiction into a single file, though it is possible some of the tips may help authors who would prefer their fic to retain as much of the original formatting as possible and not lose whole sections of their stories, or lose section breaks when someone else merges their story. -
  
  (tags: ebooks reading)


• amalthia: PDF Format on portable devices - I don't recommend PDF for anyone reading on portable devices (unless it's been specifically formatted for the screen size of the device you're using). The single file download options I do prefer are HTML or a Word Document. I appreciate all authors that provide either of these with their long stories that are posted to LJ. -
  
  (tags: ebooks fanfic reading)


• happydork: Why am I not writing the stories I say I want to read? - I have been doing better over the last couple of years than I did before -- if we sample the last ten, fifteen stories I posted online, it's less bleakly white-men-fucking-white-men -- but there's still a huge disconnect between what I say I want and what I do.I have a few ideas about why, and I wanted to float them, see what you guys thought. -
  
  (tags: writing)


• jane_elliot [in epic_rants]: Merlin AUs (and why I don't like the,) - As it's clear that I'm in the very, very, very tiny minority with this opinion, I've been trying to pinpoint exactly why I don't like Merlin AUs. -
  
  (tags: merlin au reading)