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General Fandom

isiscolo: feeding you back — "It occurs to me that the advent of lj and the trend toward commenting as feedback, rather than emailed LOCs (which of course is not new - things have been this way for a while) is a double-edged sword, in that although the ease of posting a comment has generally led to more feedback, the public nature of lj comments has (I think) led to less mixed-critical feedback (by which I mean, feedback that is not entirely positive)."

thecaelum: Questions about mob mentality as it relates to online communities — "I've seen examples of mob mentality quite a bit in fandom. Someone becomes the target of a conflict, for whatever purpose or reason. That person is attacked, either personally or professionally/fannishly or both. This happens in public communities and in private journals. Some communities were designed exclusively for that purpose. Typically, when it happens, it draws a group of other people. Some of them observe passively, and some become active participants."

kitzen_kat: Kindness in Fandom — "I would like to suggest that 10 August is Kindness in Fandom Day. You don't have to do anything to celebrate this. No expensive parties or gifts, no long speeches. Just take a moment on that day to remember any kindnesses that other fans have done."

ignazwisdom: Fandom manners — "I think that being in the Due South fandom -- or, more accurately, lurking on the sidelines of the Due South fandom -- has really spoiled me. The thing is, people who write about Due South are incredibly nice. And seeing all that niceness has really made me forget what an incredible bunch of asswads people in other fandoms can be."

catwalksalone: On boysex and me — "Not all people are the same. Not all gay men are the same. Not all I-wasn’t-gay-until-I-woke-up-this-morning-and-now-we-must-fucklikebunnies men are the same, no matter how much certain fandoms may appear to want them to be. How do you know for a fact that my experiences of sex with men can’t be used effectively when I’m writing m/m fic?"

trystan830 in obsessions_r_us: First Amendment and all that stuff.... — "i don't even read it; so why would i take the time to read through a fic, and then comment, "that's sick!" or "ewww!! they're doing what????" and while i believe there are some things that should not be written by sane, healthy adults, i'm not being forced to read it."

virginie_m: Slash Epiphany — "I think the reason I had such an epiphany when I came across slash, is for me it was like a series of little mental cogs going click...click...click…KACHING!"

sunryse00: Straight, Bi or Gay? Who Cares? — "Am I missing a Lesbian gene, is it a conspiracy perpetrated on the female population by men, media and the porn industry, or do people really believe that all women want to have sex with other women, and as a woman do you have more of a leaning toward bi than straight?"

On Plagiarism

theregoesyamum: I petition the court for more bottom smackings — "If you're going to plagiarise, can you at least use a bit more effort than you did in stealing the work and make it so that it can't be pinned on you? What, do you guys just walk around with those big sandwich-board signs saying "I'M IN YUR FIC, STEELING YUR WORDS"?"

rahirah: Weekend stuff and pondering on plagiarism — "At what point does allusion become plagiarism? A lengthy exchange of dialogue substantially reproducing a conversation from another source would seem to be a no-brainer: that's plagiarism. But where do we draw the line? One sentence? Two sentences? Three? What if the sentences are re-worked a bit for humorous or ironic impact?"

fabu: Plagiarism, quoting, etc. — "But in fanfiction, anything that's not clearly attritubed to someone else is generally assumed to be the writer's own work. Because of this, I believe it's important to err on the side of caution and make it clear to your readers exactly what you've borrowed and from whom (whether the borrowed bits came from a published work or another fanfic writer's work)."

lottelita in fanthropology: Does plagiarism matter in fanfiction? — "Fanfic has the potential to engage people just as much as "real" literature. And, to me, that makes it subject to the same standards of authenticity and ethical production that we're used to applying to original works. In short, fanfic matters, so plagiarism in fanfic matters."

guede_mazaka: Baaaaa. — "I've actually had a reader comment to me that 'if they hadn't watched the movie [for the fanfic] they wouldn't have understood the fic at all.' Well, that's not a logical criticism for me; if I watch a movie in Swahili and keep the English subtitles off and I don't know what the hell happens in it, then it's my fault and not the moviemakers."

ginmar: In the middle — "Stealing someone's words and passing them off as your own are easy to rationalize becuase they don't involve physical theft, but what's disturbing is seeing this play out in a larger context among a society of women who behave according to the passive aggressive dynamics seen in much, much younger women. Cliques and feelings and 'friends' and crap like that, and people talking about the concept of being in the middle, when in fact there is no middle."

jenna_thorn: characters — "Put three characters in a room and there will be ties and connections with each other and substituting any three people at random really doesn’t work."

trinityofone: Degrees of plagiarism: where do we draw the line? — "Is the answer, then, that this sort of fic shouldn’t be written? Or that allusions to other works shouldn’t be used at all? Or that even the slightest reference or quote should have to be cited? I hope not, but having some flexibility unfortunately makes large-scale and much clearer cases of plagiarism easier to ignore, or excuse—maybe even easier to exist."

amireal: *sigh* Do we really have to explain? — "Plagiarism IS NOT COPYRIGHT VIOLATION. Copyright violation is what most fanfiction tends to skirt around, near or into. We are using characters, places, events, plots that are not our own, and playing with them. The thing is that most fanfic acknowledges that these things are not ours and most readers (in fact I'd dare say all since most fanfiction is presented AS fanfiction with the universes labeled and everything) are aware that these things are not the original creations of the authors."

Questions, Polls, Etc.

viciouswishes: Follow Up on the Femslash — "Now I want to know, the rest of you (m/m slashers, het shippers, and gen writers and all the readers), where do you see femslash as a community or an identity in the large world of fandom? Does it register? Do you see it getting bigger? How do you interact with the world of femslash? What pearls of wisdom do you have for the femslash community to keep growing and attract a broader audience?"

zortified: Flail — "if a series has, for example, four stories posted in it, would you assume each of those four stories is complete in and of itself? And why would you call a 'series' a WIP if the series, as it is posted, consists solely of completed stories?"

nightchik: flist fandom migration — "Where did Supernatural fandom come from?"