Hey, I'm back and just want to say thank you to the others for working so hard as new canon came out and the meta pace was picking up. And may I just add: what a day to come back :-)

Writing for Pay

embitca - And the First Rule of Fight Club Is As of this moment there are 432 comments in the fandom_wank thread I posted and 240 in cousinjean's journal. All in all, not bad for a day's work. Hah

kraken_wakes - Paying for fanfiction: a rant Fandom can and does forgive an awful lot. Even this, probably, given time. But it will take time and we have a right to be angry and we have a right to stand up together and say that we will not stand for it.

thebratqueen - Fandom and entitlement First off, let's do full disclosure. My name is TBQ and I will milk the "Anne Rice's bitch lawyer sent me, personally, a C&D letter while one of Anne's pencil-dick minions cyber-stalked me." thing to death. Why? Because it did happen, it sucked, and if idiots in fandom are going to ram their heads up their asses about the dangers of not playing by the rules then they deserve to have my size 10 boot up there with them.

cesperanza - elynross linked to this this morning Elynross said, wearily, that this may be the new face of fandom, and in a way she's right: I mean, it's possible that "fandom" has gotten so huge that people no longer feel a sense of community with the people for whom they write. But I don't think so. In the above announcement, this woman is discussing her life, goals, and impending wedding in a way that implies that we care--she is treating us, as merryish said: "like a community, not an audience." That's where, I think, the quite understandable outrage is coming from; she's trying to appeal to the "community" while fucking with its rules--primarily with the gift culture.

sydni_64 - For love or money. re: the "pay me for my WIP" wank I do get that people have times of financial hardship (believe you me, I get it), but the way her post was phrased was likely offensive and hurtful to her readers who probably thought they'd been supporting her already, with feedback, kind words, and possibly their friendship.

thecaelum - PSA: Understanding Copyright Law and its relationship to Derivative (Fan) Fiction Recently, an individual on LiveJournal posted a request for funds. ... Naturally, there was a significant amount of backlash in response to this. Fandom is, among other things, a self-policing social entity with regard to what is considered to be unacceptable or harmful behavior. But it seems that there is still some confusion as to what caused so much anger. What, exactly, did this individual do that was wrong and/or illegal? Why did so many people get angry? What's the big deal anyway? // I thought I'd clear that up.

morgan32 - Sometimes the behaviour of fans is disgusting Why is it okay to profit from zines, but not from online fic? // Why is asking for payment for fan fiction okay when it's for Moonridge but not when it's a fan in need? // Why is it an attack on the legality of fandom to charge for fanfic, but not for fan art or vids?

sidewinder - Question for the day Specifically, I wonder about this: why is it we* are so vehemently against certain fan-product being for-profit, while we turn a blind eye towards others? // We rage against fanfic authors making money in any form over their stories, or 'zine publishers/distributors doing more than covering their costs, or vidders charging over cost for dvds and tapes. And yet, fanart is a highly lucrative market for many (or at least a marginally lucrative market for folks like yours truly.)

latxcvi - Fandom and Social Control What was most interesting to me in terms of the widespread reaction was how that reaction demonstrated what is probably the only real form of Social Control that fandom's got: The public shunning

violetsmiles - retcon and the art of taking no responsibility for our behavior Do you ever stop and wonder when it became acceptable to not take responsibility for your own behavior?

xyellowroset - Fandom and Money So there was a money for fanfic wank yesterday and it actually got me to thinking and doing a little self-examination on recompense within fandom in general and whether or where there is a line drawn.

janissa11 - So, let's see What this hooraw has made me think about, in a curious way, is the larger idea of fandom as a static thing, one with distinct and closely held beliefs and attitudes. Change comes hard to fandom. I wonder how much we use the idea that "we have never done it this way" to explain our resistance to new ideas.

Fandom Meta

isiscolo - why Isis loves crossovers, pastiches, and remixes so damn much I'm going to start with rare pairs, because I've written about this before. When I write a story to a pairing challenge, my first thought is: what is the story that brings these particular characters together? What are their important characteristics, what do we know about them, and how can these be woven into a unique story that can only be told about these particular characters? ... I think my love for writing crossovers and pastiches comes from a similar place. With a crossover, again, the writer must think: what brings these characters together? How would they interact? How might their worlds interact?

kageygirl - *Does* size matter? I have a lot of thoughts about long vs. short fic, actually. There's my unwritten thing about the appearance to authors of the privileging of one or the other by readers, there's my other unwritten thing about the difference in sustainable intensity between long and short fics, there's the aggregation of my thoughts on my own average writing length...)

naominovik - The Long and Winding Worldcon Report: Fan Fiction This isn't really a panel report so much as a critique of the whole idea of this panel; I'm also doing this partly as that follow-up I've been promising to do for the open source radio show on fanfic that I participated in a while back. [on the world con panel "Can fan fiction writers go on to write real books? Fan authors and real authors debate the point."]

swmbo - Defriending is the greatest crime! Defriending somebody is the attitude of the colonist, exercising social control and a way for BFNs (sic) to continue to exert their dominance over fandom. Once you have friended somebody, you enter into a social contract where you are bound to that person for life. Because obviously when somebody defriends somebody for any reason, they then create a post that details the reasons why and tells everybody else to defriend them as well, because heaven forbid that person be allowed a voice or a say or…

minisinoo - Roundup on the canon/non-canon poll It's been a couple of days now, and I think most folks have replied who are inclined to, so I'll do a brief round-up on the canon/non-canon/out-of-date canon poll from a few days ago.

musesfool - she's gonna listen to her heart To extend that metaphor, I guess fanfic is like your boyfriend - you've been together a while, you've made the emotional investment, so you're up for it most of the time when he gives you the eye, and you are becoming resigned to his flaws - while original fiction is like dating someone new - you have to be convinced over the course of a few dates that you like this guy and want to spend more time with him, and things you'd accept from someone you've known a long time are deal-breakers with somebody new.

Specific Fandom Meta

rahirah - But not quite mature enough I had this vague hope that once the shows ended a lot of the old ship and character factions would start to relax a bit, now that it's a closed canon and new fans come in able to get the whole story in one swell foop. ... To some extent there will always be self-segregation within any reasonably large fandom: people will gravitate to people who share their general view of the characters. But the amount of contention still present in BtVS fandom after all this time (and I don't except myself from possessing my own share) is disheartening. [BtVS]

technosage - Kara Sue is not a Cylon I’ve been thinking a lot about the development of Kara’s character since the beginning of S2, largely in connection with writing my OF and the Kara-Lee ship fic I’m fiddling with. [BSG]

On Reading and Writing

lizzypaul - Depression In Fanfiction There's been a lot of bitching recently about how badly mental illness, depression, cutting, and suicide are dealt with in fics. However, where does that leave those who are honestly clueless about these things? If you've never had to deal with chronic depression or other such problems, count yourself lucky. As a person who has struggled with severe depression for years, I wanted to share what it feels like from the inside.

Polls, Inquiries,...

makesmewannadie - Poll: fandom, children, and work [Poll]

neverneverfic - awhile back swmbo posted a long list of questions when you send something off to be beta'd what are you expecting to get back? do you always get it? // when you beta for someone what do you do

elishavah - writers and their dates [Poll]