General

nakeisha - Death Story Warnings Poll - Results - Like most if not all of these things, it showed that not only is there no consensus, but often what people want/do, differs depending on the fandom/the circumstances. The comments also revealed that quite a few people want/need something different from what they actually warn for, people need/want less than they warn for.

sockkpuppett - The new phonebooks are in! the new phonebooks are in!! - Archivist extraordinaire, suzecarol, has done a major update of the Essential Links for Slash Readers. Go look! Truly, you wanna know about slash links? Go look here *first*.

modillian - What happens to a comment when it gets way, way too long. - As for silence around discussions of masculinity? I think not. Let's not be silent. Where's the fun in that?

kyuuketsukirui - Fictional incest - Of course incest is taboo in real life, but we're talking fiction here. How many of us read VC Andrews in junior high? Were you shocked and horrified by Chris and Cathy falling in love? I know I wasn't.

modillian - Theoretical Thinky Thingamujigs - All this meta makes me wonder even more about explanations for porn other than the simple, "Wow, that's hot." Storytelling in any form involves the psyches of the authors and the audience for the story to resonate.

missambs - Fluid Sexuality in Fandom (Wherein I Abuse Parenthesis and Angelina Jolie) - In the fandoms, there is little - if any - surprise when a fic writer posts a slash or femslash fic. We are accustomed to seeing pairings such as Simon/Mal, Veronica/Lilly and Wesley/Gunn. This is definitely not a bad thing, let me tell you. But that's not the point. The point is this: We do not see much fic of, for instance, Tara/Xander or Kennedy/Spike. Why? Because they're gay. But are gay characters not in possession of a fluid sexuality just like the rest of fannish characters? Why is Tara's lesbian-ness more fixed than Buffy's straight-ness?

alixtii - In Defense of Ambiguity - The problem is, in visual media, there's a very small amount of facts that are actually canon. Basically, we just know what people say, and a little bit about what they do (what's shown on screen). We don't know if they are telling the truth, and we don't know if things are going on as they seem.

alixtii - Addendum to Last Post - Then it occurred to me that there are fanficcers for whom it is meaningful to speak of a difference between a “best” interpretation and the “right” one—those in an open canon. If one sees the entire source text as describing the same popsssible world, even when some of it isn’t written yet, then it’s true that the best interpretation of a part of the canon won’t always be “right.”

narahttbbs in fanthropology - What makes a fandom? - I realised the true scope of the situation when I thought about some of the things that I've done as a way of exploring my interest in the Apollo program. I've made avatars; I've made a music video; I've written stories. Isn't it obvious how to characterise this passion of mine? I'm a fan of a historical event, and of real people who never expected or wanted my fannish devotion.

Fandom-Specific
( Cut for possible spoilers in Brokeback Mountain and Harry Potter fandoms. )

On Creating and Criticism

scribbulus_ink - On Loving Language - Style is difficult for me to talk about, especially in relation to myself and my own writing. I know what genre I tend to write in, I know the themes I tend to write about, and I know the character dynamics I like to focus on, but I'm not sure how to categorize my own style.

musesfool - a smash of glass and the rumble of boots (that's entertainment) - scribbulus_ink had a post on language yesterday, and it reminded me again how important word choice is when I write, how not being able to put my finger on the right word makes me crazy, and how right doesn't just encompass meaning and connotation, but also sound and rhythm.

minisinoo - The Novel, Novella and Short Story in Fanfic - The plain fact is that short-story writers may not necessarily be good novel writers, and the reverse.

jaina in fanficrants - Not everyone is a model - So why, oh why, must people always be made gorgeous in fic? It's always the romance fics, too.

Polls, Questions, Other

pat_t - Okay guys - ideas? - Where does a new fan go that has no interest in the established pairings? Communities as they are set up now? But wants to join the fandom - wants to discuss other aspects of Highlander?

lostakasha - My First Poll!!! - Hot, sticky netiquette: what would you do?