General Fandom Meta

icarusancalion - How To Expand To New Fandoms: A Step-By-Step Guide - Moving from one fandom to another can be challenging (Icarus says in a 'bad infomercial' voice) especially when you're deeply entrenched, have won nifty awards where you are, and a fairly dependable following of readers with whom you feel comfortable. Changing what works can feel like you're on a diving board about to leap off into an abyss.

30toseoul in mckay_sheppard - Meta: Gay in the Military - Yesterday I posted about how, despite my four years of pretty damn gay military service, it still took me two weeks of reading SGA fanfiction to notice that the occasional side mention of 'DADT' stood for 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' in the stories. And how that probably meant I was a leeeetle bit slow. // wychwood asked me some questions about that, and suggested that I put some stuff in a meta post because the fandom needs more first-hand descriptions of experience. So, here goes.

leadensky - On the use of words... - While we're at it, let's remember why "freedom of expression" (or the press, or what have you) is one of the vital modern liberties. Here's a hint: it's not so you, dear reader, have access to fiction. It's not so story-tellers can amuse small childern. // It's because written communication is a tool of enormous magnitude in bringing about changes in people's ideas, perspectives, and, most importantly, actions. // Words are *not* important because they are harmless. They are not vital because they don't mean anything. It is, in fact, exactly the opposite.

ataniell93 - A voice of reason about the chan kerfuffles... - So. It seems that someone has actually been prosecuted in Australia and fined (not sent to jail, not sent to prison, not forced to register as a sex offender, not stripped of their livelihood and forced to beg on the street) for having text files on his hard drive that were stories about men and boys having sex. I’ve read several articles about this (for links, I direct you to titti, who has been collecting them), and it seems like there’s a lot of things we still don’t know about this case.

commodorified - I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil ... - I will continue to do exactly as I have been doing. I shall write what I write, post what I post, keep my real name on it, and in the event of trouble I shall contact my lawyer. Then I shall contact the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. Possibly also the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Then I shall stand on my considerable rights, take comfort in my considerable faith in the basic non-stupidity of the Canadian legal system, and we shall see.

kutsuwamushi - Illegal in Australia - I'm not the political target of these laws. I'm not a pedophile. What's more, I enjoy these stories not because they have underaged sex in them, but because they're just good stories. Yet I'd be a sex offender if I lived in the Northern Territory ... it's disturbing. // So, do you have any stories you like that could get you busted?

darkrosetiger - Product Placement - One of the big anti-rps arguments is that the people being written about "didn't sign up to have people write fictional porn about them." // Except for the part where they did.

telesilla - Sancho, hand me my lance! - If the above was the only moral justification I had, I wouldn't write RPS. I'm not an idiot after all, nor do I think my view of morality allows me to do what I want without considering what damage I do. However, I clearly label my work as fiction and therein lies my justification. Because gossip presented as the truth, such as the news item about how Orlando's girlfriend left him because he spent too much time with one of his male buddies, is completely and utterly different than fiction about Orlando and the buddy in question having sex. I'm not purporting it to be the truth, and I'm going to assume that my readers, any of Orlando's people and the guy himself also know the difference between fact and fiction.

carlanime - policing the borders of Normal; next stop, Stalkerville? - What interests me most is the casual conflation of RPF with stalking, not by accusing the RPF writers of behaviours we usually consider "stalkerish" (following the person; approaching them repeatedly after being asked not to) but by expanding the range of "stalking behaviour" to include non-contact activities such as reading interviews [...] and thinking about people [...]

Fic-Related Meta

zortified - How Much Are Readers Willing to Forgive? - I just read a story that made me want to repeatedly bang my head against my desk. I'm sure you've all read similar stories, had similar reactions. The story's faults were mostly explainable and understandable as simply being written by an inexperienced writer -- nothing that in itself requires ranting and wanking to fix, just patience and hoping the writer grows a bit and learns more. // But I'm left with the bewildering question -- why on Earth did I keep reading?

marythefan - rolling around in the emo-porn - In talking some more with Betty about emo-porn, we realized we've been using the term in somewhat different ways, including that I haven't necessarily been focusing on a climactic moment – anything that achieves the emotional intensity and hits the emotional triggers I'm looking for qualifies as emo-porn, even if it's not a peak moment. To extend the porn metaphor - while porn is generally focused on reaching the money shot, it's not simply money shots, and I think other moments than the point of climax can be depicted pornographically. Me and a story, we can curl up together for a session of heavy petting that achieves emo-porn, even if the emotional climax, itself, ends up falling flat.

rahirah - Bruises, snapdragons, and meta, oh my! - There may be some grounds for gen readers/writers to feel marginalized in fandom at large, because let's face it, they don't get much press. In some respects I'm very much in sympathy with gen writers: I love writing the ensemble, and I like plot with my porn. I don't feel the need to ship everyone in sight. Sometimes I even find shippiness distracting, and get irritated at the fannish tendency to sexualize Every.Goddam.Relationship. When I do ship, I tend to stick close to canon. But there's nothing morally superior about gen, any more than there's anything morally superior about shippy fic. They scratch different itches.

spike21 - *sigh* - You know, it's perfectly legitimate to want warnings on everything you read. // And if you *do* want warnings on everything you read, there is a very simple way to get what you want: don't read anything that doesn't have a warning on it. // But if you *do* go ahead and read a story without a warning on it? Blaming the *author* for your resulting distress is pretty inappropriate

foreword - The Magical World of AU - But fandom, what is your problem with AU? I feel like AU is a dirty word in fandom. What is so wrong with "alternate universes"? Isn't every fic essentially an AU? Why is it included under "Warnings" in fic headers? // To me? Alternate Universe should be the majority of HP fics, not the minority. You've got a plethora of characters to play with and magic to use, so why are you so hung up on what the plot of one book will determine?

sparkly_stuff - The Fluff Queen...on Fluff. - What is your definition of "fluff" fics? [poll]

On Writing/Creating

jateshi - Fanart vs Original Artwork [a bit of a meta] - What is fanart? I feel that fanart is an expression of love for something - a concept, a character, a world, or simply an idea. From what other people have told me, and my feelings when I work on an original work, "original" artworks are expressions of love for the exact same sodding things.