General
pearl_o - my deep thoughts of the month - One of my favorite things about fandom (and I think a lot of people share this) is the sense of community that's evolved with it -- the fan to fan connections. But there's this thing that comes up in pretty much meta discussion we have, and that's the question of what we mean by community.

musesfool - love the one you're with - I think the way people form fannish communities has shifted among the people who use LJ as their primary fannish forum. Once, you (generic) were on a newsgroup or a mailing list devoted to one show or one pairing, possibly you were on one list for discussion and one list for fic (and possibly it was even while the service was still called Onelist) and while there would be overlap, there were also people who only did one or the other - discussion or fic.

thelastgoodname - On context - [Partially about the Tiptree thing ( 1,2,3), but also a little bit about what yaoi and slash are and are not , and what "/" and "x" are and are not, but that one's been deleted. Shame.]

quietladybirman in fanficrants - Defending the Indefensible? - Therefore, when writing A x B (A/B, A and B, whatever) I write Guy B as a bottom 99.9% of the time. This does not mean that I want him metaphorically castrated, think he's incapable of standing up for himself or believe that he's particularly submissive in any other aspect of his life.

raedbard - Meta: Unpopular Fannish Opinions: Sorkin and Studio 60 - So, I'm thinking that, for me, it's about the serendipity of one show - *those* particular characters and situations and tone and photography and theme and all the rest. The things that come together and make you think: holy, *god* I never want to stop watching this thing. And that is not entirely attributable to the creator, obviously.

carlanime - one of my kind - I've found things in fandom that I enjoy, admire, am moved by or inspired by. And sometimes it's way out on the fringes, where people cling to non-canonical interpretations and trangress the boundaries of ironic distance, that I find myself most touched.

On Creating and Criticism
shadow_shimmer - if looks could really kill, my profession would be staring - Where I start to worry and get into ethical quandaries (see me get back to the point?) is when I, or other people, have the urge to write about players that have been convicted (or have been accused of) sexual assault.

nightspring - Random Thought - I really don't think Michelle Kwan makes a habit of walking up to random recreational skaters skating happily around a public rink and telling them that in order to get the full skating experience, they should be jumping triples and gliding artistic spirals. So why do some professional writers apparently think *everyone* who shows the least bit of interest in writing should do so at their level?

Polls, Questions, Other
cereta - Untitled - I'm finding myself curious about the times and ways people first experienced sources of major slash fandoms.

gmth - Fandom politics - Do you think politics exist in fandom? If so, how would you define the phrase "fandom politics"?

semyaza - OTP Poll - This poll is for everyone who understands the meaning of 'OTP'.

airinshaw - OTPs - How do people feel about their OTPs? Do they have them?