General Fandom Meta

khriskin - Thoughts on Friends-locking - It’s odd what we choose (and don’t choose) to show the world at large. Unlike most of life, the internet is sometimes a permanent record of someone’s life. So the f’lock turns into a self-editing service, letting only those slivers of personality out that I approve of.

the_con_cept - Reviews and Plot - So the big word going round right now seems to be oulangi, and the reviews that are so candid and sometimes brutal that they could hurt feelings. I have mixed feelings about it. It's hard to read a particularly cutting review and realize, "This is a friend of mine being reviewed," because I feel very protective of my friends and thier feelings. I am a big stupid emo twit when it comes to friends. On the other hand, she really is just saying it as she sees it, and I envy that, although I don't think I could ever do the same.

sage_theory - I seek for the wisdom of slashers - I have my own personal set of ethics when it comes to the portrayal of sexuality in minors. However, this set of ethics has grey areas, because the minute I set down a rule somebody will write a fic that makes me totally rethink it. // But grey areas are a bitch to think around when you've got a dilemma.

malnpudl - Poll: Underage sex in fanfic - A poll about underage sex in fanfic. [POLL]

merith - [untitled] - recently (like in the past day or so), i've seen a couple of people confess to reading from a fandom not readily acceptable or looked down upon as being too school-aged. not that there's anything wrong with any fandom, but, just like any media and genre type, there are some things that are more acceptable than others. // so, my question to you all is, do you have a secret fandom you like to read (or write or draw) stories (or pictures) from?

beeej - On the subject of zines. - I don't mean for this to be offensive to anyone who is or has been involved in a zine project, but...why do people still make zines?

cofax7 - [untitled] - Anyone have any fanfiction you can think of that really talks about class issues?

sageness - a treatise on ice cream - I want stories that do more than show orgasms. // That doesn't mean I don't want to see those orgasms. I just want them to be occurring in the context of something more than sex. // Stories need to contextualize sex within some scrap of plot and to make the sex work to further that plot. Otherwise sex is nothing more than a study in physiological mechanics -- in which case I might as well be watching two people brush their teeth as fuck, and I simply don't care whether they floss or swish with mouthwash if it doesn't further the story's plot.

complete - Length poll. - Just recently my own reading habits with length came to my attention and I became genuinely curious as to what other people liked. Indulge me? [POLL]

koimistress - designs for discussion - (In response to juleskicks post here) That said, the guide does have two entries I strongly disagree with, and I've noted them in Comments there. One is that people ought to introduce themselves before commenting in a journal where they haven't posted before. I was a bit worried upon reading that, in fact, because right now introductions are not the norm, and if too many people adopted this as "the way one does things in LJ," it would become the default. We really would start to see it as rude if the rule weren't followed. And I foresaw a dampening effect on discussion.

jennyo - Today's Fannish Snark - At any given moment in fic-leaning fandom, the most popular thing to do is write character-centric, slightly angsty/poignant, romantic (and Romantic) short to super short stories (500-2500 words) featuring a slightly fey, vaguely melancholic white male aged 21-40 whose emotional turmoil is preventing him from achieving his potential in some way (never mind that most of these conflicts come from being a bourgeois dick who wants to have his cake and eat it too), and his lover, who varies some [...]

dragonscholar in fanthropology - [untitled] - What forms of important fandom communication don't involve A) verbal components), or B) direct-text communication (LJ posts, email, etc.). LJ icons? Showing a collection of con badges? Etc.? I've been wondering how fans communicate things about themselves without doing it in verbal/text form.

ludiademedici - Morning Poll - I ask about pieces and parts of old fanfictions that have been re-adapted for new stories or new fandoms. Do you feel that writers have an obligation to constantly produce wholly new work to break them out of their comfort zones, or is it appropriate to disassemble and reassemble older pieces that didn't get quite the attention they deserved, thereby creating entirely new works?

bookshop - Too much of a good thing. - So, I've been wondering: at what point does a 'crack' fic or a 'crack' characterization become 'purely OOC'? Because lately I feel that certain characterizations and portrayals of my favorite characters and series have swung too far in the direction of what I would call 'woefully out of character.' But if the characterization is deliberate--if an author knows that they're taking a character completely out of the realm of that character's canon personality and context--does that make it still OOC? Or is the characterization justified in the interests of good fun?

lobelia321 - a difference in rps and fps posts - cathexys is sadly away on holidays because it is she who opined that there wasn't really that much of a difference between rps and fps. //Well, there certainly is a difference between your typical rps-post and your typical fps-post.

Fandom-Specific Meta

painless_j - The masterlist of all masterlists thingie - The End All Be All Fanfic Masterlist. Really? "This is about the fandom as a whole." Really? Wow. Who would have thought it possible. In one Sturm und Drang effort, no less. And now without gen. Why, didn't you know that gen isn't really a part of fandom? [Harry Potter]

regan_v - I want to see him cheat: Snape, adutery, and fandom - Because it seems to me that when it comes to shipping fanfic, readers and writers fall into groups: those who are in love with the pairing itself (with getting these two together, and in a romantic relationship), and those who are . . . not so much. The second group might be more there for the exploration of characterization, to see what these two would be like, together. Not so much to see them happy together, which might be a different thing entirely. [Harry Potter]

afra_schatz - Meta: Thoughts on the 'RP' in 'RPS' or: Why I read it. - It’s the same with Dick Francis and (in the end) with RPS: I know Dick Francis’s protagonists. Sure, they have different names and occupations but essentially they are the same, the main characteristics that I value in a novel – humour, straightforwardness, self-irony, braveness and whatnot – are constant. It’s not like meeting new people and not knowing what I have to expect, it’s like coming home to a circle of friends. // To me, RPS is quite the same: reading the header (which tells me which characters are involved and the genre of the fic) and scanning over the first paragraph (that gives me an impression of the author’s writing style) is all the orientation I need. [RPS]

trinityofone - Why is SGA fandom so segregated? - So I guess what I'm wondering is, where are the het shippers? (Again, please correct me if they're around and I've just been too dumb to notice.) And I just don't mean, why aren't they here, responding to this--what is here is awesome, and I'm not like, demanding more people participate, omg. I just mean, I've been in this fandom for almost a year now--how have we managed not to interact at all? [Stargate: Atlantis]