General:
bookshop: [question of the day] — "so here's your question of the day, courtesy of journalfen. // does something being or becoming "canon" = external validation? // should it? // discuss."

liviapenn: Let 'em all die, squished like little ants, I don't care. — "hth_the_first has a really interesting entry here about what sets *her* "slash bells ringing" -- the four characteristics that a couple usually has to have at least some of before she sees them as slashy."

alixtii: Meta: Reality's Subtext — "Via voleuse: hth_the_first on what makes a couple slashy, and liviapenn responding (not really rebutting) with "normal behavior isn't slashy." // See, the thing is: yeah, normal life is slashy. It's 'cesty. It's a lot of things, some of them things which even fandom doesn't have words for, that we don't see because we're not used to looking at a life-text that way. I've lived in an appartment with two other men, and I've lived in a house with my family members. And there have been perfectly innocuous events (doing the dishes even!) that if they were to appear on a television screen then yeah, I would read them as slashy or 'cesty."

kindkit: better not cry — "You know what I hate? // The word "emo." // At least, I hate it in its current expanded usage as a term with which to mock any display of sorrow. (Note: I'm mostly going to be talking about fictional characters here, but I do wonder whether "emo" gets applied to real people, with real grief, in the same way.)"

fatale: Curious. — "What's the best day/time to post fics? // It wasn't anything I'd ever given much thought - I figured a good fic would get lots of comments, a mediocre fic and so on. But someone mentioned good days to post fic and well, it made me think. Kind of. Then I ate a cookie."

papersoflight: In Which I Write About Something Racial That I'm Not — "I'm white. Which isn't really the main focus of this post, but is important background information to what I'm going to try to get at here. That being the lack of fic written about mixed-race couples in fandom. Just trying to write out this concept- that there isn't enough fic featuring couples who aren't the same race is making me twitchy because I'm white and no matter how unbiased I try to be, I just don't have the same perspective on any racial issue that a person of color has. I write this and wait for someone with more authority on the issue to counter any and all thought I have on the subject, and by having more authority, I mean someone who is a minority or, even more weighty, involved in a mixed-race relationship (or the offspring of one)."

lothy: [Topic for the day: rape in fanfiction.] — "Well, there are plenty of things I could say about this. I think many people on my f-list have already heard my opinion about 'dub-con' where someone suddenly starts to find they *do* want the sex after all (Stockholm Syndrome, anyone? Severe trauma?)"

dragonscholar on fanthropology: Metafanon? — "After the discussion of the use of the word 'gods' in Harry Potter fandom, I noted some people had similar use of this "generic pantheistic explitive" (great band name) in other fandoms. This led me to ask this thought: // Are there "metafanon" elements out there?"

junediamanti: Fandom and the Cult of Personality — "[...] Orwell was inveighing, not against socialism, which he believed in, but against the way that totalitarianism subverted the egalitarian principles he held dear. That’s all serious and passionate stuff, but I have no qualms about roping it in to make a point or two about fandom."


On Plagiarism and Feedback:
telesilla: It's time for HP fandom to put up or shut up — "I'm going to say this and risk pissing off any HP fans on my flist. // Harry Potter fandom has no one--not bad_penny, not white_serpent or charlottelennox or anyone else--but themselves to blame for what's going on at the moment. This is the fandom's fault. // OK I know, it's inflammatory and I do exaggerate some for effect."

shezan: Of lynch mobs — "I take no pleasure in having been the first to call the wankers a lynch mob. Nobody sane would want to operate in a social environment that can produce one. Yet what else will you call something that has now come up with death theats against one of the people they've been so happy to abuse? Some of these cretins are now creeping up in the targets' LJs, bleating apologies. They did not mean it! Sure, they criticised, and joined the wank, and named the guilty, and sputtered insults, and called them criminals, but they never intended things to go that far! And they were right in the first place, surely?"

ithiliana: Comment on recent fandom conflicts (plagiarism) — "Picked up from comment by go_shirly in bad_penny, a link to an extremely detailed, beautifully written, and as far as I am concerned extremely classy apology from angiej concerning her use of Virginia Hamilton's The People Could Fly. Heck, apology is too weak a word here."

savageseraph: The Harry Potter Plagiarism Scandal of Doom (HPPSOD).. — "I never read the local newspaper, nor do I watch the local news. Because of this, I'm usually the last to know about things that are happening across town. Of course, I do read/watch CNN, so I do have a handle of what is going on nationally or internationally. Whenever something happens in town, it is usually a student or coworker who lets me know about it. // When it comes to fandom, I guess I tend to follow similar patterns."

jonquil: The fanfic plagiarism thing — "If this isn't your subculture and you don't care, move on. If this is your subculture and you're sick of it, move on. // Here are two of the standard arguments that are being raised over and over. // "All fanfic is plagiarism.""

caras_galadhon: When Did Having Ethics Constitute Trolling — "[...]Wank comms are tricky things. // At a very basic level, they're all about rubbernecking. Drive by laughs, a bit of schadenfreude, a good gawk without stopping to get involved. And without wanky people to gawk at, they most likely wouldn't exist. // Now, of course there are rules that come along with the comms, the most common of which is "don't troll." And that makes perfect sense. There's a line there, between watching and becoming the spectacle, and while I wouldn't call a wank comm the bastion of etiquette, trolling changes the pointing and laughing into mudslinging, and that's a step down I doubt anyone wants to take."

aubrem: The Great Reader Revolution of Summer, 2006 — "I've been watching this whole Review Issue (Oulangi, Furiosity et al) closely. When I first entered fandom the question was called the Constructive Criticism Issue but essentially we are talking about the same thing: how much should readers avoid stepping on writer's toes. The current incarnation has been helpful in that we've been able to clarify that constructive criticism is for authors while reviews are for readers and that is a fundamental shift in the discussion because before this point there was very little acknowledgment that readers have any role in fandom beyond reflecting writer's efforts."

makesmewannadie: Vid feedback project — "Okay. So OTP ran a poll about vid recommending and permissions, and what I got from the responses mainly, that sort of shocked me, was that vidders don't get feedback. That seems to be the main reason they like to be asked if people want to link to them (which I also didn't know, and, um, oops). They have to count downloads to tell if people are even watching their vids! How SAD is that? How WRONG? It is to weep, people."

astolat: Vidding with high-res source — "This is mainly a post-mortem describing how I made Bukowski, my House vid from this year's VVC, using extremely high-resolution source. I'll apologize in advance -- I really can't provide individual help for anyone trying to do this or troubleshoot it, because I just don't have time. I hope this will be useful as a starting point and a leg-up for people trying to figure it out for themselves."