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birlwrites · 2 months

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one of the things that i've accomplished due to the low barrier to entry in writing fanfiction is writing novel-length stories as a matter of course. like, i used to think of writing a book as this massive, monumental task - and in some ways, it is! but in other ways, it's still just a story. and it feels much more approachable to me now that i've done it multiple times, posting chapter by chapter because that's something you can do really easily with fanfiction. i didn't go into it believing i could do it - i found out that i could by just giving it a try and seeing what resulted.

there's also a certain wild creativity you can find on ao3, the result of people just doing whatever they feel like doing - sometimes it results in incoherence, sometimes in incomprehensibility, sometimes it falls flat, but there's so much variety in storytelling forms, if you look for it. people will deep-dive into anything. 'marketability' is laughably far from being a concern. what is a story, anyway? people will strip the idea down to its bare bones and rebuild it in infinite ways if they have the space. that space doesn't exist in barnes & noble.

i'm a firm believer that you should read the types of stories you want to write, and that you should also read broadly, because that's how you avoid getting stuck recycling the same handful of ideas over and over. i think the same thing applies to writing. write what you want to write - but also, experiment. try other things, even if they seem silly or impractical or irrelevant, even if you don't think they will work. even if you don't think you can make them work.

if you don't feel like you have creative freedom, then you'll fall back on the tried-and-true. you'll recycle. it won't feel like your voice, because it's been filtered through layers upon layers of 'acceptable' and 'marketable' and 'reasonable' and 'broadly appealing.' the only way to understand your own creative limits is by testing them, constantly. you can't truly believe that you can write whatever you want until you prove it to yourself.

and even if your voice turns out to be acceptable and marketable and reasonable and broadly appealing after all - if you try all sorts of things and find out that's where your creativity flows best - you still know it's yours. you still know you're writing the truest possible expression of your own creative abilities. you owe it to yourself to find out what it feels like to write unfettered.

write something weird.

#this began as me realizing i'm well on my way to having 5 novel-length stories completed #and morphed into something quite different #i don't think a story is ever really complete until it's reached its audience #sometimes that audience is me - sometimes i really am just writing for myself #but usually i'm writing in order to share things #i want to see how other people react to them #i want to know if i'm communicating the vision in my head #and sharing creative work is SO EASY in fannish spaces #is it difficult to get visibility? yes #do lots of people tend to lurk which means i have no idea what they think? also yes #but some people reach out!!#and i didn't even have to complete my whole marketable story and write a query letter for it!!#stories are communication and communication is always reaching out for a response #i can't write in a vacuum

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honestlyvan · 3 months

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I've embraced that I'm cynical. I've embraced that I don't have any trust towards strangers. But any fandom space that is focused, obsessed over the attention of the people who made the thing you're a fan of is not going to be one where I can see myself making any friends in. It's literally just as much of a red flag as a fandom space that is obsessed, completely and thoroughly, with wallowing in its hatred of literally anything.

#fannish #like how are you supposed to have authentic interactions with people #in a space where every word you say and every action you take is *motivated*#I already feel compelled to perform -- I want to at least have the freedom to perform *for my own sake*#rather than to further the goal of a community I only belong to as long as I keep performing

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spookykingdomstarlight · 11 months

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welp, following up on otw stuff and that's game over for me with ao3.

a long, harrowing read for more context/updates (cw: csam) from denise at dreamwidth with more information

otw's response

i'll be busy for the next few weeks, but i will begin pulling all non-exchange fic after 6/27. i can't in good conscience keep my work there when i don't believe they are capable of or care to make the site a better place and find their past behavior too unconscionable. even if they somehow fixed everything overnight and got rid of every toxic person involved, i still can't get over how much rot there was.

frankly, i also no longer believe that having such a large repository of fic is a good thing.

i haven't been in a place where i've wanted to write fic in a while, so i'm not sure how long it'll be until i get that joy back, but if i do, i'll probably use dreamwidth or the neocities i've started setting up to post.

#otw #ao3 #it's a real blow to lose one of the last places of fannish community i still used #but it's important to me to not contribute to its appeal with my work

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lindwurmkai · 8 months

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something about the conflation of "having a special interest" and "being in a fandom"

(having essentially picked up the word "fandom" through osmosis, i literally kind of thought that was what it meant at first)

the way people are always so quick to emphasise it's actually about community stings a little because i never managed to become part of that

i tried again and again but aside from that one time that felt more like being at war than being part of a community, i never got very far

this is also why we jokingly refer to "the knitting fandom" and such, right? because communities centered around a hobby are similar regardless of whether that hobby involves any fiction. (i never managed to become part of a community centered around any of my hobbies either)

there's some kind of observation brewing in the back of my mind that's about the broader topic rather than my own specific issues, but i can't quite put my finger on it yet. something is not matching up

#maybe it's that you don't need to be part of a community in order to be *perceived* as a fandom type?#or that ''fannish activity'' is actually a distinct mode of engaging with media regardless of whether you connect with others in the proces #fandom scholars like to distinguish between transformative fandom and whatever the opposite is called #so what if you do all this transformative stuff without becoming part of a community in any meaningful sense #how do you describe Behaving Fannishly without Being In Fandom #it's like. there's a mismatch between how words are used in actuality and what people say they mean #but i can't really explain it yet #;

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99fandomproblems · 2 years

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I’m always supporting the creators from the fandom that I’m in – I compliment their creations, I reblog them and I leave comments as well,- but whenever I post something, I hardly get the same support. And maybe I'm being selfish/childish, but it makes me not want to support them anymore. Maybe I’m the problem, maybe my creations are bad, maybe I should stop. I keep feeling like, why do I even bother? I don’t know, perhaps this is a very me problem and not a fandom problem. You can ignore this.

Hi, Nonnie!

I understand your frustration and I think most of us have, at some point, been in the same position.

This situation, of putting in more than you get back, is not uncommon. It happens to so many of us in nearly any situation; online, personal life, working and professional life, etc. The important thing is how we react to this when it happens.

Let me use a tea party example: if I were to visit the same tea party every week and make all the cakes and sandwiches myself, which is a lot of work, I would at least expect some sort of acknowledgment from the people who eat all my cakes and sandwiches. A thank you, some gestures of appreciation... but if the same people at the tea party ignore me, or ignore what I brought to the table, I would be asking myself is it worth repeating this behaviour and spending all my energy on this specific group of people who ignore me?

That's a question for you to ask yourself, Nonnie.

Now, if it were me in this situation I'd say to myself, I think I'll look elsewhere for people who appreciate me, and appreciate what I bring to the table. There will be other people, and other tea parties, out there: you just need to look.

You have to get out what you put in, or at least have a healthy balance.

That goes for any type of relationship, online or otherwise.

If it's Tumblr interactions in question, then I'd suggest browsing the tags (all variations of the tags!) for more active fans posting content, or just posting to chat.

Browse other tags too. Maybe this is a great time to check out a different section of the fandom! A different ship, another character. Meet some new fans. I've often found that levels of friendliness can vary from ship to ship, character to character.

It also varies on platforms; maybe Tumblr isn't the right fit for you, Nonnie (it can be ever so cliquey and hard to break into sometimes). Perhaps you'd get more engagement if you focus on other platforms, such as ao3, Twitter, Discord groups, etc. Tumblr isn't the only place to do fandom.

There's no 'good' or 'bad' creations, Nonnie, and you do belong here in fandom. But if one particular group of fans in one area (Tumblr) aren't vibing with you, I really do recommend you stop focusing on them. Focus on yourself, keep posting on Tumblr or more platforms, and keep your eyes open for other fans. If you keep posting (and tag your work so other fans can find it!), and check to see who engages on your posts, focus on these fans instead. Broaden your social circle, expand your horizons.

And don't lose heart! Just keep posting. You give yourself more chances of meeting new fandom friends the more you post and interact; just be mindful of where you direct that energy to. Take a break from the people who aren't reblogging you, take a break from reblogging them. Have a look around for other fans, open yourself up to making new friends. Using the tea party example again, if I waste my time at a party where no one talks to me, I'm not happy, but if I take my cakes and sandwiches home again and pout by myself there, I'm not happy either. So, the solution is to pack up my wares and pitch a stall somewhere else, take a look around for an active social space where other people are, and say hello to a few people. By doing this, putting myself out there, I'm upping my chances at meeting new mutuals, new fandom friends. The more chances I give myself, the more the odds are in my favour.

The choice is yours, Nonnie! I want to see you make some new friends.

Good luck! I'm sure you can do it.

I answered a similar Ask here, Nonnie, and I think it could also help you:

Also this Ask about posts not being reblogged:

#99 fandom problems #answered asks #fannish culture #clique culture #fandom #commenting and community #making friends #mod lilah

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sdwolfpup · 2 years

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help, i've grown obsessed with 'heart full of gasoline'. im less than 50% thru and it lives rent free in my mind. i had to make an aesthetic and playlist for it/you. thank you for writing this absolute masterpiece, and sharing with us. i am totally blown away by your craft.

playlist

🥺🥺🥺💕 This is so wonderful of you, first to tell me that you're enjoying the story so much and then to make both of these! I am incredibly flattered and absolutely delighted. I love the photos you chose for the collage -- what a perfect Tarth visual. And I'm excited to listen to the playlist. 'Beige' and 'Coastline' are both on my own JB playlist!

Thank you again, so much. This made my whole week!!

#asks answered #profkenobi #the racer x mechanic au #heart full of gasoline #also fyi someone had hfog put into printable pdf and then printed it in hard copy and it looks fly as hell #i'm getting the pdfs myself to print my own version #if you're interested in printing your own please dm me and I'll mail them to you as soon as I have them #extremely grateful as always for the generosity of the fannish community <333

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azure-arsonist · 2 months

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Our fandom forbearers did NOT suffer through Anne Rice, strikethrough, and other bullshit for fucking ACOTAR and Harry Potter fans to fucking ruin it for all of us by selling fanfiction. I am not losing novel length yaoi epics because some of you don't know how to act in fannish spaces and yes I do blame the booktokification of fanfic but I also blame those of you that treat fandom like content to consume and not a community to engage with.

#bound fanfiction #ao3 #fandom wank #anti booktok

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riafunnel · 8 months

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Thinking about the act of engaging in fandom (fan art, fics, discussions, gif sets, playlists, rotating things in your head, etc) as an act of devotion.

Kinda like those 15th century monks that meticulously illustrated their little manuscripts, like art patrons asking their painters on payroll to depict themselves as Greek gods or whatever their fave blorbos are.

You can absolutely draw a straight line from medieval female Christian mystics to Snapewives.

Just people really liking things and obsessing over them, ever since people started making art. Nihil novi sub sole y'all, and I think that's great.

#fangirl thoughts #fannish things #fan community #fangirl #fandom #transformative works #fangirling #fandom meta #fandom thoughts #fandom things

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neil-gaiman · 7 months

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This was a conversation on the Internet almost 25 years ago. It's about physical fandom, and ways of talking and communicating in physical fandom, some of which we would now talk about in reference to neurointerestingess rather than to fandom. It came up over on Bluesky talking about people who pronounce words wrongly because they have only encountered them on the page.

The poster who brought it to my attention, Scott Kullberg, said "I remember an old USENET post about a speech therapist's analysis of fannish speech. One of the things she noticed is that it's common and not considered rude to interrupt with this kind of correction."

Fascinating for me because a) it checks out in some ways, b) I wasn't at the event it describes but I could have been and c) reading the thread makes me nostalgic for an Internet that's been eaten by something else. (I also very much enjoyed Patrick Nielsen Hayden's contribution.)

#fandom #speaking

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copperbadge · 2 months

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Radio Free Monday

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Radio Free Monday!

Ways to Give:

cluegirl linked to a fundraiser for deliriumcrow, who lost nearly everything in a house fire two years ago, and was then robbed by the contractor hired to repair the house. They are currently paying a mortgage on a home that is facing condemnation if they can't raise the money for a new contractor; you can read more and reblog here or support the fundraiser here.

savrenim is the sole breadwinner for their disabled partner and two friends living with them; they have had to deal with several financial setbacks including loss of owed back pay, moving and home repair costs, and vet bills; they are fundraising to cover moving costs and to be prepared for when payments come due on a loan they had to take to cover expenses. You can read more and reblog here or give via ko-fi here.

Nik is raising funds for a cross-country move from Oregon to West Virginia, in hopes they can find a home to thrive in after escaping an abusive upbringing; you can read more and support the fundraiser here.

Recurring Needs:

Anon linked to a fundraiser for a friend whose family has not had a working furnace since November; they've been using space heaters to keep warm but January in Chicago has been brutal and the space heaters aren't sufficient. With vulnerable family members including elderly relatives and children in the home, they need to raise $6K to get the furnace replaced. You can read more and support the fundraiser here.

Anon linked to karla-hoshi or Hoshi on TikTok, who is raising funds for cancer treatment for her cat Naku; they caught the cancer early and hope that he can survive it, but can't continue treatment without funding. You can read more and support the fundraiser here, as well as find links to her updates on tiktok.

chingaderita's partner's family house recently caught fire and completely burned, killing his grandmother and causing extensive property loss; he has also recently lost his job due to the fire, and a number of family members have since become ill. They're raising funds to keep food on the table, to try and get a supply of water to keep clean and do laundry, and for various bills until a job opportunity in March comes available. You can read more, reblog, and support the fundraiser here.

And this has been Radio Free Monday! Thank you for your time. You can post items for my attention at the Radio Free Monday submissions form. If you're new to fundraising, you may want to check out my guide to fundraising here.

#radio free monday #charity #philanthropy #fannish community

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transformativeworks · 2 months

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The OTW is Recruiting for Fanlore and Translation Volunteers

Are you fluent in a language other than English? Do you have an interest in fandom history or in fannish culture? Are you interested in social media, community management or outreach? The OTW is recruiting! Read more at https://otw.news/6bdacb

#organization for transformative works #otw #fanlore #social media #volunteer

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the-final-sif · 1 year

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"Antis' foundation is the belief that fiction affects reality, in that any problematic behaviors or topics in media, fictitious or not, will cause people to normalize those behaviors, resulting in people (specifically minors) thinking that such actions are acceptable in real life. This is a common argument used by conservative groups to enact queer censorship, who argue that children who see LGBTQIA+ characters in television or books will "turn gay" (Bollinger 2019), so the sanitization of all adult fan spaces is therefore required to protect minors who could potentially encounter problematic sexual content (BrazyDay 2019)....

Antis attempt to glorify their ideology by rebranding it as antipedophilia and anti-incest, but it is actually a loose ideology of disinformation, virtue signaling, and legitimate abuse. Similar to the QAnon cult phenomena, which began in 2017, anti dogma is designed to promote paranoia and play off people's fears and emotions to spread disinformation. They band together to perform this function, forming what might be called a cult, a term that has been defined as a group having a "great devotion to a…movement". However, what truly marks a cult is the control attempted over behavior and thought. Participants in anti circles perpetuate a climate of fear, shame, and trauma in fan spaces. The most common targets of such abuse are women, people of color, teens, abuse survivors, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Fans who are already marginalized are further deprived of safety, anonymity, outlets for growth, self-expression, and relationships. It is therefore vital that we closely monitor hate speech in fan spaces and study these behaviors. Our failure to do so may open doors for bigotry, violence, and disinformation."

From The cult structure of the American anti which was a fascinating read and genuinely worth going through if you're in fannish spaces.

#sif speaks #fandom culture #anti shipping #antis #cult mention #I was going through the journal to help someone and found this which I think was lovely

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honestlyvan · 1 year

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TBH I was kind of cringing, waiting to see what they’d do with Jawbreaker and I’m very glad my fears were unfounded. Jawbreaker is a super sweet, well-considered character who gives me big “boys I’ve had crushes on in the past” vibes, he’s got old-school Cloud Cuckoolander vibes which is always the way I’ve preferred to receive my autistic rep, and I really like that the Earthspark team wants us to perceive him as a very compassionate, very caring, and that when there’s cross-communication issues, it’s not always Jawbreaker’s fault -- sometimes it’s the fault of the allistic characters around him who don’t listen, or expect him to communicate in a way he’s not prepared to do.

It’s just very sweet. I think Earthspark has a very loving attitude to the call-ins they make, there’s a real understanding that you can’t just write to the audience that knows someone like the character, you also need to write to the audience who would see themselves in that character. So often characters who are strongly coded neurodivergent come pre-judged by the narrative and have to narratively spend time endearing themselves to the audience -- Jawbreaker in contrast just gets to exist and be treated with full narrative agency from the start.

#Transformers Earthspark #Maccadam #of course I say 'autistic' and 'allistic' as largely like. That's how I parse that #maybe the intentions are different but the soft-spokenness and the delayed physical development really READ autistic and DDNOS to me #and I am just so happy to see a character who is like me when I was a kid #in a narrative that recognises that he's.... a kid he's still cognitively developing the abilities to function in a community #and that his process of developing them is going to be different from his siblings #I like that. I'm really glad we have children's TV like this now #fannish

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sonicenvy · 11 months

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Let's have a chat about AO3

Hiya friends and loyal followers! My last post about AO3 blew up yesterday so I figured now would be a good time to continue the conversation about AO3.

As I mentioned in my previous post (and probably in multiple other previous posts):

AO3 is NOT a social media site. AO3 is an ARCHIVE.

So let's delve into that a bit more since people don't seem to be getting that. Fanfiction predates the internet, and was transmitted via the internet way before sites like AO3 and FF dot net. Relatively speaking, I am a fanfiction newcomer, as I first started reading fanfiction in ... 2011? or thereabouts. I say this to say that I obviously don't have as personal of a memory of a time before fanfiction archive sites (my bitty fan experiences were on teaspoon and lcfanfic), but I certainly know plenty of people via fandom online that absolutely do.

For the newest children to fanfiction please check out the following pieces of reading to get started on your fandom history education:

“Fanfiction.” Fanlore Wiki. Accessed June 15, 2023. https://fanlore.org/wiki/Fanfiction. Archived [https://archive.is/yJpOq].

“So I’m on AO3 and I See a Lot of People Who Put ‘I Do Not Own [Insert Fandom Here]’ before Their Story.” sonicenvy.tumblr.com, July 2, 2016. https://sonicenvy.tumblr.com/post/146818589611/mikkeneko-thepioden. Archived [https://archive.is/FRNCy]

ofhouseadama, Emily. “A Brief History of Fandom, for Those on Here Who Somehow Think Tumblr Invented Fandom.” sonicenvy.tumblr.com, May 21, 2014. https://sonicenvy.tumblr.com/post/131935827010/ofhouseadama-a-brief-history-of-fandom-for. Archived [http://archive.today/j2Rfq]

mizstorge, fantastic-nonsense, and fanculturesfancreativity. “The Places Fandom Dwells: A Cautionary Tale.” fantastic-nonsense.tumblr.com, June 29, 2017. https://fantastic-nonsense.tumblr.com/post/162395547190/the-places-fandom-dwells-a-cautionary-tale. Archived [https://archive.ph/QK2wI]

As you read through this stuff, three things should become apparent to you:

Fanworks have always existed in tenuous space -- that is, they have always been under threat of removal, or threat of loss, whether this loss was through events like the livejournal strikethrough, the loss of a fandom specific website, destruction of physical copies of the work, or C&D/legal action from original creators of the work.

Fandom has a long and colored history with many of the most defining events of early fandom history being related to threats to the community.

A need was ripe for a place to save and ARCHIVE fanworks and protect them from deletion, legal action, corporate sanitization efforts, site deaths due to the deaths of admins, etc etc.

Out of all of this, comes The Organization For Transformative Works (2007), and their brand new site Archive of Our Own (2008). The stated intention of Archive of Our Own (AO3) (bolding mine):

The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) is a nonprofit organization, established by fans in 2007, to serve the interests of fans by providing access to and preserving the history of fanworks and fan culture in its myriad forms. We believe that fanworks are transformative and that transformative works are legitimate. We are proactive and innovative in protecting and defending our work from commercial exploitation and legal challenge. We preserve our fannish economy, values, and creative expression by protecting and nurturing our fellow fans, our work, our commentary, our history, and our identity while providing the broadest possible access to fannish activity for all fans. The Archive of Our Own offers a noncommercial and nonprofit central hosting place for fanworks using open-source archiving software.

Source: Works, Organization for Transformative. “Archive of Our Own Beta.” Archive of Our Own. Accessed June 15, 2023. https://archiveofourown.org/about. Archived [http://archive.today/QYtbM]

You may also want to check out the original LiveJournal Brainstorming sessions for AO3 by astolat as archived here [https://web.archive.org/web/20220627134339/https://astolat.livejournal.com/150556.html] if you need further clarity on this point.

Some neat stuff from astolat's original posts that I find are relevant:

making it easy for people to download stories or even the entire archive for offline reading (thus widely preserving the work in case some disaster does take it down)

code-wise able to support a huge archive of possibly millions of stories.

allowing ANYTHING -- het, slash, RPF, chan, kink, highly adult ...

As we can see both from the mission statement of OTW/AO3 and from astolat herself in the brainstorming sessions, AO3 is an ARCHIVE. It is a project that is meant to preserve and provide access to fanworks. Run for fans, by fans and meant to host any and all kind of content with none of the commercialization or censorship that fans found elsewhere. Before AO3 there were certainly numerous, disconnected, fandom specific archives for fanfiction or other fanworks. Many of these old sites have been archived (see we're getting that word again) via the opendoors project. Some, like teaspoon or lcfanfic still exists and are semi-active.

A common thread is that writers and readers weren't just using the archive site to connect. They were doing more connection through other sites like dreamwidth, livejournal, facebook, their emails and later tumblr or twitter. Archive sites were meant as a supplement to other fan spaces like message boards, blogs and journals.

So, dear friends, you might ask, what is an archive?

An archive is a place where documents, artifacts and records are kept and preserved for future reference, use and access. Archives help us maintain a better understanding of the past and protect objects, writings, documents, records and more in longevity. In the context of fanwork archiving, this means preserving fanworks in longevity/perpetuity so that fans can continue to access them for enjoyment and for historical purposes. Archiving fanwork is vital to preserving and, indeed creating fan culture and identity.

To read more about archives in general, check out this article from the American History Museum of the Smithsonian (https://americanhistory.si.edu/archives/about/what-are-archives) or this one from the US National Archives (https://www.archives.gov/about/info/whats-an-archives.html).

So AO3 is an archive. Why does this matter?

Oh, boy, I am about to get LIS nerdy on y'all. At this point in the post we can all agree that AO3 is and always has been an archive (it's in the name...). When we view and understand the site starting from this premise, a lot of, frankly stupid as fuck arguments that people have about AO3 look even dumber. Understanding AO3 primarily as an archive helps us understand:

The tagging system. Given AO3 is an archive, the tags for content on the site function exactly the same as headings in a library archive. They are designed to store information about the fic (that is, they are intended as metadata) which is then used to find the record of the fic in the archive. This is why it is important to tag what is in your fic, and to use tags properly, using the agreed meanings of particular tags.

The kinds of content that are permitted and excluded under TOS IV. The archive permits fanworks, which include: fanfiction, fanart, podfic, and fan videos. The archive thus excludes things that are not fanwork (records with no content (aka "placeholder fics"), posts asking for writing prompts or submissions, posts looking for fic, commerical promotions of ANY kind, original fiction with no relation to fan content, spam etc). Every library and archive has their own collections policies, and AO3 is not an exception. Collections Policies are generally guided by the mission statement(s) of the archiving party/library. As we saw above in both the official about page and the original brainstorming posts from astolat, AO3 is a library for fanworks, meant to preserve fanworks and is in opposition to advertising and commercialization. Therefore, if the thing you want to add to the library of AO3 is not a fanwork or contains commercialization, it does not qualify to be an object of the archive. Re: the "placeholder fic" post that I didn't know was going to blow up so much: imagine you go to the library to get a book and open it to find that it is empty or you get a DVD and play it only to find that it is the movie theater trailer for the movie. Doesn't that make no sense?

Why there is NO censoring of "adult" or other quote on quote "objectionable content". The archive does not chose to preserve works based on subjective quality or "moral purity" type standards. This is true in libraries and museums as well. We keep and save materials that people find objectionable as archiving and librarianship are and have always been diametrically opposed to censorship. As an archive AO3 follows this. Moreover, you can see in astolat's original post "allowing ANYTHING -- het, slash, RPF, chan, kink, highly adult" as a founding idea.

Why there is no advertising, and why this includes you adding your Ko-fi or paypal or whatever the fuck. Outside of the fact that doing this violates TOS and invalidates OTW lawyer arguments for the legal existence of fanworks under US Fair Use, AO3 as an archive is meant to be a keeper of fan records, not a space for promotions. Archives do keep records (and indeed some archives keep records of advertising) but they, themselves are not using their platform to advertise for anything else.

Why there is no "AO3 algorithm". The kinds of algorithmic feed generators that sites like the t*kt*ok or whatever use are antithetical to the mission of archiving stuff and providing access to it. In an archive you search for content based on terms and headings and self-select. I'm not on the t*kt*k or whatever and I actively block and disable all "suggestion" type things so I don't entirely understand what y'all are looking with this.

Ok, that's great, why are you telling us all of this?

There is a concerning trend of newcomers both young and older to fandom and fanfiction that have not taken off the social media brain filter before coming on board. Some excellent tags I've seen on The Post™ that spawned this one include:

#guys quit bringing the worst elements of capitalism to AO3 (via @watchtowersystem)

#algorithms have rotted people's brains i swear (via @pearly--rose)

#omg stop trying to social mediaify ao3 (via @greyduckgreygoose)

There were also some bangers on my reddit post on this topic as well, but the reddit I posted it on is (rightfully) on blackout at the moment.

I think the sociamediafying of fanfiction that a lot of these people are bringing has a few major negatives:

social mediafied fandom views fanwork soley as consumable content, creating more passive, entitled participants in fandom. For fanwork=content social media brain folks, the fact that fanwork is meant to be an active and engaging thing is lost. Fanwork is a gift from one fan to other fans, it is a point for discussion, a result of people's passion and creativity. It is transformative, out of the box and part of building a niche community. When you start to see it as "content" like a random object on a feed you stop valuing it, analyzing it, and interacting with it in the same way, and are more likely to passively consume what you see as content. Social media has made "content" out of everything, and everything becomes something to scroll past in a few seconds, always looking for more stuff, the newest stuff, etc etc. It's obviously very tied to the experience of social media being used to sell you shit, but that's another conversation I think.

fanwork=content social media brain also allows some of these people to post incredibly demanding comments for "more content" on fancreators works or makes them think it's ok (and indeed creates the same result as what the writer is creating) to feed someone's incomplete fic into an ai to get a "completion".

fanwork=content social media brain also means that when these folks start creating content they feel entitled to views, hits, kudos, etc etc, and feel like it is ok to do things that they see as "gaming" the system to get their fics to be at the top of the pack. They begin to care too much about posting to get their "content" the most views because that's how things work on social media.

fanwork=content social media brain also makes some of these people think that "fic" that is "written" by an ai is acceptable fanwork, because they do not view fanwork as artwork/writing with merit, as much as an entertainment property to be consumed. How the meat gets made becomes irrelevant, because the end result is the only thing that is important.

social mediafying of fandom is something that has helped a lot of advertising and commercialization sneak its way into our spaces, which actively hurts our chances of building good communities.

social mediafying of fandom turns fanwork creation and fandom into popularity contests, which is bad for all fan spaces. The point is that we're being weird together. I've seen new, young authors post on reddit about how they feel so bad about their fic because it doesn't have 1000s of hits or because they feel incapable of writing things (even things they might want to explore) because "no one will read it, and it will not become popular". This makes me very sad.

social mediafying of fanwork also turns right around into .... wait ... you guessed it .... censorship! people are now practising self-censorship that is utterly unnecessary and completely sad to me because they are afraid of getting deleted from anywhere for "objectionable content". This carries over into new users on AO3 doing things like using leet speech for curse words, sexual content and more in the TAGS or the body of their AO3 fics. Stop Don't. You can say fuck, dead, kill, murder, cunt, cock, and whatever the fucking hell you want on AO3. That was the whole goddamn point.

These people are trying to bring fanwork=content social media brain to places like AO3. I'm not entirely sure why.

tldr; AO3 isn't a social media site for talking with your following or posting about ideas that you've had. It isn't a popularity contest. It isn't a place where there will be no inappropriate content. It isn't a place for advertising or commerical promotion. It is an ARCHIVE OF FANWORKS meant to be "allowing ANYTHING -- het, slash, RPF, chan, kink, highly adult."

Anyone of you fans older, wiser, more well versed in fan history, and more articulate than me, please feel free to add to this. Ditto on any of you other funky LIS friends out here on tumblr dot hell.

#AO3 #archive of our own #fanfiction #fandom #fandumb #fan history #fandom history #long post for ts

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