Tumblr CrossPost: Msscribe and the Prophecy of the Current State of Fandom

Posted in full at: http://ift.tt/2hYX2fC at January 05, 2017 at 10:04PM

Posted in full at: http://ift.tt/2hYX2fC at January 05, 2017 at 10:04PM
 

probablyintraffic:

I have been rereading the MsScribe saga today, which I now believe was so much more than an account of fandom because to have been able to write it is to understand fandom as it operated. This is important because we spend a lot of time on this website talking about how fandom should be, not about how it currently exists, as actual fact. Charlotte Lennox’s analyses of fandom, particularly, of how MsScribe was able to manipulate fandom, were very sharp, and talked about things that fannish people were not necessarily willing to talk about. 

A few things struck me as particularly prophetic about this current state of fandom.

1. The fandom community is completely defenseless against bad faith actors who know how fandom works. 
   1. Consider MsScribe’s meteoric rise. Consider how knowing the right words is the one and only condition to being considered Good.
2. Fandom operates on a couple of perverse incentives:
   1. Trauma will earn you not only sympathy, which it should, but also earn you authority to speak to a number of topics. 
   2. Trauma had become the only way that you earn authority to speak to those topics.
   3. In the times of MsScribe, this manifested in her story about her accident and her stay at the hospital, but it was very interesting how she trotted out the story in irrelevant contexts.
   4. MsScribe has also claimed to have experienced sexual assault.
   5. Now, this is combined with fandom’s de facto policy of Always Believe. This set of rules on which fandom operates does not mean that Always Believe should be done away with, but that we have to understand that it should come as no surprise that bad faith actors will exploit this rule.
3. Accusations of racism and bigotry elevate fandom to a higher level of importance than it actually is.
   1. I have a post or two about how fandom is not actually important in the grand scheme of things, so I will not belabor the point here.
   2. Fandom still plays a huge part in the lives of fans, however, so it must be important, right? How do we make it seem more important?
   3. I believe MsScribe’s stunt with the racist and homophobic sockpuppets presages fandom’s abuse of social justice language. This is not a new point, but by elevating shipping wars to the levels of racism and homophobia, people can claim righteousness and justify their overzealous reactions.
   4. The thing is that nowadays, fandom no longer even requires sockpuppets to be made. Offences in order to generate appropriate outrages do not need to be odious neo-fascist statements; they are everywhere, manifest. You need to keep up with the latest non-ablest language, or you’re out. This is why fandom will never be able to surpass MsScribe’s sophisticated level of wankatry–there is simply no need for it.
      1. Separately, it amuses me to no end that fandom remembers Dan Savage as the guy who said some unwise things about asexual folks, and not one of the media dipshits who championed the Iraq war.

So a lot of the dynamics that we’re talking about right now have already been in existence in fandom, literally as early as the first true fandom history was written. Scary, no? But this is also why I completely reject analyses like Devin Faraci’s that paint this generation of fans as particularly “entitled,” as though “entitled” is not the right wing’s favorite bludgeon with which to hit Millennials. I also reject Aja Romano’s lol-tastic version of how fabulous and important fandom is in her numerous, brazenly ahistorical posts for Vox.com. I invite the likes of Charlotte Lennox, who has a real understanding of fandom and its history, as well as a willingness to talk about oft avoided things, to contribute to the discourse instead.

****Coming to you soon, maybe: A long ass post about everything wrong with Faraci’s and Romano’s takes on fandom.

Tags:some of these may be borrowed tags, fandom meta, fandom history, probablyintraffic, DWCrosspost
Tumblr post (this is likely a reblog, and may have more pictures over there)
post-security: public

Activism Tumblr CrossPost:Do You Live In Maine, Alaska Or Kentucky?

Call your Senators and ask them not to defund Planned Parenthood. And to hold off repealing The Affordable Care Act until there is a replacement plan that budgets for the costs of of repeal and puts protections in place for people who are currently covered under the ACA.

”The decision to add the controversial Planned Parenthood language, which is opposed by most Democrats, could have a major impact on getting the Affordable Care Act repeal legislation through the Senate because supporters need the backing of at least 50 of their 52 members and two pro-choice senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, won’t commit to approving the bill with the Planned Parenthood provision in it…

Further complicating matters for Senate GOP leaders is Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, who announced this week he plans to vote against the Obamacare repeal legislation because the underlying budget measure it is attached to doesn’t balance and adds to the deficit. If Murkowski, Collins and Paul all voted against the budget bill, it would be enough to torpedo the Obamacare repeal legislation.”

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/05/politics/paul-ryan-planned-parenthood-obamacare/

Finally, even if you don’t live in these states, call your Senators anyway. http://www.whoismyrepresentative.com/  

If you don’t like making phone calls, fax a quick email using one of the free online fax services (printed paper carries more weight than an email. Phone calls are best)

Tumblr Cross-Post Update

 So after much testing (and thank you to everyone who has helped and a special thank you to everyone who has not fled in horror), my plan for tumblr cross-posting is this:

Limit tumblr cross-posts to 1-2 a day, focusing on activism.  These posts will be tagged "activism" and if you have a paid DW account, you can filter them out.

Encourage everyone else to read my tumblr via the DW feed.      If you are on LJ, we have a feed there too.   My tumblr  has lots more fandom content and pretty pictures.  If you leave a comment at the RSS feeds, I won't be able to be notified, but I think that is a good compromise. 

Activism Tumblr CrossPost:Jeff Sessions’ Coming

Posted in full at: http://ift.tt/2iQaWlv at January 06, 2017 at 07:00AM

Jeff Sessions’ Coming War on Legal Marijuana:

This is the man that the Republicans want to serve as US AG. A man who once joked that he liked the “KKK until he found out they smoked pot.”

Please call your Senators to tell them to stop Jeff Sessions. Congress refused to confirm him as federal judge in the 1980s and his record has only gotten worse.   Confirmation hearings are next week (Jan 10, 2017). Scripts and who to call here: http://ift.tt/2j8qGww

Tags:original post by me, stop jeff sessions, politics, activism, PDWCrosspost
Tumblr post (this is likely a reblog, and may have more pictures over there)
January 06, 2017 at 07:00AM

Activism Tumblr CrossPost:Effort to defund Planned Parenthood threatens Obamacare repeal

Posted in full at: http://ift.tt/2jinq5E at January 06, 2017 at 03:00AM

Effort to defund Planned Parenthood threatens Obamacare repeal:

Do you live in Wisconsin? Or any other US state (yes, I know, we all live somewhere)

If you live in Wisconsin, call Representative Paul Ryan along with your local Representative (there are 8 for WI) and tell them not to defund Planned Parenthood. And to hold off repealing The Affordable Care Act until there is a replacement plan that budgets for the costs of of repeal* and puts protections in place for people who are currently covered under the ACA. 

Basically what they are doing is slipping these changes into the budget approval process to prevent a filibuster. And once both the ACA is gone and Planned Parenthood has been defunded, millions of women will lose access to birth control and cancer screening. 

*Congress has refused to include the costs of repeal in the budget. And by repealing the Affordable Care Act and defunding Planned Parenthood at the same time through the "budget" process, there will be no negotiating or ability to reduce the harm to women across America.( Read more... )

Tumblr--->Dreamwidth Cross-posting: Is There Anyway To Post With Links Intact

 Last year I found an IFTT recipe that allows me to cross-post from Tumblr to Dreamwidth by tag (yeah!!).

Big problem - the method (which sends a properly formatted email to Gmail with then uses DW's post by email feature, strips out all the links and formatting.   Is there any way we can post by mail to DW using Richtext? 

Example: This is how the text was formatted when it was sent via Gmail to DW

For me, the next space is Dreamwidth – it is already fan friendly and has half of the features that I want.  And for the other half – well, if I want something, pay for it, right?  So, here is my plan of action:
1) buy a DW paid account, even though I don’t have any use for its current paid features.   Because its developers need money if I want them to improve the site.  (And heck, I pay much more for Netflix.)
2) make some suggestions to DW for features that would make the site better.  (Top on my list: option to buy image hosting, ease of posting to different accounts, ability to reblog)
3) start consolidating my creative content on DW, and crossposting there.  (Maybe other people might slowly move there, as well, especially if the site is given the financial strength to improve.)
4) pay for fanart, fanfics, original writing, original art, etc.  Because the work we create is also worth something

This is how it appeared:

For me, the next space is Dreamwidth – it is already fan friendly and has half of the features that I want.  And for the other half – well, if I want something, pay for it, right?  So, here is my plan of action:
1) buy a DW paid account, even though I don’t have any use for its current paid features.   Because its developers need money if I want them to improve the site.  (And heck, I pay much more for Netflix.)
2) make some suggestions to DW for features that would make the site better.  (Top on my list: option to buy image hosting, ease of posting to different accounts, ability to reblog)
3) start consolidating my creative content on DW, and crossposting there.  (Maybe other people might slowly move there, as well, especially if the site is given the financial strength to improve.)
4) pay for fanart, fanfics, original writing, original art, etc.  Because the work we create is also worth something

edited: there seems to be little rhyme or reason to how the post by email "converts" (or does not convert).

I did find my older support request:


https://www.dreamwidth.org/support/see_request?id=31560

If you want to post by email, you have to manually hand code every email with html code or markdown. This severely limits the ability to use DW except via their web interface. The mobile email post method cannot be used to pass through emails with formatting intact so it limits my ability to allow DW to interact with the rest of the online services.

Activism Tumblr CrossPost:Jeff Sessions’ Coming

Posted in full at: http://ift.tt/2jjsR4A at January 06, 2017 at 07:43AM
Jeff Sessions’ Coming War on Legal Marijuana:

meeedeee:

This is the man that the Republicans want to serve as US AG. A man who once joked that he liked the “KKK until he found out they smoked pot.”

Please call your Senators to tell them to stop Jeff Sessions. Congress refused to confirm him as federal judge in the 1980s and his record has only gotten worse.   Confirmation hearings are next week (Jan 10, 2017). Scripts and who to call here: http://ift.tt/2j8qGww
( Read more... )

Tumblr post (this is likely a reblog, and may have more pictures over there)
January 06, 2017 at 07:43AM