The Here And Now

seekingferret

The power of representing ourselves in fanfiction
CCD: Wicklow Room-2
When they don’t see themselves on the page or on the screen, fans often reimagine characters, or find space in the canon for representation that wasn’t originally there, by creating their own head-canons of gender, sexuality, race and (dis)ability. Our panel talks about the power of representing ourselves by rewriting beloved characters, and discusses some of their favourite head-canons

What fanfiction can teach genre writers
CCD: ECOCEM Room
Fanfiction’s popularity continues to grow, tapping into the special creative connection between authors and fans. What is it about this literary nexus that is so fascinating and stimulating for fans? And what might authors have to learn from fans who write it?

The importance of the fanfiction community
CCD: Wicklow Hall-1
As we can see from the Archive of Our Own – managed and maintained by its creators and readers and
supporters – fanfiction isn’t just about the written works, but also about the community surrounding them. What can the fanfiction community offer that other areas of fandom can’t?

Fanworks in YA
CCD: Wicklow Hall 2B
Fanfic, fanart, cosplay, and more: how do YA fans engage with their favourite works? How do YA fans engage in fan culture? And is there a distinctly ‘YA’ fan culture?

Ship ahoy!
CCD: Liffey Room-1
Shipping is the desire to have two (or more!) characters end up in a – usually romantic – relationship. What do shippers mean by an OTP, a sailed ship, or a sunk ship? Our panellists will define niche terms, explain why the joy of shipping isn’t relegated to R- or X-rated slash fic, and share and compare their favourite genre ships.

fail_fandomanon

Re: Catching up with past anons - Twitter

Date: 2019-07-23 10:47 pm (local)

 

From: (Anonymous)

- A pretty Twitter specific thing that is very popular among fandom accounts is making a carrd and linking that in your pinned tweet (or on your profile in the website area if you're not using that to link to your Tumblr or something else). You can make one at this site: https://carrd.co/ It basically functions as a sort of hub and introduction for your account. You can use it to list your main fandoms, what people will likely find on your account, links to your ao3/Tumblr/letterboxd/whatever else, and some basic info about yourself if you want to make that available. The website is pretty user friendly, so it shouldn't take too long to throw one together. It's kind of like a replacement for an about page on Tumblr, since Twitter's bio space is pretty limited. I'll link a few random carrd profiles as examples:
falgner.carrd.co
wellick.carrd.co
retry.carrd.co (click the image to see the actual content)
wrendean.carrd.co
Making a carrd isn't necessary by any means, but I have noticed that more people seemed to follow back and interact after I created mine.

- Tagging: tagging is pretty minimal on Twitter. If you're posting something you want to get exposure, such as art or fic, I'd tag the fandom name and maybe the ship if applicable (using the most common smushname, since / won't work in the hashtag). You can also just try to phrase things in ways so that they'll come up in searches, for example: "I just finished this fanart of Crowley from Good Omens!" Now your art will come up if anyone searches "good omens fanart" or "crowley fanart" or "good omens crowley."

- For getting exposure, especially if you belong to a smaller fandom, a lot of people will check out your account simply because you followed them (the chances of this are higher if your icon and/or username are related to that fandom). If they notice you also post a lot about their fandom, a lot of times they'll follow you back just based on that.

- People do generally tend to be monofannish. A lot of people will make separate accounts for their different fandoms, like someone might have a MCU account and a kpop account since those interests are pretty different. I mostly notice this for big fandoms though. If someone has a lot of smaller fandoms, or one big fandom and some smaller fandoms, they usually stick to one account. People on Twitter can be pretty fickle about who they follow and keeping their "skinny ratio" though, so if you suddenly start tweeting about a different fandom than you have been, some people might unfollow.

- It's perfectly okay to reply to people's tweets even if you aren't mutuals. I consistently replied to an artist's art and posts about a certain fandom and started conversations with her about it and she eventually followed me back and we became friends.

- Try to avoid quote-retweeting, especially on art. This can take exposure away from the original post, since any likes or retweets from people who see your post will go to your quoted retweet and not the original post, which can be discouraging for content creators, and it's seen as straight up rude by a lot of non-western artists (some of them will block you immediately for this). Usually it's fine on joke posts or if you're contributing to a discussion, though.

- Group chats, or gcs, are pretty popular on fandom Twitter. Try searching "yourfandom gc" and see if there have been any recent posts. Usually someone will make a post like "rt to join a [fandom] gc" and they sometimes have requirements (I just looked for some examples and apparently "be a crackhead" is a requirement for a lot of Marvel gcs. Hm... yeah, I would recommend against joining ones that seem particularly annoying or wanky with their requirements).

I'm sure there's more but that's all that I can really think of for now. I'll come back if I think of anything I missed, but feel free to ask if you have questions or if I left out anything you were wondering about!

minnehaha

Social Media Manifesto

Whereas: Fandom is at its best when it provides communities a place to gather;

Whereas: Fans have perfected the art of the personal essay;

Whereas: Livejournal was an exceptional gathering place for Fandom;

Whereas: Russia, a hostile foreign power, controls Livejournal;

Whereas: Hostile entities have disproportionate representation on Facebook and Twitter, with serious impacts on their pleasantness and utility; moreover, bots and trolls infest these platforms;

Whereas: The curated feed allows these companies to determine what we see and in what order;

Whereas: Dreamwidth is the logical successor to Livejournal, and uses the same code;

Whereas: Dreamwidth does not have a surveillance-based corporate profit-driven business model;

THEREFORE, we, the undersigned call upon Fandom to recreate their online community and to do it on Dreamwidth.

Signed,

Lots of people, including you?

franzeska

I keep seeing people talk about how bad AO3 is for anything but fic. What they mean is either that it doesn't have native hosting or that it's not optimized for fan art. As a vidder, I've started rolling my eyes hard at how vids get lumped in with visual art. The lack of file hosting is a problem, but I never really expected unlimited video uploads from a free site. Even on Vimeo, I pay to get the features I want. I think this tendency to group vids in is because most people have no idea what a good vidding site would look like. They've been on multiple fic archives. If they care about art, they've been on DeviantArt and Pixiv. If they like podfic, they're still mourning the data loss on the Audiofic Archive. The conversation around vids is 99% about stable hosting. Understandably so. But I think this preoccupation has disguised just what's so awesome about AO3 for vids.

When I think about vidding sites in terms of metadata rather than hosting, there is one definitive example, an example that has set the standard for two decades:

Animemusicvideos.org

rhodanum

"....one of the most baffling and actively enraging developments in recent times has been the sharp rise of content-policing from within rather than something caused by the intervention of an fundamentalist Christian group whose caterwauling kicked off Strikethrough)...

In the case of antis, they specifically congregate in their own tags and have formed their own social community, where it's a shunning offense to express even a modicum of agreement with any ideas that run counter to anti thought. Hell, I've seen people being made-an-example-of purely because they remained friends with individuals who did not subscribe to anti views. The goal is to isolate the (usually young and inexperienced) individuals and make them socially and emotionally dependent on the anti community, to the point where they don't dare question anything, for fear of ostracism or outright targeted harassment. This combines nastily with the wider Tumblr social environment's habit of locking people in a death-spiral of more and more extreme versions of initially sensible ideas.....

Current fandom consensus is that you're supposed to tag and warn the shit out of your content, if it contains anything that could be objectionable, so people who don't want to deal with that can just avoid it or vamoose it entirely via blacklisting. How does that square with antis howling even louder than before against 'bad content?' Simple. They don't want tools to curate their own fandom experience -- you could spoon-feed them everything and they'd still scream. Their goal is the total elimination of whatever content they've fixated on (age-gap ships, incest ships, content with sexual violence, BDSM content, etc) because even the mere knowledge that this content exists (and is being actively and freely enjoyed by 'gross people') is enough to put them into a bona-fide emotional meltdown.....

.. In Tumblr fannish spaces, largely dominated by women and other marginalized groups, such as LGBTQ+ people? We bought into their shit for a while, because we were earnestly trying not to do harm to others and were taught obsessively that if someone said we were harming them, we needed to listen and take their criticism on-board. That's how a ton of anti nonsense is, nowadays, being used as a front for ship-wars -- 'my ship is progressive and not-straight and interracial and healthy and supportive, your ship is [insert the opposite here... even when it doesn't correspond as a description for the ship!]' This is also why there's a veritable rat-race going on to 'problematize' even the most anodyne ship and fictional content, because that's the most surefire way to use it as a bludgeon against someone else.

settiai

I've seen fandom go from people having to put disclaimers ("not mine! don't sue!") to people having no idea where something like that comes from. I've seen FF.net go from being the pinnacle to the Pit of Voles. I've seen the rise of the AO3.

I've seen fanvids go from being a very niche part of fandom that took a huge amount of investment (and multiple VCRs) to becoming something anyone can easily try to do if they want. I mean, I got into the vidding part of fandom when online vid downloads were just starting to become a possibility to... well, the age of YouTube.

Fandom changed. And, well, it hasn't at the same time. It's very cyclical, and the longer I'm involved with it? The more I see that.

There have always been people who've said "don't write this!" or "you can't draw that!" There have always been people who've used things like "think of the children!" or "don't you have morals?" as a way to pretend they have the high ground. Yes, the current version of fandom is better on some things. (I very much remember when it had to be rated PG-13 or R if it had a m/m relationship, even if it was nothing but G-rated fluff. Or when so many fics featuring f/f or m/m or even graphic f/m was only posted under lock.) But it's backslid on others.

Fandom is fandom. It's always changing, and it will never change. That's part of why it means so much to me.

cesperanza

cesperanza posted: Snowflake day whatever

The last time we were disrupted we were worried about the fanworks - and we still are for art and video. But the network can communally host the art and video, and also the network can be collected and preserved via nomaic identity - I wouldn't mind losing "tumblr" as an interface but what I do mind losing is the NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS I've collected on tumblr, and all the PEOPLE I've followed. If we go to a nomadic system - one where you keep your identity and YOUR FOLLOWERS even as you MOVE--we won't have to do this scramble to recollect and refriend each other again.

ActivityPub allows you to choose the social media/blogging style of your choice--more DW/Tumblry with threaded comments at Hubzilla, more Twitter/shortformy at Mastedon, more YouTubey at PeerTube - but they ALL INTEROPERATE. So its as if from one feed I can friend you if you're at Pillowfort, DW, Tumblr, Twitter, or YouTube and whatever you post there will show up on my dash, and if I get into a fight where I'm housed or other disaster I can just collect my identity and followers and go somewhere else and STILL HAVE ALL OF YOU ON MY DASH when I get there. This is my understanding of what Federation/ActivityPub offers and why I'm behind it; beyond that, I'm interested in peer to peer hosting solutions that interoperate with that for art and video, so we can help our friends - the artists and vidders--make and share the work that we love!

Anyway people are working to fit this existing tech for fandom and to write clearer documentations and instructions and such, so stay tuned; hit_the_books has been doing Hubzilla/Federation updates at post_tumblr_fandom but I'll also always signal boost significant developments here....,

meeedeee

For everyone who says that there is no good textual meta on tumblr, I point to the above essay which touches on so many issues, including the perception of age in fandom and tumblr demographics  I quote some excerpts below, but the essay deserves its own entire read:

“tumblr is attractive to me partly because it replicates some of those old-fashioned pre-Facebook modes of interaction. Most people on tumblr use pseudonymous handles. Most profile pictures are of something other than the user herself, and usually come from whatever thing the user is a fan of. The same user can set up multiple blogs under multiple pseudonyms. And you can post as much text as you want. It’s true that unless you lead with an image, a lot of people won’t read your text posts because they want to be able to know what fandom they’re about before they invest in reading the actual words, and that’s fair. It also incorporates some features that we all wished we’d had back in the day, including a means of keeping track of who’s reading your stuff. ….

It is also, of course, much newer in its overwhelming preference for images (moving and static) and in the reblogging function (this was not a thing back in the day; the only way to circulate content was to attach it or incorporate it into an email). And when you first sign up it is really difficult to figure out how to have a conversation on it. The new udpate, of course, makes that even more difficult.Anyway. So it makes perfect sense to me that there are a lot of people from my generation of internet users on tumblr…..

Filking is a long time fannish tradition. It exists in both science fiction and media fandom, but its roots are deepest in sci-fi fandom.

Here are excerpts from a book of filk lyrics I found in Stacy’s Doyle’s collection last week. The book is called the NESFA Hymnal.

****************************************************

(first up a song about the sadness of waiting for elevators at fan conventions. in the days before smartphones and hotel wifi, someone had to write one to pass the time while waiting.)

THE ELEVATOR SONG ( set to the Beatles song “Yesterday”)

Yesterday, I’ve been waiting here since yesterday.
Now it looks as though I’m here to stay.
Oh, all my plans have gone astray.
And just then, he went past me and went….

Bill Mallardi, Suzanne Tompkins, Jerry Kaufman, and Linda Bushyager
Copyright 1968

***************************************************

(how about a Star Trek themed filk song?)

THE FIRST DAYS OF OUR MISSION (set to “The Twelve Days of Christmas”)

On the first day of our mission
The writers gave to me:

A transporter malfunction,
Klingons on the bridge,
Harcourt Fenton Mudd,
Ten million tribbles,
Several lovely yeomen,
A nurse to love the Vulcan,
A smart-assed Russian ensign,
A sword-wielding helmsman…..

Uhura fair,
A Scottish engineer,
An acid-witted doctor,
A Vulcan pointy-eared,
And a starship to roam the galaxy.”

(uncredited)

*************************************************************

(a filk song finally giving the bad guys of the Tolkien universe some air time)

GIVE MY REGARDS TO ORTHANC (set to “Give My Regards To Broadway”)
Give my regards to Orthanc;
Remember me to Barad-Dur.
Tell all the boys from old Nan-Curunir
That I’ll be there for sure.

Whisper of how I’m yearning

To mingle with the Morgul throng.

Give my regards to Shelob’s lair,

And tell her I’ll be there ere long.”

(uncredited)

******************************************************

(and how about those Ents? Catchy tune, eh?)

THE ENTS’ MARCHING SONG (sung to “The Ants’ Marching Song)

The Ents go marching one by one, Hurrah, Hurrah!
The Ents go marching one by one, Hurrah, Hurrah!
The Ents go marching one by one,
To get their chlorophyll into the sun.

CHORUS:The Ents go marching
Round and round and into the ground
And out in the rain and in again.
The Ents go marching two by two, Hurrah, Hurrah!
The Ents go marching two by two, Hurrah, Hurrah!
The Ents go marching two by two!
Does a marching tree wear a wooden shoe?

(Jim Landau and Sherna Comerford)

*********************************************************

(nothing changes much in space)

DRUNKEN SPACEMAN (sung to “(What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor?”)

What shall we do with a drunken spaceman?
What shall we do with a drunken spaceman?
What shall we do with a drunken spaceman?
Light years out from Terra.

CHORUS: Hooray, and off she blasts,
Hooray, and off she blasts,
Hooray, and off she blasts,
Light years out from Terra.

Put him in the airlock till he’s sober…
Drop him on an asteroid till he’s sober…
Put him through a space warp till he’s sober…
Throw him in the algae till he’s sober…
Put him in the reaction chamber…
Zap him with a phaser till he’s sober…
Dump him on a comsat till he’s sober…
Hang him on a skyhook till he’s sober…
Leave him in his spacesuit till he’s sober…
Haul him by the legs with a running spaceline…
Leave him out in a Martian sandstorm…
Leave him all day in a Lunar crater…
Boost him into orbit till he’s sober…
Abandon him on a planetoid…

Further verses can be improvised until the singer’s pain threshold
is reached, or the listeners stone him to death.

(uncredited)