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Jul. 11th, 2023 11:22![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eldabeAo3 is down, which is annoying and a little worrisome, but not a huge huge deal? I guess I grew up in the age where stuff like this....happened sometimes? I remember LJ had a separate hosting for a page that just confirmed if LJ was up or not so if LJ went down, that page wouldn't be affected. (I prefer that to the modern "just have a twitter account" method because twitter is a big 'ol mess right now, but I suppose that wasn't totally anticipated.) So I'm just used to this happening sometimes, and I know Ao3 is committed to getting back online so I'm not terribly worried. (I will once again note to myself to download all the fic I want to save forever because one day Ao3 won't get back up. Note to self! Take care of this!)
HOWEVER.
The thing that really got me today is that this? Is being reported? In the NEWS?
I? Hate this?
I recognize that faction becoming more mainstream means more people have access and knowledge of it and that's a good thing, it gives more people access and joy and that's a good thing. But I hate this so much. For a few, overlapping reasons.
I mean, I don't want to say I liked fanfiction more when it was more obscure because that's definitely cringe hipster, etc. But you know what? I DID! I liked it better when the consumers of fanfiction were like a club, a community maybe. Instead of how it's starting to feel now like a commodity. I find the line now is between people who read fanfiction and fan creators (writers, podficcers, etc.) and I dunno, I want to share fanfic with other people who want to talk about this stuff with me, with that community, not with people who treat it like...like a product for them to consume. Maybe the whole point of fandom to me was the messy weird creative culture of it and as the numbers seem to skew wildly, I just...don't enjoy it the same way anymore. I know people talk about how fandom culture was just as toxic in the old days, and yeah, sure, but it worked better for the weird trash wiring of my own brain better back then, I guess.
And FURTHERMORE, it's opening us up to stuff like this Archive of Our Own is down so if you were in the middle of a 100,000 word anime fanfic you can go touch grass or something equally unexciting. The judgement and condescension! I hate it! So much! It was always there, but I guess I didn't mind it when it was more underground because subcultures being misunderstood is whatever. But now the writer self identifies as someone who uses AO3 and we still get the judgement!
I bet Sarah Z. is goin to make a video ugh ugh save me now.
HOWEVER.
The thing that really got me today is that this? Is being reported? In the NEWS?
I? Hate this?
I recognize that faction becoming more mainstream means more people have access and knowledge of it and that's a good thing, it gives more people access and joy and that's a good thing. But I hate this so much. For a few, overlapping reasons.
I mean, I don't want to say I liked fanfiction more when it was more obscure because that's definitely cringe hipster, etc. But you know what? I DID! I liked it better when the consumers of fanfiction were like a club, a community maybe. Instead of how it's starting to feel now like a commodity. I find the line now is between people who read fanfiction and fan creators (writers, podficcers, etc.) and I dunno, I want to share fanfic with other people who want to talk about this stuff with me, with that community, not with people who treat it like...like a product for them to consume. Maybe the whole point of fandom to me was the messy weird creative culture of it and as the numbers seem to skew wildly, I just...don't enjoy it the same way anymore. I know people talk about how fandom culture was just as toxic in the old days, and yeah, sure, but it worked better for the weird trash wiring of my own brain better back then, I guess.
And FURTHERMORE, it's opening us up to stuff like this Archive of Our Own is down so if you were in the middle of a 100,000 word anime fanfic you can go touch grass or something equally unexciting. The judgement and condescension! I hate it! So much! It was always there, but I guess I didn't mind it when it was more underground because subcultures being misunderstood is whatever. But now the writer self identifies as someone who uses AO3 and we still get the judgement!
I bet Sarah Z. is goin to make a video ugh ugh save me now.
no subject
Date: Jul. 12th, 2023 21:49 (UTC)no subject
Date: Jul. 13th, 2023 01:34 (UTC)I think, in one phrase, you have summarized exactly what I was trying to say.
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Date: Jul. 14th, 2023 03:56 (UTC)no subject
Date: Jul. 13th, 2023 01:17 (UTC)On another note, yeah, I discovered fanfiction (knew about it, but just never read any) embarrassingly late in life and started writing it as a way to blow off steam and hopefully get into writing another screenplay again, so I was less than impressed when this happened. AO3 is back up now though. Also, does anyone use Fanfiction.net anymore, because AO3 seems to be more popular? But yes, I have noticed that this seems to be what people use Twitter for- to advertise their fics and it...makes me cringe, I guess? Unfortunately, it seems once something gets to the masses on a social media platform like that, it can no longer be "niche" and the toxicity just explodes.
no subject
Date: Jul. 13th, 2023 01:51 (UTC)So, okay, I would love to hear your "how I got into fanfiction" story if you want to share it. I can start! I was really into animorphs as a kid (I think this is when it was coming out?) and I bumbled around the very early internet days trying to find anything to read and tripped over fanfiction.net. I didn't like any of the fic I found but I spent some time poking around and wandering and fanfiction was just something I knew about. I didn't get REALLY into it until the Lord of the Rings movies were coming out a few years later and I fell headfirst into the fandom for the first time. And at that point I inhaled everything I could and began my habit of starting fics and failing to finish them. (You can see all my stuff still up on fanfiction.net lolol)
That said!!! Okay, so, caveat that I am not a fanfiction historian or anything, just a person whose fandom is fandom, but!! To respond to your last paragraph:
1. I am not surprised Ao3 is back up. I have a feeling we'll get some warning before Ao3 fails (things will start breaking, they'll run out of money, stuff like that.)
2. People DO still use fanfiction.net! And Wattpadd and other sites too, although Ao3 might be the biggest and certainly I think Ao3's popularity is only growing. Even more so now that it's being reported in mainstream media, to my absolute horror. Informally, from chatting with people, it seems that Ao3 is the most filled with explicit sex. Ff.net/watpadd/etc. have less of it, more non-explicit stuff by percentage. And so the people who end up off Ao3 are people who don't really care about the stuff Ao3 specializes is, so they never go searching for it. And (again, just in my experience) a lot of people who still use ff.net in particular are people who don't write fic, they read fic and don't participate in fandom in any other way so if they found ff.net first and they are perfectly satisfied with the fic they find on ff.net, they have no real motivation to go find other stuff out there.
3. Unfortunately, it seems once something gets to the masses on a social media platform like that, it can no longer be "niche" and the toxicity just explodes. Cosigned!!! I desperately miss when fanfiction was more niche, can't lie.
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Date: Jul. 31st, 2023 21:22 (UTC)And yeah, I actually discovered fanfic embarassingly late in life, for a a 90s-early 00s kid! I mean, I had heard of it and knew what the term meant, but nothing else about it and it just didn't pique my interest enough to ever search it, but then I was looking for a clip from Suits from an episode Ithink I had missed and while I was typing in something about it, Google started finishing the sentnece with "fanfiction donna is stabbed" or something and Iread it really fast and thought that moment happened in the show, so Iclicked it and boom- down the rabbit hole I went! It helps that I was also hugely pregnant (like, a week before my due date) and about to go off work so guess what I was doing while I waited for my son to make an appearance?
Then, about two years ago, Iwrote a few pieces and it's wo weird, but it's helping write my original works now! I guess the rest is history! Unless, you know, my actually side gig becomes a full-time writing career.
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Date: Sep. 19th, 2023 04:23 (UTC)But hahaha oh man when the the rabbit hole grabs you it really does not let go does it. That sounds amazing, what timing. When else can you fill all the waiting with of course. Lucky there's all this free media around to just inhale...
And yay, I'm glad it helps with your original writing! I know a few authors who keep writing fic on the side which just delights me. It's a different sort of story, you know, so it's great to see people doing both!