The fucked up fandom trifecta.

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Title: The fucked up fandom trifecta.
Creator: anarchicq
Date(s): July 24, 2008
Medium: online, Livejournal
Fandom:
Topic:
External Links: The fucked up fandom trifecta.; archive link
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The fucked up fandom trifecta. is a 2008 post by anarchicq (Q).

Some Topics Discussed

From the Post

The fucked up fandom trifecta.

Point one: Let me just say now that I am Anti-FanLib. Anti-fandom-for-profit (I don't even buy doujin or fanart). And dubious of OTW. I will post my fic there, but I will not pay to do so. I also think fandom is a hobby and no, were not legitimate. But we're also not hidden under rocks. The Powers That Be know what we are and what we do.

I know many people on my Flist won't give two shits about this. But I have to say something. I watched something huge unfold before my eyes, some things that will change many aspects of Livejournal, whether fandom wants it to or not.

After much thinking, I've decided to say my piece.

I heard of [Laura Hale] through the Journalfen community Bad_Penny. I read some the entries and decided to learn her side of the story, and so I added her to my AIM and Flist. I don't recall exactly when this was, sometime in 2007.

And then one of the huge fandom Kerfuffles happened, probably Boldthrough. Actually, that whole timeperiod was just one big clusterfuck for fandom. Fanlib, Warriors of Innocence, and the Strike/Boldthrough. Out of the wake of the mass deletes from LJ, and the rise of FanLib.com, there was a trickle throughout fandom and a cry for An Archive of our Own. This would become what we now called OTW.

Early on, she offered to help them, since she already had one of the resources that they were planning. Namely, a wiki collecting the history of fans and fandom. They never replied, or if they did, they rebuffed her. I'm sketchy on what happened.

And then she began to watch OTW like a hawk, updating her wiki with any information she could, most of it bad. I helped her, and made no secret of being Anti-OTW.

All the while she was doing this, she was lauding FanLib as a great archive from a fan and business perspective. She would post meta about how wonderful FanLib is, and how to profit off fandom. (I'll return to this.). She seemed to see OTW as Anti-FanLib, which I agree with, to a point.

And then she connected the name of one of the OTW members to their real name. When it was requested that the info be removed from the wiki, she kept putting it back up. I myself believe that the OTW member outed herself, she just didn't think it would get archived, and that's why she was upset. Unless anyone knows otherwise, then please feel free to correct me.

Eventually she came across an interesting comment, which lead her to think that maybe OTW came out of the rise of grudgewank between other people and herself. That's a bit conspiracy theory to me.

Not long ago, she had been looking into either moving her wiki, or selling it. Regardless, she wants to make money off it. The reason I didn't stop her, hell, even help her (I suggested the Project Wonderful ads to her.) was because I thought she only wanted to cover the cost of the site. Bandwidth, domain names. That sort of thing. I do know that the ads she runs don't come close at ALL to covering her site, let alone giving her a profit. I enjoy helping a site I like being it can be the best it can be, which I tried to do for her site. In exchange for my help, her site and my Silent Hill Fanfiction Archive exchanged links. So yeah, a little boost in exposure was all I asked.

When I implemented PW ads on Silent Hill Fanfiction Archive, I asked my members if they had a problem with it. I never got a no. And it's just to save up for a domain name.

So I helped her. I suggested Project Wonderful, I helped to critique her 60 elevator promo vid thingy.

I posted wank in Fandom Wank which involved her site.

And then, about not even an hour later, she suggest ways to promo her site, including inciting wank. She offers bribes to do this. Fic and cookies. I accept a fic. I say this.

There are screencaps of me saying this.

I want to say that my posting the wank (Which she did suggest I do, but I didn't think it would be a bad thing.) and her bribery are ...I can't say coincidence, but I didn't do it to get fic. I did it because I found it to be funny wank that just happened to be a little grudgy, and just happened to drive up her traffic. I wasn't doing it to get anything.

Then the wanksplosion of this week happened which even caused Fanthropology to perhaps close down. FANTHROPOLOGY! Because she outed the same OTW member again. Even if the fan did out herself, if she doesn't want that information on the site, it should be removed.

Between Metafandom, and Fandom Wank, I've read various links to various posts that she made, in her own words, from her own fingers, that her goal is to line her pockets. That is not cool to me.

That's why I am writing this now. Publicly. I know she can and will read this.

So here's my final word: Everything I say in this post is true to my knowledge. I am not a manipulator. I'm too lazy. I apologize for helping her. I am removing her from my friends list. I removed her link from the Silent Hill Archive.

I was a little worried about posting this, thinking people might find it disingenuous. I am not saying all this to ride the coat-tales of the indignant and insulted. I am not trying to cash in. I am not flipping and then flipping back, but yes, some of this is to protect what little reputation I might have.

I am still against OTW for the most part, I still don't want or need them speaking for me.

Looking back, watching all this unfurl was quite fascinating.

If you want to link to this or whatever, go ahead.

Sorry again.

From the Posted Comments

anarchicq:

A lot of what I've read, and continue to read about her all sort of painted this fucked up moneygrubbing picture. One thing I think fandom (should) has is good intentions. There's no good intent with her. That was the final tipping scale for me I suppose. I realized was being lied to.

[...]

In your opinion, should I post a link to this entry in the current wank post? C/p my entry in a comment? Comment at all or just lay low and silent?

trystings: Hi, I saw your comment on Liviapenn's LJ and would like to say, kudos for this post. I admire your candor.
About your wank on F_W, I noticed that it still contains the FanHistory link. Would the mods allow you to edit the link to the word 'FanHistory' only? Right now, anyone who clicks on that link (and the link doesn't add anything to the specific wank - it goes to the Wiki's main page) is unintentionally feeding her Wiki.

elynross:I will post my fic there, but I will not pay to do so.

I find this an odd addition, because unless I'm missing something, there's been no indication, and there's no intention, of requiring payment for any aspect of OTW, unless you want to serve on the Board and/or vote for members of the Board, but presumably if you're involved enough to want to do either of these things, becoming a member wouldn't be an issue -- and it's a simple way for the non-profit to confirm membership, fairly standard in similar organizations. This is all explored more directly in the OTW FAQ.

I myself believe that the OTW member outed herself, she just didn't think it would get archived, and that's why she was upset. Unless anyone knows otherwise, then please feel free to correct me.

Actually, she wasn't particularly upset until she asked if it could be removed, and it wasn't. Then it was, but then it was put back up again. Multiple times. She's been consistent in asking that the two not be connected in a public fashion, not because she's ashamed or hiding anything, but as she herself says recently, she would like to keep her fannish space a happy place, and she's not connected the two directly herself -- in fact, she's been scrupulous to keep the two spaces separate. She makes no secret in her pro life of being both a fanfiction writer and a slasher. And she's really been nothing but gracious about this, all along.

acari: I am OTW staff (volunteers & recruiting) so I am certainly biased when it comes to certain issues but, for what it's worth, I believe you. You are not alone; this has happened again and again. People come to her full of enthusiasm only to be screwed over in the long run. I'm sorry you've been put into this place.

I will post my fic there, but I will not pay to do so.

Small correction. You don't have to pay to use the future Archive Of Our Own. The 10$ contribution is only for joining the OTW as a member in order to be able to vote in the board elections.

Apologies if I misread your words. I've just seen this fact get mixed up too many times. *g*

[anarchicq]: What I mean by this is that I will take what OTW give for free, for exposure. But I don't intend on becoming a member so I can vote on the board, which I think sucks because I am not comfortable with a lot of things about OTW, but that's not the point right now.

hector rashbaum: A lot of people have gone out of their way to say very nice things about me today, so I'm kinda feeling and overflow of goodness and wanted to say out loud (ish) what I've thought every time I've seen this post linked:

all else aside, kudos to you for not only being able to sit down and reevaluate your actions, relationships, and what all that means, but to then make that reevaluation public. Even in an environment where the conclusions you came to tend towards the more popular opinion, that's a seriously tough thing to do, and you've done it seriously, intelligently, and far less wankily than I would have thought possible.

esorlehcar: Early on, she offered to help them, since she already had one of the resources that they were planning. Namely, a wiki collecting the history of fans and fandom. They never replied, or if they did, they rebuffed her. I'm sketchy on what happened.

She didn't so much offer to help as [show up angrily demanding how anyone could consider doing a wiki when she already had one], and then, as you say, she threw vast amounts of time and energy behind trying to discredit the project, to the point of making up a word to insult them and creating a pag[e]s on the wiki to pretend it was a legitimate fandom term.

I know that was a small part of your post, but I think it's worth clarifying.

[anarchicq] No. She offered before that (I can't remember where, but I saw it myself. Actually, I think she emailed them and got no response.). And then when she got no response, then she went on her tirade. At the time I didn't blame her (And I still don't to a point.) because I thought FH was a labor of love and she felt they took her idea. She felt it was a slant to her 'baby' (You know, a fan project for the love of fandom, and not money.), so I defended her rampage.

[iamrosalita]: You don't know me. I don't know much about OTW or FH, nor do I really care about either of them, so I don't have a dog in this hunt. You seem sincere to me. I've been burned a couple of times by people I trusted. It sucks. I think you've handled this very well.

franzeska: Dude, don't worry about it. Happens all the time. Just look at MsScribe's friends when all that went down.

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