March Meta Matters Challenge
| Journal Community | |
|---|---|
| Name: | March Meta Matters Challenge |
| Date(s): | 1 March 2020 -present |
| Moderator: | yourlibrarian |
| Founder: | yourlibrarian |
| Type: | Seasonal |
| Fandom: | Multifandom |
| URL: | MMM Challenge on Dreamwidth; on AO3; on SquidgeWorld Archive; on Tumblr |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
March Meta Matters Challenge is a month-long event that is headquartered on Dreamwidth and houses its collections on AO3 and SquidgeWorld Archive. It is a seasonal community for archiving meta to mitigate its loss during moves and online platform closures.
Not to be confused with Meta Month of March, a challenge that ran in 2012-2013.
Purpose
The MMM Challenge was founded by yourlibrarian and began in 2020. From its profile:
While creators have often used multiple sites to host their works, one type of work has generally been left out of fans' efforts at archiving and preserving fanworks -- meta. In many cases, meta posts have not been copied anywhere else other than the location where they were first posted, leaving them particularly vulnerable to loss.
So what if we can make a small dent in getting it saved? The March Meta Matters Challenge is focused on not just new meta, but making sure older meta gets a chance to be read and remain a part of fandom history. While new meta is also encouraged, the priority for Meta Matters is to make sure meta doesn't vanish with sites or personal accounts when those get closed or moved.
An annual challenge community running for the entire month of March with final activities the first week of April.[1]
More information on posting can be found on its Introductory Post and FAQ on Dreamwidth.
Challenge History
In March 2020, the challenge's initial season, 246 works were added to the AO3 collection from dozens of participants.[2]
The March Meta Matters Challenge collection on AO3 currently includes 438 works covering 273 fandoms.[3] The fandoms with the highest representation are:
- Fandom - Fandom (57 works) and No Fandom (40 works)
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer (46 works) and Angel the Series (18 works)
- Multi-Fandom (17 works)
- Game of Thrones TV (13 works)
- Doctor Who 2005 (11 works)
During 2022, the challenge moderator yourlibrarian received notices from the OTW Policy & Abuse Committee stating that six of their own meta works posted to AO3 did not conform to the guidelines for non-fiction content.[4][5]
As a result, yourlibrarian set up an alternate March Meta Matters Challenge collection on SquidgeWorld Archive so that these works would not be lost. As of the 2023 season, participants are invited to post their meta to either the AO3 or SquidgeWorld collections - or to both.
The March Meta Matters Challenge collection on SquidgeWorld Archive currently includes 500 works covering 296 fandoms.[6] The fandom focus here is somewhat different to the AO3 collection, with the following representations being the highest:
- Supernatural (160 works) and Supernatural RPF (16 works)
- Fandom - Fandom (130 works)
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer (58 works) and Angel (24 works)
- Merlin BBC (14 works)
- Duran Duran (13 works)
- Marvel Universe (11 works)
References
- ^ Community Profile, MMM Challenge on Dreamwidth
- ^ Admin Post: Goodbye for Now, posted to Dreamwidth 1 April 2020 (archived 20 November 2024)
- ^ Works in March Meta Matters Challenge on AO3 (accessed 20 November 2024)
- ^ Response from AO3 on Review Content, posted to Dreamwidth 20 June 2022 (archived 20 November 2024)
- ^ Further Meta Takedowns + A Poll, posted to Dreamwidth 29 November 2022 (accessed 20 November 2024)
- ^ Works in March Meta Matters Challenge on SquidgeWorld (accessed 20 November 2024)