PayPal is back up!

[kristenmurphy]

PayPal is up and running again after its maintenance downtime, which means we are once again able to accept electronic donations. (Donations by mail are still welcome, too — please see the donation page for instructions.)

There should be no lingering effects from the downtime, but if you encounter any difficulties while donating, please contact the Development & Membership committee.


Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

PayPal is back up!

[kristenmurphy.livejournal.com]

PayPal is up and running again after its maintenance downtime, which means we are once again able to accept electronic donations. (Donations by mail are still welcome, too — please see the donation page for instructions.)

There should be no lingering effects from the downtime, but if you encounter any difficulties while donating, please contact the Development & Membership committee.


Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

Fanlore: Preserving Fannish Memories

[kristenmurphy]

Fanlore is a library and its shelves are lined with your fandoms.

No, really! Fanlore is a collection of fannish memories, complete with a bibliography, glossary, chronology, and scribbled annotations in the margins. Fanlore wants you to add the urban legends you tell around the campfire and on memes, the happy memories you share when you chat with other fans, and the gifs of your fandom, all grown up, that you show new acquaintances on Tumblr. Fanlore wants to archive artifacts from your fannish communities and leave space on the shelves for future endowments.

And how can Fanlore do that? Fanlore is entirely user-driven, a wiki created, edited, and updated by fans, for fans. Fanlore recognizes and embraces fandom as a large, diverse, culture-rich community. Your favorite tropes. Your favorite fanworks. Your favorite traditions.

Fanlore is a library fueled by the passion of fans for the preservation of their fannish histories. Fanlore is also fueled by the Organization for Transformative Works. Without the support of OTW members, Fanlore would not be able to bring together and preserve the many parts of fannish histories that interested readers may be searching for. Donating time, money, or public displays of affection to the OTW all help guarantee that Fanlore can continue to document our fandoms and tell our stories.

Help us preserve fannish memories for years to come — please donate today.

We'd love to hear what you think of Fanlore and the rest of OTW's projects. Please let us know by taking the OTW Community Survey between now and May 2.


Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

Fanlore: Preserving Fannish Memories

[kristenmurphy.livejournal.com]

Fanlore is a library and its shelves are lined with your fandoms.

No, really! Fanlore is a collection of fannish memories, complete with a bibliography, glossary, chronology, and scribbled annotations in the margins. Fanlore wants you to add the urban legends you tell around the campfire and on memes, the happy memories you share when you chat with other fans, and the gifs of your fandom, all grown up, that you show new acquaintances on Tumblr. Fanlore wants to archive artifacts from your fannish communities and leave space on the shelves for future endowments.

And how can Fanlore do that? Fanlore is entirely user-driven, a wiki created, edited, and updated by fans, for fans. Fanlore recognizes and embraces fandom as a large, diverse, culture-rich community. Your favorite tropes. Your favorite fanworks. Your favorite traditions.

Fanlore is a library fueled by the passion of fans for the preservation of their fannish histories. Fanlore is also fueled by the Organization for Transformative Works. Without the support of OTW members, Fanlore would not be able to bring together and preserve the many parts of fannish histories that interested readers may be searching for. Donating time, money, or public displays of affection to the OTW all help guarantee that Fanlore can continue to document our fandoms and tell our stories.

Help us preserve fannish memories for years to come — please donate today.

We'd love to hear what you think of Fanlore and the rest of OTW's projects. Please let us know by taking the OTW Community Survey between now and May 2.


Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

Links roundup for 20 April 2012

[otw_staff]

Here's a roundup of fandom controversy stories that might be of interest to fans:

• Kotaku recently hosted a post questioning common wisdom about why fan fiction gets created. "[A]ccording to Novelist Lev Grossman, Fan Fiction is...a response from an audience eager to engage in some sort of dialogue with the media it adores...But those definitions don’t really apply to ParadiseAvenger. “I started writing Fan Fiction for Kingdom Hearts before I’d even played the game." Instead her "work is ‘Alternate Universe’ — writing that doesn’t expand the original in any canonical, traditional way, but exists in and of itself. Her goal is to raise awareness of issues we usually don’t want to confront: child abuse, drug addiction." While exploring her story's popularity the article quotes Christian McCrea, Games Program Director at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. "'Many people write Fan Fiction because the fandom is for writing itself,' says Christian. 'Writing has a relatively low threshold of entry and we’re all told how to do it at some level in our education. It’s about the power of writing.'"


• Also a focus of debate is whether print or digital is a better comics medium, not for readers but for creators concerned about piracy. An Iowa Press Citizen article reports, "When comic book illustrator Steve Lieber heard that his recently released graphic novel, “Underground,” was being pirated on an online forum, he decided to take action...he got on the forum and talked with them. 'I went from annoyance to fascination to sympathy,' Lieber said. 'I’ve got the fanboy gene like anyone else, and I know what it feels like to love a work so much you just want to evangelize for it.' The forum discussion caused a spike in book sales and Lieber now plans to incorporate free digital downloads into the marketing of his future work."


• Manga reader and fan artist Ryan Matheson detailed his experience of being accused of transporting obscene material into Canada. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund supported him, but he "served jail time, wracked [sic] up $75,000 in legal fees, and finally copped a plea to a “non-regulatory offense” in order to avoid a trial" despite no evidence of any such content on his laptop. The MarySue focused on similar cases in a related article and concluded that fans need to become informed of local laws but also that "more fans need to vocalize that manga and queer-themed fiction are valid forms of literature."

If you have opinions on the print versus digital debate, the motivations behind writing fanfic, or censorship of manga, why not contribute to Fanlore? Additions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup — on transformativeworks.org, LJ, or DW — or give @OTW_News a shoutout on Twitter. Links are welcome in all languages!

Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW. Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

Links roundup for 20 April 2012

[otw-staff.livejournal.com]

Here's a roundup of fandom controversy stories that might be of interest to fans:

• Kotaku recently hosted a post questioning common wisdom about why fan fiction gets created. "[A]ccording to Novelist Lev Grossman, Fan Fiction is...a response from an audience eager to engage in some sort of dialogue with the media it adores...But those definitions don’t really apply to ParadiseAvenger. “I started writing Fan Fiction for Kingdom Hearts before I’d even played the game." Instead her "work is ‘Alternate Universe’ — writing that doesn’t expand the original in any canonical, traditional way, but exists in and of itself. Her goal is to raise awareness of issues we usually don’t want to confront: child abuse, drug addiction." While exploring her story's popularity the article quotes Christian McCrea, Games Program Director at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. "'Many people write Fan Fiction because the fandom is for writing itself,' says Christian. 'Writing has a relatively low threshold of entry and we’re all told how to do it at some level in our education. It’s about the power of writing.'"


• Also a focus of debate is whether print or digital is a better comics medium, not for readers but for creators concerned about piracy. An Iowa Press Citizen article reports, "When comic book illustrator Steve Lieber heard that his recently released graphic novel, “Underground,” was being pirated on an online forum, he decided to take action...he got on the forum and talked with them. 'I went from annoyance to fascination to sympathy,' Lieber said. 'I’ve got the fanboy gene like anyone else, and I know what it feels like to love a work so much you just want to evangelize for it.' The forum discussion caused a spike in book sales and Lieber now plans to incorporate free digital downloads into the marketing of his future work."


• Manga reader and fan artist Ryan Matheson detailed his experience of being accused of transporting obscene material into Canada. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund supported him, but he "served jail time, wracked [sic] up $75,000 in legal fees, and finally copped a plea to a “non-regulatory offense” in order to avoid a trial" despite no evidence of any such content on his laptop. The MarySue focused on similar cases in a related article and concluded that fans need to become informed of local laws but also that "more fans need to vocalize that manga and queer-themed fiction are valid forms of literature."

If you have opinions on the print versus digital debate, the motivations behind writing fanfic, or censorship of manga, why not contribute to Fanlore? Additions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup — on transformativeworks.org, LJ, or DW — or give @OTW_News a shoutout on Twitter. Links are welcome in all languages!

Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW. Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.