Archive of Our Own Newsletter - July 2012

[lucyrp.livejournal.com]

*coughs* *taps microphone* Is this thing on?


Ahem, after something of a pause, this is (hopefully) the return of our regular AO3 newsletter! Your friendly AO3 news poster (that's me, Lucy!) started off the year with good intentions and a shiny new format. However, between writing various other special edition posts, co-chairing the Communications committee, and dealing with real life, somehow the newsletter kept slipping down the to-do list. The good news is that new Communications staffer Camden has volunteered to take the baton, so hopefully these newsletters will be making a more frequent appearance in the future. So, without further ado, a few updates on the major happenings in recent times.

( Read more... )

Archive of Our Own Newsletter - July 2012

[lucyp]

*coughs* *taps microphone* Is this thing on?


Ahem, after something of a pause, this is (hopefully) the return of our regular AO3 newsletter! Your friendly AO3 news poster (that's me, Lucy!) started off the year with good intentions and a shiny new format. However, between writing various other special edition posts, co-chairing the Communications committee, and dealing with real life, somehow the newsletter kept slipping down the to-do list. The good news is that new Communications staffer Camden has volunteered to take the baton, so hopefully these newsletters will be making a more frequent appearance in the future. So, without further ado, a few updates on the major happenings in recent times.

( Read more... )

Links roundup for 31 July 2012

[otw_staff]

Here's a roundup of fanworks making the news stories that might be of interest to fans:

• While there are still plenty of stories in the media that take the "weirdness" angle to discussing fanworks, as fan creativity become more and more visible online, there are an increasing number of stories that take a more admiring approach. For example, Visual News looks at fan movie remixes, and Comics Alliance looks at the artistic range of Emily Partridge's fan art, while io9 focuses on the Sew Nerdy gallery show.


• Then there are the posts that take a second look past first impressions. In The London Evening Standard, a piece on fanfic takes a rather lazy look at fandom categories on Fanfiction.net but concludes, "On my visit, I found nothing that risked brilliance, even basic competence. As a glimpse into the recesses of the human imagination, however, it is awe-inspiring, like The Library of Babel in Borges’s story, which contains every single book imaginable...Suddenly, anything seems possible in publishing."


• Indeed some writers go farther in noticing the important sort of commentary that can be found in fanworks which is too often overlooked. This may range from simply highighting a fannish remix to taking to task its detractors, as blogger s.e. smith does in "What’s With the Fanfic to Book Hate?". "Many people involved in the discussion swirling around books like these seem unaware of the cultural and social attitudes underlying the way they frame these works. This refusal to interrogate the source of their attitudes means that they miss out on a much deeper conversation; if everyone’s fixated on the ‘ew, gross, trashy, for women’ factor, they can’t have an honest discussion about the actual content of the books. Refusing to acknowledge that fanfiction does have a place in the literary canon, and that it is creative, means missing out on a huge and fascinating community...Many of these critics haven’t read a single word of fanfic, and they’re letting the male literary establishment tell them how to react to it?"

If you're into fanworks for criticism to squee or anything in between, why not write about it in 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 at transformativeworks.org. 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 31 July 2012

[otw-staff.livejournal.com]

Here's a roundup of fanworks making the news stories that might be of interest to fans:

• While there are still plenty of stories in the media that take the "weirdness" angle to discussing fanworks, as fan creativity become more and more visible online, there are an increasing number of stories that take a more admiring approach. For example, Visual News looks at fan movie remixes, and Comics Alliance looks at the artistic range of Emily Partridge's fan art, while io9 focuses on the Sew Nerdy gallery show.


• Then there are the posts that take a second look past first impressions. In The London Evening Standard, a piece on fanfic takes a rather lazy look at fandom categories on Fanfiction.net but concludes, "On my visit, I found nothing that risked brilliance, even basic competence. As a glimpse into the recesses of the human imagination, however, it is awe-inspiring, like The Library of Babel in Borges’s story, which contains every single book imaginable...Suddenly, anything seems possible in publishing."


• Indeed some writers go farther in noticing the important sort of commentary that can be found in fanworks which is too often overlooked. This may range from simply highighting a fannish remix to taking to task its detractors, as blogger s.e. smith does in "What’s With the Fanfic to Book Hate?". "Many people involved in the discussion swirling around books like these seem unaware of the cultural and social attitudes underlying the way they frame these works. This refusal to interrogate the source of their attitudes means that they miss out on a much deeper conversation; if everyone’s fixated on the ‘ew, gross, trashy, for women’ factor, they can’t have an honest discussion about the actual content of the books. Refusing to acknowledge that fanfiction does have a place in the literary canon, and that it is creative, means missing out on a huge and fascinating community...Many of these critics haven’t read a single word of fanfic, and they’re letting the male literary establishment tell them how to react to it?"

If you're into fanworks for criticism to squee or anything in between, why not write about it in 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 at transformativeworks.org. 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.