I'm just wondering, since as a fandom we generally refer to ourselves as a community, wouldn't it be along the right lines to set ourselves up as what people see as a community along the way? I understand how making an archive as fans for fans is a really awesome idea, but isn't that how fanfiction.net got started? I think a lot of the problems that people have with the site stem from the fact that the communities generally unspoken rules weren't expressed at the beginning of the site. aff.net has also got some problems there. newbees and lurkers, like myself, don't always get all the jargon that author use when summarizing their stories so they just start using what they guestimate equates, and then things go downhill from there.
My point is that since we call ourselves a community, why don't we have the kind of structure most people assume a community has. Like spokespeople, or representatives. Someone who can innitiate newbees and lurkers into the real inner workings of fandom and can stand up and speak as a solid, single voice for the community.
The reason I'm posting this here and not on the FanLib discussion sites is that I don't think it's enough to just make an archive. As politician as it sounds, I think we should look into volunteer/elected representatives for the fandom. Someone who can ask and answer questions for the fandom, like moderators but more involved in the entire community, and in particulat fandom domains. I didn't know anything about FanLib until today because the fic sites I normally stay in haven't had anything on it. If I had been an author instead of reader and if I had received an invitation, stupid me, I probably would have jumped at it for the "cool free stuff".
I know most people don't like the whole idea of being moderated, but maybe it's time we did something along those lines along with the all inclusive archive in order to keep others like FanLib from grabbing up the uninformed.
Just a thought.... sorry I took so much space. I don't normally post so I usually get everything in at once when I do.
A little off topic yet not really....
I'm just wondering, since as a fandom we generally refer to ourselves as a community, wouldn't it be along the right lines to set ourselves up as what people see as a community along the way? I understand how making an archive as fans for fans is a really awesome idea, but isn't that how fanfiction.net got started? I think a lot of the problems that people have with the site stem from the fact that the communities generally unspoken rules weren't expressed at the beginning of the site. aff.net has also got some problems there. newbees and lurkers, like myself, don't always get all the jargon that author use when summarizing their stories so they just start using what they guestimate equates, and then things go downhill from there.
My point is that since we call ourselves a community, why don't we have the kind of structure most people assume a community has. Like spokespeople, or representatives. Someone who can innitiate newbees and lurkers into the real inner workings of fandom and can stand up and speak as a solid, single voice for the community.
The reason I'm posting this here and not on the FanLib discussion sites is that I don't think it's enough to just make an archive. As politician as it sounds, I think we should look into volunteer/elected representatives for the fandom. Someone who can ask and answer questions for the fandom, like moderators but more involved in the entire community, and in particulat fandom domains. I didn't know anything about FanLib until today because the fic sites I normally stay in haven't had anything on it. If I had been an author instead of reader and if I had received an invitation, stupid me, I probably would have jumped at it for the "cool free stuff".
I know most people don't like the whole idea of being moderated, but maybe it's time we did something along those lines along with the all inclusive archive in order to keep others like FanLib from grabbing up the uninformed.
Just a thought.... sorry I took so much space. I don't normally post so I usually get everything in at once when I do.