*********** EDIT: Wait, it is on the faq *slaps forehead*. But I still think my other point stands: that there's an unstated implication that you only care about certain kinds of transformative works, and that the differences are to do with the kinds of fans who make them, not the level of transformativeness. You can probably leave this ambiguous for a while, and I know you're just starting out, but eventually you're going to have to either embrace fanworks like Machina and home-made lightsaber duels (which could every easily lose the female-safe-spaceness etc), or explicitly exclude them from the organisation. This interests me personally since my fanworks are statues/Harry Potter clocks/fancomics etc, which sit on that art/craft divide, and I came to as a "feral" fan more involved with "male" spaces like webcomics and sf conventions than fanfic etc.
Also, I still think that line of the "Values" statement is rather muddled :)
****** I just read through your faq and it's missing what seems to be a fairly basic question, namely: What is a transformative work? I know it seems obvious but I'm not sure it is, entirely. (Up until now I thought you guys were just about fanfic but now I realise you're not)
I don't mean 'What will be in the archive?', since that's understandably limited by technical/legal etc contraints. I mean the theoretical scope of the works and fancreators covered by the organisation in principle, legally, in PR, in the eventual journal articles etc.
In the "Values" list you list "media, real person fiction, anime, comics, music and vidding", which seems like a mishmash of sources to transform and the resulting transformative works (I'm not aware of "vids" meaning anything in a fannish context other than "fan made videos", but on the other hand I'm not aware of any fans actually making anime. "Music" just confuses me)
From various metafandom discussions and the "What will be in the archive" answers etc (EDIT: and the chat transcript) I get the feeling you include: fanfic (including RPF), fanvids (recut footage), fanart, and podfic
What about fan made fanfic-as-movies or machinema? Or lego models? Or Harry Potter scarves? Or any of the other many diverse transformative works made by fans? They only occured to me today, but imo they're just as transformative, and often in just as much need of legal protection, academic analysis, and a good home. But they're not remotely part of one community, and afaict aren't particularly female dominated (and certain subcultures are definitely very male dominated).
The statement "We value our identity as a predominantly female community with a rich history of creativity and commentary." implies that you're mainly concerned with stuff like fanfic and fanart which comes from this particular fanficcy subculture (or as the Rockfic etc people would point out, a number of interrelated subcultures) Which is fine (imo), but if this is true then you need to make that clear before you get a bunch of angry male machinema makers complaining that you won't help with their legal fight against Valve or let them on the board. (I think an organisation that really was for all transformative works would also be a great (if even more ambitious) idea, but I don't think that's what you're actually doing)
Possibly very dumb question
EDIT: Wait, it is on the faq *slaps forehead*. But I still think my other point stands: that there's an unstated implication that you only care about certain kinds of transformative works, and that the differences are to do with the kinds of fans who make them, not the level of transformativeness. You can probably leave this ambiguous for a while, and I know you're just starting out, but eventually you're going to have to either embrace fanworks like Machina and home-made lightsaber duels (which could every easily lose the female-safe-spaceness etc), or explicitly exclude them from the organisation. This interests me personally since my fanworks are statues/Harry Potter clocks/fancomics etc, which sit on that art/craft divide, and I came to as a "feral" fan more involved with "male" spaces like webcomics and sf conventions than fanfic etc.
Also, I still think that line of the "Values" statement is rather muddled :)
******
I just read through your faq and it's missing what seems to be a fairly basic question, namely: What is a transformative work? I know it seems obvious but I'm not sure it is, entirely. (Up until now I thought you guys were just about fanfic but now I realise you're not)
I don't mean 'What will be in the archive?', since that's understandably limited by technical/legal etc contraints. I mean the theoretical scope of the works and fancreators covered by the organisation in principle, legally, in PR, in the eventual journal articles etc.
In the "Values" list you list "media, real person fiction, anime, comics, music and vidding", which seems like a mishmash of sources to transform and the resulting transformative works (I'm not aware of "vids" meaning anything in a fannish context other than "fan made videos", but on the other hand I'm not aware of any fans actually making anime. "Music" just confuses me)
From various metafandom discussions and the "What will be in the archive" answers etc (EDIT: and the chat transcript) I get the feeling you include: fanfic (including RPF), fanvids (recut footage), fanart, and podfic
What about fan made fanfic-as-movies or machinema? Or lego models? Or Harry Potter scarves? Or any of the other many diverse transformative works made by fans? They only occured to me today, but imo they're just as transformative, and often in just as much need of legal protection, academic analysis, and a good home. But they're not remotely part of one community, and afaict aren't particularly female dominated (and certain subcultures are definitely very male dominated).
The statement "We value our identity as a predominantly female community with a rich history of creativity and commentary." implies that you're mainly concerned with stuff like fanfic and fanart which comes from this particular fanficcy subculture (or as the Rockfic etc people would point out, a number of interrelated subcultures) Which is fine (imo), but if this is true then you need to make that clear before you get a bunch of angry male machinema makers complaining that you won't help with their legal fight against Valve or let them on the board. (I think an organisation that really was for all transformative works would also be a great (if even more ambitious) idea, but I don't think that's what you're actually doing)