the great link directory, take two

Because I need The Cheering, The Interesting, and The Fun.

We Invented the Remix...Redux, created and hosted by musesfool, who rocks, btw. Lots of fandoms, some of the best authors on the net, and everything is up for grabs.

Oh damn, some good reading going on here. Yay!

And someone remixed my Every Second Wednesday. I'm going to sit here and contemplate the ooohness of it. Because, seriously, the creep in this one is ten times better than anything I could manage.

Whoa.

A welcome to tightropegirl, new and thoughtful denizen of LJland, with some fascinating posts regarding fanfic and original fic, serial numbers, and the art of writing. This journal is a must-read for all of us, be you fan-only, fan-and-pro, or just pro. She gives us perspective. And is also way cool. *g*

I'm easy to make happy here, kay?

keelywolfe links up to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. Wow. That is--so cool. Thanks for posting that link!

And (thinking) I'll try and finish answering comments tonight, though I'm--cheered? relieved--by the number of people who are speaking out all over LJland, especially those who usually don't. Policing our own borders, public reaction to utter blatant malice, and well--I never thought I'd say this, but if hostile group social pressure is going to be what has to happen to keep people from acting out in ways destructive to fandom--count me in.

I've griped about pack mentality before and probably will again, but the group enforcement of simple rules by the community is something we can no longer treat as a luxury, and I can't put it in the same category. In our fandoms, with our actions, we not only should be examples of good fannish behavior, we should also require at least minimal standards of behavior from others and we SHOULD react when something like this happens. By silence we may not exactly encourage, but nor do we discourage.

From what I've read today in LJland, fandom in general, and the Firefly fandom in specific, is a great deal poorer by the loss of some of the greatest vidders on the net. These people entertained and fascinated many in that fandom and had the potential to entertain in many others. And we've lost that. We've also lost potentials, people who might have chosen to do it themselves, but seeing what's happened, may no longer want to. And they've lost security on the net, which is the most frightening thing of all.

Simple rule breakdown.

Artists on the web should be asked permission before the appropriation and/or alteration of any of their work. And if they say no? Don't do it. Wow, and here I thought this would be hard.

By artists, I define vidders, website creators and maintainers, archivists, graphic manipulators, meta-writers, authors, recappers, critiquers, list and board administrators, and feedbackers, and any and all creators/maintainers of fannish endeavors, should the terms above not cover the particular niche. Those who create and entertain us in any form should not be excluded from basic courtesy and protection. And if we don't want someone outside to do it for us, we'd better damn well do it ourselves.

We're not entitled to their work, we never have been, we never will be. And I don't think any of us want for this to happen again, *keep* happening, or we're right back to the password-protection, hidden lists, and hidden webpages of early fandom--or option two, we're going to have almost nothing at all.

Comments

[elke-tanzer.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this.

Oh, and the Berne thing? I'm really thrilled that it's going around, even if I'm not really sure I understand it completely. A friendly fannish someone who works in copyright law is where it started... in in this entry (http://www.livejournal.com/users/elke_tanzer/150174.html) in my LJ, because she emailed me in response to my asking a question in private email, and then I asked to post it. I think I love her, and all other fannish copyright/trademark/intellectual property experts.

[seldear.livejournal.com]

Heyla, this is gonna skitz lightly over several of the topics you've spoken about...but my main question at present is:

Um...exactly what is the We Invented the Remix...Redux site about? I had a quick look (and found an utterly cool, creepy and dark Logan/Rogue fic - eek!) and sort of got the gist, but wouldn't mind knowing exactly what it's trying to achieve.

suzvoy (through whose LJ I found you) pointed out the whole Firefly fandom vidder thing - ack! Major, major, major ACK! And I only skimmed through the stuff at the top!

And while I was going back through suz's friends listings, I noted your rant about fan entitlement and their expectation that the artist (whether author, vidder, webmaster, capper, whatever) submit to their specific demands - and I completely agree!

morgan32 noted (a couple of months back, and not on her LJ) that a reknowned slasher in the SG-1 fandom posted a WIP...and one of the major slash lists took up a 'vote' on how it should end. Morgan's pithy comment regarding the situation was along the lines of: "It's her story! It's not for the list to demand that it should end this way or that way - she's writing it, why should she have to pander to other fans in which direction it's going?"

And yes, there does seem to be an attitude of "I want this - exactly this - and if I don't get it then you're a nasty person." It's almost like people declaring their right to exert control over the fandom, the fans, the show they're watching, and the actors who participate in it.

Hel-lo! Newsflash! The world does not revolve around you. It does not revolve around me! It doesn't revolve around any of us! We live in society and that requires an increasingly unpopular thing known as compromise. It means "you give some, they give some" - and it's how adults have to work their relationships in the world outside fandom!

You come to the fandom and you bring something to it, whether fanfic, vids, artwork, an opinion, a new view, even just plain and simple appreciation of the show and the fandom and the work of fans. What you get out of it is entirely a gift. You choose whether to put back into the fandom in terms of feedback (which is basically encouragement to the producer of the fan-work, thereby growing the fandom). Then the author chooses whether to put back into the fandom in terms of response to feedback (thereby encouraging you the respondent to keep responding to themselves or to other fan-artists)...and it goes on.

Demanding or expecting the right to FB, or the right to have this on a sight, or (heaven forbid) the right to have this on the show is just puerile. And there's a fine line between demand/expectation of something and asking/requesting it. The first presupposes that they must change things to suit you. The second assumes nothing, but inquires about the possibility of something you'd like. And sometimes you get it, and sometimes you don't.

AAAAAARGHHHHH!
I'm getting mad just thinking about it!

This was probably a bit of a non-sequitur to your post - sorry about that. I get a lot of thoughts all bubbling inside all at once and they just come out at the same time - no real order to it.