Meta Monday

fangirlunderground:

It blows my mind that anyone dislikes AO3. I feel so incredibly lucky to have this massive library of fanfiction, featuring every ship I’ve ever wanted (down to the rarest and crackiest of pairs), and the most sophisticated search and filtering system we’ve literally ever had. And it’s both free and free of ads? And it’s backed by an entire organization dedicated to protecting and preserving fandom? I doubt I’ve ever gone more than a single day without visiting the site since that first time in 2012, so I’ve always seen the fundraising campaigns as a good thing: a way to say thank you for the immeasurable gift AO3 has been. 

It never even occurred to me that anyone might feel differently about AO3 until I joined Tumblr. I know I’m a little late for the most recent round of drama, but I wanted to put together a list like this for a while now, and this weekend I finally had the time. 

You’ll find meta about why AO3 was started and how it’s run, about the archive’s history and what it was like before the site existed; and, of course, there’s meta about why it’s so crucial that AO3 is inclusive of all kinds of works. If that’s something of interest to you, check out my past rec list on darkfic. Or, try my fanfic appreciation list instead! 

Enjoy, and, as always, be sure to let the original posters know you appreciated their work by liking and reblogging. ❤️ 

Fandom – AO3 History & Positivity

AO3 is for all kinds of fanfic by @olderthannetfic, And other fanworks, for that matter, but let’s talk about fic: When AO3 was proposed, it was in response to Strikethrough and other similar events. Livejournal deleted a lot of accounts without bothering to distinguish between actual pedophiles, survivor support groups, and 100% consensual fantasy fandom activities being done by adults with other adults (most of which involved RP accounts for 16-year-old Harry Potter characters anyway). (Mirror Link)

ao3 fundraiser thoughts by @porcupine-girl, @elfwreck, et al, […] AO3 exists so writers have a place to put their fanfic. A place that won’t spam their readers with ads, won’t cave to the interests of “save the children from the perverts” groups, won’t ban fic and art creators for getting DMCA takedown notices from authors who are offended that someone else has ideas about their characters.  (Mirror Link)

AO3 through the years by @naryrising, One odd complaint I’ve seen is that “AO3 hasn’t changed”.  First, if something is well designed and working, it shouldn’t need to change constantly (does anyone actually like it when Tumblr makes random changes to things? no.)Second, even at a cosmetic level, it’s just… not true? Not unless you haven’t been around very long. (Mirror Link)

Are the AO3 antis actually a threat to our beloved archive? by @astrolat, Short answer: no. Long answer: As far as I could tell (I do have a well-curated dash), the discussion was roughly 1% sincere antis, 4% wankers, and 95% people talking at length about why the antis were wrong or liking those responses. The posts boosted the drive if anything (and made me personally verklempt to read all the lovely posts talking about how much the AO3 has made people happy. :’) (Mirror Link)

Concerning those AO3 posts by @kattahj​, Concerning those AO3 posts, you could ask, “Katta, almost all of your stuff is teen rated. You’re basically a gen girl at heart. None of it is wank material and very little is even disturbing. Why do you care what happens to those gross fics?” And the answer would be: BECAUSE almost all my stuff is teen rated, and I’m basically a gen girl at heart, and I STILL had trouble with archives before AO3. (Mirror Link)

I don’t understand how anyone can take AO3 for granted by @fanfichasruinedmylife, Back in the early 00s, I used to maintain a site called Farscape Fan Fiction Links. It was an offshoot of something I’d started on the Farscape Bulletin Board called “The Church of Fanfiction Appreciation” where I’d begun trying to collect links to Farscape fanfic sites for other people to use. (Mirror Link)

Just saw some AO3 discourse on my dash by @jellybeanforest-a-go-go, Just saw some AO3 discourse on my dash, mostly due to the donation drive, but a lot of people are upset over the fact that AO3 doesn’t moderate content or that people write certain things at all. Yet, many of these anti-AO3 people post in AO3 themselves, and I’ve looked at their archive, and what do they post? A lot of rated-E explicit slash (mostly M/M and some F/F). Which was one of the first things cleansed from FF.net and LJ back when authors had their fics erased without warning because think of the children. (Mirror Link)

just wait until all the ao3 antis find out about libraries by @dsudis, et al, […] This is also why most libraries celebrate Banned Books Week by eagerly higlighting works which people have ATTEMPTED to force to be removed from libraries–including work like Lolita, which is read by many as a titillating pedophile love affair. Librarians are not celebrating Lolita. They are celebrating the principle that they will not be stopped from collecting materials of interest and making them available to readers. (Mirror Link)

an observation by @cupidsbower, […] The current backlash against the OTW I’m seeing all over my dash is completely unsurprising, because we’re at that point in the organisation’s life. There are now fans who weren’t in fandom yet when we made the OTW and AO3, and who have no idea what fandom used to be like. (Mirror Link)

On the AO3 All These Years Later by @fairestcat, @cesperanza, @olderthannetfic, @astrolat, et al, The tenth anniversary of the OTW and all the AO3 discussion going around this week inspired me to go look at astolat’s original post about creating an An Archive Of Our Own, and found my comment on it. […] Eleven years and rather a lot of volunteer-hours later, I stand by every single word. (Mirror Link)