Scales and Tales

This week and last I've been working on a fannish project of sorts that's strictly personal, which is tidying up my AO3 Subscriptions and 'Marked for Later' list.

After deleting a lot of completed works, fics that had been orphaned still incomplete, and many works and series that hadn't been updated since 2016 or earlier, authors who haven't posted in a fandom I recognise for years, my Subscription list is now down to 5 pages! I did leave a few probably-abandoned things in there for sentimental reasons, but it's so much more coherent and useful now.

Similarly, I cleared out page after page of things marked for later! Gone are the fics I had actually already read (sometimes I mark for later if I intend to come back and comment), and works that are probably abandoned (I often mark for later if a WIP has an interesting premise but only 1-2 chapters, as an easy way to figure out if it's going to continue and be worth reading), and things I've lost interest in for one reason or another (mostly long-running series or WIPs that had lost focus and turned into endless non-plot, or fics that now include a pairing I dislike). I'm left with a much more reasonable 7 pages of marked works, and I'm trying to read at least once a week in order to keep whittling it down.

My next project will be another round of bookmark edits, I suspect.



So.... How many subscriptions or marked-for-later works do you have?

I just discovered fandomthennow/Fandom Then/Now, the dissertation project of Katherine Morrissey, who is comparing her Master's thesis research data from 2008 - shortly before the release of the Archive of Our Own - with new data, post-LJ and AO3.

If you would like to comment, visit the Fandom Then/Now site and check it out! If you'd like to help spread word of the project, you can link to the Dreamwidth account, LiveJournal account, Twitter link, and/or Tumblr account!

Important details, including how to have your identity screened or submit comments via an alterate method, can be found at the Identity Protection page.

I can feel a sore throat coming on. :/ I suppose this means that my immune system's annual vacation has happened; at least it's somewhat later than usual.

Been distracting myself by reading fanmaterials for Hemostuck, but I'm afraid that any more and I'll start whinging about the unfairness of the universe re: No More Hemostuck, so now it's time for Writing! I hope to have a word count worth posting about this week!

What have all of you lovely people been doing?

A quick reminder that my December Prompts meme still has spaces left if you want me to babble on about something in particular! There have been some fantastic prompts so far; I'm excited for them! :D

A further quick reminder that Holiday mailings are still open if you would like to receive something!

I think I said I'd do this on Tuesdays! Whoops, I said Monday nights; so I'm already late! Oh, well; here goes.

Document 1:
last Monday: 84,630.
this Tuesday: 85,050!

Document 2:
last Monday: 7,078.
this Tuesday: 7,590!

Document 3:
last Monday: 4,550.
this Tuesday: 4,550.

NET INCREASE? Yes!
HOW MUCH? +932

I did all of that today, too; being sick is apparently good inspiration. :P

Dear AO3,

I do not like your search! What happened to you, that the answer to my every query is now a complete temporal jumble?

Stop it. A heap of results without any kind of date-sorting is exactly useless! How do you even need to be told this?

No love and no kudos,
Krait.


Sigh.

I just want some Dave/Tavros, and/or some Dave/Karkat, guys. There's a sudden dearth, and now my main supplier isn't handing it over!

askerian's demon summoner AU can't be the only thing keeping me going! That's not fair to her, though I do owe her lots of comments for it, so maybe this is my hint to do so?

I think I should pick a day to become my "comment on all the fic I've read lately" day; the list has been piling up.

I really want to do one of those "ten things I keep in mind when writing that character" memes, but alas! I do not write enough characters, and anyway a lot of them overlap because let's face it, I'm all about the background culture of characters and the worldbuilding. Is there a "ten things I keep in mind/assume are true when writing that fandom" meme?

Lately my life has just been full of delicious, thoughtful discussions of my various headcanons (particularly in Homestuck, but just this evening I got to briefly wax elated on the subject of Loveless!), and/or seen fic or fic prompts that fall within my headcanons; I have this vague urge to write them all out and hope that discussion ensues, but I'm not sure I could muster them all together without forgetting half of them, referencing a bunch of stuff I've started writing but not shared anywhere, and/or breaking DW via flagrant disregard for word limits. :D

I'm putting the 'meta' tag on this anyway, just in case something interesting does happen in the comments! /optimist

Pic 1-4 letters from the list, and I'll answer the questions! Then you may, if you like, perpetuate the meme.

( list under the cut )

Wow, a lot of these are about "shipping".

Over on Dreamwidth: (Do You Have "Read-Only" Fandoms?)

Comments turned off on LJ, but you can easily comment on DW via Open ID - just follow the fake cut!

I feel rather hollow lately when it comes to fandom -- not having a Big Exciting Active Fandom has left me floundering about in a combination of disappointment (when I get excited and want to be active in something, there's no fandom) and frustration (all the things my flist is getting active and excited about don't interest me, or I don't have access to them). I have all this pent-up fannish energy, but nowhere to direct it.

Anyone want to direct me to where the Sooper Sekkrit Fangathering for my bookish obsessions might be hiding? Or join with me in an effort to kick Loveless- or Eroica-fandom back into action?

Or take a stab at inducting me into a shiny new fandom?

Her prompt:
Has Fandom changed since you joined it? Do you have the same feelings about Fandom now as then?

Wow, all right, I think the real answer to this -- after meditating on it for a day and a half -- is: my fandom experience has shifted so much that I can't possibly compare then and now in a relevant way.

( Three Points on my Fannish Timeline, For Reference )

To me, my fandom experience(s) have been so disparate from fandom to fandom that I don't really think of them as a progression, where change might be observed and attributed to Fandom rather than to quirks of a particular fandom. For one, I seem to zigzag across the book/film and anime/Western animation lines quite a lot, making it very hard to tell cultural differences from progressive changes; Gundam Wing and TPM weren't all that far apart in my personal timeline, but the "culture" of each fandom was quite different, which I attribute more to the community (and perhaps the greater connexion and the medium than to evolution of fandom itself.

I feel pretty lucky about the breadth of my fandom experience! I have been to a SF/F con, an anime con, and HP midnight book releases (in costume); I have met fandom friends ranging from teenagers to grandmothers; I have a basic comprehension of a number of fannish cultures, from the mainstream (HP, Star Wars) to the obscure (Lois Bujold, Eroica) to the obscure-within-the-mainstream (HP/SS in Harry Potter). I know how to read a manga page and where to find fic for a tiny novel-based fandom. I can compare slash and yaoi, have friends in both camps, and enjoy both styles, as well as where they overlap.

Now, post-HP, I'm in that odd limbo of "looking for a fandom," which is interesting and aggravating. (I got entangled in Loveless for a while, but the author's lack of updates means the fandom is evaporating.) I worry that I'll never find another huge and thriving and engrossing fandom like HP; and I'm not sure what will happen then. Can I go back to small, disorganised fandoms? Can I manage without a steady stream of fic to rec? If so, I clearly can't be "a reccer" -- so what will I become? Will I ever be more than a lurker again, even if being an unknown reccer is only a slight step up? :D