Why I joined the OTW - Alice Toulmin, AD&T Committee - Part 1 of 2
anonymous
January 8 2008, 16:55:26 UTC
The following is written in a purely personal capacity, and is deliberately short and simple.
Why OTW? I grew up with British folktales, with Robin of Sherwood and King Arthur. I read the same stories retold in different ways, from Ladybird editions to Antonia Fraser to unattributed Victorian collections too heavy for me to lift. To me, a story has never belonged to any one person. Writers are entitled to make a living from their work, and I am very glad that many do, but every story is animate and once you share them with others they have a life of their own. Fanfiction is fun and beautiful and silly; it is finding worth in "low brow" books or shows and revisiting much loved classics; it can be pure escapism or devastatingly topical. Where there is little value we create our own; where there is great value, we add.
The idea of anyone, from outside or in, exploiting fanfiction for financial or other gain takes my breath away. I volunteered because I am not going to lie down and wait for the next attempt to use us.
A large organisation is the best way to go about this because we can all use our own strengths effectively instead of spending time wrestling with necessary but tedious tasks. I get to do my thing, financial do their thing, the two communications committees do their thing and we all give thanks that we don't have each others' jobs.
I'm on a committee because I put myself forward as willing to serve and was then invited to do so, having potentially useful skills. I put myself forward because I trust the people who started the initial discussion and the Board members. "By their fruits ye shall know them": all we have in fandom is what we give each other, and I am happy to put my faith in people who have already spent a great deal of time and energy on fannish community projects. I don't know any of the board or committee members well. I have probably corresponded with some of them in the past decade, because fandom is still a fairly small place, but effectively no one knows me from Adam.
Why AD&T? I also volunteered to serve because I wanted a fan-run archive that would be easy to use and open to all, regardless of what, who or where, an archive that would take advantage of the greater flexibility and number of tools that are now available to us and that would have some longevity. Fragmentation and trying to hide in obscurity is not the only answer, and there is no existing software that can do everything we want to do. Being part of the AD&T committee means that I am helping to build this space. My particular focus is on accessibility in every sense of the word.
There is no hive mind here - within our small committee there are sometimes as many ideas on how to do things as there are people, and sometimes more! I think that we have all had our assumptions challenged and been shown wildly different perspectives on searching for, reading and posting fic. The others have had to put up with my appalling sense of humour into the bargain. I know that together we are building something great. That's me, the committee, the OTW and anyone and everyone who joins in further down the line.
Why I joined the OTW - Alice Toulmin, AD&T Committee - Part 2 of 2
anonymous
January 8 2008, 17:01:08 UTC
Who am I? I'm a very quiet and mostly offline fan these days. It's coming up on ten years since I fell into fandom, and there have been years when it may have kept me sane and years when I didn't or couldn't look in at all. This is my real name. I have used it more consistently than any other name in fandom (never did get the hang of multiple identities outside the DCU), so it costs me nothing continue using it.
I haven't posted fic in a long time, and almost all my communication happens over email because I've always been a one-to-one person rather than one-to-many. I do have a Livejournal account (which). I use it purely for commenting on restricted story posts. There are no journal posts and it doesn't get much use. I am not anti-livejournal, but while I recognise that it is great for some people, it is unpleasant for me to use (both emotionally and in terms of user interface) and I avoid it where possible.
I am absolutely here for shallow and selfish reasons as well as the more important ones given above. I want to be able to fire up the feedreader on a rainy Sunday morning and have the good stuff delivered directly to my eyeballs. Politics and shenanigans I can and do get elsewhere. I value our community, especially how we learn from each other and set each other right when necessary, but I prefer to be able to choose when to see that kind of interaction. Few are the times when I can afford to lose three days to working out what the hell is going on.
I am willing to take questions in a personal capacity.
Re: Why I joined the OTW - Alice Toulmin, AD&T Committee - Part 2 of 2devildollJanuary 9 2008, 22:17:17 UTC
Thank you, Alice, for the great post, and for all your hard work. Since my coding knowledge tops out at the LJ cut tag, I'm super grateful for everyone in the org with actual skills!
Why OTW?
I grew up with British folktales, with Robin of Sherwood and King Arthur. I read the same stories retold in different ways, from Ladybird editions to Antonia Fraser to unattributed Victorian collections too heavy for me to lift. To me, a story has never belonged to any one person. Writers are entitled to make a living from their work, and I am very glad that many do, but every story is animate and once you share them with others they have a life of their own. Fanfiction is fun and beautiful and silly; it is finding worth in "low brow" books or shows and revisiting much loved classics; it can be pure escapism or devastatingly topical. Where there is little value we create our own; where there is great value, we add.
The idea of anyone, from outside or in, exploiting fanfiction for financial or other gain takes my breath away. I volunteered because I am not going to lie down and wait for the next attempt to use us.
A large organisation is the best way to go about this because we can all use our own strengths effectively instead of spending time wrestling with necessary but tedious tasks. I get to do my thing, financial do their thing, the two communications committees do their thing and we all give thanks that we don't have each others' jobs.
I'm on a committee because I put myself forward as willing to serve and was then invited to do so, having potentially useful skills. I put myself forward because I trust the people who started the initial discussion and the Board members. "By their fruits ye shall know them": all we have in fandom is what we give each other, and I am happy to put my faith in people who have already spent a great deal of time and energy on fannish community projects. I don't know any of the board or committee members well. I have probably corresponded with some of them in the past decade, because fandom is still a fairly small place, but effectively no one knows me from Adam.
Why AD&T?
I also volunteered to serve because I wanted a fan-run archive that would be easy to use and open to all, regardless of what, who or where, an archive that would take advantage of the greater flexibility and number of tools that are now available to us and that would have some longevity. Fragmentation and trying to hide in obscurity is not the only answer, and there is no existing software that can do everything we want to do. Being part of the AD&T committee means that I am helping to build this space. My particular focus is on accessibility in every sense of the word.
There is no hive mind here - within our small committee there are sometimes as many ideas on how to do things as there are people, and sometimes more! I think that we have all had our assumptions challenged and been shown wildly different perspectives on searching for, reading and posting fic. The others have had to put up with my appalling sense of humour into the bargain. I know that together we are building something great. That's me, the committee, the OTW and anyone and everyone who joins in further down the line.
cont...
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I'm a very quiet and mostly offline fan these days. It's coming up on ten years since I fell into fandom, and there have been years when it may have kept me sane and years when I didn't or couldn't look in at all. This is my real name. I have used it more consistently than any other name in fandom (never did get the hang of multiple identities outside the DCU), so it costs me nothing continue using it.
I haven't posted fic in a long time, and almost all my communication happens over email because I've always been a one-to-one person rather than one-to-many. I do have a Livejournal account (which). I use it purely for commenting on restricted story posts. There are no journal posts and it doesn't get much use. I am not anti-livejournal, but while I recognise that it is great for some people, it is unpleasant for me to use (both emotionally and in terms of user interface) and I avoid it where possible.
I am absolutely here for shallow and selfish reasons as well as the more important ones given above. I want to be able to fire up the feedreader on a rainy Sunday morning and have the good stuff delivered directly to my eyeballs. Politics and shenanigans I can and do get elsewhere. I value our community, especially how we learn from each other and set each other right when necessary, but I prefer to be able to choose when to see that kind of interaction. Few are the times when I can afford to lose three days to working out what the hell is going on.
I am willing to take questions in a personal capacity.
Alice Toulmin
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