Are you using feeds here?
1) I saw that Smart Bitches was asking readers what social media platforms they use. Reading the responses reminded me that I so rarely see people talk about how Dreamwidth being an RSS feed reader is an enormous benefit! I read content here from standalone blogs, news services, LJ, Tumblr, AO3, and so on, all in one place. It made me curious -- how many people here use feeds? There seems to be a very long list of them active but only about 250 have more than 9 readers (and who knows how many of those subscribed are even still active on this site).
2) Speaking of feeds, I'm pulling back from using Tumblr. I'll keep my account for use with things like Buffyversetop5, but between DW and PF and trying to learn what I can do with Hubzilla, it's a bit much to be checking all these accounts daily. As a result, I've started some feeds at Hubzilla and a few new ones here to keep up with accounts I was following there.
3) Over on Pillowfort, someone linked to a post about authors complaining about being exposed to reader insults and negativity about their work. They raised various points for discussion. First, there was the general question of behavior with commercial authors vs fandom creators (since I think this holds true for artists, vidders, podficcers, etc.) The second is in terms of user education regarding how to do things online.
Mostly it came down to "should professional authors expect different treatment than anyone else gets online?" In short, no I don't think so. I do think that etiquette is different within fandom than with a commercial product. If I return an item to a store that I've found defective or which doesn't suit my needs and then write about it, this is likely a service to other consumers. An entertainment product is still a product, and selling something raises expectations about its quality. Plus, anyone creating one can not only expect to be professionally reviewed, they hope to because it's generally part of their marketing. (Obviously they'd prefer the review be good since it affects their bottom line).
By comparison, even though many fandoms are far too big for most people to know one another by name, reputation, or anything else, it's still quite possible that people will encounter one another, whether by doing a challenge together, enjoying one another's work, friends of friends, at a con, etc. And fanworks are, as part of their definition, amateur if not non-commercial works. It's a place full of people trying things out for the first time, and a good many people create things just so they can participate and feel part of something. So while I do feel the "only say positive things" directive is often too strict, (I've seen some people get irritated at having a typo pointed out), on the whole I think that it's the right lane to take. My personal feeling is that fandom should be a place of encouragement just as most amateur spaces should be, because it's not like people have any reason to take part other than the good feelings they take away from it.
The issue about the use of @ is, I think, somewhat separate. We all know that a lot of people are spiteful and mean spirited enough to harass a stranger about something they didn't like even when that person isn't selling something. So I do think that a lot of it is intentional, and I don't think it's productive. But I also think that the age of apps has made a lot of people extremely ignorant about how platforms work (even when they use it regularly). I personally use Twitter only to read, and check my feed once every few days. But I would assume it's perfectly possible for people not to read messages directed at them, isn't it? Authors with a professional account (which, if I were them, I would definitely separate from my personal ones) could just make it broadcast only, couldn't they?
Because I know that a lot of creators do enjoy having someone doing an even partially specific review of their work, but that's more work for the person doing it (and often impossible if they're doing a lot of reading or scrolling) so it's a rare thing to receive. In an amateur group this might be done as part of a return service for the free content they're getting, or just as their own way of participating in the fandom or establishing an identity. But in a professional context there's little to expect in return other than to get the author's attention. And if an author regularly reads and responds to people as a way of developing a market for their product, then they need to figure out a way of dealing with unhappy customers that goes beyond expecting them to follow certain etiquette. A good salesperson tries to turn an unhappy customer into a repeat customer, or at least the confrontation into something more positive.
Now it seems that many people don't want to think of books as products or authors as salespeople, but I would be willing to bet that their publishers most certainly do. And if they're self-published they're probably under no delusion whatsoever that they have to be their own marketer and to think of their book sales in a retail way. It's a rare author these days who doesn't have to deal with the public, whether it's marketing their work through major media, social media, or doing book signings. And it's often been the case that any publicity is better than none. The Mary Sue ran a horrifying press release for Megan Trainor. But I would beg to differ with them about its effectiveness because they wrote a whole article about it with a photo featuring the singer.
In short, don't be precious about your work, and people being rude on the Internet is dog bites man at this point. Fan writers who aren't even marketing their work go through worse, because they may get harassed within their own community and also get dumped on by everyone outside of fandom.
4) I recently watched the film Monster and quite liked its approach. As I expected it was sentimental with a happy ending, but what was different is that it didn't just focus on the boy with a physical deformity but many of the people around him - his overlooked sister, her oldest friend, his first school friend, and his mother and bully each got their own scenes. The one person who seemed particularly underdeveloped was his father, but his personality was evident.
The importance of the ripples in the pond was made clear in the final minutes of the film. But I think we'd all have liked to go to a school with a teacher and principal like that.
5) Nabbed from Petzi, I find this story about workplace intrusion into employee activity, particularly the gathering of data on them, seriously alarming.
In general, employees in such programs voluntarily sign up for digital health monitoring. They are lured by cash, reduced premiums, or reimbursements for co-payments and deductibles, which have skyrocketed for many people with insurance. The devices are handed out free or discounted.
Their employers and insurance companies are hungry for the resulting explosion of information about their workers. Around 20 percent of employers who offer health insurance collected data last year from their employees’ wearable devices, up from 14 percent in 2017, according to an annual survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Given that the article already makes note that younger "healthier" employees don't take part, this seems like an excellent way of enacting age discrimination while claiming it's something else. I hope there will be many resulting lawsuits.
This is yet one more -- of many! -- reasons why health insurance needs to be divorced from employment. I particularly love the fact that at no point does the article take the employers to task for working conditions. No surprise, for example, that the company accountant spends a lot of time at his desk. Why would he be moving around, it's not part of his work process! If you want him to be more mobile, how about changing the nature of his job, making him job share with someone who spends all day on their feet and could use some time in a chair?
Also, standing desks have shown no improvement over sitting but I guess it saves the employers money for ergonomic office chairs which are pretty pricey. I can't wait to hear the explanation for how this whole effort to "improve" employee's health doesn't end up discriminating against job applicants with disabilities.
View poll: Kudos Footer-21
Comments at Dreamwidth
.
2) Speaking of feeds, I'm pulling back from using Tumblr. I'll keep my account for use with things like Buffyversetop5, but between DW and PF and trying to learn what I can do with Hubzilla, it's a bit much to be checking all these accounts daily. As a result, I've started some feeds at Hubzilla and a few new ones here to keep up with accounts I was following there.
3) Over on Pillowfort, someone linked to a post about authors complaining about being exposed to reader insults and negativity about their work. They raised various points for discussion. First, there was the general question of behavior with commercial authors vs fandom creators (since I think this holds true for artists, vidders, podficcers, etc.) The second is in terms of user education regarding how to do things online.
Mostly it came down to "should professional authors expect different treatment than anyone else gets online?" In short, no I don't think so. I do think that etiquette is different within fandom than with a commercial product. If I return an item to a store that I've found defective or which doesn't suit my needs and then write about it, this is likely a service to other consumers. An entertainment product is still a product, and selling something raises expectations about its quality. Plus, anyone creating one can not only expect to be professionally reviewed, they hope to because it's generally part of their marketing. (Obviously they'd prefer the review be good since it affects their bottom line).
By comparison, even though many fandoms are far too big for most people to know one another by name, reputation, or anything else, it's still quite possible that people will encounter one another, whether by doing a challenge together, enjoying one another's work, friends of friends, at a con, etc. And fanworks are, as part of their definition, amateur if not non-commercial works. It's a place full of people trying things out for the first time, and a good many people create things just so they can participate and feel part of something. So while I do feel the "only say positive things" directive is often too strict, (I've seen some people get irritated at having a typo pointed out), on the whole I think that it's the right lane to take. My personal feeling is that fandom should be a place of encouragement just as most amateur spaces should be, because it's not like people have any reason to take part other than the good feelings they take away from it.
The issue about the use of @ is, I think, somewhat separate. We all know that a lot of people are spiteful and mean spirited enough to harass a stranger about something they didn't like even when that person isn't selling something. So I do think that a lot of it is intentional, and I don't think it's productive. But I also think that the age of apps has made a lot of people extremely ignorant about how platforms work (even when they use it regularly). I personally use Twitter only to read, and check my feed once every few days. But I would assume it's perfectly possible for people not to read messages directed at them, isn't it? Authors with a professional account (which, if I were them, I would definitely separate from my personal ones) could just make it broadcast only, couldn't they?
Because I know that a lot of creators do enjoy having someone doing an even partially specific review of their work, but that's more work for the person doing it (and often impossible if they're doing a lot of reading or scrolling) so it's a rare thing to receive. In an amateur group this might be done as part of a return service for the free content they're getting, or just as their own way of participating in the fandom or establishing an identity. But in a professional context there's little to expect in return other than to get the author's attention. And if an author regularly reads and responds to people as a way of developing a market for their product, then they need to figure out a way of dealing with unhappy customers that goes beyond expecting them to follow certain etiquette. A good salesperson tries to turn an unhappy customer into a repeat customer, or at least the confrontation into something more positive.
Now it seems that many people don't want to think of books as products or authors as salespeople, but I would be willing to bet that their publishers most certainly do. And if they're self-published they're probably under no delusion whatsoever that they have to be their own marketer and to think of their book sales in a retail way. It's a rare author these days who doesn't have to deal with the public, whether it's marketing their work through major media, social media, or doing book signings. And it's often been the case that any publicity is better than none. The Mary Sue ran a horrifying press release for Megan Trainor. But I would beg to differ with them about its effectiveness because they wrote a whole article about it with a photo featuring the singer.
In short, don't be precious about your work, and people being rude on the Internet is dog bites man at this point. Fan writers who aren't even marketing their work go through worse, because they may get harassed within their own community and also get dumped on by everyone outside of fandom.
4) I recently watched the film Monster and quite liked its approach. As I expected it was sentimental with a happy ending, but what was different is that it didn't just focus on the boy with a physical deformity but many of the people around him - his overlooked sister, her oldest friend, his first school friend, and his mother and bully each got their own scenes. The one person who seemed particularly underdeveloped was his father, but his personality was evident.
The importance of the ripples in the pond was made clear in the final minutes of the film. But I think we'd all have liked to go to a school with a teacher and principal like that.
5) Nabbed from Petzi, I find this story about workplace intrusion into employee activity, particularly the gathering of data on them, seriously alarming.
In general, employees in such programs voluntarily sign up for digital health monitoring. They are lured by cash, reduced premiums, or reimbursements for co-payments and deductibles, which have skyrocketed for many people with insurance. The devices are handed out free or discounted.
Their employers and insurance companies are hungry for the resulting explosion of information about their workers. Around 20 percent of employers who offer health insurance collected data last year from their employees’ wearable devices, up from 14 percent in 2017, according to an annual survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Given that the article already makes note that younger "healthier" employees don't take part, this seems like an excellent way of enacting age discrimination while claiming it's something else. I hope there will be many resulting lawsuits.
This is yet one more -- of many! -- reasons why health insurance needs to be divorced from employment. I particularly love the fact that at no point does the article take the employers to task for working conditions. No surprise, for example, that the company accountant spends a lot of time at his desk. Why would he be moving around, it's not part of his work process! If you want him to be more mobile, how about changing the nature of his job, making him job share with someone who spends all day on their feet and could use some time in a chair?
Also, standing desks have shown no improvement over sitting but I guess it saves the employers money for ergonomic office chairs which are pretty pricey. I can't wait to hear the explanation for how this whole effort to "improve" employee's health doesn't end up discriminating against job applicants with disabilities.
View poll: Kudos Footer-21
Comments at Dreamwidth
.