Something that's been confusing me about 'recent' changes in fandom:

[hmpf]

fandom seems to have moved to livejournal almost completely, even for those things that aren't necessarily best served by LJ. In fact, very little except the pure socialising part of fandom - which is, of course, an important part, no contest about that! - is *really* best served by LJ. Forums are better suited for discussion, since they allow

Comments

I so agree with you about archiving and the pace of LJ.

[trascendenza]

Here from metafandomWell, being as I'm a person who's incredibly *obsessed* with archiving and making my work accessible, I probably can't be very helpful. *g* But I do solely archive on LJ (well, I had a brief stint on FF.net, but eventually I gave up on that account

Oh, I love LJ, too, absolutely!

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It's the best tool for fannish social interaction we've ever had, bar none.

It's just not the best place for keeping our creative output. And I just don't understand the 'either or' mentality regarding LJ and other places for posting fic. I mean, why not post first to LJ (for the instant feedback, for the great discussion and interaction etc.) and then post to a couple of archives, too? (Rhetorical question for fandom-at-large, not addressed to you specifically, because you do seem to understand where I'm coming from.)

And, using tags and memories intelligenly, a reasonably useful archive could even be hosted on LJ, as a community - it's not so much the independent website format that I'm after here, but the idea of an easily searchable, central place for all or at least most of the fic in a fandom.

Re: Oh, I love LJ, too, absolutely!

[trascendenza]

It's just not the best place for keeping our creative output.
Definitely agreed.

Ahhh, yes, the searching problem. LJ irritates me to no end with that. But if fanarchive ever does get off the ground and will let users post simultaneously to the archive and LJ at the same time, I would definitely go for that. I just have problems posting to more than one place at once (like, when I was on a forum everyday--I'd sometimes post drabbles there and only think about re-posting to LJ months later). I need something that will let me archive multiple places with one entry field, otherwise, I'll never keep up.

[neverenoughjam]

It's not that I want my stuff to be inaccessible. I want to control it, as 6beforelunch says. I do post my fic in forums/archives other than LJ, but this is MY space and I control what I post here. Maybe someday I'll write a story not acceptable by the guidelines/rules in some archive; I can post it on LJ. Maybe I write an unpopular story, and would prefer to screen out the outraged flamers in favor of people with something constructive to say. I can do that on LJ. For me, it's all about the control. :)

Okay, that's an argument I've seen a few times, too -

[hmpf]

and one I have to admit I don't 'get', either. Why is control such a big issue nowadays? (Or has it always been, and I just never noticed?) What's the horrible thing that could happen if you put a story in an archive? Because I honestly can't think of anything horrible at all that could happen, except perhaps for the archive to go down, eventually. But the same could happen to LJ, couldn't it? It's a big site, but, who knows. And if it (the archive) does go down, well, who's to stop you from posting your stuff elsewhere? In fact, who's to stop you from posting to several places at once, just to make sure at least *one* copy of your story remains accessible somewhere in the wide world of the web? Redundancy and backup

Reply-o-rama, part one

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>I think it... I think it kind of is! Easily accessible, I mean. Easier than trying to navigate groups and stuff. And not all archives are...have you ever used trekiverse? My god. Ow

Re: Reply-o-rama, part two

[hmpf]

>You don't have to put up with things you're not into

Re: Reply-o-rama, part one

[aka_arduinna]

Here, rather belatedly, via the metafandom delicious.

I'm in pretty much total agreement with you about LJ (except I miss mailing lists, which I'm better suited to than forums), and I'm also in agreement with the suggestion to try del.icio.us -- I went from being basically cut off from fandom for years because I can't deal with reading LJ, to suddenly being able to find stories in as many fandoms as I wanted. I'm still cut off from most discussion, but at least I've got the fic (and the vids, for that matter).

If you're interested, I wrote up a tutorial a few weeks back for fans wanting to learn about del.icio.us, which I'm told was useful for folks, even people who'd been using it for a while (the interface isn't all that intuitive at first glance). The preliminary overview and brief tutorial are here: http://aka-arduinna.livejournal.com/9837.html , and the detailed, step-by-step tutorial is here: http://trickster.org/arduinna/delicious.html(I've also got a couple of LJ-related essays up on my essays page, which are cranky and

[danceswithgary]

I would never have started and would not be writing today if not for LJ. I freely admit that I do depend on feedback to assist me in my writing and to keep me motivated. I'm shallow like that

Getting the fic out there...

[hmpf]

>Getting the fic out there is what's important

[carmarthen]

And I don't *understand* the attitude behind it, either. I mean, *why* would people not want their fic to find the widest possible readership?

Personally, I post my fic to my personal site and to LJ (and the Pit O'Voles, every now and then). I post links in communities whenever possible. I have never put anything in other people's archives anymore aside from challenges, and didn't much to start with.

Yes, wider submission would = wider readership. But I want to know that I, myself, can take down most of my fic if I need to for some reason. Fic posted to archives is at the mercy of the maintainer, who may drop off the face of the 'net, or who may not respect removal requests.

So there's one possible reason. If I didn't have a personal website, my fic *would* only be on the Pit and my LJ (I am very multifannish and tend towards small fandoms; most of my fic isn't appropriate for the vast majority of archives, as well).