Enlighten me, please?

[ladywhizbee]

Do any of you know anything about this fanfiction archive:

Archive of Our Own

I've begun to see more and more stories on LJ linked to this site. The format reminds me a bit of FanFiction.net in that every fandom is accounted for (in much smaller quantities) but all of the stories I've read so far have been really, really good (or mostly so).

There is

Comments

[zia_montrose]

From what little I've been told, it's as open and beta-less as FFN, but seems to draw a higher caliber author. I've never even stopped by to check it out.

[ladywhizbee]

It certainly doesn't seem as haphazard as FFN. Perhaps it is the slightly complicated membership process that deters the fly-by-nights versus the more serious author? Either way, I'm surprised that I'm just now learning of it!

[magglenagall]

AO3 is a project of the Organization for Transformative Works, founded several years ago to promote and preserve "fan culture" (Fanlore is another one of their projects).

One of the main driving forces behind AO3 is to provide a permanent home for fanwork - just fic at this point, I think, but I believe they hope to include art, video, etc. down the road. So to that end they've been offering hosting space for endangered archives and personal Web sites (such as when Geocities shut down for good a couple of years ago) plus big fests like Yuletide, which has been hosted there since 2009, I think. It's open to anybody, once you can get a membership code, and as far as I know there are no submission standards.

(This is all very basic FYI. I'm not a fan of OTW or AO3 and thus not interested in promoting them, but I'm not going to tell you to avoid them like the plague, either.)

[ladywhizbee]

(This is all very basic FYI. I'm not a fan of OTW or AO3 and thus not interested in promoting them, but I'm not going to tell you to avoid them like the plague, either.)

Well now you've piqued my interest! Do you not approve of the site for some reason or are you just not interested in it as an archive?

[magglenagall]

There are a lot of little things I disagree with and dislike about OTW & co., but the fundamental reason behind them all is that I'm uncomfortable with the idea of "mainstreaming" fandom and fan culture to the extent that there needs to be a semblance of permanence, of legitimacy, to it. I like the ephemeral nature of fandom and my participation in it, I like its underground, subculture, bootleg aspects, and do not see the point in being dragged out into the full light of day.

I also have a serious bug up my butt about the word "transformative" and the way it's been co-opted by certain segments of fandom, but that's more of a collateral rant.

[ladywhizbee]

ACK! I totally lost my first response to your comment, and now I have to regenerate it. Which sucks because it was so much more succinct than this. Grrr...! I apologize

[megan29]

Yay! Two posts in two days!

I have nothing interesting to add to your post, since I never heard of those sites. And while I find your discussion with magglenagall very interesting, I don't have an opinion of my own to contribute (shocking, ain't it?). I could agree with both points of view. :-)

There is a joke (that you may have heard) about two plaintiffs coming to king Solomon to settle their dispute. He hears the first one and says, "You are right." The second one then refutes what the first one said and argues for his pov. King Solomon says, "You are right." One of his advisors whispers in his ear, "But your highness, you cannot say that they are both right. You must choose one side." King Solomon replies, "You, too, are right."

[ladywhizbee]

LOL! So true, so true.

[luna_plath]

I like AO3. It feels more organized than ff.net, and the way the site is run seems to more closely reflect the wishes of the users. ff.net feels so sprawling and crazy to me. AO3 does seem to attract more serious authors, and I do think it has to do with waiting for codes. It'll be interesting to see how that site develops as it gains popularity. I'm thinking of adding my work to that archive because so far LJ is my main posting/sharing universe, and while I love livejournal I hate some their decisions. I don't trust them to listen to their users.

Fanlore is...odd? I feel like it takes away from the mystery of fandom. I like the gratification of hunting for something and finding it. It's like discovering what you love about your fandom all over again, and if someone were to map it all out for me it wouldn't be as rewarding.

[ladywhizbee]

I like the organization and 'smallness' of AO3--it feels legitimate somehow. I'm sure that this feeling is also bolstered by the quality of the fics, though. I'm pretty confident that if all the fics were crap I would brush it all of as a fluke! I've put my name on the waiting list for an invite. I'll be curious to see how long it takes.

The scavenger hunt is part of the fun isn't it? I also enjoy that...I don't mind having a repository for what is known, but I also enjoy the mystery of the hunt, too. A combination of both perhaps? Or perhaps it all comes down to personal taste for the searcher. I think (deep down) I love having access to both. There's something oddly satisfying about that.

BTW, did you find a good beta for your GoT story?

[luna_plath]

Hmm. When I signed up it took less time than the website initially said, which was a nice surprise. The quality of writing is definitely a factor of why I like AO3.

I guess it's hard for me to buy the idea of fandom as this coherent thing...I feel like it's too organic for that. I do think it's useful to have all the lists/timelines for fests and fandom resources. I guess I will always just assume that there's more out there than what you initially think. I've found some of the most amazing stories in the little weird corners of the internet, and I can't imagine another site being able to track/duplicate that.

Unfortunately no, not yet. The fest doesn't specifically require me to have one, but since it's a gift I would feel bad if I turned it in with errors/sloppy composition. It's around 3,500 words (give or take a hundred for the ending) if you know anyone who would be interested.

[ladywhizbee]

I'm so sorry I've been so slow getting back to you! I meant to tell you that I would be happy to look your fest-piece over for plot, character and composition (I'm only in the middle of Storm of Swords, though, if this matters). I'm not reliable with grammar so I wouldn't want to be relied on for that one component. However, I do have several fantastic betas that I use frequently--would you like for me to shop it to them?

3,500ish words...what characters (Jon!?!) and rating is it? (I don't think this will matter, but they might ask)