Boosting Signal [fandom related]

[lassarina]

Please do yourself a favour and do not take the fanfiction survey that is going around, being done by two guys who are claiming affiliation with Boston University.

The long version (excellent read) is here, and covers all the reasons why these people have no idea what they're doing and are using frankly sketchy data gathering techniques, but the

Comments

[syvia]

*mentioned you in my own signal boost*

*sighs* I know I should post the points again to get people's attention, but my concentration is shot.

[lassarina]

Hey, I got it from sister_coyote and strongly thought about just saying "go read hers," but then I decided I wanted to vent a little bit.

[syvia]

Venting is good~!

Hey, numbers 2-4 are support for all those science classes inflicted upon us during highschool/college. :3 People should understand this thing, and why it's bad- why scientific findings should be taken with a grain of salt.

And oh hey- how it is common practice to omit that one point of data that throws off your perfectly straight line.

We are that point of data, and guess what? There's more than one of us.

[lassarina]

Those science classes that make my poor historian's brain break out in hives, yeah. XD

I assume the only reason they can get away with this is because they are doing it for pop culture publishing rather than academic - their research review committee should have squashed this thing like the disgusting roach it is if they were trying to do it correctly. Instead, they're taking the lazy-ass's way out, so they don't have to *gasp* adhere to actual proper procedure.

[ovo_lexa]

Hey, look, a social experiment!

[lassarina]

I sure do love being treated as a data set!

[ovo_lexa]

let us say state clearly that we are not psychologists

Clearly! For among the first things you learn in psych 101 is how important informed consent is to gathering data and how fast your study goes down the drain if you mess it up even the slightest. ^_^

We are two cognitive neuroscientists

... huh. -_-

Although somehow I enjoy seeing fandom mobilize in response to situations like these. I do hope their little get-rich-quick book scheme goes under as a result of their own stupidity.

[lassarina]

I hope so too. I mean, *I* know about the informed consent and I never took any psych classes. (I did have to participate in Linguistics studies--200-level linguistics classes at NU typically require you to go play nice with the grad students for a while if you want to pass the class--so I've seen the nice informed consent deals.)

Permission check

[auronlu]

May I quote (credited) your post on my non-fandom LJ, in an flocked post?

You summarized the cogent points more coherently than I could.

Re: Permission check

[lassarina]

Of course! Pretty much, anything I post publicly is free game for quoting with credit, but thank you very much for asking anyway :)

Re: Permission check

[auronlu]

Okie! I nearly posted without checking first, assuming as much, but assumptions are part of what makes this survey suck! (Although at least in this case, I have some familiarity with the subject about whom I'm making the assumptions).

Re: Permission check

[lassarina]

It's one of those things I keep meaning to get round to posting in my user info, and perpetually forget :)

[arex]

Next on MSNBC, How to Catch a Fanfic Writer.

[syvia]

Finding them and making them pay for their copyright infringement. Even though they're not making any money off it and the source writers encourage fanfic.

[lassarina]

I mean I think it definitely depends on what fandoms you play in. Authors who've specifically asked for no fanfic--George RR Martin, Nora Roberts, Archie Comics, etc.--probably care a lot more than Squeenix, or certain fabulous authors of whom I know whose stance is "Don't show it to me, don't ask me about it for legal reasons, but do whatever you want on your own time."

[syvia]

*nod* Anne Rice, Laurell K. Hamilton. I'm not sure who else I know of but those two prohibit the fanfic.

Happily so many others are cool about it, see it as a compliment and perhaps so far as to be an advertizing technique. I know I like to go after the source material once I've seen a really good fanfic. Quite often, that involves buying something. Word gets around, and sales go up.

Hell- some fandoms have published fanfic. Star Wars, Star Trek, The Sandman. Lucky are the ones who get paid for showing their love~ XD

:/ If something of mine had fanfic written about it, I think I'd feel the same way. "I didn't see that, and you didn't try to show it to me."

[elfwreck]

This post has been included in a linkspam roundup.

[lassarina]

Thank you for letting me know! Also, I'm flattered that it was worthy of inclusion :)