Fandom: Doing it for ourselves

[lucyp]

Fandom is abuzz today with the news of the relaunched version of delicious - now 90% less useful! I don't have a whole lot to say that hasn't already been said at length elsewhere (I expended most of my energy writing the official Ao3 post), but seeing a great fannish resource like this in crisis is a great reminder of why I am a part of the OTW, and why I think it's worth running for Board. Delicious is a prime example of how commercial/general sites are used by fans in exciting and creative ways... and how that fannish work can quickly be lost or undermined by changes instituted by a provider who doesn't care about fans. Creating our own tools, hosted on our own servers, is the only way we can be sure of preserving all that fannish awesome (although happily fandom is like the hydra - it doesn't matter how many times platforms are pulled from under our feet, we'll always grow another head elsewhere).

I'm proud to be part of an organisation that is creating great tools like the AO3 and helping fans to build their own solutions. As julia_beck points out, the AO3 isn't the right platform for a complete Delicious replacement (even if we could offer the necessary upgrades, what about the meta, and fannish wank, and those random sites on the rate of bodily decomposition you looked up for that one fic...), but I think the OTW as a whole is a great symbol of the way fandom can create its own tools. ♥

Edited to add the link to Julia's post and the crucial words 'in crisis' without which the meaning of my sentence changed quite a lot!

Comments

[juniperphoenix]

Speaking of the official post, I thought it was excellent. I mean, the archive updates are always pretty good, but this one stood out to me as being exceptionally well done. Kudos! :)

[lucyp]

Awww, that's nice to know. I was pretty tired last night, so I wasn't sure! Although I did have some awesome betaing / collaboration in coders, so I can't take all the credit!

[jennyst]

Thank you for getting the public post out so quickly - that was great.

[lucyp]

Nice to be able to be topical! It's often hard to keep up, but that was nicely timed for me!