Heh, funny you mention this. When discussing the topic further with lian I theorized that some of the different perceptions could stem from the cesura that happened with the rise of blogs. Before, fandom was kind of centralized on the net. If one wanted to find fellow fans, usually there were one or two main mailing lists, and if the fandom was big a few additional e-groups, as well as a handful of archives. A few people maintained their own websites, but interaction usually was limited to bigger fan-hubs. And of course, design, layout etc. were secondary, unless you happen to be the web master.
That structure has changed entirely, at least in my corner of fandom. Younger fans grew up with highly customizable blogs where they can get fanfiction delivered through subscriptions or feeds, where they can give and get instant feedback, and where they have a large amount of control over their circles. In addition, webforums have emerged as second big meeting place, also highly customizable and with neat tools to play around with, and also able to serve as archives for stories or fanart.
It's pretty hard to compete with that, especially, if the fan looking for fanfiction on AO3 has no idea what this project is about and compares soley on what he is used to.
no subject
Heh, funny you mention this. When discussing the topic further with
That structure has changed entirely, at least in my corner of fandom. Younger fans grew up with highly customizable blogs where they can get fanfiction delivered through subscriptions or feeds, where they can give and get instant feedback, and where they have a large amount of control over their circles. In addition, webforums have emerged as second big meeting place, also highly customizable and with neat tools to play around with, and also able to serve as archives for stories or fanart.
It's pretty hard to compete with that, especially, if the fan looking for fanfiction on AO3 has no idea what this project is about and compares soley on what he is used to.