I was someone who participated in Yuletide, which was, obviously, entirely AO3-based this year. I've had next to no experience with AO3 other than Yuletide, but I have to admit that I was seriously confused by some of the fandoms that were included- and were considered small enough to be- and some of them that weren't. This really isn't the big issue, but it brought to my attention that AO3 has basically nothing from any of my fandoms on it at all- in fact, other than Yuletide, I hadn't even really hard anything about it. It probably bears mentioning that I am in Jpop fandoms, and these fandoms have not traditionally been something that the archives have focused on. (Seriously, for Yuletide, I ended up writing something in a fandom so freaking HUGE I was laughing the whole time I wrote it, because obviously the only numbers anyone considered were on AO3 and nobody checked to look at LJ or other places to where this fic would have been.)
Which is actually really sad, because given what I know about my fandoms, you could really get an audience here if you sold it the right way. My fandom is basically 100% on Livejournal- and given LJ's current problems, strikethrough, and more recently, the fact that a LOT of people in my fandom have uncovered some issues with LJ's staff through (of all places) a fandom hate meme, you've got a large number of people who are probably unhappy enough to try a move, only no one has offered any other options. Because fandom stays on LJ, we stay on LJ.
This isn't really anyone's fault. It's hard to migrate a fandom. It's just that AO3 has never even been something brought up, really? I wonder why it is that it's so Western-based, and again, I don't think this is anyone's fault at all, but it's something to note. I'm not really sure how you could cater to non-Western fans, and this might be something you already have, but is it possible to make tags using non-Latin characters? Because I know that people would possibly want to create tags using Japanese/Korean/Chinese characters, and I didn't know if this was an option. If it is, ignore this! If not, maybe it is something to think about, if you did want to try reaching out to non-Western fandoms?
Anyway, my main problem with AO3 really doesn't have anything to do with the site- mostly it had to do with the incredibly bizarre choices in fandoms to include in Yuletide, and it's sort of unfortunate that AO3 is what I associated this problem with, simply because of where it was hosted. Traditionally Yuletide was where I went to try and get some fic from fandoms that see very, very few fics posted per year: smaller Final Fantasy games (I-VI) and Chrono Trigger/Cross. Instead of including these tiny fandoms, Yuletide included some HUGE fandoms that simply aren't on AO3 and therefore looked miniscule, but in absolutely NO way are. Since I've done Yuletide for 4 years, this made me sad to see these go in and out of being included on Yuletide's sign-ups. Again, this has nothing to do with AO3, I don't think, but since it's my only real experience with AO3, I thought it bore mentioning.
I'm sorry I can't be helpful with offering ideas of what you could do to draw in the non-Western crowds. :( My fandom is, again, 100% based on Livejournal. In fact, it's pretty well consolidated there. The communities are really what keep us there, because you can post to communities that are relevant to your particular sub-genre or group in the wider, over-arching fandom of Johnny's Entertainment and it keeps things split up, mostly by group or pairing. Since this is pretty important to most people, I'm assuming this is why LJ has worked so well for us. Again, this is probably not helpful, but there's my 2 cents.
Thanks for making this post- I got directed here by a friend. I think you are really doing something by trying to get change rolling within an organization (you and the people you are working with). :))) <3
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Which is actually really sad, because given what I know about my fandoms, you could really get an audience here if you sold it the right way. My fandom is basically 100% on Livejournal- and given LJ's current problems, strikethrough, and more recently, the fact that a LOT of people in my fandom have uncovered some issues with LJ's staff through (of all places) a fandom hate meme, you've got a large number of people who are probably unhappy enough to try a move, only no one has offered any other options. Because fandom stays on LJ, we stay on LJ.
This isn't really anyone's fault. It's hard to migrate a fandom. It's just that AO3 has never even been something brought up, really? I wonder why it is that it's so Western-based, and again, I don't think this is anyone's fault at all, but it's something to note. I'm not really sure how you could cater to non-Western fans, and this might be something you already have, but is it possible to make tags using non-Latin characters? Because I know that people would possibly want to create tags using Japanese/Korean/Chinese characters, and I didn't know if this was an option. If it is, ignore this! If not, maybe it is something to think about, if you did want to try reaching out to non-Western fandoms?
Anyway, my main problem with AO3 really doesn't have anything to do with the site- mostly it had to do with the incredibly bizarre choices in fandoms to include in Yuletide, and it's sort of unfortunate that AO3 is what I associated this problem with, simply because of where it was hosted. Traditionally Yuletide was where I went to try and get some fic from fandoms that see very, very few fics posted per year: smaller Final Fantasy games (I-VI) and Chrono Trigger/Cross. Instead of including these tiny fandoms, Yuletide included some HUGE fandoms that simply aren't on AO3 and therefore looked miniscule, but in absolutely NO way are. Since I've done Yuletide for 4 years, this made me sad to see these go in and out of being included on Yuletide's sign-ups. Again, this has nothing to do with AO3, I don't think, but since it's my only real experience with AO3, I thought it bore mentioning.
I'm sorry I can't be helpful with offering ideas of what you could do to draw in the non-Western crowds. :( My fandom is, again, 100% based on Livejournal. In fact, it's pretty well consolidated there. The communities are really what keep us there, because you can post to communities that are relevant to your particular sub-genre or group in the wider, over-arching fandom of Johnny's Entertainment and it keeps things split up, mostly by group or pairing. Since this is pretty important to most people, I'm assuming this is why LJ has worked so well for us. Again, this is probably not helpful, but there's my 2 cents.
Thanks for making this post- I got directed here by a friend. I think you are really doing something by trying to get change rolling within an organization (you and the people you are working with). :))) <3