I got here because of a friend who pointed out this post; before she did, I had never even heard of the OTW or AO3 or whatever those acronyms are. I had pretty much resigned myself to using FF.net and DrunkDuck/Smackjeeves to publish any fanwork because every other place I tried to publish had structure, security, server load, copyright or persistence issues.
I have written quite a lot of fanfiction and also drawn a quite long fan comic and am on the constant search for new, stable, legal, advertising-free places to host my works. So, discovering that this archive existed with the additional description of having a good, solid, mostly bug-free support structure had me interested.
Why do I bother to mention all that? Because, quite literally, this post is my first introduction to that service. And frankly, I'm feeling like it would probably be a waste of my time to invest the effort it would take to transfer the body of work I have created up until now onto what really seems to be hostile servers.
I am a fan of Star Trek and other western media too, by the way, but by and large I create stories and artwork for game and anime/manga genres. This is just not a heartening or welcoming introduction, and neither are those server names, which are always a good way to get a quick overview of a community makeup. I really don't want to have to spend time in a place where I have to feel like an unwelcome intruder on the Star Trek / US & British Sci-Fi TV Series fandoms. And that's basically what seeing this discussion being had at all does for me.
Technical competence goes a long way for forgiving social awkwardness. But not all the way.
As an aside, I wonder a bit at the OTW website. Given that the mission is to provide sanctuary for small segments of fandom, especially for the international community, I have to say the main site doesn't really give me that impression either.
"he Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) is a nonprofit organization established by fans to serve the interests of fans by providing access to and preserving the history of fanworks and fan culture in its myriad forms."
Now this right here means, quite simply to me, support structure for translating existing, well-established, dare I say even "famous" fanworks that have been around on the internet for a while.
Based on that admittedly biased interpretation, it seems kind of unwelcoming to have the whole shebang in English and then a few other languages listed on the side, only two of which appears to be non-Latin-based. A huge internet side of fandom is completely untapped by the West simply because not that many people can translate the big three: Chinese, Japanese, Korean. And this doesn't even touch on places like Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, etc, etc. It should be noted that traditionally, asian fandoms are not predominantely female-based, either; I don't think that kind of gender stereotyping happens in Asia quite as much as in the West. And I am not talking about just game / anime / manga / J-stuff fandoms, either - there are huge fandoms for things like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Mad Max and other traditionally western media in Asia, too. In terms of smaller groups, missing things like Arabic pop out to me, too.
Perhaps it would be more accurate to say, it's a site attempting to bring Western female-based fandom works to the rest of the world, not making "fandom" more accessible or legitimate.
no subject
I have written quite a lot of fanfiction and also drawn a quite long fan comic and am on the constant search for new, stable, legal, advertising-free places to host my works. So, discovering that this archive existed with the additional description of having a good, solid, mostly bug-free support structure had me interested.
Why do I bother to mention all that? Because, quite literally, this post is my first introduction to that service. And frankly, I'm feeling like it would probably be a waste of my time to invest the effort it would take to transfer the body of work I have created up until now onto what really seems to be hostile servers.
I am a fan of Star Trek and other western media too, by the way, but by and large I create stories and artwork for game and anime/manga genres. This is just not a heartening or welcoming introduction, and neither are those server names, which are always a good way to get a quick overview of a community makeup. I really don't want to have to spend time in a place where I have to feel like an unwelcome intruder on the Star Trek / US & British Sci-Fi TV Series fandoms. And that's basically what seeing this discussion being had at all does for me.
Technical competence goes a long way for forgiving social awkwardness. But not all the way.
As an aside, I wonder a bit at the OTW website. Given that the mission is to provide sanctuary for small segments of fandom, especially for the international community, I have to say the main site doesn't really give me that impression either.
"he Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) is a nonprofit organization established by fans to serve the interests of fans by providing access to and preserving the history of fanworks and fan culture in its myriad forms."
Now this right here means, quite simply to me, support structure for translating existing, well-established, dare I say even "famous" fanworks that have been around on the internet for a while.
Based on that admittedly biased interpretation, it seems kind of unwelcoming to have the whole shebang in English and then a few other languages listed on the side, only two of which appears to be non-Latin-based. A huge internet side of fandom is completely untapped by the West simply because not that many people can translate the big three: Chinese, Japanese, Korean. And this doesn't even touch on places like Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, etc, etc. It should be noted that traditionally, asian fandoms are not predominantely female-based, either; I don't think that kind of gender stereotyping happens in Asia quite as much as in the West. And I am not talking about just game / anime / manga / J-stuff fandoms, either - there are huge fandoms for things like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Mad Max and other traditionally western media in Asia, too. In terms of smaller groups, missing things like Arabic pop out to me, too.
Perhaps it would be more accurate to say, it's a site attempting to bring Western female-based fandom works to the rest of the world, not making "fandom" more accessible or legitimate.
Good luck with your struggles, in any regard.