I started to post a reply, and it grew and kept growing, so I made a post instead. Is mostly squee; I love the OTW's dedication to diversity.
I don't love the *results* of that dedication, which have been erratic and sometimes invisible, and I want to put those thoughts in another post. (My fandoms: filk and tabletop RPGs. Those may have to be two separate posts, because the OTW fails to support them in very different ways.)
I don't think OTW's had the wrong approach with "if you want your interests addressed, come tell us what they are"--but I think they've reached about the end of the usefulness of that approach. That was reasonable during set-up, while they were finding their place and building an infrastructure; also doing outreach in a few dozen directions (few hundred, maybe? eep.) would be too much.
However. There's an infrastructure now, and it's potentially still flexible enough to allow for all those other parts of fandom that got set aside, if the current arrangement isn't allowed to ossify. And now, the OTW should be ready to do outreach, not just "come find us." I'm looking forward with much hope that the OTW can start expanding its scope.
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I don't love the *results* of that dedication, which have been erratic and sometimes invisible, and I want to put those thoughts in another post. (My fandoms: filk and tabletop RPGs. Those may have to be two separate posts, because the OTW fails to support them in very different ways.)
I don't think OTW's had the wrong approach with "if you want your interests addressed, come tell us what they are"--but I think they've reached about the end of the usefulness of that approach. That was reasonable during set-up, while they were finding their place and building an infrastructure; also doing outreach in a few dozen directions (few hundred, maybe? eep.) would be too much.
However. There's an infrastructure now, and it's potentially still flexible enough to allow for all those other parts of fandom that got set aside, if the current arrangement isn't allowed to ossify. And now, the OTW should be ready to do outreach, not just "come find us." I'm looking forward with much hope that the OTW can start expanding its scope.