I use AO3. A little. Not because it's visible in my current fandoms, because hell no, it isn't, but because I got to know about it when the talk about starting it began and I was in a completely different and hugely popular Western fandom.
Frankly, I haven't bothered with the OTW side of things, simply because it both felt and looked too heavy and... pompous? when I tried to find and read any posts or bulletins or announcements. And the announcements felt very announcement-y, if that makes sense. Transparency? Transparency means (to me) that I get to see inside the machine, that there's a pane of glass at least on one side where I can look in and see "oh, so this is how it works? this is how they they do it?" Transparency (to me) also means that fans have time to voice concerns before things are set in stone and irreversible because of "oh noes" reasons. Transparency (for me) isn't saying "oh hai, we did this and let us give you a crumb of reason for it and now we can't change it" like LJ does it. Transparency (for me) is "this is what we want to do, and why, and now we're wondering what you think about it, to see if we can do this in the best possible way for everyone involved" like DW does it! Long story short: I didn't even see the poll because I'd already given up.
Seeing the shortlists here though... I can't do anything else but facepalm. No one actually realised that NOT setting the three most popular Star Trek names against each other meant that they'd each win their category? Really? The org actually thought that names known by a handful of people on the archive could stand up against the many Kirk or Spock fans, or fans of Dr Who? Colour me a little unimpressed. It's so clear! I mean... it's not even a fair chance! If you want a fun "celeb death match", you set up names that are at least somewhat on equal levels, somewhat equal power, somewhat equal skills, etc. Who would be surprised to see a heavy weight champion beat a light weight guy, even if he happens to be a champ among his own? *shakes head* This actually disappoints me. Diversity doesn't just happen because you (generic you) say that you want it. Diversity doesn't seek you out.
I'll keep using AO3 for posting my fanworks, because I like the archive as such. I like the posting interface. I like that it was remarkably easy to get a new fandom put up in the list, and that someone bothered to check on it and put in a year for the movie in question. I was positively surprised and pleased by that when it happened. But after reading this post, I think I won't bother putting my works from earlier popular Western fandoms like Harry Potter there. I'm sure there's enough of those already and posting more won't help anyone. But I will post what I write for the JRock and anime/manga fandoms I write in. Diversity, right? But damn, it shouldn't be that hard to get volunteers or appoint people to find big comms or boards or whatever for a number of underrepresented fandoms and let people know the archive exist! *sigh*
Anyway, thank you for this post and for trying to show a little of what goes on behind the scenes, and thank you for being the only person trying to include the "outsider" fandoms.
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Frankly, I haven't bothered with the OTW side of things, simply because it both felt and looked too heavy and... pompous? when I tried to find and read any posts or bulletins or announcements. And the announcements felt very announcement-y, if that makes sense. Transparency? Transparency means (to me) that I get to see inside the machine, that there's a pane of glass at least on one side where I can look in and see "oh, so this is how it works? this is how they they do it?" Transparency (to me) also means that fans have time to voice concerns before things are set in stone and irreversible because of "oh noes" reasons. Transparency (for me) isn't saying "oh hai, we did this and let us give you a crumb of reason for it and now we can't change it" like LJ does it. Transparency (for me) is "this is what we want to do, and why, and now we're wondering what you think about it, to see if we can do this in the best possible way for everyone involved" like DW does it! Long story short: I didn't even see the poll because I'd already given up.
Seeing the shortlists here though... I can't do anything else but facepalm. No one actually realised that NOT setting the three most popular Star Trek names against each other meant that they'd each win their category? Really? The org actually thought that names known by a handful of people on the archive could stand up against the many Kirk or Spock fans, or fans of Dr Who? Colour me a little unimpressed. It's so clear! I mean... it's not even a fair chance! If you want a fun "celeb death match", you set up names that are at least somewhat on equal levels, somewhat equal power, somewhat equal skills, etc. Who would be surprised to see a heavy weight champion beat a light weight guy, even if he happens to be a champ among his own? *shakes head* This actually disappoints me. Diversity doesn't just happen because you (generic you) say that you want it. Diversity doesn't seek you out.
I'll keep using AO3 for posting my fanworks, because I like the archive as such. I like the posting interface. I like that it was remarkably easy to get a new fandom put up in the list, and that someone bothered to check on it and put in a year for the movie in question. I was positively surprised and pleased by that when it happened. But after reading this post, I think I won't bother putting my works from earlier popular Western fandoms like Harry Potter there. I'm sure there's enough of those already and posting more won't help anyone. But I will post what I write for the JRock and anime/manga fandoms I write in. Diversity, right? But damn, it shouldn't be that hard to get volunteers or appoint people to find big comms or boards or whatever for a number of underrepresented fandoms and let people know the archive exist! *sigh*
Anyway, thank you for this post and for trying to show a little of what goes on behind the scenes, and thank you for being the only person trying to include the "outsider" fandoms.