(no subject)

[niko]

Well, I think MediaWest is a bit of a bust for me.

I ran into similar problems as what I ran into last year - just not a lot of intersect between my particular niches of fandom and the rest of the attendees in most of the panels I attended, and not having any idea how to go about trying to connect with anyone outside of panels.  (Example of the former: the one anime panel - one of the reasons I've switched from going to anime cons to media cons was that I feel like the folks here are a bit more of my peers.  Anime cons are dominated by teenagers and men, not adult women.  So this panel caught my eye for a chance to talk anime with my peers for a change.  The other people who attended the panel?  Two adult men, and a teenage girl.  All my grand dreams of discussing anime from an adult woman's perspective, yaoi vs. slash, anime through the lens of media fandom, etc. went *right* down the drain. :P

I was also made of *fail* in trying to participate in Mag7 panels.  If I had more chutzpah, I'd show up at the Mag7 party they're having tonight, but with how everyone else in the panels seemed to be on a first-name basis and clearly had known each other for years and years, I just can't picture showing up (solo) as the only stranger in a room full of old friends.  I don't have the cajones for it right now.  It was cool to put faces to names of people whose work I've read on blackraptor, though. :)

On a more meta-y, less whiny note: One thing I found interesting/frustrating is how dismissive some folks seemed to be of the fandom presence on LiveJournal.  I can't say I've ever been thrilled with how decentralized and loosey-goosey LJ allows fandom to be, and I always look back at the heyday of The Sentinel as an ideal fannish situation - *ONE* primary discussion list, *ONE* primary fic-posting list, and *everything* posted to the fic list automatically gets grabbed for a single comprehensive archive (on the gen side, anyway... I think TS's slash fandom had a similar situation with 852 Prospect).  And yes, I've certainly thought about nagging LJ-writers to put their stuff up on Blackraptor, because the 'single comprehensive archive' thing, in particular, is pretty attractive to me.

But I feel like to ignore LJ at this point is just cutting off your nose to spite your face.  Especially knowing how abso-freaking-lutely *AMAZING* the Mag7 community here is, I can't imagine missing out just because I have qualms about the format or whatever.  There were a couple times where something on LJ was mentioned, and there were at least a few people in each panel where you could practically hear their eye-rolls.  *eye-roll*  ;)

Comments

[vr2lbast.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear MediaWest didn't do it for you.

I've had problems with the decentralized nature of livejournal myself when it comes to fandom, but I've also found a lot of great stuff here and great communities. Turning one's nose up at it (or rolling one's eyes as the case may be) is just ignoring a host of possibilities.

Then again, I also like yard sales, farmers markets, and shopping at places that aren't huge department stores. Sometimes you just can't get everything in one place. Or something.

[nikojen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Weiss is a fandom that really drives me crazy on the decentralized thing. :) I'm in some fandoms where it's expected that folks will announce their new work in the central comm(s), even if it's housed elsewhere, so it's possible to keep up with most new work by watching a handful of comms. With Weiss, I hardly ever see that done, even though I know there are things being written for various theme communities and the like. Makes me wonder what all I'm missing out on, and my completist little heart iz sad. :)

[vr2lbast.livejournal.com]

I know I end up finding out about some fic by people whose journals I follow completely by accident because they don't put the fic up themselves, just link the contest or exchange com entry into their memories section. At least it's there, but if you don't know about the com to begin with, it can be a pain.

You mention AO3 in reply to another comment. Do you archive there? How is it? What I've heard of it has been a bit ambiguous, so I'm not sure what to think.

[nikojen.livejournal.com]

I... uh, no, I haven't put anything up at AO3 myself, actually. My handful of writing didn't seem worth bothering with. Which, if someone else had said that in my hearing, I'd be telling them to STFU and archive it already, so yes, I'm aware that I'm being hypocritical. ;)

I've mainly used the archive for browsing fic, and in that respect, it's definitely not perfect, but I'm 100% on board for the principle of the thing, if nothing else... the idea of having a place where stories are designed to *STAY*. That they won't get lost if LJ decides to kill an account or the writer drifts away from fandom and doesn't bother to keep her website active, or whatever.

I also think the tagging system is much more flexible and searchable than ff.net has ever been, so I don't feel like I'm slogging through a thousand false positives when I go looking for a particular story or type of story.

So, yeah, you should totally sign up. :)