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Wednesday
September 3

[[info]kumquat_of_doom] 12:26am - If you go down to the reviews today, you're in for a big surprise...
mood: enchanted

TidBITS, a site which bills itself as presenting the highlights of coverage of Apple products including their iBooks, hosts a mildly amusing and, actually, not particularly negative review of what seems to be a self-published mystery novel called Venice Under Glass, by one Stephan J Harper.

The review includes some comments on the author's use (or lack thereof) of the interactive features available to iBook authors, which become relevant very shortly later.

Now you could be forgiven for thinking that there the matter would rest, but this... is... FANDOM WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANK!

*cough* Sorry, sorry, had to get that out of my system. Old meme, won't happen again.

The said Stephan J Harper shows up in the very first comment, and proceeds to go ABSOLUTELY RAVING BATSHIT.

For three-hundred and eight comments, and counting.

(He doesn't even bother to say 'First post!')

A few highlights, in no particular order:
- Possible sockpuppetry (including what I strongly suspect is the author reviewing his own work under a false name)
- Winnie the Pooh jokes
- The author comparing himself to Keats and Fitzgerald
- And accusations of plagiarism, oh my!

There's even a whole thread of haiku. This one's my favourite.

As of posting, he's still going -- oh, and did I mention?

The cast of Stephan J Harper's magnum opus, the epic masterpiece of high literature that he claims to have been working on since 1997... are cuddly teddy bears. Every single one of them.

Feel Stephan J Harper's tiny ursine fury, folks.

Feel it.




Bonus: the Wankee claims to be nearly sixty-four years old.
(46 wanks | kerfluffle!)


Wednesday
August 6

[[info]anarchicq] 10:30am - This is not the response Rob Liefeld would recommend.

There's this Tumblr called Escher Girls, which dedicates itself to critiquing flawed female anatomy in comics, often with various re-draws of a more human proportion.

One of their more popular subjects is the work of Randy Queen and his sex-bomb good-ol' down South girl of dreams and nightmares, DarkChylde. Oh, memories. I used to read DarkChylde when I was young and naive and looking for good comics with girls in them. Personally I used to think the art was beautiful, until I realized it was actually the colouring I loved. Sorry, I deviated.

Well, Mr. Queen wasn't too happy about this and filed a bundle of DMCA notices to have the critique taken down. Oh, and he also threatened to sue the woman behind Escher Girls for defamation.

Gail Simone and John Scalzi tweet their thoughts.

Randy Queen tries to clarify his position: "You're mocking 18 year old work. You think it's so bad, YOU make a comic!"

Rob Liefeld facepalms.

Full write up on The Mary Sue.

As of four hours ago, he apologized!

Hey everyone,
Just wanted to clear up a few things that happened this past week. I have been having a very hard time in my personal life with the loss of my mother and my marriage having fallen apart and found myself in a very vulnerable and fragile state of mind. There were posts on the web criticizing my artwork that were brought to my attention and added to my stress. I reacted without thinking it through, but have now stopped, realizing my response was the wrong one to take. I am doing my best, each day, to get myself back on my feet and getting my life in a better place and realize now that I have just try to move on and get back to my art, the thing I find the most joy in these days. I want to thank those professionals, friends and family who have been giving me their support, understanding and love.
Thanks for listening.
~ R
(22 wanks | kerfluffle!)


Monday
August 4

[[info]sepiamagpie] 04:17am - In the name of the Moon, I will boycott you

Nangbaby is boycotting Sailor Moon for crimes against humanity wait, wait, no, sorry, that was me listening to the language, not the message. Sorry, Viz is doing a redub with the cast's original names.

To quote Nangbaby so I don't misrepresent her:

I promised that I would leave the fandom if this happened and I will. As much as I would like to make it an immediate exit, please note that I have spent a significant chunk of my life loving Serena as Sailor Moon, Alan, Ann, Lita, Game Machine Man, Bertie, and Malachite (just like the sword in Ogre Battle). Forgive the dramatic death throes.

For those of you who think I’m overreacting, let me make this clear. Viz has essentially announced that the Sailor Moon loved by millions, the girl named Serena whose opening theme proclaims she fights evil by moonlight and wins love by daylight. is no more. She has been erased from continuity Sonja Belmont-style.



Now, I grew up with Sailor Moon like any red-blooded nineties Canadian, but I'm not sure quite sure what she's getting at. But she goes on to say:

Now imagine if George Lucas has in addition to making those changes, stated Chewbacca was actually canonically a lesbian and changed the scenes to make that very obvious, as well as claimed the Jedi’s goal was to oversee the development of humanity according to the Force and lead them into the light through taking over the Empire.


Now, this may have unfortunate implications with the fact the redub re-adds two original canon gay couples, but I'm also pretty sure Lucas did that anyway and we just moved on.

I mean, we all remember the makeout scene after Leia says she'd rather kiss a Wookie, right? And the interview with Chewbacca's new dub voice, Tilda Swinton, where she says she's proud to play Chewbacca as he was always meant to be - a proud queer woman covered head to toe in fur. She even did the interview in the Chewbacca costume, despite her height and the fact she actually did the whole role from a recording booth.

Sorry, I've deviated.

She knows who to blame, and she's darn well gonna do it.

As a normal person*, I have no powers against this blatant disenfranchisement and marginalization except that of my limited wallet, and I will say this. From this day forward I will not pay for an official piece of Sailor Moon material released from this date forward. I am boycotting Sailor Moon for the actions of Naoko Takeuchi — make no mistake Viz and Toei Animation are culpable as well, but in their defense, they are transparent in that they make the real culprit clear — the woman who authored the manga that inspired the anime and now has taken over the inspired creation.


She understands it's going to be a hard path, but she will face that path. And she's doing it because god help you if you call Sailor Moon Usagi.

I know my action alone is meaningless, but I encourage others to not pay and not give anything official any more time. It’s not enough to complain. We have to take the power away from them that we gave them to redress this wrong.

Sailor Moon CX will no longer update. As much as I would love to finish the story in a “Take That” no one reads it and no one cares, so I am abandoning it. I won’t burden people with my presence much longer.


To conclude, Viz is a monster, Naoko Takeuchi is a monster, and she's not posting her fanfic anymore.

Also there's a site!

The post concludes:

Edit: I’m back.


*blatant lie
(117 wanks | kerfluffle!)


Saturday
July 12

[[info]lyrangalia] 06:36pm - DashCon or DashConned?

*So... is there any chance of a write up on DashCon happening? Because I am hearing rumours of it being spectacular, but have been completely unable to find much because Tumblr is terrible.

Thank you FW for coming through:

DashCon is a convention run by... possibly 17 year olds that was supposed to be a celebration of all things Tumblr Fandom. Unfortunately, things got sketchy quickly when con-goers were herded into the convention ballroom and told that they needed to raise $17,000 by 10 PM or the con would be shut down.

Donations poured in, though anons reporting from DashCon appear skeptical.

Questions arose. Skepticism continues to mount despite DashCon "response".

Popcorn continues to be consumed, as ONTD gets in on the action.

There's some positive word on the street from DashCon is a bit of a mixed bag. From the curt to the effusive.

More sources in the comments since I am having trouble keeping up reading and adding them all at the moment.

Edited to add:
A statement from Welcome To Night Vale about why they dropped out.
More on WTF is Wrong with DashCon in list format.

7/14/2014 - DashCon carnage continues (Sorry if I miss something but you guys are still awesome at bringing the links):
* Baker Street Babes (who were initially curt but polite about DashCon) reveal that DashCon did not in fact "take care of" their previously comped room that became a room they had to pay for that was a computer glitch that is now again having to be paid for by the Baker Street Babes.
* The Random Act - Misha Collins' charity has disavowed all knowledge of DashCon fundraising in their name.
* Mark Reads had a pretty good time, and debunks several of the rumours re: DashCon.
* DashCon stories have hit Jezebel and io9, though given current state of Gawker sites, they're basically Tumblr/meme curators by this point, so YMMV on relevance.
* DashCon organizer cries. I guess this is supposed to be guilt-inducing? Are these people too young to remember that we eat our young around here. Not linking because not 100% sure if the rumours that they are underaged are true.
* There was NO PUBLIC MASTURBATION at the BDSM panel. The fact that I even had to say this just tells you everything, doesn't it?
* The WTNV confirm they took in Noelle Stevenson. Dammit fandom_wank, I had to figure out how to direct link to tweets for you.
* Practically nobody believes DashCon's staff saying WTNV "just walked".
* Best "masterpost" of DashCon debacle I've seen on Tumblr. Now with corrections.
* Linkdump by [info]mindset  
* DashCon staff AMA just venting on 4Chan

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to collapse.
(201 wanks | kerfluffle!)


Friday
May 9

[[info]sepiamagpie] 01:47am - Blind bag sized wank

A wild link appears <-- so there was some bullshit about 'kill a brony day' which is whatever because no one's going to go out and murder someone and fandom walks into walls when left unattended, but the reasons the person taking it seriously gives suspiciously leaves out 'because murder is wrong'

Quoted because that layout is horrendous:

up-with-bronies:

I’ve heard rumors of ‘Kill A Brony Day’, whether these are old news rumors or not, I don’t know, but I would like to make one thing very clear;

Do not cause physical harm to anyone, unless you have a justified reason that isn’t ‘they’re a brony’. I don’t like them either, but you shouldn’t hunt them down, since ‘they’re a brony’ isn’t going to hold up in court.

And you’ll just be fueling their self righteousness, so there’s a second reason not to kill bronies. Don’t make any of them ‘martyrs’

-Vinyl




To recap:

1. Fandom does stupid thing
2. Person takes it seriously, tells people to not go out and murder people because of fandom because that was totally likely to happen
2b. Fandom is dumb
3. Person's reasons neglect to say murder is wrong, but just says you cannot justify it to the cops if you kill someone for being a brony
4. Sep is more alarmed at that part than any of the other parts


Incidentally, there have been fandom related murders but it tended to be over infidelity.
(42 wanks | kerfluffle!)


Friday
March 14

[[info]kumquat_of_doom] 08:51pm - Amazon reviewers are interrogating Anne Rice's Dickensean principles from the wrong perspective!

...Again.

Poor, misunderstood, editorless vampire author Anne Rice (yes, I am going to take this opportunity to take a stroll through the memory lane of Anne Rice's batshittery) is once again demonstrating a skin of solid tissue paper.

According to The Guardian newspaper good ol' Rice Whine has signed a Change.org petition to convince Amazon to prohibit anonymous reviews because, the petition says:

"People have found ways to exploit this flaw in the system and are using it to bully, harass, and generally make life miserable for certain authors on Amazon. These people are able to create multiple accounts and then use those accounts to viciously attack and go after any author or person that they feel doesn’t belong on Amazon or who shouldn’t have published a book, made a comment on a forum post, etc."


Well, yes. I'm quite prepared to accept that people have been using the Amazon comments to troll their authors of choice (apparently Charlaine Harris has had death threats, which I feel suggests the True Blood fandom deserves some investigation over at [info]unfunny_fandom)... the problem is that Anne, of course, has form in the Department of Kind Of Maybe Overreacting A Tinsy-Winsy Bit.

Referring to an (I quote) "anti-author gangster bully culture" when interviewed by the Grauniad doesn't really help disprove that.

And hey, check out the links on this Time article - we got spotted!

[This report cheerfully cribbed, albeit rewritten, from aforementioned Time article. Sep made me do it.]

BONUS PROTO-WANK: She's bringing back Lestat, guys! And throwing some rather side-eye-worthy shade at Twilight while she's at it:

Rice [...] has previously spoken dismissively of the vampires dreamed up by Stephenie Meyer for Twilight, saying she "feel[s] sorry for vampires that sparkle in the sun", and that Lestat "would never hurt immortals who choose to spend eternity going to high school over and over again in a small town – any more than they would hurt the physically disabled or the mentally challenged".


Stock up on popcorn for October, folks!
(51 wanks | kerfluffle!)


Sunday
February 2

[[info]themadscientist] 04:11am - These things really do go in cycles...

c/p'd from Mousie's hard work:

Emma Watson is guest editing a British magazine that comes out on Thursday.

In it, supposedly JK Rowling shares her regret for making a certain pairing canon over another one.

Nowadays she admits she got it wrong - she should have shipped Harry / Hermione.

You can see where this is going )
The actual article is slated to come out on Thursday. Prepare yourselves for the Second Coming...
(220 wanks | kerfluffle!)


Tuesday
December 31

[[info]forevagreeneart] 01:55pm - Victoria Bitter: The Embittering

Oh, how nice, someone's creating a little convention for the Supernatural fandom, and they're looking for staff members. Looks like the position of Event Director has already been filled, though, by one...

Andrew Blake. AKA thanfiction. AKA Victoria Bitter.

The event hasn't received much attention thus far, but everyone who's responded to the original post looks enthusiastic and willing to throw money at the idea.

Unsurprisingly, people from other corners of the fandom have begun to speak up, sharing stories of past exploits and linking to the book written by a previous VB/AB/TF victim.

Andy, aware of his reputation in fandom, has made several posts on his most recent Tumblr in the past few months, saying that the past is behind him and refuting the claims of people who are preemptively warning the SPN fandom about his exploits.

Only time will tell if he has really changed his ways, but all signs point to no.

One final note: misgendering is not cool. There are about 10 million reasons to mock Andrew Blake, but his gender identity is not one of them.

ETA: Now matured from "having just finished his 20s" to "30 with a lot of job experience", our hero has posted more details about the application process, explaining that everything might go wrong and that's just the way that cons work, and that pretty much all of the cool stuff mentioned thus far might be too expensive if they don't get enough participants. (thanks luxshine!)
(132 wanks | kerfluffle!)


Friday
January 10

[[info]cinnamonical] 07:08pm - Shia Can't Win Internet, Just Gives Up

I love that I did not even have to make up that title.

For those who are like me and frequently too lazy to click links...

plagiarism! and plagiarism again! and flouncing! and DE-flouncing! also skywriting which is apparently only for sociopaths. )

ETA: The apology to Clowes was skywritten over Los Angeles...but Clowes lives in the Bay Area.

More details on LaBeouf vs. Dunham.

ETA #2: LaBeouf to possibly hold a repentance-themed performance art show at a Los Angeles art gallery. Just when you thought this guy couldn't be any more of a drama queen...
(21 wanks | kerfluffle!)


Friday
December 27

[[info]sepiamagpie] 12:27am - I'm so sorry

I didn't realize that the moderation queue was no longer sending out emails.

I've freed the two posts that were mouldering inside and if you make a post, can you be sure to notify mods at fannish dot org? That way we can go and approve it. Thank you.
(kerfluffle!)


Thursday
December 19

[[info]miraba] 09:40am - Oh look, Anne Rice is being wanky.

Thanks to an anon for this.

Anne Rice starts an Amazon forum thread on how to write better fiction reviews:

http://www.amazon.com/forum/fiction/ref=cm_cd_tfp_ef_tft_tp?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1X9OILUVOYVZ7&cdThread=Tx3SETGL9XAMJT5

As anyone familiar with Anne Rice would be shocked to hear, it goes downhill rapidly. Rice minimods the thread and scolds people for going off-topic, while straying farther and farther off-topic herself. The fun starts on page four:

The Amazon system, wonderful as it is, is ripe for abuse by the mob when they want to go after an
author. Charlane Harris comes to mind as the best recent example.
Disgruntled Sookie Stackhouse fans on the site for the last novel in the series have essentially ganged up on some positive reviewers. For a long time they "neg voted" in masse any good review.
And you're right, the focus shifts to the author, with piles of personal insults.
I infer from all this that these negative fans have found that it is just as much fun to attack an author and try to destroy a publication as it is to become a fan of a series in the first place.
Of course they cannot bring down Charlane Harris or her books, but I do think they want to ruin the experience for her and others.

Around page 59, Anne is caught trashing commenters from the review thread in another subforum:

One thing is clear to me: these Amazon careerist predatory reviewers are HIGHLY sensitive to criticism themselves. Talk about thin skin! One reason they vilify and ridicule any author who dares to respond to a review is that they simply can't take any kind of response themselves. They can't handle it. That's why they struggle for supremacy in such a situation with the endless lecturing to the author not to dare to respond. Some of them are downright scared to death of criticism.
They've picked their bully neg reviewer role because they assumed they'd be immune to criticism and they are fit to be tied when it doesn't work for them.

She explains herself:

This Forum is not about that topic.
I realize you're determined to derail this Forum.
You've been trying for days to take a positive discussion and make it negative.

Does appealing to you as a decent human being have any effect whatsoever?

Can't you understand that there are different Forums on Amazon for different purposes?
Can't you see that?
Can't you understand why some one in a "Meet the Authors" Forum might address issues
of importance to authors that can't or shouldn't be addressed here?

What is it about this that you find so difficult to understand?

Everyone understands perfectly, backs off, and has a group hug while singing a rousing round of "For She's a Jolly Good Fellow," and all is joy and sunshine in the Amazon forums forever more.
(22 wanks | kerfluffle!)


Wednesday
December 18

[[info]harumph] 12:34am - It all started with a Big Bang

NB: This writeup was taken from a very helpful mousie who volunteered to update the original report, I've just updated the HTML.

Our tale begins with the launch of BBP, a publishing house based on a totally new model that no one has ever tried before ever ever ever: Publishing popular fanfic authors' original novels. The first step on this journey is a Kickstarter, set up to fund the first three of these novels. Not the press, mind you, because that would be against Kickstarter TOS; just the novels themselves.

Which goes over fine - the authors involved are Gyzym, Febricant, and Eleveninches, so anticipation runs high - until someone notices the $40,000 price tag and starts to ask questions. The answers are not especially satisfying.

Others begin to dig deeper into the BBP team's backgrounds. Turns out, nobody associated seems to be all that qualified for their gig, most notably their "recovering law-type person," who's experience seems to consist of a year or so of paralegaling it up. This is kind of important, given that BBP's assurance that the novels will be finished is riding on their 'legally-binding contracts.'

Yep, you read that right. The novels aren't complete yet. But they will be!

Further questions are asked. Further answers are not really given. "Details? Noooo, you don't want details, details are boring! Look at the shiny!"

And then there's the part where one of the $500 backer rewards is the completion of a WIP by Gyzym. Meaning fanfic is being offered for straight-up monetary gain here, no charity auction in sight. Which Aja - did I mention the part where Aja is the Submissions Editor for BBP? - then starts a pool for, in the hopes of getting another Inception fic out of all this.

The latest is a twitter campaign on the part of BBP to get exposure through celebrity retweets. So far, they've had success with Orlando Jones, and are now going after Amanda Palmer. Their attempt to go for Maureen Johnson backfires, however.

The authors all post links leading back to the kickstarter in their fanfictions on AO3, breaking the community's restrictions against advertising in fics-- a reporting campaign on FFA begins and the notes are taken down shortly after, but that it was done at all leads Franzeska to make a post denouncing them.

We've got several continuous ffa threads and counting, and a lot of passive-aggressive twittering to contend with, if you're into that kind of thing.

At one point Aja heroically posts unanon on ffa to play the martyr and completely miss the point let everyone know she totally isn't involved with BBP anymore but completely believes in the project.

Some further links of note: some pointed questions directed at Big Bang Press, which are deflected

People with small press experience point out that, among other things, BBP is promising an impossible timeline

Discussion starts on Absolute Write

Big Bang Press continues to deflect questions.

Febricant and Morgan Davis do a podcast, in which they explicitly refer to the fanfiction available in their reward tiers:

"I think the (reward level) we may actually get some traction with is Kady's Work in Progress folder. Which, is like, somewhere between 200 and 300 thousand words' worth of unfinished pieces of fanfiction in a PDF -- with like, annotations, um, of her explaining where the story was going to go. [...] There's a lot of stuff in there, like, massive quantities of stuff. So, um, if you want to give us a lot of money, uh, that (reward level) would be a good option."

Badfic.net questions Big Bang Press: for people concerned about Big Bang Press, Lies Big Bang Press have told Us

[info]sepiamagpie takes one for the team to get a look at the FAQs, which are only available to backers.
(54 wanks | kerfluffle!)


Saturday
November 23

[[info]seiberwing] 10:50am - The Little-Known Fifth Horseman of Wank

Orlando Jones, most recently known for playing Captain Frank Irving in the hit show Sleepy Hollow is also known for being the unofficial head of the entire fandom. But as a BNF of a modern occult fandom starring incredibly attractive people facing weekly supernatural threats and the potential of an oncoming apocalypse, he has been subjected to a rite of passage endured only by the greatest of our number. Our hero must now face the Wrath of the Tinhats.

Wrath beneath cut. )

EDIT: ORLANDO JONES HAS TWEETED THE POST GUYS OH MY GOD THIS IS NOT A DRILL SEMPAI NOTICED US

This is glorious http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/1304731.html?style=mine …. And this http://tinyurl.com/mmmf8m5 BTW - What exactly is wank? #SPN #J2 #Destiel

TURNABOUT EDIT: The wank comes full circle as spn-gossip finds the above tweet. Insults fly and the fans don't seem to understand that people may have priorities that don't completely revolve around what the Supernatural fandom might think.
More wrath )
(118 wanks | kerfluffle!)


Wednesday
October 23

[[info]redcoast] 05:51pm - "Damon Lindelof was right"

So Castiel had sex with a lady in the last episode of Supernatural, and the fandom lost its mind, which is predictable ... but it lost its collective mind at at WB exec who had apparently just signed up for Twitter. The Fandom DeBunker (sort of like Snopes for the SPN fandom and widely appreciated as impartial) has some screencaps, unfortunately out of order, but you can get the idea. In short, upon being prodded by fans, Chad Kennedy said that it wasn't their intention for Castiel and Dean Winchester to be bi. Kennedy then valiantly took arms against a sea of troubles before ominously tweeting "Damon Lindelof was right" (which I suppose is a reference to this) and bahleeting his Twitter account.

To be clear, nobody is really certain what this guy's role at WB is, what his involvement in the show is, and nobody knew who the hell he was until like ten days ago.

Another fan has the same Twitter screencaps with helpful commentary: "The writers are fuck cowards right now. They know what they did. And they know what they started."

One tumblr user with the screenname Octoswan is not only a SPN fan, but also a housemate of Osric Chau, a young talented actor who works on Supernatural. She writes, "Haha so it’s pretty clear that Chad Kennedy doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Poor guy walked into the belly of the beast and poked the bear with a big pointy stick. He said some dumb, uninformed things about a sensitive subject in a fandom he’s admitted to only just becoming aware of. Methinks he didn’t get the memo. Totally his fault for not doing his homework, but gosh, what a silly gaffe! //sigh" And then suggests that fandom go listen to some nice music or read a good book.

Octoswan texts Osric Chau about the kerfuffle, and he writes a note on Twitlonger trying to help fans feel better, including bits about puppies, kittens, and hot chocolate. It appears to work. Writer Adam Glass also takes to Twitter to remind people that Chad Kennedy doesn't actually write the show, and then he adds a hint: "If u asks @PaulMcCartney what does a song he wrote mean, he'd tell you he had some ideas but would be more interested in what you think. BTW."
(145 wanks | kerfluffle!)


Wednesday
September 25

[[info]seca] 08:20pm - Ready for Twilight fanfic plagiarism by a p2p author on goodreads?

I know I'm ready for this.

Over on goodreads a reviewer, Ari Bookzilla, left a review of Shey Stahl's book For The Summer. She only got about 20% through the book before quitting because she kept finding dialog, paragraphs, passages and plot points that were alarmingly similar to the Twilight fanfic, Dusty (link goes to Pit of Voles), by YellowBella (a two author team of authors Mary Elizabeth and Sarah, with the former showing up in the comments of the goodreads review). In fact she has eight excerpts that she found and posted in her review just from that first fifth of the book.

The comments explode as a mix of people being shocked/angry at the plagiarism or defending Shey and the arguments between the two groups. On page eleven there is a twitter picture showing that Dusty was not the only Twilight fanfic plagiarized but a fanfic with the same title, For The Summer, shares more than the title with the book.

Shey denies plagiarizing anything and unfortunately any of this is already gone as she has gone on a deleting spree. Starting with all her books on Amazon, and there is a screenshot from her Facebook page as the dearauthor twitter has saved to view of her explaining that she removed them while she talked with a lawyer. She has also deleted her Twitter and her official website. Any contact with anyone on the matter has her repeatedly denying plagiarism or having even read the fanfic in question.

An old review is pulled up as in the comments there is mention that Shey was plagiarizing back when she was a Twilight fanfic author, with the pen name Jaydmommy. And it seems like she published the fanfic with the names filed off.

An editor that Shey used for her earlier works, Max, speaks up about finding one of her books, Delayed Penalty, with plagiarized material in it and having to pull out lawyers to get her name off of Shey's books when Shey refused to take out the passages. Max later brings up that after that happened she did contact Shey's next, and current, editor about Shey's borrowing of other's peoples work. The editor refutes this as after deleting a post about distancing herself from Shey she posted another to clarify things from her side of the story.

There is also an issue with Max claiming that the cover artist of Shey's books blackmailing anyone who is using her as their editor to refuse to do any work for them.

Since that initial review other sites have picked up the story and written up articles on it, such as dearauthor, who provide further examples. (There are other unrelated topics in the article so the first one is the only one that goes over the plagiarism.) Daily Dot has also written about it. The blog Snarky Cake is good to find most of the information in one spot but the sleuthing to uncover Shey's fandom history in the updates section highlights other incidents of plagiarism in her other works.

Author Jenna Bennett on her Twitter commented about the wank and gives us the "like wearing someone else's underwear" analogy about people writing fanfic. (Thank you anonmousey for pointing this out on the wank_report.)

There is also a little spill over from the latest goodreads wank about the changes in policy on the site, so any comments talking about goodreads deleting a comment or shelf is directed at that. The dearauthor article linked to has a rundown of it if you continue reading after the part about Shey if you are curious about that.
(16 wanks | kerfluffle!)


Thursday
September 5

[[info]demonbean] 10:17pm - A Wank of Two Authors

A wank that is somewhat pan-fandom - Science Fiction in general!

First piece of background: John Scalzi is an author and, at present, he was until recently (thanks, sgaana!) the president of the SFWA. In the past few months, he has been a very vocal supporter of anti-harassment policies at SFF conventions, and in general has been a supporter of having women and minorities represented in SFF. This annoys some people. (Warning: this wank, while it has not in itself veered into unfunny territory, is between two authors - and to some extent their fanbases - who stand on very different sides of the "what (if anything) should be done to ensure equality for people of different genders/sexual orientations/races/creeds." While going over facebook and twitter to research this particular kerfluffle, I encountered some of that in other posts. None of it is linked here, but it is in this general section of the blaggertubes.)

As a second piece of background, the Hugo Awards celebrate the best of Science Fiction, and are widely considered one of the most prestigious awards an SFF author can win. While highly prestigious, however, the awards are not immune from the general principle of award-giving, which is that first someone wins, and then someone else bitches about it.

All caught up? Good.

On Sunday, the winners of the 2013 Hugo Awards were announced. John Scalzi won the award for best novel with Redshirts, a comedic novel about the unusually high mortality rates of starship employees wearing crimson attire. As usual, the win touched off some debate around the quality of the various nominees. Some people enjoyed Redshirts, others did not like it so well. Fairly standard. The Guardian has covered some of the differing points of view here, most of which are centered around the merits of the books and the voting system.

John Ringo, on the other hand, posted the following:

If anyone has been wondering why Scalzi has been picking the rather stupid fights he's been picking lately:

[link to Hugo Awards announcement]


Scalzi, either directly in response to Ringo, in response to some other criticism, or just as a general response to the world in general, posts on his blog about the award, and includes the following:

* Likewise, as is also tradition whenever a new winner of a Best Novel Hugo is announced, there are people who are heralding Redshirts as evidence that the Hugo voting process is corrupt/confused/irrelevant/a sign of the impending apocalypse. I don’t take this personally because a) I am well aware that not everyone is going to like everything I write, and that this goes double for Redshirts, which seems to have the greatest range of responses to it of any book I’ve written, b) someone would complain no matter what and who won, because the Internet is vasty and noisy, and for some people, something they don’t like winning an award is clearly evidence of systematic problems and/or conspiracy, rather than simply a popular vote of a particular group of voters not reflecting their own personal preferences.

My response to this is, as always: That’s fine. And in a larger sense, a vote no one complains about correlates very highly with a vote no one cares about. I’m happy to see people care about the Hugos, even if it’s to be annoyed with my book as a winner. With that said, the fact is this year I won the award, now it’s mine, and I’m not giving it back. So they’ll just have to deal.

(Now, there are people who are angry I won because they don’t like me personally. To them I say: Ha! Ha! Ha! Sucks to be you, dude.)

This touches off a debate on twitter, including (but certainly not limited to) the following. Feel free to add to these highlights, as my twitter-fu is by no means expert. (Which is why a majority come from Scalzi himself.) Scalzi is accused of pandering, Ringo is accused of pandering, Chris Kluwe makes an appearance.

Just because John Ringo is being a total ass to me doesn't mean you might not like his books. Some to try for free: [link to free books]

@Scalzi: Reading your post that was referenced, never going to buy any of YOUR books again. You're a deluded hypocritical racist little shit.

From Scalzi: "Highlight of the day so far: Dude with Hitler Emoji Twitter icon telling me I was racist and he would never read my books. I thought: Good"

Also from Scalzi: Seriously, though. Poor spelling does not make you wrong, but consistently poor spelling does undermine rhetorical credibility. Spellcheck!

The problem is, the Internet makes it seem like you SHOULD read the comments. But then you do, and you say, "YEAH, I forgot. Dammit."

HTML has totally failed me, so here are a few good links for twitter: Scalzi, Chris Kluwe and, courtesy of </b></a>[info]duraniedrama, John Ringo's page. (There's some potential for unfunny there.) You can find more tweets under the hashtag #womendestroySF. (Lightspeed has announced a "Women Destroying SF" special edition.)

The wank builds up, with Ringo declaring that his wife is hotter and his hair is better than Scalzi's, until at some point in this mess, Ringo posts to his facebook page again.

Scalzi was pissing me off even before getting a Hugo for a novel so remarkably unremarkable it would barely have made it to paperback in the 1970s. Nothing against it, it's a fun, simple, mindless, read from all I've gathered. But it's not exactly Stranger in a Strange Land or Nightfall.

[....]

Which is where we start to see the issues with Scalzi suddenly not so much 'coming out of the closet' but making a splash on a variety of hot-button issues that really don't sit well with his RETAIL market. The people who actually BUY the books over the counter as opposed to market, sell and even buy them for distribution. The more books you can get a bookstore to buy, the more likely you are to sell them. So being the poster child for your commercial people is a good thing.

Orson Scott Card is brought up in the comments, but less than you might suspect.

John Ringo's politics get further attention when Scalzi links us to a review of one of Ringo's books. The review can simply be referred to as OH JOHN RINGO NO, which proceeds to become a catchphrase in the ensuing twitter comments.

This wank, it must be said, is far from over, as no one has yet flounced. Twitter continues to explode, and Scalzi continues to post to twitter, and all in all, the wank has continued merrily on for the span of a few days. Enjoy!

EDIT THE FIRST: Courtesy of tunxeh (thanks!), we have Scalzi's latest blog post. It is, as noted, worth it even if all you look at is his U MAD BRO? macro. Since I can't seem to embed, here: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/09/06/some-final-hugo-related-thoughts/

(147 wanks | kerfluffle!)


Thursday
August 29

[[info]themadscientist] 10:02pm - It's not FOR you, Jen

Nintendo set the Internet afire yesterday with the announcement of a (mostly expected) $50.00 price cut on the Wii U, three different ways to buy Wind Waker (including one with a Ganon action figure)
and oh yeah

They are planning to release a new redesign of the 3DS called a "2DS" on the same day of Pokemon X and Y. It's only $130.00 and looks like a tablet. Supposedly this version is aimed at people who don't want to use the 3D and for children lower than seven years of age.

Which naturally means that the Internet collectively loses their bananas.

Responses range from:
I don't get it
to it's ugly and who is it aimed at
to complaining about complaining about the 2DS is prejudice
SHUT UP AND STOP COMPLAINING IT'S NOT FOR YOU
and SCUZE ME WHERE IS MY 5DS NOW (I like this one a lot)
seriously this is dumb

The biggest trolling went on Nintendo's YouTube page, as trolls and critics went directly to the source. Hence why the announcement is now not showing ratings nor allowing comments (warning: loud 8-bit music).

You can browse the 2DS tumblr tags for more.

Luckily, Iwata and Black Nerd Rants seem to have explained the matter, as the anger has (mostly) quieted down now.
(60 wanks | kerfluffle!)


Tuesday
August 27

[[info]themadscientist] 09:12pm - Cassandra Clare and the Panned Picture

When we last left out heroine she was leafing some thorny mahogany pickle to her partner-in-crime to go to her big movie premiere.

Well the first of the Mortal Instrument movies is out, ladies and gents!

While not doing terribly bad (Sony had nothing to lose apparently), it didn't exactly shine either taking in only $9 million through the weekend and $14 million at the moment.

So Cassie Claire, er, Clare, has had to do a wee bit of backpedaling.
Covered here but the important tweets are at the bottom.

You see, she didn't really have any control over the film and so if it bombs, it's the movie producer's fault. Nope, zero input on the whole dealio.

Will there be a sequel, given the budget versus the income? Will it matter? Who knows. Expect to see the Mortal Instruments t-shirts next month at your local Hot Topic and see Cassie Clare in her next adventure, Dancing With Wool!

(It could be wood again. Or Woof? Woozie? Dancing With Who?)
(185 wanks | kerfluffle!)


Tuesday
August 20

[[info]mosellegreen] 10:54pm - im in ur tag shipping my d00dz - or, War of the Science Bros

Avengers fandom uses the tag "science bros" on tumblr to mean Bruce and Tony. Then Pacific Rim fans started using the tag to mean Newt and Hermann. Clearly, there can be only one.

[Note: This wank was posted once before but had to be deleted when it turned out one person cited was underage. Ze has been removed and now there's new fresh wank added.]

ask-science-boyfriends collects a giant number of complaints about the shared tag and says, "So yes, this is all meant in respect. It’s just getting a little crazy, and I want us all to be friends and I want you to have one ship name to rule them all! Thanks guys. Anything we can do here to help the quest for one true ship name, just let us know. <3))"
Read more... )
(40 wanks | kerfluffle!)


Thursday
August 15

[[info]snacky] 08:39am - Mod note

The last post was deleted due to one of the wank participants being a minor (in case you were wondering where it went. Maybe. Maybe not).

Just try not to wank minors, okay? Especially if they say right upfront, "I AM SIXTEEN."
(41 wanks | kerfluffle!)

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Wankity wank wank wank. Fandom is fucking funny. Wear your tinfoil hat at all times. Squidwarts 4 evah. OMG WTF LOL!1!!! Gandshat is my fandom_wank OTP. Don't feed the wankers. Domlijah colors are orange + yellow. My fandom is wankier than yours. BNF = Backus Naur Form. We're not bad, we're just drawn that way. Equal opportunity mockers. Wank will eat itself, over and over and over and over. Stop reading this and find something funny.