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Milkshake Butterfly ([info]m_butterfly) wrote in [info]fandom_wank,
@ 2006-10-11 19:31:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
SG Fanfic: It's about Social Justice.
David Hewlett, who plays Rodney on Stargate: Atlantis, is one of the nicer sorts of fannish celebs: approachable, inclined to provide a place for his fans to hang out around him, pleasantly geeky, and reasonably unflappable. You know what this means, of course: wank. Having previously weathered the storm of his own nudity being displayed to him (yes, it seems he is aware he has a penis), it seems the fans are determined to move on to challenging his zen with that old fannish standby: fanfic.

However, this is not his story.

It is the story of a fanfic awards site, a woman determined to talk about it, and some of the consequences.

It all begins on David Hewlett's aforementioned forums, with Icarus. Icarus starts a thread titled 'Fandom Security' which initially seems to be a discussion of steps to take to keep your real life and your fannish life from colliding, but doesn't stay to that topic for long. Amusingly, a major immediate tangent is how crazy vast parts of fandom are, and how important it is to take steps to protect yourself from people who don't understand how to be polite and sensible members of fannish society--and how to interact politely and sensibly with actors and other TPTBs. Other discussions this thread naturally launches into are such obvious topics as the OOC-ness of slash and the reasons to read and enjoy fic at all. Naturally, it starts to go wanky as early as page three, when an un-named Visitor shows up to question the wisdom of having this discussion on this forum at all:
"I maintain that certain aspects of fandom should be kept within fandom circles, fanfiction -- especially any type of het/slash fiction -- being one of them. Not strictly for legal reason, though those are still possibly a concern.

It also seems that people are still confusing this site with other fandom forums. This is not an extension of fandom in the form of an official site. It is an official site venturing into fandom space."

Pages and pages of argument ensue. I can't even begin to recap them, and really, why would anyone want me to? It's nothing particularly new. No, the different kicks in when Icarus, who is obviously a special child, decides that in the middle of this argument is a perfect time to start a new thread--this one pimping the Stargate Fan Awards, which will be announcing their winners soon. Her reasons for posting are fairly obvious--she mentions right on page one of her earlier thread that she's been nominated--and course the reaction is fairly obvious too, especially since she forgot to log in when starting the thread....
crownglass39: "Is it wise to be posting a link to such a large fanfic forum here?
I've heard authors request that people not link to their fic at the dgeek site, and this is a rather large repository for said fic. "
Vistor: "Thank you, I was just about to make the same request. This is exactly the sort of thing that a large number of us do not want posted to this site. Several authors friends are concerned about this link being here and ask that you take it down."
Hanes: "No one can edit a post created as a Visitor."
Visitor: "Ah. Right. Well played."

Icarus's reaction to all of this?
"It should be fine. It's not a direct link to any specific fic.

Many authors I know are just fine with their stories here. There's a whole fanfiction archive on Gateworld.

If anyone wants the thread edited, Hanes has a point. I was logged out mid-post and can't edit it. They can petition David. He's the only one who can remove it."

There's only one thing left to do now--it's time for it to go to LJ! lamardeuse has a poll in which the commenters feel strongly about this--very strongly, in some cases. And amireal hates it and just wants it all to go away, but with someone like this involved, I believe she may be overly optimistic:
[in response to a suggestion they just shouldn't discuss fanfic on this forum]
"It's a terrible idea. This is why we don't have gay marriage in the U.S. and two friends of mine stand to lose their kid if one of them dies, no matter who actually raised him -- because a few people are offended at the idea of two men (or two women) married to each other."

Made with the assistance of the mice of lol_meme and wank_report. They will find links for cheese. Or even just to alleviate the boredom.


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