I may have an anti-genfic bias. (Not trying to weasel, there; not sure whether I have "a bias" or "an awareness of the bias that many slashficcers have, combined with an overall lack of interest.")
So... help me fix it? Point me at some good genfic? Please?

I know how to find slash in a new fandom, and how to skip over drivel just from the plot notes. I don't know how to find gen even in the fandoms I already follow, much less ones I don't read. Or at least, don't know how to find good gen.

Fandoms I know well enough to read fic about include but are not limited to:
( lists inside )

Someone in the pack of friends I respect and listen to (you know who you are) should tell me, publicly or privately, if I get too extreme or step over lines that cause them problems.

Because, as I've mentioned, I am greatly devoted to the concept of flamewar as a method of reaching key issues that could never be addressed by more reasonable communication patterns.

(People not in that group are also welcome to so inform me. I'm just not as likely to do anything about it.)

The Organization for Transformative Works was recently mentioned in several blogs; http://community.livejournal.com/otw_news/15044.html has links.

It's fascinating watching the anti-fanfic crowd; here in my niche in fandom, I tend to forget what a lot of people think about our beloved hobby.

Scalzi's blog has a rich discussion. I saw several different viewpoints about why people believe fanfic is not transformative work:

( Fanfic is derivative, not transformative )

( Fanfic is squicky and weird and just WRONG, and that can't be legal )

( Fanfic is theft of, umm… brainspace. )

http://community.livejournal.com/fandom_lawyers/55864.html

"As part of their new 'Community Guidelines'... they have just edited their Terms of Use about what is not on the allowed uploading material, which includes (but is not limited to) this little paragraph:"

• Respect copyright. Only upload videos that you made or that you have obtained the rights to use. This means don't upload videos you didn't make, or use content in your videos that someone else owns the copyright to, such as music tracks, snippets of copyrighted programs, or videos made by other users, without their permission. "

"...Also, I (along with my videos) was deleted with no warnings, contact, explaination *nothing*."

Doesn't directly affect me; I don't make fanvids, and don't watch them 'cos vids and dialup are not a happy combo. (And youtube is blocked at work.)

But I thought people should be aware, and I don't know how widely watched fandom_lawyers is. Sigh.

Six Apart Announces New Home for LiveJournal

Acquisition of LiveJournal, creation of new operating company and investment fund by SUP promise new innovation and expansion for pioneering online community

( Long, long post translating sections of the news announcement. Short version: 6A bails; SUP now owns LJ. )

The official new FAQ 281: How can I mark content as inappropriate for minors?
This setting has several effects and two levels:

• Adult concepts: This rating applies to content that is not explicitly graphic, but may contain things that are of a mature nature and could be inappropriate for anyone under the age of 14 years old.
  


• Explicit Adult: This rating applies to graphic and explicit content (depicting nudity, sexuality, violence in images and language) that is appropriate only for adults, and is not suitable for viewers under the age of 18 years old. It is important to note that in speaking of adult material, it does not convey in any way that this content is considered obscene, in the legal definition of the term.

( More details about this Nifty New LJ Feature--The Computer Is Your Friend! Trust The Computer! )

You can go to Manage Settings and near the bottom, there's a new "Adult Content" setting. Default is set to "moderate filters" for adults, and other people who gave a birthday of more than 18 years ago.

http://community.livejournal.com/lj_biz/243697.html: You may voluntarily mark any entry you create, your entire journal, or a community you maintain as either "Adult Concepts" or "Explicit Adult Content." These are defined as follows:

Adult Concepts: Content that is not explicitly graphic, but may contain mature themes that could be inappropriate for anyone under the age of 14.

Explicit Adult Content: Content that is graphic and explicit (depicting nudity, sexuality, or violence) that is appropriate only for adults and is not suitable for anyone under the age of 18. This label does not imply that the content is considered obscene, just that it is not appropriate for minors. We recommend that a journal or community is set as "Explicit Content" if more than 50% of the total entries have graphic or explicit images or text.

Users under the age of 18 will automatically be blocked from joining communities or seeing content marked as "Explicit Adult Content."

----
While we offer users the opportunity to accurately use the adult content settings within their own journals, we are aware that this will not always be the case, which is why we've additionally created the functionality to allow users to flag content they feel is inappropriate. Please note that content visibility will NOT be affected just because someone flags it. Only after the content has been reviewed by the Abuse Prevention Team will a decision be made as to whether or not it warrants an adult content setting.

Fifty random items from the book, Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know, by E.D. Hirsch Jr. (Non-Americans may not need to know these things. They are welcome to play along, and to feel superior for knowing them anyway.)

Leave plain the ones you know.
Strikethrough the ones you don't recognize.
Italicize the ones you recognize, but aren't sure you could define in any useful way.
Bold the ones you know well enough to write a complete post about. An informative one.

No fair Googling!

( Cut because my education was erratic, incomplete, and pathetic in spots )

fictionaire has started a new fanfic archive. http://www.fictionaire.com
He advertised this in several comms. He's a bit technically clueless--some people said he had trouble figuring out how to reply to LJ messages, and he doesn't even have a link to his site on his profile, nor in the only post at his journal. (Which uses... wait for it... four different colors of text.)

Fictionaire opened with a troublesome TOS which has been somewhat edited.

At fanficrants, he mentioned the the primitive nature of most fan fiction communities, which he apparently intends to fix, but doesn't say what he means nor how he's going to fix it.

( More details and some commentary inside. Skip if you don't care about fanfic archives. )

A.k.a. "legalities and fanfiction." Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. I am not a paralegal, nor a legal secretary. My experience with law is pretty much limited to essays on the web, and scanning depositions for law firms. I'm comfortable with legalese, but I'm aware that I don't understand the fine nuances. This is not legal advice; it's an essay about casual understanding of legal principles.

---

Every time a discussion of fanfic being "discovered" by mainstream producers-of-whatever it is that fanfic is derived from (as if they didn't know it existed), a loud chorus goes up, saying, "Keep it down! We all know this is illegal, and we only survive because we're hard to find and expensive to prosecute! Shove our existence in their faces, and they'll *have* to come after us with lawywers!"

It's NOT TRUE.
Repeat: FANFICTION IS NOT ILLEGAL. QUIT CALLING YOURSELVES CRIMINALS. Quit callling me a criminal.

Copyright infringement is illegal. Is fanfiction "copyright infringement?" Plenty of authors think so. Plenty of fanficcers think so. But that doesn't make it true.

( examples, excerpts, references, and random pontificating )

I used to have a button that said, "Conservatives need to learn the difference between a sin and a crime, and liberals need to learn the difference between a virtue and a requirement." It especially applies to copyright, a set of business laws that have no connection to any moral obligations towards other people's creations.

laurelwood pointed me to gmth's entry which pointed me to this atrocity from Eric at LJ Abuse:

Yes, your question is correct. Linking to specific offsite content which would violate LiveJournal's Terms of Service can still be considered a violation of LiveJournal's Terms of Service in most situations.

That might not hold up in court--but they can certainly decide to suspend people for providing links they don't approve of.

I've decided to go ahead and put up my partially-finished site stuff. Feel free to make comments here.

elfwreck.homecircle.info/index.html

(This page at InsaneJournal may serve as guestbook for a while. Crossposted.)

From allifer:

LJ-That-Was could no longer sustain our diversity, we were so exotic.
We found a new journal site:
Dozens of communities and hundreds of accounts.
Each one customized, a process taking days, to support fannish activity. To be new LJs.
* * *
The hosting companies formed TPTB.
Ruled by an intercorporate set of business standards… TPTB were a beacon of consumerism.

The erotic fringe communities were not so restricted, and refused TPTB's coercion.

The wank was devastating.

But TPTB's victory over Fandom insured a puritanical journalverse.
And now, everyone can follow the standards and preferences of corporate sponsorship.

Why was Fandom even fighting us?
Why wouldn't they look to be more accepted?

I hear they're perverts.
That's only chan artists.
Chan artists aren't legal.
Full well they are.
I hear they lure children into their blogs
And seduce them, and fantasize about them
And draw pictures of them molesting Harry Potter and Shrek.

It's true there is offensive content on the independent journals.

So with so many users and coding advancements we can bring to Fandom…
why would they fight so hard against us?

We meddle.

Blogger?

People don't like to be meddled with.
We tell them what to post, what to like.
Don't squee, don't guh.
We're in their flocks and in their interests
And we haven't the right.
We're meddlesome.

Blogger, we're not telling people what to like…
we're just trying to show them what we don't.

http://www.livejournal.com/support/see_request.bml?id=796572

In a comment at News, http://news.livejournal.com/102095.html?thread=54713039#t54713039, the LJ team stated:
-------------
"If LiveJournal determines, in its sole and absolute discretion, that any user is in violation of the TOS, LiveJournal retains the right to terminate such user's account at any time without prior notice." While LiveJournal does not do so in the instances of many violations of the Terms of Service, the policy adopted for this particular violation is to terminate without warning.
-------------

I looked over the policy description, the TOS and the FAQ. I could not find the policy for this particular violation.

I note that the policy on Child Pornography--which this was not, as no human child was involved--states "If, in Abuse Team member's discretion, there is reasonable suspicion that the poster did not know that the image qualifies as child pornography, suspend the user until the user agrees to remove the images, rather than terminate the journal."

No option to remove the content was offered. Nowhere in the TOS, FAQ or policy descriptions does it indicate that all of a person's journals will be banned for a single violation, unless that violation is related to harassment or suspension evasion.

Where is the policy for this particular violation? If it's not available for public view at LiveJournal.com, can it be made available by request?

(Note: I haven't received an answer for my previous support request either.)

I have doubts about this. While I'm very very grateful to sorrentyrell for the journal, the "servers are overloaded" message when I was trying to log in is not reassuring.

JF doesn't seem ready (or willing, from what I've heard) to take on any substantial number of LJ's fen.

However... I'm here, and I'm glad to be in a fan-friendly space. Now I gotta figure out how to wade through the journal customize settings to get something I like. Bleh. And find my friends that I know are here somewhere. I'm now me on all three main alternates. This is not a migration; it's a diaspora.

Umm... stop over and say hi, so I remember to play with this one?