A matter of taste?
Feb. 22nd, 2010 08:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katekatSometimes, when your best beloved first fandom shows up and showers you with gifts, you spend a day feeling like it's chrismas in february.
It's Christmas in February people!!! Know why? Because![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
maleslashminis is back in business and an absolute metric-ton of AWESOME was dropped on the interwebs today. I have read every single story posted for this round, and there is not a single non-awesome fic in the bunch. By which I mean to say: they are all amazing, and if you haven't read them yet why haven't you? And if you have, and didn't leave a comment, please reconsider because one of the only way authors are encouraged to write more is if we give them encouragement, and pretty much that all comes from feedback.
And even if you can't do it for them, do it for me, because I'm telling you people, I have literally worn my computer screen down to a black and white flashing bulb by rereading their old stuff so many times. If they were paper, they would have been crumpled into bits, and I MISS new Giles/Xander and new Xander/Riley and new Xander/Spike and new Xander/Ben (yes, you read that right and it was awesome too, go read it), and new Xander/Wes and new Xander/Simon and hell, new Buffy slash fic all together, especially when it comes from the keyboards of these people!
Now that I'm in other fandoms, and other fandoms that have daily or weekly newsletters, it has become apparent to me that our SU_herald is NOT helping matters any. I'm not saying that they're causing it. HELLO, what anniversary of the final air date are we on for Buffy?? I think time is the primary factor. That and the whole 'season 8 is/is not cannon' doesn't necessarily help. And just how many stories can one write about how often Spike & Xander get together? Trust me, when I look at images I'd like to use, I do feel as if I've worn the edges off of my favorites, my second favorites, and my third favorites to make artwork. AND YET, WE'RE NOT DEAD YET. Because I know that new people come into the fandom every day. I've had notes from them. Just this week.
That being said, the Herald's whole 'we have a right to link to what we think is good and not to what we don't think is good' is possibly justifiable when you've got a thriving fandom that turns out 80 million fics and graphics every five minutes. Or if, you know, you've actually got people who are scouring the internets for "good" works and linking to them.
But frankly? Watching the daily lists of the Merlin fandom, Torchwood, and heck, even of the Kradam portion of the AI fandom? They don't leave anything off. And they've got WORLDS more crap to cover every day.
Also, whatever the Herald is doing now has nothing to do with being arbiters of taste in the fandom. I'm assuming they have some of, but not most of, the buffy communities on a watcher journal. BUT what it seems like when I see the daily come up on my flist? is that they link to whatever they feel like or the last three entries that came up on a day if they don't have time.
And if I had more time? Yes, yes I would do it myself and quit my bitching. But I don't have time. And it's my journal so I can complain in a totally incoherent way about it.
But frankly when the sloppiest piece of Buffy/Spike PWP gets linked with absolutely NO mention of works by people I consider to be the last women standing in writing some of the best slash fic in the fandom????? WHAT THE FUCK?
And as for the graphics? When people who are talented, who make masterpieces out of icons, who are linked in other daily journals (like Giles Watchers), but NOT in the one that's supposed to round up our fandom?? Who I aspire to grow up and be some day? And instead the icon posts that are linked are the first icons of someone who just got photoshop this weekend?
NOT ARBITERS OF TASTE. Sorry. Considering that the Herald has ALWAYS had the power to scour other daily communities and link to those posts, and considering that if I had the time I would actually spend two hours making daily rec lists that would put theirs to SHAME, I just....
I just wish there was an alternative. An alternative that everybody could, enmasse, switch to so we wouldn't have to be dependent on that as the first and foremost anymore. That newbies wouldn't come into the fandom and get referred there and feel like there's a wasteland. Cuz man, if I had to depend on it instead of on my flist for information? *shudders*
ETA: I am going to do my best to respond to all comments, but I have a 10 hour day ahead of me that will end sometime around 8 pm PST, and I'm pretty sure I won't be able to respond during most of that time -- doesn't mean I'm not happy to hear back, just that I'm not going to be speedy. PLEASE BE CIVIL to each other, though! I'm so glad to have discussion, but hope everyone will respect everyone else?
ETA2: So, in a move I would have never expected, this post is now linked by others beyond our fandom. HI. I would like to note that this is one of the most incoherent and inflammatory rants I've ever written, around a very specific issue in a very specific fandom. While it may not be apparent (mostly from the confusion of my prose), my actual 'point' (if you'll grant me that stretch) was that the 'selective' mode for the Btvs/Ats fandom communitysu_herald did not seem consistent. Sadly, what I ended up doing was unintentionally recreating the slash/het binary, and sort-of intentionally raising a question about the difference between newsletters and recs communities, while noting that although the Herald's policies are more like a recs community, to the larger community they do represent a newsletter. At this point the productive discussion seems to be going on here in ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
angeria's journal as to how to possibly change this.
It's Christmas in February people!!! Know why? Because
maleslashminis is back in business and an absolute metric-ton of AWESOME was dropped on the interwebs today. I have read every single story posted for this round, and there is not a single non-awesome fic in the bunch. By which I mean to say: they are all amazing, and if you haven't read them yet why haven't you? And if you have, and didn't leave a comment, please reconsider because one of the only way authors are encouraged to write more is if we give them encouragement, and pretty much that all comes from feedback.And even if you can't do it for them, do it for me, because I'm telling you people, I have literally worn my computer screen down to a black and white flashing bulb by rereading their old stuff so many times. If they were paper, they would have been crumpled into bits, and I MISS new Giles/Xander and new Xander/Riley and new Xander/Spike and new Xander/Ben (yes, you read that right and it was awesome too, go read it), and new Xander/Wes and new Xander/Simon and hell, new Buffy slash fic all together, especially when it comes from the keyboards of these people!
Now that I'm in other fandoms, and other fandoms that have daily or weekly newsletters, it has become apparent to me that our SU_herald is NOT helping matters any. I'm not saying that they're causing it. HELLO, what anniversary of the final air date are we on for Buffy?? I think time is the primary factor. That and the whole 'season 8 is/is not cannon' doesn't necessarily help. And just how many stories can one write about how often Spike & Xander get together? Trust me, when I look at images I'd like to use, I do feel as if I've worn the edges off of my favorites, my second favorites, and my third favorites to make artwork. AND YET, WE'RE NOT DEAD YET. Because I know that new people come into the fandom every day. I've had notes from them. Just this week.
That being said, the Herald's whole 'we have a right to link to what we think is good and not to what we don't think is good' is possibly justifiable when you've got a thriving fandom that turns out 80 million fics and graphics every five minutes. Or if, you know, you've actually got people who are scouring the internets for "good" works and linking to them.
But frankly? Watching the daily lists of the Merlin fandom, Torchwood, and heck, even of the Kradam portion of the AI fandom? They don't leave anything off. And they've got WORLDS more crap to cover every day.
Also, whatever the Herald is doing now has nothing to do with being arbiters of taste in the fandom. I'm assuming they have some of, but not most of, the buffy communities on a watcher journal. BUT what it seems like when I see the daily come up on my flist? is that they link to whatever they feel like or the last three entries that came up on a day if they don't have time.
And if I had more time? Yes, yes I would do it myself and quit my bitching. But I don't have time. And it's my journal so I can complain in a totally incoherent way about it.
But frankly when the sloppiest piece of Buffy/Spike PWP gets linked with absolutely NO mention of works by people I consider to be the last women standing in writing some of the best slash fic in the fandom????? WHAT THE FUCK?
And as for the graphics? When people who are talented, who make masterpieces out of icons, who are linked in other daily journals (like Giles Watchers), but NOT in the one that's supposed to round up our fandom?? Who I aspire to grow up and be some day? And instead the icon posts that are linked are the first icons of someone who just got photoshop this weekend?
NOT ARBITERS OF TASTE. Sorry. Considering that the Herald has ALWAYS had the power to scour other daily communities and link to those posts, and considering that if I had the time I would actually spend two hours making daily rec lists that would put theirs to SHAME, I just....
I just wish there was an alternative. An alternative that everybody could, enmasse, switch to so we wouldn't have to be dependent on that as the first and foremost anymore. That newbies wouldn't come into the fandom and get referred there and feel like there's a wasteland. Cuz man, if I had to depend on it instead of on my flist for information? *shudders*
ETA: I am going to do my best to respond to all comments, but I have a 10 hour day ahead of me that will end sometime around 8 pm PST, and I'm pretty sure I won't be able to respond during most of that time -- doesn't mean I'm not happy to hear back, just that I'm not going to be speedy. PLEASE BE CIVIL to each other, though! I'm so glad to have discussion, but hope everyone will respect everyone else?
ETA2: So, in a move I would have never expected, this post is now linked by others beyond our fandom. HI. I would like to note that this is one of the most incoherent and inflammatory rants I've ever written, around a very specific issue in a very specific fandom. While it may not be apparent (mostly from the confusion of my prose), my actual 'point' (if you'll grant me that stretch) was that the 'selective' mode for the Btvs/Ats fandom community
su_herald did not seem consistent. Sadly, what I ended up doing was unintentionally recreating the slash/het binary, and sort-of intentionally raising a question about the difference between newsletters and recs communities, while noting that although the Herald's policies are more like a recs community, to the larger community they do represent a newsletter. At this point the productive discussion seems to be going on here in angeria's journal as to how to possibly change this.
