No help on eFiction, I'm afraid! But my thoughts on OTW, I can show you them! That's ok, I was really more interested in your thoughts anyway :)
I definitely understand the argument about women's work being undervalued, and exploited, and the way that an OTW archive is a counter to to such potential exploitation. I haven't actually run across that much on the "Women's" side of this, mstly I've read stuff from the view of outsiders looking in on fandom, which is very teeth-gritty. Do you have links to any of these discussions? I'll admit, I was kind of surprised to see that they were saying fandom is mostly women. I don't necessarily agree that *fandom* is mostly women, but will concede that the fanfic aspect is mostly women.
However, I am uninterested in fandom and academia, and I don't feel the need to access a central archive at the moment. Yeah, I'm not sure about the academia bit. I *like* how think-y fandom is, but sometimes we're a little too high-brow, especially when our common interest is squeeing over hot space heroes fighting alien vampires and robots. As for the archive, I'm kinda meh about it. Sometimes I'm really excited about it, but other times I think about it and realize I probably won't use it that much. At least not while I'm in big fandoms like SGA where I have a 40 page to-read list of stuff I got off of my flist alone. On the one hand, it would be nice to have a central archive that isn't neutered like ff.net is (if they had any more rules about what can and cannot be posted they wouldn't have any fic), but archives are notorious for having a lot of bad fic. On the other hand, it's nice to have a starting place that's well organized and has a large readership. Most of the people I know that post to ff.net do so because of the large readership, but still dislike the site. Also, if OTW is able to set up all that they want, it'll be a nice place for newbies to find first. Large multifandom archives are also nice if you get the sudden urge to read in an obscure fandom. *shrugs*
With regards to the legal defense fund - I don't know. Part of this, I feel, is about legitimising fanworks (although I don't think they actually use the term legitimising), and I've never felt the urge to have fandom - which is a hobby to me - viewed as 'legitimate' on a societal level The legal defense fund is probably what I'm most excited about. I would hate it if suddenly TPTB decided to shut us down (and it has happened in the past). People spend so much time working on fandom, to have someone from the outside come in and say we can't makes me so angry. Also, to not have to worry about legal ramifications would be really nice. It would be nice to have an option other than roll over when TPTB come to tell us to. But like you, I don't really care about what the outside thinks. In fact, I kind of like that not everyone knows what fandom is. I like being able to tell people that fandom is a hobby of mine, and not have them automatically think of bad explicit HP slash or other things that being put into the limelight would bring. I don't care if we're never acknowledged by mainstream culture, I just don't want to work in fandom with the fear of it being taken away from me.
OTW Part 1
That's ok, I was really more interested in your thoughts anyway :)
I definitely understand the argument about women's work being undervalued, and exploited, and the way that an OTW archive is a counter to to such potential exploitation.
I haven't actually run across that much on the "Women's" side of this, mstly I've read stuff from the view of outsiders looking in on fandom, which is very teeth-gritty. Do you have links to any of these discussions? I'll admit, I was kind of surprised to see that they were saying fandom is mostly women. I don't necessarily agree that *fandom* is mostly women, but will concede that the fanfic aspect is mostly women.
However, I am uninterested in fandom and academia, and I don't feel the need to access a central archive at the moment.
Yeah, I'm not sure about the academia bit. I *like* how think-y fandom is, but sometimes we're a little too high-brow, especially when our common interest is squeeing over hot space heroes fighting alien vampires and robots.
As for the archive, I'm kinda meh about it. Sometimes I'm really excited about it, but other times I think about it and realize I probably won't use it that much. At least not while I'm in big fandoms like SGA where I have a 40 page to-read list of stuff I got off of my flist alone.
On the one hand, it would be nice to have a central archive that isn't neutered like ff.net is (if they had any more rules about what can and cannot be posted they wouldn't have any fic), but archives are notorious for having a lot of bad fic. On the other hand, it's nice to have a starting place that's well organized and has a large readership. Most of the people I know that post to ff.net do so because of the large readership, but still dislike the site. Also, if OTW is able to set up all that they want, it'll be a nice place for newbies to find first. Large multifandom archives are also nice if you get the sudden urge to read in an obscure fandom. *shrugs*
With regards to the legal defense fund - I don't know. Part of this, I feel, is about legitimising fanworks (although I don't think they actually use the term legitimising), and I've never felt the urge to have fandom - which is a hobby to me - viewed as 'legitimate' on a societal level
The legal defense fund is probably what I'm most excited about. I would hate it if suddenly TPTB decided to shut us down (and it has happened in the past). People spend so much time working on fandom, to have someone from the outside come in and say we can't makes me so angry. Also, to not have to worry about legal ramifications would be really nice. It would be nice to have an option other than roll over when TPTB come to tell us to.
But like you, I don't really care about what the outside thinks. In fact, I kind of like that not everyone knows what fandom is. I like being able to tell people that fandom is a hobby of mine, and not have them automatically think of bad explicit HP slash or other things that being put into the limelight would bring. I don't care if we're never acknowledged by mainstream culture, I just don't want to work in fandom with the fear of it being taken away from me.
Cont...