Maybe starting out on the vidding side makes a difference? To be honest, I don't think so. I think vidders need webpages for very different reasons why I feel writers should post to more than just LJ. I mean, Stargate is very unique as a fandom to have a vidding archive. It was the first I ever saw that had one. And the only multifandom vidding archive I know of is animemusicvideo.org
Most of my flist comes from the fic side and they rarely positively discuss archives (though some have an interest in the OTW's archive project). I really have gotten the impression since I joined fandom that the feelings towards archives has changed a lot. I think part of that reason is that fandom has just become so much more mainstream, and the more people aware of it, the more people who participate, and that means that there are more people participating who just haven't any talent for writing or vidding or graphics or whatever. I have heard of some archives trying to put standards in, but the thing is what is "good" and what is "bad" is so subjective, that most of the time the standards at those webpages is "spell checked" and "proper grammar" and has nothing to do with plot. Also, I have to wonder if maybe it's just that on LJ it's a lot easier to rec fics, and to find out what you're friends are reading, because it's not like there are any standards over here either. Most comms only block people from posting if they are being asses, and hardly ever do so based on their writing. Anyone can post to most of the announcement comms (sga_noticeboard, mckay_sheppard, etc.). It's not like the newsletter reads the fics it posts either, they just follow the big comms and do a round up. Why is it so much easier to find good fic over here? And I have to ask, you say that you don't use archives all that much, but is that because you just don't find a need very often? Or do you actively avoid it? If I were to say, rec you a fic, and give you a Wraithbait link, would you still go read it? I ask, because I know that if someone gives me a link to ff.net, even if it sounded interesting, it generally gets moved to the bottom of my To-Read list, but that's based on the rules I know exist on that site, and not on the fact that it's hosted on an archive.
I'm not at all trying to rain on your archive parade by any means, just explaining my side. :) Oh, no worries, I feel no rain. You make valid points, and I understand that people aren't feeling a need to post to archives as much anymore, or actively avoid them because they feel there's too much badfic there (which, by not posting there, they are kind of perpetuating...). Also, random though, I have to wonder if maybe ideas are different in different fandoms, because when I think about my time in the HP fandom, pretty much all the fic I read was read off of LJ. All of the rec sites out there seemed to have links going to the main archives out there. Probably since that fandom is so old and so prolific, but still...
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To be honest, I don't think so. I think vidders need webpages for very different reasons why I feel writers should post to more than just LJ. I mean, Stargate is very unique as a fandom to have a vidding archive. It was the first I ever saw that had one. And the only multifandom vidding archive I know of is animemusicvideo.org
Most of my flist comes from the fic side and they rarely positively discuss archives (though some have an interest in the OTW's archive project).
I really have gotten the impression since I joined fandom that the feelings towards archives has changed a lot. I think part of that reason is that fandom has just become so much more mainstream, and the more people aware of it, the more people who participate, and that means that there are more people participating who just haven't any talent for writing or vidding or graphics or whatever. I have heard of some archives trying to put standards in, but the thing is what is "good" and what is "bad" is so subjective, that most of the time the standards at those webpages is "spell checked" and "proper grammar" and has nothing to do with plot.
Also, I have to wonder if maybe it's just that on LJ it's a lot easier to rec fics, and to find out what you're friends are reading, because it's not like there are any standards over here either. Most comms only block people from posting if they are being asses, and hardly ever do so based on their writing. Anyone can post to most of the announcement comms (sga_noticeboard, mckay_sheppard, etc.). It's not like the newsletter reads the fics it posts either, they just follow the big comms and do a round up. Why is it so much easier to find good fic over here?
And I have to ask, you say that you don't use archives all that much, but is that because you just don't find a need very often? Or do you actively avoid it? If I were to say, rec you a fic, and give you a Wraithbait link, would you still go read it? I ask, because I know that if someone gives me a link to ff.net, even if it sounded interesting, it generally gets moved to the bottom of my To-Read list, but that's based on the rules I know exist on that site, and not on the fact that it's hosted on an archive.
I'm not at all trying to rain on your archive parade by any means, just explaining my side. :)
Oh, no worries, I feel no rain. You make valid points, and I understand that people aren't feeling a need to post to archives as much anymore, or actively avoid them because they feel there's too much badfic there (which, by not posting there, they are kind of perpetuating...).
Also, random though, I have to wonder if maybe ideas are different in different fandoms, because when I think about my time in the HP fandom, pretty much all the fic I read was read off of LJ. All of the rec sites out there seemed to have links going to the main archives out there. Probably since that fandom is so old and so prolific, but still...