![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
How Fandom Has Changed
So, I've spoken to people about this in various places in various ways, but I kind of wanted to put this out there, and get people's opinions.
Maybe it's just the fandoms I've been in, or it could just be me, but it seems like fandom has changed how they present themselves a lot since I joined. The area that I notice this the most is with vidding.
I remember making my first vid, and then having no idea how to go about sharing it. I was a poor student! I couldn't afford to buy webspace! I also was stuck using WMM (Version 1!) because you couldn't get downloads of better programs, and that was all that was available to me. It took me *months* to get my hands on all the aired episodes of QaF, because there weren't all the communities available, and while there was probably bit torrent, I certainly didn't know about it. I used Kazaa to get all my eps. :P I remember, even as I got started, there was meta going around saying that vidding was beginning to lose some of it's quality because what with WMM being on most new computers, and episode downloads more readily available everyone was trying vidding now, even if they hadn't any talent for it. I took exception to such meta, mostly because I was one of those talentless n00bs taking advantage of the new fangled technology suddenly on my computer (I still don't really agree with that idea, because for all the less than stellar vidders, there are a lot of amazing vidders who wouldn't have tried in the old days, and even if you're not an amazing vidder, I still think your work has merit if you enjoyed yourself. Hell, if I was that kind of elitist, I could never have made anymore vids, and I'd like to think that I've moved beyond the mediocre vidder I started as).
Despite it giving me problems when I first started out, I think the thing about vidding today that annoys me the most is the fact that people don't have personal webpages for their vids anymore. They just post them to Youtube or Imeem, and so, so many don't even offer a download link anymore, or if they do, they're often hosted on temporary sites such as sendspace or megaupload. I'm one of those people that always downloads vids, I watch them as I do other things on my computer, I hate streaming vids. I won't watch them if there is only a streaming option, and I like being able to go to a vidders website and downloading more of their vids if I find something I like. Half the time if I want to do that now, I end up having to root someone's LJs tags or memories, only to find that the download link has expired.
And it's not just vidders that I've noticed giving up on personal websites, it seems like so many author's have decided that their LJs are the only place they need to post fic. I had a big long discussion with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
paradise_city about this, she was wondering why anyone would need more than LJ in fandom, and no offense to her, but that idea really... worries me and drives me crazy. Because LJ? Not really the best archive. Unless the author takes the time to maintain a master fic list, I find it so frustrating trying to find their other fics. Tags just... aren't really enough for me, and people can be really bad at keeping them updated (I know *I* am). Do people even *use* the memory feature any more? I've been lucky in SGA, that it has enough fic appearing on my flist, that I never really have to search any out, but it's not so with all fandoms. I've pretty much given up on reading Numb3rs fic, because it's always so much effort finding it. That's really the reason why I wanted to start an archive for Numb3rs, to help centralize it, but for reasons having to do with stupid eFiction those idea have been put on hold.
I know that when I started in fandom, it was literally *months* before I even found LJ, I happily did all my reading initially from personal webpages of authors, and then later from archives. Even once I was on LJ I did most of my reading off it. I really miss that. For one thing, as someone who doesn't bookmark fic as I read it, it was a lot easier for me to go back and find the fics that I had read previously, because it's a lot easier to remember a webpage than it is to remember someone's LJ.
I find myself missing the days when more fic was stored off of LJ, and not just because I feel that LJ isn't a reliable place for fandom. It's funny how fandom moves, I wonder where we'll be next.
Maybe it's just the fandoms I've been in, or it could just be me, but it seems like fandom has changed how they present themselves a lot since I joined. The area that I notice this the most is with vidding.
I remember making my first vid, and then having no idea how to go about sharing it. I was a poor student! I couldn't afford to buy webspace! I also was stuck using WMM (Version 1!) because you couldn't get downloads of better programs, and that was all that was available to me. It took me *months* to get my hands on all the aired episodes of QaF, because there weren't all the communities available, and while there was probably bit torrent, I certainly didn't know about it. I used Kazaa to get all my eps. :P I remember, even as I got started, there was meta going around saying that vidding was beginning to lose some of it's quality because what with WMM being on most new computers, and episode downloads more readily available everyone was trying vidding now, even if they hadn't any talent for it. I took exception to such meta, mostly because I was one of those talentless n00bs taking advantage of the new fangled technology suddenly on my computer (I still don't really agree with that idea, because for all the less than stellar vidders, there are a lot of amazing vidders who wouldn't have tried in the old days, and even if you're not an amazing vidder, I still think your work has merit if you enjoyed yourself. Hell, if I was that kind of elitist, I could never have made anymore vids, and I'd like to think that I've moved beyond the mediocre vidder I started as).
Despite it giving me problems when I first started out, I think the thing about vidding today that annoys me the most is the fact that people don't have personal webpages for their vids anymore. They just post them to Youtube or Imeem, and so, so many don't even offer a download link anymore, or if they do, they're often hosted on temporary sites such as sendspace or megaupload. I'm one of those people that always downloads vids, I watch them as I do other things on my computer, I hate streaming vids. I won't watch them if there is only a streaming option, and I like being able to go to a vidders website and downloading more of their vids if I find something I like. Half the time if I want to do that now, I end up having to root someone's LJs tags or memories, only to find that the download link has expired.
And it's not just vidders that I've noticed giving up on personal websites, it seems like so many author's have decided that their LJs are the only place they need to post fic. I had a big long discussion with
paradise_city about this, she was wondering why anyone would need more than LJ in fandom, and no offense to her, but that idea really... worries me and drives me crazy. Because LJ? Not really the best archive. Unless the author takes the time to maintain a master fic list, I find it so frustrating trying to find their other fics. Tags just... aren't really enough for me, and people can be really bad at keeping them updated (I know *I* am). Do people even *use* the memory feature any more? I've been lucky in SGA, that it has enough fic appearing on my flist, that I never really have to search any out, but it's not so with all fandoms. I've pretty much given up on reading Numb3rs fic, because it's always so much effort finding it. That's really the reason why I wanted to start an archive for Numb3rs, to help centralize it, but for reasons having to do with stupid eFiction those idea have been put on hold.I know that when I started in fandom, it was literally *months* before I even found LJ, I happily did all my reading initially from personal webpages of authors, and then later from archives. Even once I was on LJ I did most of my reading off it. I really miss that. For one thing, as someone who doesn't bookmark fic as I read it, it was a lot easier for me to go back and find the fics that I had read previously, because it's a lot easier to remember a webpage than it is to remember someone's LJ.
I find myself missing the days when more fic was stored off of LJ, and not just because I feel that LJ isn't a reliable place for fandom. It's funny how fandom moves, I wonder where we'll be next.
no subject
And that's really my biggest argument against LJ as an archive. It's great as an advertising site for something new, but really things get buried so quickly, and there are a lot of fandoms with high turnover (book fandoms for example), or media fandoms that have their peaks but still continue on with second, third or more waves afterwards. Anime fandoms tend to not have a definite start and end since the material is made available to various people at various times. It's so frustrating being new somewhere and trying to get started. I know that there are a couple fandoms that I'm interested in, but am not currently reading fic for, for those fandoms, I put the comms on my flist, and bookmark interesting looking fic, because I know if I decide to join the fandom after, I'll have a bitch of a time finding those fics again, and the frustration of trying to join in and find what I want might make me never join.
Turning the clock back a few years, I could have gone to the major archive(s) for the fandom and found enough stories to keep me interested without spending more time digging than reading.
And that's something that kind of confuses me. People talk about how it's so hard to find good fic on archives, but how is it any harder on LJ? LJ doesn't exactly have higher standards than archives (actually, sometimes it's the opposite, since some archives approve fic once they've been checked for spelling and grammar), most comms will let anyone advertise their fics.
With archives, you can go into a pairing section and skim through what's available, sometimes use various warnings/ratings/genres to narrow the focus, and then, you have a big list of fics with author's names attached, and summaries, and ratings and # of comments all on one page. It doesn't really get much easier.
If I don't like a fic, I can always hit the back button after a paragraph of spelling mistakes.
Exactly! And often, you can tell right from the summary/author's note if you're going to have issues, and you have to do the same for LJ anyways, unless you're going exclusively off of rec lists.
LJ is fine if you've already worked your way through the fandom and are just keeping up with the new stories, but it isn't so good when you are just getting started or like something other than the *OTPOMGtheirloveissocanon* since they never show up on recs pages.
*nods* If I want to read a rare pairing, or a pairing that isn't my main pairing, my first place to look is the fandom archive, because I may never want to read that pairing again, or not want to have comms for it on my flist, but I know if there are fics for that pairing, there will be some at the archive. As a slasher, I don't really want a bunch of het or gen comms on my flist, but sometimes? I just want to read het or gen. The local archive is the go-to place.
And I've run out of characters so I'll be double posting you... Sorry.
Yessss. I'm not the only one who does it! Although honestly, LJ needs to increase their comment character length. Lets see if I can post this in one comment... *checks* No.