Why I Don't Care for OTW

[beckyh2112]

No matter how much male they feel, transformative works belong to what I like to call the female part of fandom.

You know, this whole post is astonishingly sexist and full of useless, ill-informed generalizations.

Apparently discussing the relationships in a show is more 'transformative' than discussing the special effects. Or, like most of the males I know in Transformers, discussing the relative merits of Character A vs. Character B.

But apparently, to be 'transformative', you have to be discussing sex and relationships in the fandom.

This is just one idiot, who apparently ran away from comments disagreeing with her.

Yet, I've noticed this continuing idea, from OTW and their supporters, that to be a fan of the sort they care about, you have to be female or part of the 'female' side of fandom. This sort of creativity is just as "transformative" as slashfic. I know equal numbers of Transformers fanartists from either gender. I read a fair amount of Transformers fanfic by males.

So, how am I participating in a 'female' side of fandom? How can people even define fandom as being 'male' or 'female'? Dividing it up like that sets an implication that one side is better than the other, especially with OTW's emphasis on examination of the female side of fandom.

I believe that approaching an analysis of fandom from an academic-feminist perspective is going to be inherently flawed when you come to such fandoms as Transformers. Just as I believe that analyzing fandom as a whole based on exposures to individual fandoms is inherently flawed. Different fandoms have different cultures.

I don't like OTW. I find their seeking for legality to be something to be extremely nervous about. I find the gobzillions of meta posts about why people joined OTW to be intensely off-putting. I dislike them using heidi8 as one of their Intellectual Property lawyers, as she's been a big defender and close friend of Cassandra Claire. I've never particularly liked the academic-feminist form of analysis that they seem to be using, at least not if it isn't in conjunction with another form of analysis.

I don't think what they are talking about providing is worth my time, especially when they seem structured in such a way as to shut out half the fandom that I love and participate in.

Comments

Re: From Metafandom.

[amireal.livejournal.com]

What I want to know is - what's different about this archive compared to normal fic-sites (except being bigger)?

Well, essentially it's not all that different insofar as it's a multifandom archive meant to serve anyone who wants to use it (ala ff.net), and essentially it's not. There's a lot of dissatisfaction in various areas.

1. With the open source coding available (the archive software used at 852 prospect and elsewhere was designed by people well involved with OTW, but it has its flaws, Yuletide runs on it and every year there's a worry that at the highest level of usage the database will crash), there are new tools and the 'market' for these archives is up hugely than when they were first built. Most of the open source stuff cannot support the high level of traffic and data that an archive like ff.net or the one OTW wants to build would bring.

2. The non open source options, such as ff.net has restrictions and ads and usability (search functions, etc) that many people don't like.

Because surely, if they have the domain name and some fics, they could start it _now_ and make it bigger as they go along - though I suppose that wouldn't look as impressive.

Well. No. They can't just put it up, because the archive software is being built from scratch to accommodate several things, some of which I listed above. The archiving software doesn't exist, that's what there is no archive, though they are at the point where they're asking for beta tester like individuals.

And if you meant, why not just get the barebones up and add coding later, well, I'm not a professional coder, but I can tell you that in the long run, getting as much of a solid lead on your basic stuff, and spending a little time working in outlets for your future updates is a good thing, and that adding on code later can often be detrimental to the whole project.

If I misunderstood you, please let me know.

edited to complete a sentence I missed and correct a homonym *tiny fist*

Re: From Metafandom.

[anarchicq.livejournal.com]

The non open source options, such as ff.net has restrictions and ads and usability (search functions, etc) that many people don't like.
People don't like search functions in their archives now?

Re: From Metafandom.

[amireal.livejournal.com]

No, my apologies, I wasn't clear. I simply meant that their search function (which admittedly it has been some time since I used it) wasn't something that really appealed to me in terms of functionality. I.E. I felt it was clunky and you couldn't get specific enough with it. I feel it's usability is not what it could be? Or what I'd like?

Does that clear things up?

Re: From Metafandom.

[anarchicq.livejournal.com]

Yes, it does.
However, I think beggars can't be choosers. I'm part of an art archive that has no search function at all and god, how I miss it.

Re: From Metafandom.

[amireal.livejournal.com]

Well yeah, if it's your preferred archive, you find a way around it. I mean when I was using ff.net net nearly exclusively when I hit a new fandom, you learn your way around the search function. That doesn't mean I won't support someone coming up with software that has all sorts of functions I wish my current archive had.