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marina's well-informed meta on Heated RivalryI've observed hockey RPF fandom from an immeasurable distance, and I still got a kick out of this post:
https://marina.dreamwidth.org/1576715.html
marina was in hockey fandom, spent her childhood in Ukraine, knows much about filing serial numbers, and has definite opinions about vodka.
I'm reading reading reading.
Hi!
from HenrikWidegren featuring Johanna Körner Berglund
with excellent subtitles in 11 languages!
( stream it here )
(thanks to the Ask.Metafilter thread on Songs about data or statistics)
I was listening to Lingthusiasm, (the podcast that’s enthusiastic about linguistics) and Gretchen plugged an old yet still-wise blog post. While her advice is particularly helpful for graduate students, it also applies to SF cons and any context where you’re a fan and want to actually communicate with the presenter.
The key thing to realize is that most of the time, you know more about the speaker than they know about you, so you need to start the conversation and you get to pick what it’s about.
[… snip …]
(a)s someone who has now been on the receiving end of occasional fangirling, I find it endearing but also I don’t always know what to do with it. It’s super helpful if you can set us on the course of having an actual conversation, rather than putting me into the weird position of “why yes, I agree, I am awesome.” It’s always nice and safe to start with “I enjoyed your talk” but follow that up with something concrete.
https://allthingslinguistic.com/post/145122859819/how-to-interact-with-someone-whos-just-given-a
pudding.cool hosts remarkable visualizations of a wide, wide range of data. As their front page boasts:
The Pudding is a digital publication that
explains ideas debated in culture with visual essaysmakes cool shit on the internet. You might have seen our story on women’s pockets, but we’ve also made stuff about mapping famous people and celebrity name spelling.
The point of the site is making aesthetically pleasing data visualization, and the design withstands being zoomed up to 175%. I can’t speak to its accessibility otherwise. What’s revved me up this time is
Extensive data visualization of relationship patterns in fanfic on the AO3. They quote thinkers I’ve enjoyed in the past — Kristina Busse and Joanna Russ among many — and as a treat, they host a random relationship generator at the top of the page.
( 125 word snippet )
https://pudding.cool/2024/10/fanfic
The Oxford English Dictionary was an early fandom for me — our family squabbled over who got the magnifying glass when the Compact OED arrived in 1971. (It squeezed 20 volumes into two by making the print tiny — essentially a paper microfiche.) So I was charmed by Dr Catherine Sangster’s article "Looking back at Geek Dictionary Corner"
( 125 word sample )
https://www.oed.com/discover/looking-back-at-geek-dictionary-cornerAnd there’s more…
Thursday, November 21, 2024
1700 UTC (11:00 a.m. central US & Canada)
Join editors Dr Catherine Sangster and Fiona McPherson, and guest speakers Prof Dr Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer and Dr Fraser Dallachy for a discussion on the language of science fiction, fantasy, gaming, and other specific fandoms:
• How and why language that develops in these communities is adopted more widely
• How does the OED monitor these developments, and decide what should (or should not) be recorded
• Interesting examples
• The influence of World Englishes varieties and other languages
• Q&A time – bring your questions to the panellists or send them in advance to oed.uk@oup.com
Sign up to watch live https://events.oup.com/oup-academic-marketing/OED-pop-culture.
Will probably show up on OxfordLanguages’s YouTube channel.
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fail_fandomanonI read fail_fandomanon when I wish to exercise my brain but not enough to actually think or write or put pieces together. (Unlike Twitter, the political discussion is firmly gated to other threads. Unlike TikTok, it's blessedly static text.)
This totally silly and non-wanky thread explores the vital topic of fabric* in fandom:
https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/524762.html?thread=3175894490#cmt3175894490
Keep expanding for all the delicious comments.
* Where fabric is actually autocarrot for fanfic, but that doesn't stop the great discussion.
Do you have an online self-soother?
Today I learned about the excellent fandom resource from ao3commentoftheday and
memorizingthedigitsofpi
https://archiveofourown.org/series/1854832
as of 1 Aug 2022, the series includes
as well as two unrevealed works. I can't wait!
What AO3 tools do you use?
melannen Brings Us FANDOM BRACKETSmelannen continues to dream up and complete lovely schemes! Last year it was the awesome 100 recs for enemy ships, posted over 120 days:
https://melannen.dreamwidth.org/tag/100+days+of+enemy+recs
This year, it’s FANDOM BRACKETS — a tournament-style single elimination contest using DW’s poll features to choose "the best fandom".
I have made a list of the current most popular fandoms on AO3 and then I will post daily single-elimination polls until we have narrowed it down to one fandom! This is a chance to vote on which fandom should win against all the other fandoms, and argue about in the comments!
The preliminary elimination round has 100 candidates
https://fictional-fans.dreamwidth.org/93413.html
All the polls: https://fictional-fans.dreamwidth.org/tag/fandom+brackets
The WINNER!
https://fictional-fans.dreamwidth.org/97009.html
fictional_fansauthor_by_night invites any and all fans to the sandbox community fictional_fans: What fandoms are we all in, anyway?
I thought it might be fun to come up with a list of the fandoms people are in here - find communities, find fics, find friends.
Fandom is doing that amazing organizing thing, restoring the podfics that went missing in the catastrophic loss of the Jinjurly Audiofic Archive.
squidgiepdx and mific have been coordinating scores of fans and a really impressive spreadsheet -- you can see all the details at
https://squidgestatus.dreamwidth.org/tag/jinjurly+archive
Even if you don't have older podfics to share, there's 100s of files that need to be downloaded, renamed, zipped, and FTPed to their final resting place.
There are hundreds of folks posting about their lives, their likes, their dreams, their fandoms thanks to the low-key snowflake_challenge. It's a no-pressure event: participating at their own rates, in their own journals, the challengers (or is that the snowflakes) link back to the comm so you can roll around in lovely fannish feelings!
The Master Post summarizes the challenges and links to all players.
mific posted: Storing podfics on the Internet Archive
With great details (garnered from trial and error). The IA provides a streaming player which works well with AO3.
forests_of_fireThanks to forests_of_fire for prompting me to comment on three of my profile interests.
Comment on this entry saying Rhubarb!, and I'll pick three things from your profile interests or tags.
Write about the words/phrases I picked in your journal and link back here. Spread the love.
( 400 words on podbooks, community radio and Wilby Wonderful )
It's often been said (even by me) that the Corgi phenotype is so strong that when Corgis create mixed breed dogs, they look like "Corgis in costumes."
I'm delighted to report there's a Reddit sub devoted entirely to pictures of these costumed wonders: no matter whether the outgroup dog is a chihuahua or a husky, the dog has a long body, short legs, and a definite attitude.
https://reddit.com/r/incorgnito
No login required to admire
If you saw a cornstarch slurry in science class -- often called "oobleck" -- you've experienced a "non-Newtonian liquid." That's a substance which changes its structure based on pressure. A local industrial pump manufacturer does a lovely job explaining the varieties:
https://blog.craneengineering.net/what-are-newtonian-and-non-newtonian-fluids
I found this after rabbit-holing for a post on gluten-free gravy.
https://gluten-free.dreamwidth.org/55497.html
Nursing Clio continues to deliver accessible historical perspective on the social impacts of medicine, in this case, Black nurses during the US Vietnam war:
[Elizabeth Allen]’s motivation for joining the war effort came from the same deep well of solidarity within the Black community that produced the anti-War activism of Angela Davis and Malcolm X. Allen expanded on her ideological justification for volunteering: “It’s not for me to decide as to the rightness or the wrongness of the war, my decision was what was the best possible care I could give.”
Subscribe to
nursingclio_feed
china_shop, who I met oh so long ago in due South fandom before Dreamwidth, came up with a rousing fannish pub-quiz style game — you can play on your next Zoom call!
https://fictional-fans.dreamwidth.org/72400.html
skygiants muses about the fanfic trope "forced to work together" and the optimistic hope that humans can love each other just for that.
https://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/602008.html
fail_fandomanon is an anon community where hundreds of posts and comments appear daily. I visit the 6-year-old Dreamwidth edition maybe yearly. Its purpose and culture is mysterious to me. Here's a Fanlore attempt to describe it https://fanlore.org/wiki/Failfandom_anon
Enter erinptah, who must read closely to gather these non-wanky, in fact, intriguing discussions under the fail-fandomanon tag:
https://erinptah.dreamwidth.org/tag/fail-fandomanon
The 44th WisCon was scheduled for the Concourse Hotel here in Madison over Memorial Day Weekend. They’ve swerved to an online iteration. Here’s your chance to try out WisCon and see if you like it.
Online memberships range from free (for those of us who don’t have extra money right now) to $55 (for those of us with extra money). Read more details about programming at the registration page.
roadrunnertwice has been busy updating our elderly codebase right and left. They’d love to have mobile users, particularly Android, find problems with the latest code push.
fictional_fans is a pan fannish community, and yesterday extrapenguin blew my mind with this excellent prompt, which I honestly wish to nominate for Yuletide:
We've probably all heard about tops and bottoms, but why not expand this into the rest of the quark family so we have six options to play with? A character can be not only top or bottom, but also up, down, strange, or charm. (Some sources even call top and bottom truth and beauty, respectively!)
https://fictional-fans.dreamwidth.org/58681.html
are the unicorn chaser, from the NYTimes style magazine, of all places
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/13/t-magazine/butch-stud-lesbian.html
Podficcers being even more creative is the theme of the Out of the Auditory challenge, happening again this year. Thanks to sylvaine’s post, I just enjoyed a bunch from last year's challenge.
In particular:
AO3 Tags: PWP, Porn, Smut by momotastic. It’s a very dramatic reading of the many synonymous tags of AO3's canonical tags for "PWP", "Porn", and "Smut".
It made me laugh and love fandom, as well as admire momotastic ability not to crack up.
The Unofficial RCMP/CPD International Co-operation and Liaising Recipe Book by podfic_lover.
china_shop’s silly and sweet fic read aloud. Recipes include
Out of the Auditary: a fest for podficcing works that don't fit into the "standard" fiction format, such as meta, not!fic, epistolary and chatfic, video game codes entries, fake scientific articles, poetry, and many more!
Thank goodness for vidders! llegrarosenberg made
Aziraphale: Ask Your Doctor (Good Omens Crack)
The conceit is AZIRAPHALE is the name of a new SSRI. In before-and-after style, Crowley demonstrates all the symptoms of clinical depression and then is transformed. ( YouTube embed and partial transcript )
Three excellent items from my Dreamwidth travels:
seperis lets us know that Amazon accepts SNAP in NY state, and offers discounts for people with federal EBT cards.
https://seperis.dreamwidth.org/1059318.html
I’m in awe of petra’s skill with fannish poetry:
You can see it in progress at this prompt post https://petra.dreamwidth.org/840970.html
This one blew my mind:
Higgledy Piggledy
Hercules Mulligan
Renegade tailor tied
Tories in knots,Managed his shop full of
Haberdashderringdo
Carefully measuring
Breeches and plots.
All the villanelles https://petra.dreamwidth.org/tag/poetry:+villanelle
ljwrites writes on DW about many things, including this helpful meta about "Policing and woobiefication: two sides of the same coin".
https://lj-writes.dreamwidth.org/99391.html?format=light
Fandom policing and villain woobiefication/apologia seem to be polar opposites, but at heart they agree on one thing: That your morality is defined by the wholesomeness of the content you make and consume.
[… snip …]
If you truly disagree with the fandom police's premise, then actually disagree, and don't validate the flawed and harmful premise by spinelessly seeking a loophole for yourself like "Yeah people who like immoral shit and deserve to be mistreated/shamed, but I'm nothing like those immoral people because [horrible validation of real-life immorality]."
Disability and/in/through Fanfiction is the theme of the current Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, Vol 8 No 2 (2019). It’s available free online as PDF or HTML
http://cjds.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cjds/issue/view/26
Topics include
Sample paragraphs from the articles I particularly liked over at access_fandom
I’ve tried to follow the Archive of Our Own's instructions to modify the ones on offer and achieved zilch.
What I want when I view the archive: [ETA, kluged something workable]
liv recently hosted a thoughtful discussion on “Bullying for Social Justice”
https://liv.dreamwidth.org/539260.html
“Call-out culture,” like “political correctness,” sounds neutral while carrying conflicting ideological meaning.
Laurie Penny addresses some of these issues in "Who Does She Think She Is: The internet does not hate women. People hate women, and the internet allows them to do it faster, harder, and with impunity."
https://longreads.com/2018/03/28/who-does-she-think-she-is
It took me many years to learn the most important distinguishing factor when trying to decide what criticism to take on board, once you’ve filtered and blocked for bots and fascists. It’s not about tone, and it’s not, for fuck’s sake, about Twitter. It’s about pleasure. Is somebody actively enjoying making you feel like shit? Is driving conscientious people to mental breakdown a really good time for them? Are they getting off on your pain? There’s a word for that, and it’s not “ally.” I understand that bullying can feel pretty damn good, especially if you don’t call it that. I understand that playing the game of trashing feels comfortable and comprehensible, even righteous, when so little else does. But I’ve read all the theory and staggered through all the flame wars and I’ve come to the conclusion that when you get down to it, people who enjoy hurting other people are not worth your time or mine. They can take that kink to a club where it belongs.
When I was young and energetic, we discussed this in the context of Jo Freeman’s 1976 article about “TRASHING: The Dark Side of Sisterhood”
What is “trashing,” this colloquial term that expresses so much, yet explains so little? It is not disagreement; it is not conflict; it is not opposition. These are perfectly ordinary phenomena which, when engaged in mutually, honestly, and not excessively, are necessary to keep an organism or organization healthy and active. Trashing is a particularly vicious form of character assassination which amounts to psychological rape. It is manipulative, dishonest, and excessive. It is occasionally disguised by the rhetoric of honest conflict, or covered up by denying that any disapproval exists at all. But it is not done to expose disagreements or resolve differences. It is done to disparage and destroy.
And yet I still got involved in a Maoist communist group, than whom there are no more expert trashers. I wish I had a handy moral to this story.
Can you point me to works where people went from trashing to actual discussion, listening and responding to what people actually say.
I’m looking forward to meeting new folks and catching up with you. I want to prevent any other person from the loneliness and befuddlement I felt at my first two WisCons. I like talking to strangers and I’d be tickled to serve as a first-timer guide.
I noped out of all volunteering, so my time is free between 8:30am and 9:30pm. I live in town, so if you're early or late to the con, I'd be happy to meet then.If you prefer low-key, in my hotel room, the K Café will serve many varieties of tea. I’m also happy to share time indoors or out, stroll the city, hide in the Capitol, or gawk at the construction surrounding the hotel.
( come play: the directions )branchandroot