Miscellany

[sholio]

(Am currently staying with relatives, so Internet access may be slow/infrequent. Please be patient with any comment-response slowdowns that may occur!)


sheppard_hc is currently taking signups for their fifth Secret Santa exchange. (Five years? Really? OMFG, I've been in this fandom a long time ...)

penknife has an interesting post on using AO3's new ficathon-running tools, for those of you who are running or thinking about running ficathons. (kristen999 might find this useful, especially.) I am almost certainly going to be running SGA Genficathon on AO3 next year .... though I will still have it available on LJ (and, by popular demand, DW too!) for people who don't have AO3 accounts and don't want them.

Next year's Genficathon will be sort of an experiment, actually ... I really want to it to be as accessible to different areas of the fandom as possible, so I'm planning on having a presence on AO3, LJ and DW, and seeing how that goes and whether I can run it in all three places simultaneously and as seamlessly as possible. I will defer to authorial preference as much as possible on where your story is hosted, but what I'm thinking of doing with most of the stories is having them on AO3 and then linking to the day's stories from the LJ/DW account, kind of like roga did last year with purimgifts. Hopefully it doesn't turn into a giant muddled mess ...

I will admit right up front that I was terribly skeptical about AO3 when the idea was first announced, but so far, I am loving the heck out of it. I've been crossposting most of my newer fic there, and I've uploaded most of my older one-night-fandom fic (the random stuff that I wrote over the last ten years as I bounced in and out of little fandoms). I haven't gotten around to uploading the fic for my three big fandoms, i.e. the ones that I wrote the most for (Trigun, DBZ and SGA) but it's all on ff.net or my SGA fic page, and I'll get there eventually.

I haven't posted to ff.net since ... 2008, I think? I keep thinking that I ought to go upload my Avatar fic at the very least, but then I remember how frustrating and unpleasant I find the ff.net upload interface, and I can't bring myself to bother with it. But AO3 -- I give it three thumbs up! I love the upload interface, the after-the-fact editing capabilities, the tag searching (though I wish very much for a tag-exclusion feature; I hope they add that in a future update), the reading interface, the fact that so much odd and obscure fandom fic is available on there -- no longer than it's been around, it's already become my new one-stop-shopping site when I get into a new fandom!

Hmm. Other stuff:

For people who are either moving to Dreamwidth or starting DW journals (obligatory disclaimer: I'm in both places but mostly on LJ, and don't really mind where you are as long as you don't mind where I am, etc), rydra_wong has a newbie's guide to getting started on DW that looks very useful! And she has awesome Follow Friday posts with links to useful/fun/cool/interesting DW users and communities to read.

I'm crossposting most stuff now except for the non-fannish posts, though I back up my LJ periodically on DW (which means the personal stuff get moved over in the backups too). I still dislike crossposting; I don't know for certain why, because it isn't that much of a hassle -- it's just a me thing, I guess. I just don't like it. It adds an extra level of difficulty to coding posts and putting in links, and it spams me with crosspost notifications (OH MY GOD I HATE HAVING MY INBOX FILL UP WITH THOSE). I tend to edit my posts five, six and seven times after I post them, which means I get a ton of notifications for every post.

But I adore the importer, which is a thing of beauty and has never failed me, and I find DW much more streamlined, cleaner and easier to use than LJ. The more LJ changes its interface, the less I like it. (Ask me about my loathing for the way it "suggests" tags now, for example. It wasn't broken, LJ, so stop trying to fix it!) And the more of my flist moves to DW (as well as new DW-only people coming in), the more I want to have a presence in both places so as to interact with people on whichever platform they prefer.

I've got a bunch of Avatar meta I want to write too, but I can't get it to coalesce in my brain ...

Comments

[ratcreature]

Ages ago I made a suggestion that the xpost notification is only sent if something goes wrong (I hate these notifications too, and I get two every time, xposting to LJ&IJ), and I got the answer that my suggestion was unnecessary because this behavior was already filed as a bug, and that eventually you would be able to unsubscribe from crosspost suggestions. So at some point this should be fixed.

[sholio]

Oh yay! I'm delighted to hear that, because really, my biggest complaint with the crossposter is the notification spam. Having that go away would be awesome. :D

[ratcreature]

I've had good success with suggesting things which then happened. Whenever I want something changed I make a suggestion and then sometimes this gets implemented. Like for example it bugged me that in the style preview you were shown the recent entry view, but then when you clicked on the reading page link in the preview it didn't preview your style. And reading pages are a bit different with the community and user names that are shown. I suggested that this should work different, and now it does. I also suggested that the auto-save from the entry you are writing doesn't just cache the main body but also the title and mood and such, and that is now implemented too. Or that the calendar now shows you how many entries there are on the day when you hover, I suggested that. I've never done that on LJ, but here it seems worthwhile.

[skieswideopen]

Oh, that will be nice! I hate those notifications too.

[elegantpi]

I'm just in love with AO3 and the OTW as well. I deeply appreciate the stance they take toward fan works and that they're ready to legally defend people's right to create fanworks, even if those works are based on works by authors who oppose fanfic. It's a game-changer for fandom.

FF.net, on the other hand, seems to have become over the years more restrictive, less useful, and more antagonistic toward the people who use their service.

[sholio]

I'm still kind of nervously ambivalent towards the OTW, because on the one hand I appreciate that they're willing to stick their necks out (and I really don't fall into the "fanfic should stay in the closet!" camp), but on the other hand, I keep feeling like they're poking the copyright hornet's nest with sticks and I don't want the hornets to come after me! But the archive is completely awesome. And I totally agree with you about ff.net; the list of things they disallow is as long as my arm, and full of stupid, user-unfriendly restrictions, like the way it strips out non-alphanumeric characters (percent signs, for god's sake!) and, surreally, doubled letters in reviews, so that "squeee!" becomes "sque!" I stuck with ff.net from very near the beginning (I uploaded my first story in 2000!), through all the many rounds of fic deletions and increasing restrictions, even through having one of my own fics TOS'd without even giving me a warning, explanation or chance to save my reviews. But I'm pretty much done; it's become a clunky pain-in-the-butt to use, and AO3 is fun -- I feel like I'm playing when I upload fic, as opposed to ff.net which just gives me headaches.

[torachan]

I wasn't sure about AO3 when people were first talking about it, either. I didn't feel the need for yet another archive at all. But I like the interface and all the tags and stuff.

I keep thinking I probably have some fics I could upload to FFN (actually I could upload my Match fic, if nothing else) because it's been ages since I last uploaded anything, but it's such a pain to have to create documents first, because that's not how I write my fic. I write in a text file but code in the HTML for italics, etc. (but not paragraph breaks, since LJ, etc. doesn't need those) so to upload to FFN I have to add paragraph coding and change the text file to .html and blah. I don't feel like it. :p I do get a lot of people reading over there, though, so I should but...

Oh yeah, and I hate the crosspost notifications, too, but I don't actually use my inbox at all, so I don't really mind.

[sholio]

Yeah, my first thought on AO3 when it was announced was "... and we need another archive why?" But I really think they've done a great job with the overall design of the thing, especially considering what a huge range of different fandoms with very different needs that have to be accommodated! I didn't think I'd use it, and now I'm crossposting all my fic there.

ff.net ... yeah ... I know there are still a lot of people who read my fic there (I still get regular reviews) and that it's a one-stop-shopping zone for people who are new to fandom. But the formatting is such a hassle, and it's been so long since I uploaded a story that I've forgotten most of its weird, stupid little quirks, so I'll have to learn them all over again. :/

[torachan]

I just don't understand why ffn can't have a c&p upload form like every other archive in the universe. >_<

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

(though I wish very much for a tag-exclusion feature; I hope they add that in a future update)

This is definitely in the works, though I don't think it's very close (there are so many features in the works; there's a bunch of stuff with tags that the wrangling committee is begging for, but coders only have so much time...but rest assured we will keep begging 'til we get 'em!)

Question about the DW importer - I've got an account but I've never got around to backing up my lj. So it sounds like you can import more than once? Will it re-import new edits/comments on older posts? So if I import my lj now, but then don't get around to setting up cross-posting yet, will I be able to re-import new posts when I do get around to the cross-posting?

(...not that there will be that many posts anyway, the way I've been posting lately, but...!)

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Yay for tag exclusion! :D (And, yeah, I know it's a volunteer project; I don't expect instant gratification. It's just good to hear that it's being worked on!)

Question about the DW importer - I've got an account but I've never got around to backing up my lj. So it sounds like you can import more than once? Will it re-import new edits/comments on older posts? So if I import my lj now, but then don't get around to setting up cross-posting yet, will I be able to re-import new posts when I do get around to the cross-posting?

With the (giant) caveat that I'm just working off a user perspective and don't have any clue about how this actually works -- yes, that's my understanding. I've done multiple imports, and each time it seems to get all the new comments and whatnot that have been posted since the last time. I'm not actually sure how it handles post edits, but I assume it gets those too. (It also consolidates comments on crossposted entries -- that is, the next time I import, this entry will end up with both the LJ and DW comments all over at DW. But it only works that way on entries that were posted using the crossposter; if you post the same entry by hand at both places, you just end up with two copies.)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I didn't know it consolidated comments from cross-posted entries, that is very convenient! Maybe I will get around to importing soon...

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

I love being able to back up my whole journal just in case LJ goes kablooey (and worryingly, the likelihood of kablooey seems to trending upwards *g*). Thus far, I've had no problem whatsoever with posts being garbled or lost in transit. The one thing it can't do, though, for whatever reason, is recognize that all those many, MANY comments posted by friendshipper.LJ.com were in fact posted by friendshipper.DW.com -- therefore all of my comments on imported entries show up as having been posted by my LJ openID, and they don't retain their icons or my full editing capabilities. Tres annoying, and I can't figure out how to get DW to merge/link the two identities. But having my journal, conversations and story feedback backed up in full on another site is such a load off my mind!

[wildcat88.livejournal.com]

I had to set up an AO3 account in order to participate in penknife's ficathon, and I imported some of my older fic. (One day I'll get around to the rest of it.) I was very pleasantly surprised at how easy it was. I'm interested to see how posting fic there works and how this ficathon turns out.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I got an account for Yuletide last year, and was really delighted at how easy and fun it was to use! I was expecting a steep learning curve, but actually it's very easy once I got past my initial flailing "how do I do this!" stage. I think they did a really good job on the interface, especially considering that they had to make it work with so many very different kinds of fandoms. I think it's going to replace ff.net as my general archive site for my fic.

[calcitrix.livejournal.com]

I know I'm not allowed to feel this way, but I wish everyone would give up and post all of their fic at AO3 so that it can get on with being a mega-archive. And I mean that in a greedy, everything-all-in-one-place kind of way.* I saw people drop out of the Atlantis BB this year because they didn't want to get an AO3 account, which is a shame. It has the potential to be a site that could be a great storehouse without the problems and restrictions of a site like ff.net.

*Not that I've put up all my stuff there yet, either...

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Hee! I don't think I feel that strongly about it, but I sure do love getting into a new fandom, going on AO3 and discovering a bunch of fic for it. :D Lots of little obscure fandoms have a fic or three, and it's SO much easier to simply look them up on AO3 than wade through ff.net's undifferentiated "misc book fandoms" category, or search for communities. Obviously having Yuletide on AO3 helps tremendously with this, but in general, it seems like a lot of people are using it, and I'm very happy with that!

I don't know if I would like to see EVERYTHING on AO3 just because I don't really think all of fandom's eggs should be in one basket like that. But it is so much nicer to have a central place to look for fic! I need to go get my SGA fic on there at some point (*shudders* SO MANY STORIES OMG).

[kristen999.livejournal.com]

Ugh. I don't know. I find the idea of mirroring and cross posting to be a hassle. I guess I'm old fashioned but I still don't see the benefit of my time and effort to go to AO3 and DW. *shrugs*

Fic is shared, I've never f-locked my stories so the whole FB etc, stuff doesn't effect me. I might have a dozen f-locked posts and while I find the whole FB thing to be a violation of privacy, again I use my LJ for fandom purposes mainly. Just now I was forced to comment on someone's DW page for a post made on LJ..very annoying to have to log in with open ID.

I was asked if I wanted a DW code, I might take it, but what is the benefit if coms are not mirrored? Do I have to make separate ones? AWWWWWW :-)

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

It *is* an extra hassle, I won't lie! I guess that with DW, I started out just getting an account for commenting and for backing up my journal, and have progressed to crossposting because there are increasing numbers of people on my flist who are DW-only and are uncomfortable on LJ or don't have accounts here, especially since I got into Avatar (which has a pretty strong presence on DW, whereas SGA is mostly LJ). For me personally, it makes sense to be in both places. And personally, too, I think it's worth getting a DW account, even if you don't plan to be on the site regularly, in order to comment and back up your journal occasionally; it makes things simpler. But if you don't ever really plan on going on DW, then it might be more hassle than it's worth to have yet another login and password to keep track of. I can totally see why someone would want to keep things in one place; I don't think anyone on my flist who's chosen to simplify their life rather than adding another journal is making a bad decision. :D

The biggest advantage to running Genficathon on AO3 is that authors will be able to edit and control their own stories, both before and after they go live. You would upload your own story and it would always be part of your list of stories on AO3 (so you can edit/modify/delete it as you wish), but we can still do the anonymous posting and then have the archive add the author's names automatically -- the best of both worlds! Like I said, I don't plan to force people to use AO3 if they don't want to, so doing it the original way will still be perfectly fine. But I think the new way will offer more options to authors who are interested in doing it that way.

[kristen999.livejournal.com]

Wow, sorry for the grumpy reply to this. I sunk into a very bad mood last night. Anyhow, I might play with DW this weekend, see how that goes and go from there. I like the idea of being to edit on AO3 for the genficathon next year! I so wanted to on my recent fic, so a big yes to that.

Maybe, I'll take these new frontiers step by step and it was appear to be so intimating. On AO3, do you use it as basically an archive or do you see any new readers there as well?

Thanks for the tips!

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

*hugs* Don't feel bad! Look, you're talking to the person who still doesn't have a CELL PHONE. *g* (The one I use when I travel is borrowed from my husband.) I drag my feet and whine at each new change in technology, and I understand the frustration of seeing your flist adopting something new and worrying that you'll be left behind!

For my part, at least, I really do plan on doing as much as I can with both the Genficathon and my own increasing use of DW to not leave behind the LJ areas of fandom. I do want to use AO3 for the Genficathon next year because I do think that it's a big step forward for the writers (and the mods, I cannot deny *g*) but I don't plan on forcing writers to get AO3 accounts to participate, just like we allow people without LJ accounts to participate in the Genficathon as it currently stands.

I started out with pretty much all of these things (including LJ) just getting an account and playing for a while, slowly doing more with it as I became more comfortable with it, so maybe it will work that way for you too! But, again, I don't think you should feel like you have to do any of these things if you don't want to, just because some of fandom is doing it.

On AO3, do you use it as basically an archive or do you see any new readers there as well?

My experience so far is that it's mostly an archive. The people who do comment on my fic seem to mostly come from LJ (or DW in the case of the Avatar fic). Aside from Yuletide, which is a thing unto itself, I think I could probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of comments I've gotten from someone who isn't obviously coming over from LJ to comment. It doesn't seem to have a social group that's coalesced around it the way ff.net does.

[susnn.livejournal.com]

I'm late to the ball on the this but I really have to ask, is anyone else having consistent trouble getting on AO3? It takes forever for the site to open for me and while it is doing that, it locks up every other function. I can't even get the cursor to move much less access another tab. I also suspect I've picked up a virus or two from it. Does it work better if you actually join AO3? Even if you have nothing to, you know, post?

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Hmm, that's really frustrating, because I don't want people to be shut out of reading the stories if I move to AO3! I've never noticed any difference in how well the site works for me when I'm browsing logged out or logged in. Could it maybe be a browser issue? I was having weird problems on Dreamwidth that no one else seemed to be having, which turned out to be caused by me using an older version of Safari. AO3 does say in their known issues section that the site doesn't work very well with IE6 and they recommend using something else (they do say that installing Google toolbar in IE6 will fix the problem for some reason).