Fanfiction.net has been pretty messed up since the start of the year as they try to do 'server migration' -- most recently there was a bug where visiting your profile page would display someone else's details (I only got that one once). Ironically the clean wipe may have successfully reset your account.
They have now issued an official announcement that devices that don't support Javascript (or don't support the right parts of Javascript) are simply not permitted to access the site, or in other words they're not even going to attempt to fix that particular access issue but are going to concentrate on the others. I'm still not clear why they feel they need massive high-security protection before people are permitted to read bad amateur fiction for free -- not post it, not even comment on it, but just to read it...
The AO3 tag clouds remind me a lot of Tumblr, where people are effectively just sticking their 'tags' on as emojis or authorial comments: "it doesn't make a lot of sense either", "the series will have a happy ending tho", "overall just have fun", "im not kidding there a bunch of anxiety ridden kids" [sic]
And the general ethos reminds me a lot of Tumblr, possibly because it's the same generation of teenagers posting there. They manage to make different fandoms (e.g. Sherlock, Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera) sound pretty similar, probably because the characters are all being pushed through the same template of what is morally approved of and what the fans find sexually arousing, and because they're being presented as speaking with the vocabulary and mindset of a YouTube content creator (gross over-generalisation there...)
that does make me wonder at times how these people approach reading a book they'll grab at a bookstore and that they've (presumably) not read any spoilers about beforehand
I've frequently wondered that. I think it's partly that fandom does tend to fetishisation and kink, and thus they're likely to be subjected to much cruder and more poorly-executed renditions of whatever it is they're trying to avoid (self-harm, for example), but I have a feeling that there is actually a sizeable online population that doesn't consume anything outside its self-curated zone at all, like the people who proudly eschew 'the mainstream media'. Partly the increasing bubble effect, where you can control your interactions so that you never have to hear anything from any viewpoint you don't already agree with, and partly the feeling of 'why would I pay for a commercial product that someone is trying to sell me when there is all this free content to download?'
It's like only reading 'Christian literature', which is apparently an entire genre in America. (though not free of charge!)
I'll also say that I wasn't too enthusiastic a few years ago (3-4 years from now) about publishing Phantom of the Opera fanfic on AO3, since there were only a few hundred posted and not a lot of variety, and the bulk of it was still mostly on FF.net.
Quick check -- well, they've still only got three thousand or so, the vast majority of which post-date the FFnet ones (where the fandom was really big around 2004-5, for obvious reasons). But I was certainly surprised to see such a [relatively] high proportion of Raoul/Christine tags in the filters (though if you actually look at what is included under that heading, a high proportion are actually Erik/Christine as well or instead!) Edit: oh, apparently "Raoul/Christine" is *not* the same thing as "Raoul de Chagny/Christine Daaé" for search purposes. I thought they were supposed to get 'wrangled' into equivalence :-(
I get the impression that a lot of the AO3 fic does come from Tumblr prompts - I noticed an increasing number of POTO stories on fanfiction.net mentioning it as well. Presumably because Tumblr isn't a very good place for archiving things...
no subject
Fanfiction.net has been pretty messed up since the start of the year as they try to do 'server migration' -- most recently there was a bug where visiting your profile page would display someone else's details (I only got that one once). Ironically the clean wipe may have successfully reset your account.
They have now issued an official announcement that devices that don't support Javascript (or don't support the right parts of Javascript) are simply not permitted to access the site, or in other words they're not even going to attempt to fix that particular access issue but are going to concentrate on the others. I'm still not clear why they feel they need massive high-security protection before people are permitted to read bad amateur fiction for free -- not post it, not even comment on it, but just to read it...
The AO3 tag clouds remind me a lot of Tumblr, where people are effectively just sticking their 'tags' on as emojis or authorial comments: "it doesn't make a lot of sense either", "the series will have a happy ending tho", "overall just have fun", "im not kidding there a bunch of anxiety ridden kids" [sic]
And the general ethos reminds me a lot of Tumblr, possibly because it's the same generation of teenagers posting there. They manage to make different fandoms (e.g. Sherlock, Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera) sound pretty similar, probably because the characters are all being pushed through the same template of what is morally approved of and what the fans find sexually arousing, and because they're being presented as speaking with the vocabulary and mindset of a YouTube content creator (gross over-generalisation there...)
I've frequently wondered that. I think it's partly that fandom does tend to fetishisation and kink, and thus they're likely to be subjected to much cruder and more poorly-executed renditions of whatever it is they're trying to avoid (self-harm, for example), but I have a feeling that there is actually a sizeable online population that doesn't consume anything outside its self-curated zone at all, like the people who proudly eschew 'the mainstream media'. Partly the increasing bubble effect, where you can control your interactions so that you never have to hear anything from any viewpoint you don't already agree with, and partly the feeling of 'why would I pay for a commercial product that someone is trying to sell me when there is all this free content to download?'
It's like only reading 'Christian literature', which is apparently an entire genre in America. (though not free of charge!)
Quick check -- well, they've still only got three thousand or so, the vast majority of which post-date the FFnet ones (where the fandom was really big around 2004-5, for obvious reasons). But I was certainly surprised to see such a [relatively] high proportion of Raoul/Christine tags in the filters (though if you actually look at what is included under that heading, a high proportion are actually Erik/Christine as well or instead!)
Edit: oh, apparently "Raoul/Christine" is *not* the same thing as "Raoul de Chagny/Christine Daaé" for search purposes. I thought they were supposed to get 'wrangled' into equivalence :-(
I get the impression that a lot of the AO3 fic does come from Tumblr prompts - I noticed an increasing number of POTO stories on fanfiction.net mentioning it as well. Presumably because Tumblr isn't a very good place for archiving things...