I'm at work; I meant to read Mikey's furry!porn now, but my boss is around, so maybe not. ;-) Instead, I clicked on my 'meta' tag, because occasionally I get curious about my own past thoughts - and rediscovered that I actually give fairly good meta, albeit not on a very regular basis. I mean, it's not worldclass meta - it's often vague and disorganised and so on - but I still enjoy rereading some of those discussions, and I don't feel terribly stupid in retrospect. In most cases, anyway. *g*
I'm a bit ashamed, though, because in about half of those discussions I dropped out halfway through, due to my tendency to get overwhelmed.
I wish there was a way to not only download the contents of one's LJ including comments, but also to re-upload them to some other journaling service including comments, because I'd hate for fandom to lose all of this public history in the inevitable move sometime in the medium-term future. (We all know that fandom can't stay on LJ forever, don't we? We may try to ignore that fact, like San Francisco may try to ignore that it's due for a monstrously big earthquake, but it's still there, looming ominously somewhere in the future.)
I'm a bit ashamed, though, because in about half of those discussions I dropped out halfway through, due to my tendency to get overwhelmed.
I wish there was a way to not only download the contents of one's LJ including comments, but also to re-upload them to some other journaling service including comments, because I'd hate for fandom to lose all of this public history in the inevitable move sometime in the medium-term future. (We all know that fandom can't stay on LJ forever, don't we? We may try to ignore that fact, like San Francisco may try to ignore that it's due for a monstrously big earthquake, but it's still there, looming ominously somewhere in the future.)
fandom seems to have moved to livejournal almost completely, even for those things that aren't necessarily best served by LJ. In fact, very little except the pure socialising part of fandom - which is, of course, an important part, no contest about that! - is *really* best served by LJ. Forums are better suited for discussion, since they allow discussions to stay in the public eye, and thus stay *active* longer, whereas on LJ a discussion will drop off people's friends page pretty quickly, turning discussions into quick, transitory, blink-and-you'll-miss-them things. (Sure, those people who noticed and joined the discussion when it popped up on their friends page often keep at it for days - but on a forum, a new contributor might discover it months after it started, and bring it back to the top by posting to it, and *everyone who contributed until then would notice*, and the discussion would be revitalised. A good LJ discussion goes on for days; a good forum discussion can go on for months.) And archives are much more suited for presenting fan-made content, esp. fanfic, because they don't require the potential reader to first learn about the individual LJs of three or four dozen writers and then search those LJs for fic; also, archives usually allow searching for different categories of fic, *and* they keep stuff accessible. Etc.
But, my general reservations about fandom's near-complete move to LJ (and f-locked LJs, for that matter) aside, my issue here is mainly with fanfic. I find the posting of fic to LJ and *only* to LJ, as seems increasinbly the practice in fandom, a bit antisocial, to be honest. (After turning into one of the official naysayers of Life On Mars fandom, I am now working on discrediting myself in fandom at large... ;-)) And I don't *understand* the attitude behind it, either. I mean, *why* would people not want their fic to find the widest possible readership? And how can they not care if it will still be easily accessible to new readers in a year or two?
The cynical part of me can't help wondering if there's a tendency to move away from fandom as a community and treat it as merely a tool for instant, personal gratification. I.e. as soon as you've posted a fic to your LJ and received an amount of feedback for that fic, you move on to the next fic for which you will get feedback in turn, and old fics become uninteresting simply because they don't generate large amounts of feedback anymore - so why bother keeping them easily accessible? That readers who come into the fandom later might still want read those older fics just doesn't matter, because the gratification to the writer is negligible, and the reader's gratification simply doesn't figure into the equation.
As I said, it's the cynical part of me that came up with that explanation.
Well, no matter what the reasons, it seems to me that the decentralised, dispersed nature of fandom on LJ is a good way to make sure that, instead of amassing a wonderful, huge collective treasure of fanworks for 'later generations' of fen to discover and enjoy, most of our work will simply disappear into obscurity and relative 'un-findability' fairly soon after it's posted.
Am I the only one who finds that perspective a bit sad?
(Also, I dislike the tendency for fandom to happen in a - however slightly extended - big 'NOW' for the personal reason of often being stressed out of my mind. The fact that fandom - discussions, fics, everything - seems to happen so quickly now, and requires you to constantly stay on top of things because you'll never be able to *find* the good stuff again if you don't notice it immediately when it's posted is a considerable additional stress factor. Which is sad, because I'd much rather 'do' fandom at my leisure, and I'm a naturally slow person. So, instead of 'doing' fandom at my own pace, I tend to go into hyperactive fannish phases when I manage to keep up with things for a few months, and then drop out of everything completely for months in turn. Needless to say, that way I hardly know what's happening anymore, and miss most of the good fic, debate etc.)
I've been out of the meta game for ages, so I don't know if this has been discussed on
metafandom, recently or at all. If anyone remembers related discussions and can point me there, that would be much appreciated. I'm mostly interested in the question of why people aren't interested in keeping stuff accessible, because that is something I really, truly do not 'get'. So, if anyone can explain that mindset to me... I'm really curious about it.
But, my general reservations about fandom's near-complete move to LJ (and f-locked LJs, for that matter) aside, my issue here is mainly with fanfic. I find the posting of fic to LJ and *only* to LJ, as seems increasinbly the practice in fandom, a bit antisocial, to be honest. (After turning into one of the official naysayers of Life On Mars fandom, I am now working on discrediting myself in fandom at large... ;-)) And I don't *understand* the attitude behind it, either. I mean, *why* would people not want their fic to find the widest possible readership? And how can they not care if it will still be easily accessible to new readers in a year or two?
The cynical part of me can't help wondering if there's a tendency to move away from fandom as a community and treat it as merely a tool for instant, personal gratification. I.e. as soon as you've posted a fic to your LJ and received an amount of feedback for that fic, you move on to the next fic for which you will get feedback in turn, and old fics become uninteresting simply because they don't generate large amounts of feedback anymore - so why bother keeping them easily accessible? That readers who come into the fandom later might still want read those older fics just doesn't matter, because the gratification to the writer is negligible, and the reader's gratification simply doesn't figure into the equation.
As I said, it's the cynical part of me that came up with that explanation.
Well, no matter what the reasons, it seems to me that the decentralised, dispersed nature of fandom on LJ is a good way to make sure that, instead of amassing a wonderful, huge collective treasure of fanworks for 'later generations' of fen to discover and enjoy, most of our work will simply disappear into obscurity and relative 'un-findability' fairly soon after it's posted.
Am I the only one who finds that perspective a bit sad?
(Also, I dislike the tendency for fandom to happen in a - however slightly extended - big 'NOW' for the personal reason of often being stressed out of my mind. The fact that fandom - discussions, fics, everything - seems to happen so quickly now, and requires you to constantly stay on top of things because you'll never be able to *find* the good stuff again if you don't notice it immediately when it's posted is a considerable additional stress factor. Which is sad, because I'd much rather 'do' fandom at my leisure, and I'm a naturally slow person. So, instead of 'doing' fandom at my own pace, I tend to go into hyperactive fannish phases when I manage to keep up with things for a few months, and then drop out of everything completely for months in turn. Needless to say, that way I hardly know what's happening anymore, and miss most of the good fic, debate etc.)
I've been out of the meta game for ages, so I don't know if this has been discussed on
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First, let me apologize...
Jun. 25th, 2006 01:15 amfor posting so much, and mostly so much useless stuff recently. I don't know why I do it. Maybe it relieves the stress; or maybe I'm just making up for the Lost Year or something. Anyway, I'm sorry I'm sort of spamming your flists at the moment. I'm sure it's only a phase. I hope you haven't all moved me to the 'too many posts, don't read' filter by now. ;-)
Secondly, I have a question about LJ that's been bothering me for a while: is it just me, or is LJ very, very slow, and completely unreachable a lot of the times you're trying to post/read your flist/access your memories? I'm wondering if there's some sort of weird Hmpf-LJ-incompatibility thing going on here because I never see anyone else complaining about it. But for me, LJ is a major time waster, not so much because I spend so much time on here but rather because I seem to spend at least half of that time just waiting for pages to load, and getting error messages again and again and again. It drives me crazy! (ETA: And this is not a recent problem; it's been that way at least since I took up regular posting again earlier this year.)
Secondly, I have a question about LJ that's been bothering me for a while: is it just me, or is LJ very, very slow, and completely unreachable a lot of the times you're trying to post/read your flist/access your memories? I'm wondering if there's some sort of weird Hmpf-LJ-incompatibility thing going on here because I never see anyone else complaining about it. But for me, LJ is a major time waster, not so much because I spend so much time on here but rather because I seem to spend at least half of that time just waiting for pages to load, and getting error messages again and again and again. It drives me crazy! (ETA: And this is not a recent problem; it's been that way at least since I took up regular posting again earlier this year.)
Livejournal code needed...
Aug. 21st, 2003 10:29 pmMy ScapeSister Dashan would like to start a livejournal, but I don't have a code to give her anymore. Could anyone help her out? Dashan's a great person, her main fandoms are Highlander and Farscape (but she likes lots of other things, too), and she has a twisted sense of humour. Just watch 'Poison' to see it at work! *g*
Just testing
Jul. 8th, 2003 07:57 pmTo test my LJ-cutting skills, here's a snippet from the fic I'm currently writing:
( Read more... )
And to test my linking skills, here are some interesting people:
ailanreanter is the person I'm sharing my webspace with.
ankae is evil. Hehe.
creatorschilde is a BABE, a christian, and a fanfic writer.
dunkle_feuer is a BABE, a HP slash writer, and has given me a place to stay on several occasions.
elbatsnud is a BABE (do I begin to see a pattern here?), a fic writer, and lives in Germany, too!
forestgreen is my granddaughter. Sort of. (Seen any FS lately???)
melee187 is a maleBABE.
selenak introduced me to Blake's 7. I reciprocated by introducing her to FS.
starryvelvetsky is, you guessed it, a BABE. And a fic writer. And a web design goddess.
veritykindle surprise-friended me, which I only discovered quite a while after the fact! ;-)
( Read more... )
And to test my linking skills, here are some interesting people:
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But first: Welcome to Livejournal, selenaK. I used to know how to link to people here, but I've forgotten... Anyway, glad you found your way here. I would have sent you a code, too, if only I still had one! I've found that a blog is a nice way of keeping in touch with several people at once - instead of mailing everybody, you just post the latest exciting ;-) news from your life in your blog, and everyone you know can read it... Very convenient for lazy mailers like me! Mind you, I'm a lazy blogger, too. As you can see by the length of time between entries here...
Anyway... my biggest news today: I've been filked. How cool is that? I'm exceedingly flattered... and it's a Farscape filk, in a way, too!
So, here goes. This is sung to the tune of 'Pinky and the Brain', and the Annie mentioned in it is Annael, a friend and fellow scaper from a Tolkien board I'm at. This was written by our board bard Inferno:
They're Annie and The Hmpf!
Yes, Annie and The Hmpf!
One is a German
The other's had enough.
They're Farscape fanatics
Their show has been frelled
Uncanny!
They're Annie and The Hmpf, Hmpf, Hmpf, Hmpf
Hmpf, Hmpf, Hmpf, Hmpf
Hmpf.
Before each night is done
Their plan will be unfurled
By posting pics of Crichton
They'll take over the world.
They're Annie and The Hmpf!
Yes, Annie and The Hmpf!
Their Save 'Scape campaign
Is easy to explain.
To prove their Farscape's worth
They'll overthrow the Earth
They're Annie
They're Annie and The Hmpf, Hmpf, Hmpf, Hmpf
Hmpf, Hmpf, Hmpf, Hmpf!
Frell!
Heheheh...
Other news from the Farscape front: AnduraNova, Dashan and I have started a vidder collective. So far, we've done two vids together, or rather, AnduraNova has done all the hard work, and Dashan and me have offered our, uhm, advice on everything from scenes chosen to length of snippets and style and placement of cuts. We've chosen the name 'Scape Sisters' for our group because, you know, we're on a mission from Scape... Oh, and our next vid will be shippy... Scorpy/Braca shippy. *evil cackling laughter*
In other news... Real Life in the guise of university is beginning to take up time again, and I still have 30 hours to work, too, plus I'll have to do some sports this semester if I want to survive the excavation this summer... so I'll likely be very busy these next few months.
Oh, and this is for all the Harry Potter people who are reading my LJ: you will be happy to know that I have finally seen the light. In the shape of Sirius Black.
*g* I doubt I'll actively enter the fandom - I recognise an obsession when I see one, and this *isn't* one - but I really like Sirius. Like Lupin, too. I hope they're both going to reappear in volume four?
Okay. Back to dinner now. I'm hungry. Very hungry.
Anyway... my biggest news today: I've been filked. How cool is that? I'm exceedingly flattered... and it's a Farscape filk, in a way, too!
So, here goes. This is sung to the tune of 'Pinky and the Brain', and the Annie mentioned in it is Annael, a friend and fellow scaper from a Tolkien board I'm at. This was written by our board bard Inferno:
They're Annie and The Hmpf!
Yes, Annie and The Hmpf!
One is a German
The other's had enough.
They're Farscape fanatics
Their show has been frelled
Uncanny!
They're Annie and The Hmpf, Hmpf, Hmpf, Hmpf
Hmpf, Hmpf, Hmpf, Hmpf
Hmpf.
Before each night is done
Their plan will be unfurled
By posting pics of Crichton
They'll take over the world.
They're Annie and The Hmpf!
Yes, Annie and The Hmpf!
Their Save 'Scape campaign
Is easy to explain.
To prove their Farscape's worth
They'll overthrow the Earth
They're Annie
They're Annie and The Hmpf, Hmpf, Hmpf, Hmpf
Hmpf, Hmpf, Hmpf, Hmpf!
Frell!
Heheheh...
Other news from the Farscape front: AnduraNova, Dashan and I have started a vidder collective. So far, we've done two vids together, or rather, AnduraNova has done all the hard work, and Dashan and me have offered our, uhm, advice on everything from scenes chosen to length of snippets and style and placement of cuts. We've chosen the name 'Scape Sisters' for our group because, you know, we're on a mission from Scape... Oh, and our next vid will be shippy... Scorpy/Braca shippy. *evil cackling laughter*
In other news... Real Life in the guise of university is beginning to take up time again, and I still have 30 hours to work, too, plus I'll have to do some sports this semester if I want to survive the excavation this summer... so I'll likely be very busy these next few months.
Oh, and this is for all the Harry Potter people who are reading my LJ: you will be happy to know that I have finally seen the light. In the shape of Sirius Black.
*g* I doubt I'll actively enter the fandom - I recognise an obsession when I see one, and this *isn't* one - but I really like Sirius. Like Lupin, too. I hope they're both going to reappear in volume four?
Okay. Back to dinner now. I'm hungry. Very hungry.
LiveJournal clients don't love me.
Jun. 14th, 2002 02:09 amAnd I don't love them, either. First I tried to download two versions of the standard LiveJournal client for Windows, and the download was aborted repeatedly, until I gave up. Then I tried to download LochJournal instead, 'cause Kadira told me she used it as well, and the download worked fine. But alas, the program crashes every time I try to upload an entry. So for now, I'm back to writing online. Well, we're about to get a flatrate, so it won't matter anymore, soon, whether I write offline or online.
Anyway. I remembered what I meant to write yesterday. It was this:
Something's seriously wrong with my priorities. I have a nice craft I studied for three and a half years; I have two really nice study subjects; one should think I have more than enough worthwhile areas to potentially excel in. And yet, yesterday it occurred to me that my greatest ambition at the moment is to become a really, really good fanfic writer. Sheesh, talk about useless ambitions. Why couldn't I rather be ambitious about making jewellery or about becoming a good archaeologist?
(Self analysis unit kicking in) I'm ambitious about writing good fanfic because I probably feel that that is a goal that I can attain. It won't be *easy*, but it seems manageable. I want to make great jewellery and become a good archaeologist, too, but somehow, these goals don't seem so attainable. So, I'm afraid of failure in the more 'useful' areas of my life I might concentrate on, and therefore I transfer all my ambition to an area that seems relatively safe and easy. (Self analysis unit shutting off)
Gee, that was easy. Now what do I do about that?
***
So, what else to tell about my life today? Saw a nice movie yesterday with one of new roommates (Elling - catch it if you like slightly strange movies about slightly strange people), then spent way too much time online afterwards, which resulted in my sleeping through half the day today. When I finally got out of bed, I went to an expo about the celts with a few fellow students, then went to a café with them. Unfortunately, we were two hours late for breakfast... breakfast being served until 3 p.m. in that particular café... *g*
Had a drink with my former roommate in the evening, which was unexpectedly nice. Got invited to her birthday party as well, which was also unexpected. I had moved out with the distinct impression that she was glad to be rid of me. However, it seems that maybe that was just a result of her having a really bad time with her then-boyfriend.
So, got home at about nine in the evening, slightly tipsy (beer on an empty stomach is *not* really a good idea, although it *does* make an otherwise boring walk to the station a lot more exciting), and did some laundry and made a great lasagna (a feat I was complimented for nicely by one of my roommates who seems to like my cooking). And now I'm just about ready to go to bed, and dream nice Farscape dreams. ;-)
Anyway. I remembered what I meant to write yesterday. It was this:
Something's seriously wrong with my priorities. I have a nice craft I studied for three and a half years; I have two really nice study subjects; one should think I have more than enough worthwhile areas to potentially excel in. And yet, yesterday it occurred to me that my greatest ambition at the moment is to become a really, really good fanfic writer. Sheesh, talk about useless ambitions. Why couldn't I rather be ambitious about making jewellery or about becoming a good archaeologist?
(Self analysis unit kicking in) I'm ambitious about writing good fanfic because I probably feel that that is a goal that I can attain. It won't be *easy*, but it seems manageable. I want to make great jewellery and become a good archaeologist, too, but somehow, these goals don't seem so attainable. So, I'm afraid of failure in the more 'useful' areas of my life I might concentrate on, and therefore I transfer all my ambition to an area that seems relatively safe and easy. (Self analysis unit shutting off)
Gee, that was easy. Now what do I do about that?
***
So, what else to tell about my life today? Saw a nice movie yesterday with one of new roommates (Elling - catch it if you like slightly strange movies about slightly strange people), then spent way too much time online afterwards, which resulted in my sleeping through half the day today. When I finally got out of bed, I went to an expo about the celts with a few fellow students, then went to a café with them. Unfortunately, we were two hours late for breakfast... breakfast being served until 3 p.m. in that particular café... *g*
Had a drink with my former roommate in the evening, which was unexpectedly nice. Got invited to her birthday party as well, which was also unexpected. I had moved out with the distinct impression that she was glad to be rid of me. However, it seems that maybe that was just a result of her having a really bad time with her then-boyfriend.
So, got home at about nine in the evening, slightly tipsy (beer on an empty stomach is *not* really a good idea, although it *does* make an otherwise boring walk to the station a lot more exciting), and did some laundry and made a great lasagna (a feat I was complimented for nicely by one of my roommates who seems to like my cooking). And now I'm just about ready to go to bed, and dream nice Farscape dreams. ;-)
All right...
Jun. 1st, 2002 02:13 amWelcome reader, whoever you may be (most likely Kadira or Thilo, who are currently the only people who have even heard I have this place, Kadira being the one who talked me into getting it ;-)). So, what does one do with a weblog? Well, from the evidence I've seen in other people's blogs, I guess you mostly use them to ramble, in the vague hope that someone is listening. Strange -- only recently, journals were secret, private things, and nowadays we put them on the net for the whole world (or, as the case may be, a select part of it) to read. But do we have anything worthwhile to tell? More specifically, do I? I don't know, but I don't think so. Still, as you can see, I already have the hang of rambling, so I guess I'll be right at home in the weblogging world.
Random thoughts of the day:
It's good to know how to make an authentic-tasting Indian curry dish. It's also good to eat the remains of that dish for breakfast.
Doctors rarely can tell you what's wrong with you, but since I'm deliberately drinking camomile tea, I *must* be sick. Or at least mentally damaged.
It feels good to get up before noon and get some work done. (I'm a student; sue me!)
As a fanfic writer, I suffer from unhealthy hero worship complexes. In every fandom, there is at least one fanfic writer compared with whom I feel hopelessly incompetent, and whose attention and approval I strive for in a most embarrassing manner.
Random thoughts of the day:
It's good to know how to make an authentic-tasting Indian curry dish. It's also good to eat the remains of that dish for breakfast.
Doctors rarely can tell you what's wrong with you, but since I'm deliberately drinking camomile tea, I *must* be sick. Or at least mentally damaged.
It feels good to get up before noon and get some work done. (I'm a student; sue me!)
As a fanfic writer, I suffer from unhealthy hero worship complexes. In every fandom, there is at least one fanfic writer compared with whom I feel hopelessly incompetent, and whose attention and approval I strive for in a most embarrassing manner.