jadesfire

[jadesfire]

This Vagabond Fandom Life

The first thing you have to understand is that no one wants us. No one has ever wanted us. And by us I don’t mean fans in general, but creative Fandom, if you will. Transformative fandom–writers and artists and gif makers and vidders and podcasters and podficcers and the community that supports them.

Don’t be fooled by the occasional mainstream media article that uses mostly respectful language or the academic study that talks about transgressive fannish behavior like it’s admirable.  People reading those news articles laugh at us and you don’t exactly see universities creating Fandom Studies departments. 

Nor do we have the buying power we like to think we do. Think about it. We wouldn’t have to transform media to suit ourselves if that media already existed. If Marvel gave a damn about Fandom money vs fandom money, they’d be the ones posting the explicit Cap/Iron Man pics. They’ll take our money, but it’s not as important as small-f fandom money because there’s nowhere near as much of it. 

So that leaves ue as exactly what we are: extreme niche hobbyists. And you know what? We’re not even nice, easy, safe, niche hobbyists like knitters or…idk, curling fans. We like trangressive sex a whole lot, we tread a very fine legal line in a time when intellectual property laws are a big fucking deal, we’re hard to advertise to, and, to make things worse, we have a nasty habit of dragging our platform admins into our petty, internecine Fandom Drama.

(seriously it’s like if the dude who runs the Giants SB Nation site went running to the SB Nation admins saying that the dude who runs the Dodgers site is a pedophile just because he implied Madison Bumgarner might be a little racist.)

But Telesilla, you say. Are we really bound to your fate? Destined to spend our fannish lives like you have, migrating from one site after another, always losing people and history along the way? This is so depressing! There has to be an answer!

Well, once upon a time I thought the answer was “by fans for fans” and wow, have I been burned by that one. Our greatest triumph is routinely attacked by its own users and our best functioning social media platform doesn’t have the bells and whistles corporate sites can offer. And AO3 and Dreamwidth are the success stories. Ask me about JournalFen. (on second thought, don’t. I don’t have the energy to explain without overusing the word “robust” and talking about ice weasels.)

I’m enough of a Old Time Internet Person to still think doing it ourselves is the best answer we have, but it takes a special kind of person to dedicate themselves to  serving a notoriously fractious internet community that has no money and wants you to cater to their every whim. It takes an even more special kind of person to do it long term. Fandom history shows us that those people don’t come along often. (personal history shows me that I am, alas, not one of them.)

Until they do, we’ll just lurch from corporate platform that doesn’t really want us to corporate platform that doesn’t really want us. Because that’s the bottom line–we’re an extreme niche hobby and there’s no real money to be made off us. Under late capitalism…well, I don’t want to be that Fandom Old, but really, what did we expect?

[jadesfire]

I just remembered that I snagged my name on Mastodon as well, and probably will on Pillowfort, although I’m a bit wary of giving money to something I can’t see in advance.

Anyhoo, I’m Jadesfire on Mastodon too. Do come find me, because I have no idea how it works yet!

Other places I live

Dreamwidth

Twitter

Instagram

AO3

I’m Jadesfire or Jadesfire2808 pretty much everywhere, and you’re welcome to come find me in any of these places. I’m not exactly prolific anywhere but Instagram, but I’m trying to post to DW regularly, so that’s the best place to find me atm.

[jadesfire]

For Tumblr users thinking of trying out Dreamwidth as alternative, this looks like a handy comm. Rather than having to wade through comments, you make a new post with tags that list your interests, which should help you connect with fandom friends on a new platform.

[jadesfire]

Other places I live

Dreamwidth

Twitter

Instagram

AO3

I’m Jadesfire or Jadesfire2808 pretty much everywhere, and you’re welcome to come find me in any of these places. I’m not exactly prolific anywhere but Instagram, but I’m trying to post to DW regularly, so that’s the best place to find me atm.

[jadesfire]

Shout-out to my fellow Fandom Olds who lived through Strikethrough/Boldthrough on LJ and knew this day would eventually come here on Tumblr.com also

Especial shout-out to the heroes at AO3 who designed their whole operation knowing that every other platform fandom used would pull this bullshit sooner or later

[jadesfire]

I was generally okay with the news, but this? This sucks. For TPTB to let them get as far as storyboarding the thing, when they must have known this was going to happen. I don’t believe for a moment that the decision was only taken on the day of the announcement. Businesses don’t work like that, and it must have been at least on the table right from when S3 aired, probably from while they were making it. To let them pitch S4 and map it out, thinking it was going ahead? It’s pretty rotten for the fans, but I feel even worse for the cast and crew.

Dammit, Disney, this is not okay.

Fuckkkkkkkkkkk. I feel like I keep getting punched in the gut tonight. Tell me Elektra wasn’t up on that board. TELL ME. 

[jadesfire]

Just because I haven’t seen anyone mention it, I’d like to point out that in Daredevil season 3, whenever Matt is imagining Fisk or his dad and talking to them, they’re always standing behind him (or, in one instance, off to the side) because he’s imagining hearing them not seeing them. And it’s just a nice simple little touch that helps to keep Matt’s perspective present in the story. 

[jadesfire]

Marvel TV Bang Writer Sign-Ups close ON SATURDAY AT MIDNIGHT! If you’ve been putting off signing up as a writer, now is the time!

All live action Marvel TV fandoms are welcome, MCU or not (including Legion and The Gifted). You can read the requirements for the Marvel TV Bang here.

Sign up as a WRITER here.

Sign up as an ARTIST here.

Sign up as a BETA, SUBJECT-MATTER EXPERT, or SENSITIVITY READER here. You can also see regularly-updated lists of available betas, SMEs, and sensitivity readers here.

Slack channels are open for chat, brainstorming, and other fun stuff!

Reblog and tag your favorite writers and artists!

[jadesfire]

the most fun thing about being a fic author is when you know what’s supposed to happen but when you go to write it you realise that, for the event to be plausible, you need to add another 2k of development and establish like six extra things before you can even get to the scene you need to write, and by ‘most fun’ I mean fuck everything someone take this fucking story away from me I’m on strike

[jadesfire]

Having worked my way through Daredevil S3, Ray Nadeem has my favourite line in the whole thing, in Episode 12.

As he and Matt are making their escape from the road ambush, running to the cab with its keys in it, he just says,

“I’ll drive.”

It’s just *perfect” and startled me into laughing out loud. 

You know, I honestly think that if Matt had managed to get behind the wheel first, Nadeem would have let him, because after the last ten minutes, why the hell not?  I mean, comics!Daredevil drives. Often. 

Missed opportunity, Netflix. One for Season 4.

[jadesfire]

Marvel Netflix Catch-up

I finally managed to catch up on Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. I thought I was going to write a quick little thing about each but. Well.

It got a bit out of hand, so it’s over here on my Dreamwidth.

[jadesfire]

[jadesfire]

so the latin word for a collection of literary works is florilegium and the greek word is ἀνθολογία, both of which literally mean “a gathering of flowers,” can we give out sets of books to book nerds and call them “bookquets”

[jadesfire]

Before I freegle these, does anyone still have a vhs player? Some random tapes, including a bunch of Doctor Who ones going free in Oxford. Will post one or two, but we’ll have to work something out if you want the lot! (No, the DW tapes aren’t quite in chronological order, don’t @ me 🙃)

[jadesfire]

A boring picture for a milestone today: I ran 3km in 25 mins. Not at 5km yet, but it’s starting to feel achievable. Which I need right now, because I’m mostly feeling horrible in all kinds of ways. Also, I think I found a gap in the market. Where’s my ‘couch to 20 press ups’* programme that will take me in the same journey but for muscle strength, where you go from nothing to something with guided support? I couldn’t have done this without C25K telling me what to do when, and pushing me to go a little (but not too much) further each time. Seems that one’s just waiting to be written! (Hint hint @liamcoff 😉) *needs a catchier name, though #c25k #week7 #day3 #thisgirlcan

[jadesfire]

I had to take a picture this morning because I forgot to put my glasses on (HOW????) and wondered what the view looked like. Also, I hit a milestone this morning: my first sub-sixteen minute mile! I didn’t think I’d get there until the end of the plan, so it’s a real boost. I need a new goal now! #c25k #week4 #day2 #thisgirlcan