#fandom archives

[raheemsradio]

idk if this is a hot take but "cringe culture" (or whatever tf we're calling it) will wreak havoc on fannish archival practices.

current and former fans are deleting, archiving, and/or disavowing fanworks that aren't "problematic" or harmful simply bc they're afraid of being perceived as cringe. even when they are works for fandoms that had or have a long streak of harmful behavior, we need these fanworks - including fanart, fic, rec lists, criticism, etc - to be extant so that our fandom archives can be full and complete with context.

we lose a lot when all we know about harmful fandom behavior comes from secondary sources. in addition, we lose a lot when everyone is scared of being cringe and good, amazing fanworks are taken down simply for the crime of having the potential for cringe.

cringe is dead. long live cringe.

[silvermoon424]

I can't tell you how much I fucking hate Instagram from an archiving perspective. I've had my accounts basically softblocked and left unable to load Instagram feeds because of downloading lots of fanart (if you didn't know, Instagram doesn't let you directly download photos and if you try to circumvent it using extensions/software you're basically flagged as a bot and punished).

Like I get that the intention is to stop people from downloading selfies, but for fuck's sake I've never seen a site go through such extreme lengths to prevent people from archiving their content. I'm not being a creeper, I'm just trying to archive fanart from my favorite series/artists because you never know when they'll disappear forever. God, archiving is such an annoying hobby to have sometimes lmao

[stonedscully]

sometimes I dream that one of the cool fandom historian youtubers will make an xf video about alt.tv.x-files and gossamer and shipping bc I'm tired of hearing about how amazing and influencial hp fic archives were

[thebookewyrme]

Hey Podficcers, just want to warn you about a site. https://audiofic.jinjurly.com/ is a podfic archive which seems well and good, but someone posted one of my podfic there without my permission, which is against their terms. Anyway, might want to have a quick check to see if any of yours have been posted there without your knowledge. The person who did it actually commented with a link on my AO3 podfic page which is how I found out. I have requested the site owners remove it as I did not want my podfic posted elsewhere. We shall see what happens. Will report back with any responses (or lack thereof) I receive.

Also, in case this isn’t clear DO NOT DO THIS. If a fan work, any fan work, is not on a platform or site you want it to be on DO NOT TAKE IT ON YOURSELF TO PUT IT THERE. Contact the creator and ask if they will put it there themselves, or if they mind you cross posting. And if they say no to cross posting THEN YOU FUCKING RESPECT THAT. You do not get to take a fan work out of the creator’s control just because you want to. It is the height of rudeness and I promise you the creator will be extremely upset when they find out. It is theft, and it is absolutely not ok. Don’t do it.

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

[knebellindemann]

[noodle-the-queen]

Ao3 does not need an algorithm, you're just lazy

Ao3 does not need a 1-5 star rating system, you just want to bring down authors writing for FREE

Ao3 does not need automatic censorship, it is an archive, therefore anything can be posted

Writing or reading about something illegal does not mean the author nor the reader condones it, if that were true, you could never read a story involving anything negative

Purity culture is ruining fan culture and you all are fucking annoying

[bebx]

[give-grian-rights]

gun to my head i would rather die than read this fic. what the fuck are you even doing at this point. whats the fucking point?

[mxrderscenes]

writing is so funny because i could write nonstop for 9hrs and then hit a block where im like "how do i transition between this moment and the next?" and then i just dont touch it for 6 months

[shyjusticewarrior]

At some point "fanfic can be as good as professional writing" became "fanfic should be as good as professional writing" and that's caused major damage to fandom spaces.

[my-castles-crumbling]

Me at age 13, exhausted at school after staying up all night to read fanfic: I can’t wait until I’m an adult and I can stay up reading without any consequences!

Me, an adult, exhausted at work after staying up all night reading fanfic: Fuck.

[flamboyantly-understated]

maybe this is just me idk

[stonedscully]

like... I'm so full of ennui from never knowing sistaspooky got a shout out in s9, or who Leyla Harrison was or getting to watch people rp in 90s xf forums do you understand

[themurdochmemesteries]

"i'm tired of seeing-" use your filters.

"but there was an icky ship-!" use your filters.

"i don't like that tag-" use your filters.

don't like what you're seeing? use. your. filters.

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

reblog if you have skilled writer friends and you're damn proud of them