As the Cardinal Flies

#1 of 2: On OTW & AO3 (the personal-practice post)

Fri, 28 Jul 2023 18:07:46 GMT

The latest news out of OTW, involving the resignations of three OTW Board members, finds me increasingly thoughtful about the state of the organization and of the sizeable body of material I have on AO3. It's absolutely clear at this point that the OTW is badly in need of reform on both an administrative and a structural level (that is, they have both "people" problems and a tangle of organizational issues in play).

This is therefore the first of two posts addressing these issues, this one focused on my own participation in/on AO3 and Fanlore (I have an account over there under a different hat, and have done a fair bit of editing on that site over time). Post #2 will be longer; I want to take a fairly specific look at just what sort of reform OTW/AO3 is likely to need, which is a subject I think has been under-examined in most of the online activity I've seen to this point.

First, for the record: I am not now and have never been a paid member of the OTW; at present - and despite some of the recommendations I've made previously and expect to make in the next post - I am not inclined to donate money to the organization in its present state.

The short version: While I recognize the severity of the issues facing the OTW and largely agree with those calling for major reform of the organization, I plan to continue posting to AO3 and participating at Fanlore. (At the same time, I expect to investigate alternate venues, such as SquidgeWorld, and to consider creating an old-school personal site specifically for my fanfiction.)

The explanation: There's no denying that the OTW is facing very serious problems involving its treatment of volunteers and the ways in which it's failed to handle those problems effectively. Even so, as a user of AO3 and a participant in Fanlore, it's my view that the results - the enormous resource that AO3 has become, and the smaller but invaluable body of knowledge contained at Fanlore - are valuable in and of themselves, and that they're worth supporting and preserving irrespective of the conduct of some of those involved in their creation and oversight. In posting to these sites, I am in no way endorsing the personal conduct of any individual OTW/AO3 volunteer or Board member, now or going forward.

comments

Misc: An edit & a WIP

Thu, 11 May 2023 08:42:56 GMT

One bit of housekeeping and one unmitigated bit of teasing:

The housekeeping:

I've edited the post regarding the gift story I received in the Unsent Letters exchange, mostly because the story link was borked but also to add proper author credit now that reveals are up.

The teasing:

Herewith a snippet of one of my current WIPs:

I should advise you,” the scientist said in a mild, apologetic voice, “that this is a secure area, and anyone attempting to enter secure areas here at Q-36 is subject to potential shrinking, rabbitizing, multiplication, spectrographic diffusion, gravitational flux…”

“…and explosive space modulation?” That was Zachary. I blinked. Dr. Honeydew stopped in mid-sentence and took off his glasses – which made me blink again, because although the face behind the glasses had appeared not to include eyes, the scientist’s face now sported a pair of small white marbles, evidently sewn onto the fabric of his head, through whose blue-gray markings he was clearly studying my companion.

“Before I answer that,” said Dr. Honeydew in an apologetic tone, “I’m afraid I need to ask who you are, why you’re here, and what sort of security clearances you have. The owners are very particular about those sorts of questions.”

comments

And in other non-news....

Tue, 19 Sep 2017 20:54:27 GMT

[eyes rec post]

[eyes shopping post]

[shakes head bemusedly]

At least now we know what people are reading the journal for....

.
.
.
.

Oh, I know, it's not a valid comparison -- with story posts, such response as there is shows up on the story page (or is supposed to, at any rate). Nonetheless, I am amused to observe that the Thinkgeek post represents the most comment traffic on a single entry that this journal has had in years. Clearly I need to re-think my posting strategy.

comments

LiveJournal side: new ToS

Tue, 04 Apr 2017 18:01:53 GMT

A degree of fuss shows up, not surprisingly, as LJ updates its terms of service with new language [specifically, Russian(!)]. As I observed last time around, I am not inclined to panic unduly about that in itself, although I admit to a degree of startlement at having to agree to be bound by an agreement in a language I don't understand and can't read.

However, one observer points out a clause that makes my writer-persona's eyebrows go up:
If User participates in any rankings or if User’s Content is used in any editorial projects of the Service, User provides to the Administration an additional authorisation to modify, shorten and amend his/her Content, to add images, a preamble, comments or any clarifications to his/her Content while using it, and in certain cases based on the Service functions, an authorisation to use User’s Content anonymously.

Essentially, their observation (which I think is valid) is that this amounts to a license not just to re-use anything one has posted to one's LJ account, but to rewrite and alter it as they see fit without permission or credit to the original writer -- including fanfic, for instance. Now, ToS agreements often include a non-exclusive license to republish content, but the rewrite-and-modify aspects of the language are rather more sweeping than I've seen in most ToS language...and also, this is written under Russian law, and I wouldn't want to bet on Russian copyright protection being as robust as it is in the US and UK, for instance.

I would very much like to see the OTW legal team comment on this provision. In the interval -- on one hand, I'm not leaving LJ *yet*, and I don't intend to delete anything I've posted to LJ as yet (I don't think it's likely that the Russian Overlords will reach backward into LJ's archives for drabbles). But I do not think that, under the new ToS, I'm going to be willing to post or crosspost new fanfic on the LiveJournal side, and I would encourage others to think carefully before doing so. (Holmestice participants, I am definitely looking at you!)

comments

I hear the Russians are coming....

Fri, 30 Dec 2016 19:03:55 GMT

A quick note relative to current developments on the LiveJournal side (specifically, concerns about LJ's servers being migrated to Darkest Russia):

This journal has for some time been mirrored on both DW (where I write most/all of the posts) and LJ (where I started), and I read my friends-lists/circles regularly on both sides of that mirror. I expect to continue to do just that for as long as the lights are on. Any content I post will be available on the DW side if the lights go off on LJ, and given that this is almost purely a fannish journal, I see little likelihood that Koschei the Deathless et al will choose to come after me.

Having said that: I do encourage anyone on the LJ side who is concerned to create a DW presence (there are tools whereby one can import an existing LJ over to DW essentially intact, thereby preserving the content), to add me to your DW reading page, and/or to let me know if you have a non-mirrored DW account to which I ought to connect. The DW visual interface is as highly customizable as LJ's is (being built from the same base code), and though the vocabulary is a little different, the underlying structure is much the same. At the moment, one need not have an invite code to create a DW account; if that changes (which it might if there's a mass exodus), any spare invite codes I happen to acquire will be mentioned here and available by request.

comments

Admin: A bit of tidying

Thu, 19 Jun 2014 17:43:48 GMT

A small administrative note: I have done a touch of housekeeping to my DreamWidth circle settings -- mostly a matter of cleaning out duplicated or dormant cross-traffic with LiveJournal. As far as I can tell, this shouldn't negatively affect anyone who's actually reading on the DreamWidth side (if anything, the opposite should be the case), but if I have mis-guessed, please send a message to let me know, and I will put you back on the "nice" list. :-)

comments

Catching up

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 09:02:18 GMT

Partly due to a recent hardware upgrade (new computer, wheee!) and partly due to general summer laziness, I find I'm suddenly behind on several aspects of the journal-keeping thing. So the next few posts will attempt to bring matters somewhat current. Do not be alarmed by the sudden influx of Stuff; I'll doubtless be back to my usual leisurely pace soon....

comments

And here we are!

Tue, 04 May 2010 18:50:12 GMT

And now I've arrived on Dreamwidth! More later; lunch and duty call, approximately in that order.

comments