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Hi peeps! How you've been?
1. Job ended. More time to play Skyrim, but I do hope that I get something soon.
2. Skyrim is fun. It has displaced icon-making and ficcing as my main way of passing time.
3. Year one of ODP is complete. Though I've definitely lapsed a lot. :(
4. Archive-binged on Homestuck. On one hand, it's fun. On the other hand, I definitely do not yet get the flailing over it.
5. I've been watching the Ao3/OTW thing going around, and outsider-museologist-former-member thing has opinions.
After reading the discussion, it seems like the OTW has this vision of being this comprehensive, world-class, digital, user-curated museum of Fandom (which is neat), but is still trying to operate like a small, quirky closet-museum open to the public by appointment only (though OTW is obviously upscaled). And I think, regardless of the election results, the discrepancy of scale between vision and operations needs to shrink.
Last year, I was a member of the OTW. This year I am not. For me, it was a choice not to renew. I like the idea of the OTW, and I enjoy the archive even with its bugs. $10 as a one-time donation is absolutely worth it to support something I use on a fairly regular basis. But at the same time...how do I word this? On a strict personal-budget scale, Ao3/OTW falls awkwardly between an internet service I might pay for and a charitable organization I donate to, but I don't feel comfortable paying for it right now as either one of those.
The internet service one is pretty simple. As someone who uses the Ao3 the difference between being a paying member of the OTW and just being a member of Ao3 is non-existent. It's all the same. Like I said above, I think $10 as a one time donation/fee (a la Pinboard) was absolutely worth it, but $10 a year for no extra benefits currently isn't on a strict service scale.
As for the organization itself, like I said above I like the idea of the OTW. And that too was worth the initial $10, but at the same time, I don't feel I can support it as a charity either. The fandom experiences that OTW wants to preserve and promote very clearly do not include the ones I'm closely tied to, even as it claims to want to be inclusive. So there's no personally compelling reason to stay as a member. And at the same time, there are so many issues with management and transparency (or, at the very least, with public relations) that I don't have any assurance that $10 is really going to be in serving the organization's mission.
I'm not foolish enough to think that losing my paltry $10 is worth special consideration. I know better. But the OTW is actually an incorporated as a non-profit, not somebody's personal fandom project, and as such, it really does need to be held accountable for serving its mission. And right now, not renewing and explaining why I made that choice as a former member is, for me, the best way to tell the OTW, that as an organization, it is not serving its mission in a way I feel comfortable supporting financially.
2. Skyrim is fun. It has displaced icon-making and ficcing as my main way of passing time.
3. Year one of ODP is complete. Though I've definitely lapsed a lot. :(
4. Archive-binged on Homestuck. On one hand, it's fun. On the other hand, I definitely do not yet get the flailing over it.
5. I've been watching the Ao3/OTW thing going around, and outsider-museologist-former-member thing has opinions.
After reading the discussion, it seems like the OTW has this vision of being this comprehensive, world-class, digital, user-curated museum of Fandom (which is neat), but is still trying to operate like a small, quirky closet-museum open to the public by appointment only (though OTW is obviously upscaled). And I think, regardless of the election results, the discrepancy of scale between vision and operations needs to shrink.
Last year, I was a member of the OTW. This year I am not. For me, it was a choice not to renew. I like the idea of the OTW, and I enjoy the archive even with its bugs. $10 as a one-time donation is absolutely worth it to support something I use on a fairly regular basis. But at the same time...how do I word this? On a strict personal-budget scale, Ao3/OTW falls awkwardly between an internet service I might pay for and a charitable organization I donate to, but I don't feel comfortable paying for it right now as either one of those.
The internet service one is pretty simple. As someone who uses the Ao3 the difference between being a paying member of the OTW and just being a member of Ao3 is non-existent. It's all the same. Like I said above, I think $10 as a one time donation/fee (a la Pinboard) was absolutely worth it, but $10 a year for no extra benefits currently isn't on a strict service scale.
As for the organization itself, like I said above I like the idea of the OTW. And that too was worth the initial $10, but at the same time, I don't feel I can support it as a charity either. The fandom experiences that OTW wants to preserve and promote very clearly do not include the ones I'm closely tied to, even as it claims to want to be inclusive. So there's no personally compelling reason to stay as a member. And at the same time, there are so many issues with management and transparency (or, at the very least, with public relations) that I don't have any assurance that $10 is really going to be in serving the organization's mission.
I'm not foolish enough to think that losing my paltry $10 is worth special consideration. I know better. But the OTW is actually an incorporated as a non-profit, not somebody's personal fandom project, and as such, it really does need to be held accountable for serving its mission. And right now, not renewing and explaining why I made that choice as a former member is, for me, the best way to tell the OTW, that as an organization, it is not serving its mission in a way I feel comfortable supporting financially.
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I think this is the best analogy.
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I've been absent, but recently poking my head back in and (as usual) getting sucked into fandoms that everyone moved on from 10-15 years ago.
I hope the next job comes by soon, but with your skills, this should happen.
Your thoughts about OTW are much on my mind as well. I was donating because someone has to donate to keep AO3 funded, and yet, you're right. What exactly am I funding? If I upload my works to AO3, it will get few comments. It will get more on FF.net. OTW doesn't provide the services our fandom desperately needs (a replacement for ff_press!), marginalizes our fandom as unimportant, and chews up and spits out fan volunteers. As much as anything, I donate out of support for all the work they've been doing for OTW, but I'm not seeing enough support from OTW for its volunteers. Do I reward that, for the volunteers' sake, or not reward that, for the volunteers' sake? Because really, apart from letting me upload fanart into my AO3 story posts, this org gives me nothing. And our fandom has NEEDS (a replacement for Delicious) Yet I really would be surprised if OTW provided any service to fulfill those needs, and if it did, it would be by accident -- for some other, more popular fandom, not ours.
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Do I reward that, for the volunteers' sake, or not reward that, for the volunteers' sake?
That really is a dilemma. I just kind of want to buy the volunteers a round of drinks or throw a pizza party or something. But I don't necessarily know that the volunteers alone are enough to support the whole organization. Especially because so many of the volunteer issues do seem to stem from issues in the OTW's operations.
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Homestuck. So. Um. I've been writing fic for it. It doesn't get good until like the middle of act 5 but really it's the fandom that does it for me.
I can totes give you fic if you would like? Dude. Duuuuudeeee you need to come write lesbian smut with me. It would be the very best.
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