Hi peeps! How you've been?
Nov. 16th, 2011 09:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dagas_isa1. 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.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-16 07:02 pm (UTC)I think this is the best analogy.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-17 03:40 pm (UTC)