Owning the Goddamned Servers!
Wow, every time I think I can’t hate the “let’s commercialize fandom” contingent more, I come across something like this:
ML: Yeah, I guess I’m so far removed from fanfiction as a primary mode of fandom because I’m so in a very different world of behavior rather than a single point of origin fanworks. And what I really mean, I guess, by ‘canon is a little less important,’ is that there’s the incredible loop of production and consumption, so that producers are consumers are producers are consumers are producers are consumers. And so at any point along that trail someone can join in the fandom. So someone can be, can know StarKid, and become part of the fandom that way, even if they weren’t necessarily deep into Harry Potter before that.
ML: I really strongly disagree with anti-consumerist fandom. Because it’s missing a whole part of the production cycle that is absolutely necessary for people to understand in order to actually get canon. And in order to actually get fanworks! (Meredith Levine in an interview with Fansplaining, August 2015)
Funny how it is a person who analyze fannish interactions for profit that redefines fandom as commercial. Not only should be accept it when we get overrun by people trying to make money off us. We’re actually now supposed to accept when we get moved to the frienges of “fandom” to make room for the “real” thing–MONEY.
This may be a good point to remind ourselves why some of us keep on holding high the banner of non-profit fandom and its role in fannish history. So in that vein, here are two of my favorites quotes.
We need a central archive of our own, something like animemusicvideos.org. Something that would NOT hide from google or any public mention, and would clearly state our case for the legality of our hobby up front, while not trying to make a profit off other people’s IP and instead only making it easier for us to celebrate it, together, and create a welcoming space for new fans that has a sense of our history and our community behind it. (Astolat, May 2007)
Because I want us to own the goddamned servers, ok? Because I want a place where we can’t be TOSed and where no one can turn the lights off or try to dictate to us what kind of stories we can tell each other. (Speranza, January 2008)
Because with everything I see and know and post about the OTW, with everything that’s going on, at the end of the day, this is OUR space, for however we want to define our, for however inclusive we want it to be. The one thing that won’t be included, however, is third party platforms trying to make money off OUR CONTENT!
Bolding the parts that speak to me:
“This may be a good point to remind ourselves why some of us keep on holding high the banner of non-profit fandom and its role in fannish history. So in that vein, here are two of my favorites quotes.
“We need a central archive of our own, something like animemusicvideos.org. Something that would NOT hide from google or any public mention, and would clearly state our case for the legality of our hobby up front, while not trying to make a profit off other people’s IP and instead only making it easier for us to celebrate it, together, and create a welcoming space for new fans that has a sense of our history and our community behind it. (Astolat, May 2007)
“Because I want us to own the goddamned servers, ok? Because I want a place where we can’t be TOSed and where no one can turn the lights off or try to dictate to us what kind of stories we can tell each other. (Speranza, January 2008)
Because with everything I see and know and post about the OTW, with everything that’s going on, at the end of the day, this is OUR space, for however we want to define our, for however inclusive we want it to be. The one thing that won’t be included, however, is third party platforms trying to make money off OUR CONTENT!”