Work = ridiculously busy for the foreseeable future

Writing = ridiculously busy for the foreseeable future

I'll probably be around and about as I have time, but my to-do list in RL and fandom is extremely long for the next few weeks. However, I'm going to see Nick Hornby speak on Wednesday night with noeon and her S.O. and I am soooo excited. After Neil Gaiman, Hornby's my next favourite modern writer. This would be me at the moment: \0/!!!\0/!!!\0/!!!

Before I toddle off to bed, I thought I'd post a few of the answers to the top 5 meme I asked for last week or so. (Yes, it's taken me this long to do them. /0\) I've only got ten done; I have another seven to finish up...I'm doing them during breaks from work. However I feel accomplished that I'm more than halfway through them as of tonight, and I'm halfway through answering comments on my snarry_games fic. I take my little victories as I can lately. *g*

( Top five fics you would like to write, but haven't - yet for accioslash )


( Top 5 things you (secretly) love that no one would suspect of you for drusillas_rain )


( Top five places you'd like Draco and Chekov to have sex for lesyeuxverts00 )


( Top five favorite websites for book_wyrm )


( Top five favourite moments from the HP books for wenelda )


( Top five best gifts you've received for djin7 )


( Top five HP het pairings for ncp )


( Top five characters you like to write for goseaward )


( Top five Adrien Brody movies for a_belladonna )


( Top five happy images from HP (canon, fanon, whatever--just whatever visual you really like) for goseaward )

Okay, in regards to the recent Fan History wank. I don't particularly like touching on wank to be bluntly honest. But the fact of the matter is that I know three people whose real names have been connected to their fan names on the FH wiki over the past few years (two of them within the past six months or so) and frankly, for me personally, that's just beyond the pale. It breaks a cardinal rule of fandom.

I would sincerely request that everyone go read the following posts if you haven't already. Not because you should participate in wank, but because this is your fandom too, and you should be aware of what's going on. I'm not going to tell you what to think about the posts. Make your own mind up after you read them.

• liviapenn details the ways Laura Hale is attempting to make money off fandom with Fan History (If you read any post at all, this should be it. Seriously.)
  
• ithiliana calling Laura Hale out on her outing of fans
  
• dejana's reaction to the now deleted fanthropology post.
  
• A video pitch to venture capitalists to fund Fan History.

Also, just in courtesy of svmadelyn's post here, it looks like as of August 4, the infamous FanLib will be shutting its doors. Well. Hm.

I just went back and answered all the feedback that had been left on my hp_beholder and snarry_games fics. I still have to go back and answer my hd_worldcup comments, but that's probably going to have to happen in spurts through this week, I'm afraid.

I absolutely suck at answering feedback. I truly do. I recognize that about myself, and it's a fault of mine that I completely, utterly, entirely despise. It's not that I avoid feeback on purpose. I always mean to come back and answer the comments....I just frequently get caught with work, life, writing and/or other responsibilities that keep me from answering right away (not that any of those are a proper excuse really) and then by the time I get a chance it's, er, three months later and I'm horribly embarrassed to do so because I'm quite aware of my amount of fail. *facepalms* And it's worse when it's an anonymous fic for a fest because I'm afraid to answer those comments before the fest ends on fear of giving myself away (or accidentally answering while still logged in). Sigh. *pounds head against keyboard slowly*

My new fannish goal is to get better at answering fic feedback. And I guess I can start by just taking the bull by the horns and trying to catch up on old feedback, right? Right. So, yeah. If you just got a comment from me on an old fic (or if you get one in upcoming days), er, huge apologies for being so late. *flushes* Trust me when I say I'm awfully embarrassed by it. :(

So I spent my lunch hour distracting myself from the black hole that is my workday by reading Wired blogs as I often do. (I'm a HUGE fan of Wired.com; I read it almost every day. Although it was kind of unsettling when Strikethrough hit the Wired blogs in May.)

Today I came across this: Brad Fitzpatrick, The Creator Of LiveJournal, On The Long Road To Open Social Networks

You know, seriously? I think Brad needs to talk to fandom if he wants a demographic to test this possibility on. I mean, frankly, a lot of what he's talking about addresses our concerns about fandom fragmenting across various journaling sites. The only thing that gives me hesitation is any suggestion that crops up about 6A being involved. I have massive trust issues with them at the moment. Obviously. (Although I think it'd be funny for 6A to try to police underage fanworks on open source social networking. *snerk* Because, hi, that'd be a totally lost cause there.)

For more info on what Brad's thinking of, check out this article on his site: Thoughts on the Social Graph

I've talked to a lot of people lately who are really seriously worried about fandom fragmenting. With very good cause. This whole situation lately is more than a bit nerve-wracking. It's just...honestly, I think we'll settle into a way of keeping track of multiple flists on multiple sites much the way Brad's already envisioning, albeit perhaps a little more roughly. Y'all, we're sort of on the forefront of the Next Big Social Networking Adventure. You and me and all of fandom. 6A's kind of thrown us out there, you know? What Brad's talking about doing? It's what we have to do. By necessity, not choice.

I find that incredibly intriguing in many ways. And exciting. And liberating. I look at my two flists sometimes and you know what? The fragmentation between them doesn't destroy my love of fandom or my desire to participate or interact. In fact, it does the opposite. I'm invigorated by fandom again because it's a challenge. Because, whatever their reasons behind it may be, 6A management has effectively thrown the gauntlet down and said Fine, screw you, you want your fandom? You work for it, bitch. And my response? Hell, yeah, I will. You've just gone and given me a reason to now.

( Sometimes change is good. )

We can do this, y'all. Sure it means that we have to change and morph and pull ourselves out of the status quo. And that's hard. Trust me, I know; I'm a Taurus. Status quo is me. *G* BUT. We can be the ones out there on the cusp of open social networking. We could help change the Internet. Not corporations. Not CEOs. US. The end-users.

And seriously? HOW AWESOME IS THAT?

So you know sometimes when you're having a really stressful time and things just seem to be piling up and it takes all you have some days just to put one foot in front of the other? And then somehow, in some way, someone--or in some cases someones--that you care about turn around and give you a gift that just lifts your spirits in a way that makes you feel like, yeah, you can get through this and it's so very worth it all?

Last week was a really hard week for me on a number of fronts--particularly fannish--and so many people, friends and strangers alike, were so very supportive of me, for which I'm so incredibly grateful.

And then last night, halfway through Dungeons chat winterthunder and djinnj directed me to go here and informed me to keep an eye on it throughout the upcoming week.

Yeah. You guys, I really have the best friends ever. Seriously. I'm just totally floored. *loves on all of you and fandom at large* Thank you all so much. I can't even begin to put into adequate words how much love and gratitude I have towards my fandom and my friends at the moment. I'm just amazed by how incredible people can be. I love you all. So much. Thank you.

And seriously? If you have the chance, go read djinnj's HP/FOB crackfic because it's made of win and awesomeness, and it has a gorgeous ilustration by glockgal to go with it. (And goseaward's Simpsonesque Snape, Draco, Harry and Martha Jones are brilliant too, I have to say.)