bits and bobs

[quietmoon]

*clasps hands* I have finally gotten to the end of my reading page. I wish it went on past the last two weeks, since I know I've missed a lot even before then, but maybe it's a blessing in disguise lol. At least now I can say I'm relatively caught up.

Calling all BIPOC — goss 
But over the years, many BIPOC have left these platforms or Fandom altogether. And I really miss having those kinds of interactions, and hearing these particular voices.
I'm curious about how many of us are out here still, whether actively posting on DW or simply lurking. Maybe you are wondering too! So I am putting up this poll, in the hopes of reaching out to and connecting with as many BIPOC fans here on DW as possible.

Signal Boost: Discussions of racism in fandom, and what to do about it in regards to OTW/AO3 — muccamukk 
I haven't read this yet, but I'm throwing it here so I remember to.

And lots of events and such happening, too:

• sunshine_challenge is starting on 1st July! It's no secret that I love this challenge and it's chilly sibling, and I'm excited to participate and maybe make some friends next month! (Maybe I'll even participate during the actual event for once. Who knows.) If you want to hit the ground running, the comm has a post on journal housekeeping with a neat little checklist up right now.
• indie_games has opened! I am beyond excited to see some video game chat happening on here! I have my old personal gaming comm but it's been due an overhaul for ages. I might scrap it all together and throw all my gaming stuff on here or, now that indie-games exists, there! If you got the Itch bundle this comm might be of particular interest to you, as the games from there are the focus right now.
• hc_bingo sign-ups for Round 11 are open! I haven't participated before, but the deadline is generous (up to January, with amnesty extending into June) and I did tweet the other day about taking a break from my longer projects and taking a stab at a prompt list to fight writing nerves. *rubs chin*
• fandomgiftbox sign-ups close on 21st June. Looks very fun ♥
• A Femslash Creating Fest is running on elasticella's journal until 22nd September, with the possibility of continuing after. I wasn't initially thinking I'd participate, but then I saw this keyleth/raishan prompt, and my mind completely ran away with me... I'll try, at least!
• recthething: This is a comm for reccing fanworks you love and requesting recs for fanworks you're looking for. This looks to be a more general reccing comm as compared to the specific/themed ones I've seen so far. Definitely of interest to me.
• fffc is running a 100 Prompt Challenge with lots of different tables. The 'weird ao3 tags' table in particular caught me eye lmao.

For those also participating in getyourwordsout, reminder that the deadline to change pledges is 23rd June. After pledging unrealistically high the past few years, I decided to go with 150k for this year, and the way things are turning out, I'm considering moving a step down from that too to 75k. xD I'm not wholly decided yet but I'm thinking about it.

Comments

[enemytosleep]

Joined fandomgiftbox! I'm not sure whether I'll be able to leave any fills, but I have definitely left many a treat and gift for internet folks over the years, so I feel little guilt in asking for a giftbox now when I need the boost.

I also went and peeped the AO3/OTW discussion, and it's a good read, though I can see why so many folks are hesitant to make a statement on it. I am white so I don't really feel it's my place to say anything other than AO3 has protected all speech, even harmful speech, since it's inception. I'm not sure there will be any changes that could be made without opening the door to limiting things other people find objectionable (like LGBTQ+ content or 18+ content). If someone smarter than me does find a solution I would be happy to support it. <-- this all makes me feel like a lazy, useless arsehole.

[quietmoon]

I'm still on the very first post linked, but so far a solution I really like is for ao3 to implement warning tags for racism and slavery the same way they have done so for sexual violence and underage. This thread and this thread on twitter introduced the idea to me (alongside the idea in this tweet), and when I sat back and thought about it, I was baffled that it it didn't already exist. In the same way the archive protects both those who post, for example, works including non-con, and also those who are in a position to be harmed by it (through a compulsory warning system), I think it needs to do more to protect people of colour in this way. The threads I linked can all be found through naye's post, by the way!

I'm learning a lot about how I've structured my own participation and experience in fandom over the last decade by tip-toeing around my own brownness. :/ From feeling uneasy and voicing it to at best an unresponsive audience, at worst being rebuked with some of the crap I'm seeing referred to in these threads and posts, I guess I subconsciously decided it was easier to internalise it all and when it got too much, to just hop offline. Yikes. Still, I'm really glad to have my feelings put into words like this by more articulate and informed people. Like I said, I'm learning a lot.

I think that's great!! ♥ I haven't participated before because I was sure I wouldn't be able to write something for someone, and it felt too... bah. You know. Selfish. But even without all the fannish goodwill you've collected over the years, I think it's all right to sometimes put yourself out there for treats without having 'paid' for it. People will fill because they want to, not because they think they owe me or anything! tldr: I think I might sign up, too. ^_^

[enemytosleep]

Cue my moment of surprised: why haven't there been such warning tags available before now? I had read some of the Twitter threads and all of the DW comments (at the time of my comment, at least), but that seems like such an elegant solution that I'm not sure why it's not already implemented. I am working right now, but will later tonight try to seek out any petitions to that effect. I just saw your reply in my email and wanted to hop on quickly.

This week I went back and removed a couple of old drabbles from my AO3. In FMA there are some canon jokes about one of the poorer clan of Xing, and while I wrote the drabbles as answers to contest comm prompts (and they were well received at the time), I can see now that they serve no good purpose and those canon comments should not be celebrated. I hadn't even thought of the old stuff in ages, but it's been a very good time of reflection on ways I have contributed to harming other people in fandom.

I am going to keep doing what I can to better myself and be a better ally. I am a nonbinary queer and can relate to certain struggles with harmful representation in media, etc., but that doesn't exclude me from participating in harmful practices against others.

And i hope you do sign up for the giftbox. I think we all could use a treat or two right now.

[quietmoon]

I know, right? .__. If you found any petitions or such in that vein, please do link me!

*nod nod* I understand. I think we could all serve to follow your example; being an ally means positive action, and the first step I think would be to look at one's own actions. I'll look through my older works for the same. >.<

I signed up! I have a lot of editing to do for my giftbox because I was super last minute (as in, 40 minutes before the deadline) so I have to add some prompts but xD I did it and I'm happy.

[enemytosleep]

I’m not on Twitter so haven’t seen if anything was there, but my GoogleFu hasn’t give me anything specifically for a racism archive tag. I have seen a few folks raise the issue that if we add a racism warning they would also like to see an incest warning, which works for me, though users do seem to tag relationship and incest pretty well in my experience (so someone could still filter those works from their fandoms).

Things I have found:
-A rather lip-service link round up from OTW about racism and activism
-A petition for a block button

I look forward to everything being posted on fandomgiftbox so that I can see whether I'm able to make any gifts!

[quietmoon]

Yeesh, just scrolling through the comments of that OTW post is a journey. If there was a bingo card for this kind of stuff, we'd have an easy winner here lol.

Agreed! Relating to this is an interesting thread here which you might be interested in: You see, I got a PhD partly by showing how care for survivors of sexual violence is baked into the #AO3 design and code.

GoogleFu made me smile, I haven't heard that before.

Me too!!

[enemytosleep]

It's an interesting thread because I was part of the LJ fanfic boom, and there was definitely a compulsory "add trigger warnings" baked into the communities there that spilled onto personal pages and other sites (like A/N on FFN and elsewhere). If you didn't post triggers and someone asked you to, it almost always happened without fuss. Mods would remove posts that didn't adhere to the rules.

When AO3 first started, the tagging system was not explained well and practices were not carried over. People used only The Big Four (violence, death, non-con, and underage) and character tags for the most part. I went offline for 6 years starting in 2013, and when I came back, AO3 tags had evolved something akin to Tumblr tags. The Big Four remained the only archive warnings.

I get that it's tough to enforce new labels on older stories, and that could be covered with a site wide: everything posted before 2021 may contain such topics as (racism/slavery/incest) with no warning, and should be consumed at the reader's own risk. Then have Abuse Team enforce the new tags moving forward.

Or as the one petition said, adding a block button to reduce harassment and remove problematic authors from your newsfeed who aren't tagging for your triggers.

[quietmoon]

This makes me wonder about how much creations are affected by their environment - how tagging culture in fandom has been affected by the tagging system of AO3.

I like this idea. I wish they'd implement it. I read the OTq

edit: I'm so sorry, my cat walked across my keyboard and sent the message prematurely orz

I was saying, I read the OTW's statement, and my main takeaways were that I was glad they'd actually responded, at least now instead of months from now, wishing this had all happened earlier (a frustration I know probably isn't helpful but I can't help feel it), and both a hope that they'd tackle this issue of ignoring the needs and pain of the people of colour in fandom and (again) frustration at the vague wording surrounding what I thought were the most important parts, the current warnings and Terms of Service.

Baby steps is still moving forward, though. I am happy to see that.

Tell me what you think of their statement?

[enemytosleep]

I felt like the latest OTW statement was mostly fluff. They said a lot of words, but a lot of it felt like a hollow acknowledgement that they have hard these concerns and are sorry they haven't yet taken action. I hope they can follow through with some of the actions they laid out. I understand some of it is more involved and will take time, but some things should not be that hard to implement (me, not a programmer, but speculating against the prevalence of certain features on every other platform).

[quietmoon]

I think the fact that it took a big uproar (and not just from the same fans of colour who've been talking about this for years already) to actually get them to listen is frustrating, but I hope they do mean to make genuine and pointed change >.< Yeah, I hope so too. I think they want to go the route of 'it's easier to add than take away', maybe? *shrugs* I don't know.

Fingers crossed, anyway. -.-

[enemytosleep]

I'm seeing more and more posts discussing the merits of a warning system versus giving readers better tools to curate their feeds (block buttons), and I'm leaning toward the block button. As someone who I can not recall their username said (else I would credit them), JKR would not warn her audience for transphobia or antisemitism, so how can we rely on racist/problematic authors to warn for these types of practices. There are also the writers who are unintentionally participating in hurtful tropes who would not know to warn against it (or better yet, find new ways to engage with those characters). But yes, I do hope that they decide to do something meaningful to help create a safer experience for everyone there.

[quietmoon]

I see your point! Absolutely, a self-appointing system wouldn't help to tackle internalised or unintentional racism, nor would it incline those who are writing it unwittingly to risk tagging with it. We'd probably see a small rise in Choose Not To Warn warnings.

I think, for me, the visibility of action is really important here. It isn't just the curation for the individual, but an acknowledgement from the collective (i.e. OTW and by extension those using warning systems put into place) of the existence of racism within fiction, and the necessity to warn fans for it. I'd like for people to see that it's taken seriously; for it to be as visible as Non-Con and Underage warnings are. I also think it would be helpful in bringing about an awareness and culture of recognising what actually is racism in fanfic and fandom. When people see a fic with a warning for racism, but don't register anything themselves, that might create a disconnect where they'll actually think critically about 'well, why was it tagged with that? what is it that my radar is missing?'

That isn't to say I don't also agree with all you've said regarding a blocking tool, and such. I would want both, ideally - and there's no reason why they can't exist in tandem, as they don't even exist in the same sphere of experience. ^_^

[enemytosleep]

Yes, these are such good points about changing the culture to make things more visible, and to create an awareness that hopefully leads to more conscientious tagging and warning. Start with blocking features, progress to awareness and greater visibility. I do not envy the folks in charge!

I also super appreciate your thoughtful replies and your willingness to discuss this with me.

[quietmoon]

Haha, me neither. :')

Of course! I really enjoy our conversations about this, thank you ♥

[enemytosleep]

OTW Update

[quietmoon]

Thank you <3