This Is It

[yourlibrarian]

marchmetamatterschallenge is now closed for 2023. But meta creation goes on!

While the challenge itself runs during the month of March, backing up works can continue throughout the year, either when you have time or as you write new works. Hopefully this community has provided encouragement and incentive during this month that will keep everyone thinking about duplicating their meta elsewhere, both older meta and new content you write.

That also means that the Meta Matters Challenge Communities on AO3 and Squidgeworld can be added to throughout the year if you wish. And the Challenge will be back next year!

Remember, no matter how many additional works you copied over during the challenge, you've helped preserve those works and possibly exposed them to new audiences.

I'd also like to make some connections with meta related communities or events. If you know of any active ones where I can get in touch with mods, please mention them in comments. And if you've taken part in any meta events in the past year or upcoming ones, let everyone know as there might be more participants next time!

Thank you to everyone for taking part and following along this month. If you'd like, let others know in comments what your meta plans are for the coming months.

Comments

Re: Thank you!

[yourlibrarian]

Given what was said by the Policy & Abuse volunteer, manifestos are considered an acceptable meta format so they should be ok there. Mind you, I understand the concern since there's no specific format that manifestos follow.

Re: Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

Yeah, that's exactly the problem. People have been punished for posting things that they considered meta but someone in a position of power didn't like. What's the difference between a review, an ephemeral response, and an "I like this show" manifesto? There's no checklist people can refer to for confirmation that something is or is not meta of a type allowed on the site. I looked at the "bookmark" option but the AO3 FAQ page said parts of a bookmark can't be changed once it's created, which means mistakes can't be fixed, which is really offputting to me with my vision and typing challenges. >_< So that's no help either.

For comparison, the Rose & Bay Award refers people to "5 Steps for Crowdfunding Success" that make it easy to distinguish a crowdfunding project from other types of project. A checklist doesn't have to be long and elaborate, and can offer different ways to accomplish the basic qualifications.

The fact that AO3 does not provide clear guidelines about what is or is not allowed, and is erratic about enforcement, makes it look trappy to me. Or if I apply the rule about not attributing to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity, at least sloppy.

However, this reminds me of a new crowdfunding project that I am boosting signal for: The Fujoshi Guide to Web Development. It aims to create materials that will teach and encourage more people to make websites by and for fans. Like say, the panfandom meta archive site we'd love to have, or even just individual fansites archiving meta by one person or focusing on a single fandom. If that sounds useful to you too, feel free to boost the signal.

Re: Thank you!

[yourlibrarian]

There's definitely a loss to fandom generally when small sites start going away -- as many have as people have lost (or never had) the ability to create webpages for themselves. The funding part is also an issue since there used to be a number of spaces where people could create free webpages but I don't know of any free webhosting these days. Plus now the hosts would probably come with lots of restrictions, particularly since people now upload a lot of things including large image files, video, etc.

Re: Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> There's definitely a loss to fandom generally when small sites start going away -- as many have as people have lost (or never had) the ability to create webpages for themselves.<<

Yeah, that's a serious and growing problem.

>> The funding part is also an issue since there used to be a number of spaces where people could create free webpages but I don't know of any free webhosting these days. <<

Weebly still does. It's nowhere near as good as it used to be, but still has a free option.

>> Plus now the hosts would probably come with lots of restrictions, particularly since people now upload a lot of things including large image files, video, etc.<<

Yeah, that's a problem. Used to be, people could just do stuff. Now it's all plastered in huge "agreements" that most people don't read, and I read and find full of awful stuff that makes me want nothing to do with it. So I've pretty much quit signing up for new things, and as the old ones disappear, I have less and less access. Frustrating, but matches how society is going in general.

However, there's a simple way to handle file size, storage space, total bandwidth use, etc. Make a free option available with modest-sized limits, and then people who want to post large images, videos, or other big stuff can choose a paid account with more space for those things. Many of the website hubs have used this approach to good effect. Another clever funding approach is to sell extra perks one at a time, like Kingdom of Loathing does.

Some even used to have opt-in ad windows you could paste wherever you wanted them and then select categories that matched your content, so for instance I used to have a book review site with a little window in the sidebar that would display ads from the "Books & Magazines" category presumably of interest to my readers. You got perks for including an ad window, because it helped support the hub, but you didn't have to if you hated ads or there was no category suited to your site. I miss things like that.

It really comes down to today's problem with a corporate-dominated web being bad for citizens in general and fandom in particular. :( So we really need alternatives to that.

Re: Thank you!

[yourlibrarian]

You're not wrong. That would definitely be a way to go.

Re: Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I may not be able to code, but I'm good at observing. I can watch the things that people do and learn what makes a good website, what the options are. Then if someone needs a sounding board for brainstorming, I can lay out lots of ideas.