March Meta Matters Challenge, Check-in No. 1

[yourlibrarian]

Welcome to year 6 of the Meta Matters Challenge! I'm your moderator, yourlibrarian.

These posts will be used for us all to check-in with one another, offer encouragement and answers to questions, and maybe tips we come up with as we copy our work to other locations.

Before we begin, some reminders. Please look over the FAQ as there are some important bits for everyone to follow, namely:

Remember to tag all your posts with the "Nonfiction" tag in the "Additional Tags" section of the posting form if you are posting at AO3 or Squidgeworld, as well as a second relevant tag such as "Meta", "Review", "Essay" etc.

Remember to add that meta to the March Meta Matters Challenge community on AO3 or Squidgeworld.

Since this is our first check-in, please comment with one or more of the following:

1) Details about you: This could include canons (if any) you've written meta in, years in fandom, things you tend to write about (if you've noticed themes), or whatever else you'd like to share.

2) Details about your meta: How much of your past work are you going to be looking through? Have you already started reviewing fandom accounts? Do you have organizing tips to share as we go sorting through our posts?

3) Goals you have: Maybe you want to back up a certain number of posts. Maybe you want to compare things you used to write about to things you're writing now. Maybe the challenge is an opportunity for you to start using AO3 as a creator as well as a reader. Maybe it's a good prompt to re-read discussions in your posts that you'd forgotten about. We all have hopes of what we can accomplish this month. Feel free to share them!

Also, if you have any questions not already covered in our introductory post or in our FAQ, include them here.

Remember, this account accepts anonymous comments, so if you don't have a Dreamwidth account we still want to hear from you and have you take part. Just sign your messages with your username and we'll all get to know you!

Comments

Hello!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Remember to tag all your posts with the "Nonfiction" tag (in the "Additional Tags" section of the posting form if using AO3 or SquidgeWorld).<<

I typically post my meta on Dreamwidth, and some of the older stuff is on LiveJournal. Some is in notes under fiction I've posted on AO3. Since AO3 changed its user agreement and is now visible only to members who have signed that, I have quit posting there. I'm not on SquidgeWorld. But if anyone wants to copy my meta to another site, that's fine as long as you leave the credits intact.

Among my continuing goals is to do more archiving through sites like the Wayback Machine, Ghost, and Archive.Today so that is where I will typically copy my meta in addition to Dreamwidth posts. None of those three will save everything, and they are all prone to frequent service outages. However, they all save some things and they are free.

Note that Paywall Reader currently offers Wayback and Archive.Today; it used to offer more but has since reduced its options. It's still very useful.

I also recommend the new community datahoarders which is pretty much what we are doing here with our meta.

My Meta tag (or the older one on LiveJournal) includes descriptions of genres from another world, meta about some of my other writing worlds, links to other other people's meta often with discussions, meta about fanfic/fandom in general, some musings on how to handle particular topics, identity literature, and a few bits that touch on some particular canon. A lot of it involves me poking holes in other people's arguments, pointing out how suggestions are troublesome, and suggesting other alternatives instead. I also write Reviews.

My How To tag includes a lot of meta, although it's not always tagged as meta.


>>1) Details about you: This could include canons (if any) you've written meta in, years in fandom, things you tend to write about (if you've noticed themes), or whatever else you'd like to share.<<

Canons: I have a lot of original writing and I write meta for most of it. Hardcore meta. I mean I have oopsed a book repeatedly doing that and not all of them were even dictionaries. I have Tolkienesque amounts of notes and other meta. A Conflagration of Dragons and Daughters of the Apocalypse are a couple original series where I've posted substantial amounts of the meta because those settings really benefit from seeing their background materials. Quixotic Ideas is newer and now has meta posted. Peculiar Obligations, another newish series about Quakers and pirates, has meta but doesn't have a series page yet.

I wrote massive amounts of meta for the Torn World project but that website is no longer visible to the public. :( I did most of the work building three related languages and several ecosystems, and other folks did different ecosystems and scads of other worldbuilding entries, how-to-write guides, etc.

One of the bigger pieces I've posted about someone else's stuff is a guide to The Ursulan Cycle, which is genderbent King Arthur. The Shared Worlds page has links to other background materials.

I've written fanfic in many canons. *chuckle* Some of my earliest hardcore meta is still being passed around the Valdemar fandom, because they're demifiction guidebooks on how to do stuff. If I remember right, there was one on games and one one dyes/disguises. My biggest fanseries is Love Is For Children (The Avengers). That landing page has a bunch of meta in it along with links to the entries.

Time in fandom: I have decades in fandom, and more before that when I was a fan but had not yet discovered fandom as a community.

Things I tend to write about: I have a bunch of recurring themes that I address both in meta and fiction/poetry. These include but are not limited to adoption (including found-family and interspecies), boundaries and consent, ethics, family of choice and diverse family shapes, fish out of water, how to make the world a better place, identity, implications of special abilities, languages-linguistics-xenolinguistics, sex/gender dynamics (especially alien/fantasy iterations), sociodynamics, spirituality, trauma and recovery.


>> 2) Details about your meta: How much of your past work are you going to be looking through? Have you already started reviewing fandom accounts? Have you archived a lot of it already in past challenges? <<

I still suck at tagging meta as meta.

Last year I went through and archived my Meta, How To, Review tagged material. I'll need to do that again for the 2024 material.

Also in 2024, I launched the communities newcomers and goals_on_dw which involved writing a lot of meta about those topics and how to use Dreamwidth, plus a little about fandom.


>> 3) Goals you have: Maybe you want to back up a certain number of posts. Maybe you want to update older meta. Maybe you're looking forward to writing new meta. We all have hopes of what we can accomplish this month. Feel free to share them! <<

* Make a boost post on my blog announcing the event and my plans for it, which will give me a place to track what I've gotten done as I finish tasks.

* Go back through my various types of meta from 2024, make sure they are tagged accordingly, and archive them on other sites.

* Write and post at least one new piece of meta. I'm thinking about "Why We Need Fanifestos."

* Continue promoting this event on goals_on_dw and newcomers. I've already mentioned it but want to do more. Hopefully this will attract some new participants.


Finally, my next Poetry Fishbowl will be on Tuesday, March 4 with a theme of "Yes, Actually, It IS That Bad." If you want to drop by and leave me meta-related prompts, I can write characters talking about meta; I've done a few pieces of that in the past.

Re: Hello!

[florianschild]

Ooh yes please to "Why We Need Fanifestos" - I want more fanifestos!

Re: Hello!

[yourlibrarian]

Oh good idea about datahoarders! I just reached out to the mod to see if they'd like to affiliate with us. And I agree with florianschild that the Fanifesto meta sounds like a great idea 🙂

Re: Hello!

[ysabetwordsmith]

Yeah, these two communities would make great affiliates.