I tend to have the same problems as alchemia with what I see as ambiguous and contradictory definitions of who exactly they are and represent (I asked a question about it on their community, unfortunately I worded it so badly I'm not sure they'll bother responding :( (*)).
There's a big difference between OTW being made up of female fanficcers but supporting male machina makers and the ACLU being made up of liberals but supporting conservative Christians. Namely, conservative Christians are by their nature the kind of people who are likely to object to any organization which defends civil liberties, but there is absolutely no reason why machina makers would object to an organisation which supported transformative works(**). In fact, I imagine many of them would be interested in joining and maybe being on the board. Would they be allowed to be?
I'm possible missing something, but the way I see it there are three ways OTW could go: 1) Be about all transformative works, including all the ones which are not historically related to fanfic etc or female dominated. This means losing the references to female spaces etc, and probably ending up with a board and membership which is at least 50% male. 2) Only be about certain types of transformative works ie fanfic, fanart, fanvids etc, with a clear definition so that those who are excluded know where they stand. Possibly be open to forming alliances with any groups who arise to fill in the gaps ie "The Organisation for Machina Makers" or "The Society for Stained Glass Icons of Soccer Players" etc. Femaleness stays. 3) Have some parts of the organisation be of type (1) (like the legal defense part) with others just of type 2 (like the archive). Make this distinction clear.
Having an unstated "Them vs Us" attitude seems awfully condescending, like other sorts of fans aren't smart or motivated enough to even want to be on the board, and that their opinions wouldn't be worth listening to if they did. If they were starting out as type 2 with the intention of branching into type 1 that would be ok, I guess, but the "female space" thing implies otherwise.
Anyway, an interesting post regardless, and on the whole I agree with you. Ish :) I do think the people getting narky about the archive are being silly: it's open source software designed for hosting fanfic, how is that not a good thing?
(*)I have the same worry about this comment. I've been having a strong of stupid-brain days recently... (**)Well, no more than female fanfic writers, who as we've seen do object about it sometimes :)
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There's a big difference between OTW being made up of female fanficcers but supporting male machina makers and the ACLU being made up of liberals but supporting conservative Christians. Namely, conservative Christians are by their nature the kind of people who are likely to object to any organization which defends civil liberties, but there is absolutely no reason why machina makers would object to an organisation which supported transformative works(**). In fact, I imagine many of them would be interested in joining and maybe being on the board. Would they be allowed to be?
I'm possible missing something, but the way I see it there are three ways OTW could go:
1) Be about all transformative works, including all the ones which are not historically related to fanfic etc or female dominated. This means losing the references to female spaces etc, and probably ending up with a board and membership which is at least 50% male.
2) Only be about certain types of transformative works ie fanfic, fanart, fanvids etc, with a clear definition so that those who are excluded know where they stand. Possibly be open to forming alliances with any groups who arise to fill in the gaps ie "The Organisation for Machina Makers" or "The Society for Stained Glass Icons of Soccer Players" etc. Femaleness stays.
3) Have some parts of the organisation be of type (1) (like the legal defense part) with others just of type 2 (like the archive). Make this distinction clear.
Having an unstated "Them vs Us" attitude seems awfully condescending, like other sorts of fans aren't smart or motivated enough to even want to be on the board, and that their opinions wouldn't be worth listening to if they did. If they were starting out as type 2 with the intention of branching into type 1 that would be ok, I guess, but the "female space" thing implies otherwise.
Anyway, an interesting post regardless, and on the whole I agree with you. Ish :) I do think the people getting narky about the archive are being silly: it's open source software designed for hosting fanfic, how is that not a good thing?
(*)I have the same worry about this comment. I've been having a strong of stupid-brain days recently...
(**)Well, no more than female fanfic writers, who as we've seen do object about it sometimes :)