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On original fic and fanfic
So, re: the debate going around about whether AO3 should allow original stuff in with the fanworks:
There are some people who want to keep a wall between original and fan fiction, and want to keep AO3 limited to fan writers. And I can see their point - I, too, am far less likely to read something if it's original: it's harder work to read, less likely to be id-tastic, when I'm in the mood for fanwork I don't want original, and either the average quality of original fic is less, or I simply don't have good enough filters for finding the good stuff with original as compared to fan work. Plus, many original writing communities are not only very different in culture to fanwriting communities, some of them are openly hostile to fanwriting, or to some of the values that my particular fanwriting community espouses.
The problem I have with that viewpoint is that the separation between original and fan work *isn't* a wall. It is, at best, a long sloping gradient with something on it that might be an attempt at a wall that has fallen over in places and wasn't very straight to begin with (and has only been there for a paltry few decades anyway.) The boundary between original and fan work is not a hard boundary. People have brought up historical RPF several times already, but as far as I'm concerned, it's only the tip of the iceberg.
I write stuff that is definitely fanfiction. I write stuff that is definitely original fiction. And I write stuff that, um, I have no bloody idea if it's one or the other.
And the thing that attracted me, as an author, to AO3, is that it's one archive where I don't have to worry if my fanwork is "enough" for it. Is it slashy enough, or too slashy? Shippy enough, or too shippy? Too porny or not porny enough? Too long or too short, not canonical enough, not finished enough, too crossovery, too script-y or meta-y or poem-y to be a proper story, not angsty enough, too much or not enough... on AO3 I can just put everything up, as a proper archive, without having to stress over categories.
I would love if "not fan-fic-y enough" was one of those categories I didn't have to worry about on AO3. And since - *for me* - the most important role of AO3 is to be an archive for fanwriters to universally preserve and organize their work, I want all the edge cases to be allowed; if that means blanket allowing original fiction (and I suspect it does), then so be it. I would, however, support a restriction that every author account must have at least one definite fanwork uploaded, to preserve the archive as primarily fannish and to filter out people who are hostile to fanfic culture. And a rule that any original work hosted on AO3 must allow derivative work.
And, sheerly out of curiosity (and not intended to be anyone's opinion on what should or shouldn't get posted at AO3): Here is a poll about some of those "edge" cases. What do you think, fandom-at-large? Original or fanwork? (And no, you don't get tickyboxes or third options. You must make a judgement! Like archives always make me do!)
Historical RPF about dead people!
Non-historical RPF about living people!
Historical fic set in a specific place and time but with mostly-original characters (because the people I'm writing about went unrecorded by history!)
Fic set in the present with original characters, but all about their relationships with real celebrities, places, and/or current events!
A story set in fandom with characters who are all recognizeable fangirl achetypes!
A story based on a story my great-grandma wrote that was only ever published in a tiny edition!
A story based on something in my high school literary magazine!
Fic based on a friend's unpublished and unfinished original novel!
My original story that my friend pulished fic about before my story was finished!
A non-canon AU I wrote in my own original universe that uses fannish tropes like AMTDI or "five things that never happened"!
A story where my original characters meet fandom characters!
A story my original characters meet historical characters or celebrities!
A fusion where my original characters are put into a fandom-canon universe but no canon characters appear!
A crossover where my original characters meet me and my friends!
A crossover where my original characters meet my friend's original characters!
A story about recognizable living real people where all the names have been elided or changed!
A story about anthropomorphized objects or concepts!
A story about anthropomorphized *fannish* objects or concepts!
A retelling of a myth or fairy tale where all of the names, the setting, most of the details and the ending are different!
A retelling of a myth or fairy tale to make it work in the framework of my original universe or with my original characters!
An obvious parody/pastiche of a published author's style and subject matter that doesn't reference any of their characters or settings!
A side story to my fanfic epic, about two original characters from the epic, which based only on internal evidence could be set in a non-fannish world!
A novel set in [fandom A] that's all about original characters who live around the world from canon events so the only explicit reference to canon is passing allusions to distant events!
An AU story based around minor OCs from an AU of an AU of an AU that has since been thoroughly jossed!
A novel about characters that started out as fanfic OCs or AUs of canon characters but I have deliberately moved outside the fandom context!
A shared world written by many authors with no "primary" text or "series bible"!
Biblefic!
A slashy story about an angel that draws heavily on traditional Western angelology and eschatology, including [list of canon texts in original sense of canon texts], but is not based on specific text!
A Lovecraftian horror story that mentions the Necronomicon but is otherwise completely original!
A story that is direct commentary or critique of tropes, plots and characterizations specific to a very small subgenre but with all made-up proper names!
A novel that is mostly an original work but in which the Doctor makes a cameo (because he can!)
A professionally published story using other authors' characters and settings that the pro author loudly insists is not fanfic!
(I will stop there before poll gets even longer, but for the record, none of these are hypothetical cases - they are all either things I personally have written, or things other people who identify as fanwriters have done that I could point you to.)
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It's tough that the fic archive got codded first, I get it. I also understand why (basically: easier and fewer resources needed). But you know? Many many fans are still waiting for their stuff, too (like, say, translation interface! International fans of non English speaking countries cannot use the archive unless they know English/are comfortable with English interfaces). That's a consequence of how the archive is getting coded. By volunteers. And yes, it kinda sucks. But we will get there, and getting pissy because some people get to play first is not going to fix anything.
Meanwhile, I'm seeing a whole lot of people policing what it means to be a fan and what activities are acceptable fannish activities.
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But my opinion is that the AO3 is about transformative work, and transformative work should be privileged above work that is not considered as such. It's not 'getting pissy because other people get to play first,' it's having opinions about the stated goals of the archive and how best to implement them. When you (general you) say 'art and vids are fine, but they're just going to have to wait because it's hard to deal with them,' what statement does that make about art and vids?
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The AO3 was not an advocacy branch; its goal is to host creative fanworks in a place that will not go down. I get it, original works is not on your definition of fandom and fannish creativeness (and probably not on the definition of whomever thought that line in the first place). Well, guess what? You (general you) don't get to define fandom and fannish creations for everyone else. This reads to me as strictly a case of media fandom/journal fandom thinking their way of doing fandom is The Way.
That they're harder to deal with. The work on the art part has already begun; they've begun taking opinions for design decisions. There's no coding needed for allowing original work; it doesn't take away those people working on it. It will not slow it down.
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But they've said that they don't plan on *ever* allowing original art and vids. And all of these arguments- about grey areas, about fannish influence, etc- can be addressed to art. And even *when* we have the art archive up, fanartists are going to be told that they don't get to put their original stuff up there, but writers can. So we're going to have to suck it up, yes, and I'm not sure why artists are expected to, but writers aren't. (I mean, I do understand. Art takes up more resources. But it's the same principle.)
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And I also feel like it's a question of respect, honestly, which is probably why I keep getting my back up.
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And I also feel like it's a question of respect, honestly, which is probably why I keep getting my back up.
*nod* Yeah, me too.
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To start with the most obvious case, it was a bit tricky to find example fic about fandom OCs that didn't have something that obviously identified what fandom they were in somewhere in the story. But finding art of fannish OCs like that is a dime a dozen. And then there are people who have standard OCs that they use across several fandoms and in original worlds...
I sort of feel like the gray areas would be different with vids, because I suppose if you had to you could make a rule that says vids must have less than X% of original-to-you footage (and at least X% transformativity, which you'd already have to have to keep AO3 from just turning into youtube - but then there are old AMVs that were basically four minutes of uncut footages with a song playing under them; that's part of fanvid tradition, are they allowed?) That would exclude fan-done animations and fan films, and probably machinima, but was AO3 planning to host those under the 'vid' umbrella anyway? I've never even thought about that question, huh.
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Yeah, but your inclusion of original work reads just as overriding and intrusive to me. I find the idea that something I've been working on before I ever became aware of "fandom" as a culture/community should be viewed as a "fannish creation" because I also did fanart and fancomics in my spare time as insulting as item #5 in this list.
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However, saying that no original work ever is a fanwork it's still asserting that the person saying it thinks their way to do fandom is the only way to do it. Because, surprise surprise, there are fandoms in which original works are posted and read alongside fanfic.
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What bothers me is the idea, which I encountered several times during this network of debates, that being in fandom informs all of one's creative work. The idea that "fanwork" isn't complete unless it includes "original" is something I don't personally understand (because I think of them purely by the distinction of "is this set up as a derivation of a nameable work by a nameable author" and thus exclude history-based etc. creations from the "fanwork" pool, never mind original stuff) but it's not something that bothers me much.
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And well, the inclusion would be for people for whom original works are part of their fannish experience, no doubt about it. (The problems start if you have people trying to game the system, but I doubt anything can be done about them, in any situation, much less something that won't mean excluding a whole lot of legitimate people.)