I don’t think they want to, actually. The way I understand it, they just want to do something that will be of benefit to the whole of fandom. They are not speaking for anyone but themselves. That’s why their definition of what will be beneficial to the common fan is a different one than that of the common fan. Most of us probably don’t worry in the slightest about the legality of what they’re doing (I know I didn’t for a very long time). They just want to have fun. And for these fans, most of what the OTW is doing is of no consequence. Except for the archive and the legal assistance, should they be interested.
One of the reasons given for creating the wiki was to provide context for outside people poking into fandom. From what we've seen of mainstream coverage of fandom so far, we know a majority of journalists find one big archive and stop looking; knowing that, and knowing OTW intends to set itself up as an easy resource it's safe to assume plenty of journalists will stop there.
That's more of a problem for me than journalists judging based solely on, say, fanfiction.net, for two reasons:
- ff.n isn't purposefully setting itself up to be representative; if they ignore or misrepresent chunks of fandom it's because that's what they want for their archive and no other reason (I don't have a problem with ff.n actively excluding RPF; I did have a problem with OTW accidentally excluding RPF through the language it used)
- I don't really believe anyone can advocate for something they don't understand - and that's not factoring in people who are fed up with OTW from earlier arguments and don't see a reason to HELP them understand (I should say, I'm one of those people - I don't feel like they're listening so I've stopped trying to make them listen). So when OTW advocates for the legitimacy of fandom, what they'll end up actually legitimizing is the fandom they represent - and what does that do to public perception of those groups OTW can't or won't speak for?
no subject
I don’t think they want to, actually. The way I understand it, they just want to do something that will be of benefit to the whole of fandom. They are not speaking for anyone but themselves. That’s why their definition of what will be beneficial to the common fan is a different one than that of the common fan. Most of us probably don’t worry in the slightest about the legality of what they’re doing (I know I didn’t for a very long time). They just want to have fun. And for these fans, most of what the OTW is doing is of no consequence. Except for the archive and the legal assistance, should they be interested.
One of the reasons given for creating the wiki was to provide context for outside people poking into fandom. From what we've seen of mainstream coverage of fandom so far, we know a majority of journalists find one big archive and stop looking; knowing that, and knowing OTW intends to set itself up as an easy resource it's safe to assume plenty of journalists will stop there.
That's more of a problem for me than journalists judging based solely on, say, fanfiction.net, for two reasons:
- ff.n isn't purposefully setting itself up to be representative; if they ignore or misrepresent chunks of fandom it's because that's what they want for their archive and no other reason (I don't have a problem with ff.n actively excluding RPF; I did have a problem with OTW accidentally excluding RPF through the language it used)
- I don't really believe anyone can advocate for something they don't understand - and that's not factoring in people who are fed up with OTW from earlier arguments and don't see a reason to HELP them understand (I should say, I'm one of those people - I don't feel like they're listening so I've stopped trying to make them listen). So when OTW advocates for the legitimacy of fandom, what they'll end up actually legitimizing is the fandom they represent - and what does that do to public perception of those groups OTW can't or won't speak for?