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Post by anonnnny on Oct 5, 2012 20:08:25 GMT
The TOS Faq says that, aside from following the other rules (such that as all works on the archive must be non-commercial), original fiction must be produced in a fandom context, but this to me seems somewhat vague. Stuff like "original slash" is arguably also a commercial genre at this point, as well.
How does AO3 determine whether an original work has enough fandom context? Especially since there are so many different types of fandoms.
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Post by anon on Oct 5, 2012 20:13:19 GMT
It doesn't mean anything, I haven't heard of any stuff being taken down. It's just there to discourage people from posting original work because they don't want it.
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Post by origanon on Oct 5, 2012 21:54:04 GMT
The AO3 doesn't determine the fandom context, they assume that if you posted an original to a fandom archive, it has fandom context, which...
I actually support the AO3 allowing original stories, but I'd prefer it if it had a separate category along the lines of fanart/vids/meta (not that that has been implemented yet ...). I write both (and meta), and mostly I also post both to the same archives, so I don't see the problem, as long as they aren't mixed up in each other. Also, original fics need different genres to sort through them, otherwise finding what you want to read is very difficult.
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smurf
New Member
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Post by smurf on Oct 5, 2012 23:52:38 GMT
I'd say it basically means "original fiction produced by people who are in fandom and/or people who want to use fannish modes of publishing".
Fannish modes of publishing is a mightily nebulous idea, of course. One obvious characteristic of it might be that in many spaces (the AO3 being one), fannish authors are expected to take their audience into account in ways that just aren't required in spaces that publish "original" fiction. For instance, including headers and warnings is something that's foreign to most "original" publications (although plenty of fannish spaces don't use them either).
But if a writer wants to publish in a fannish archive with particular fannish rules, then they need to be happy to play by those rules. I imagine that if someone with an original story to publish walks up to AO3 support and whines about how they don't want to use no stinkin' warnings, not even the "chose not to use Archive warnings", because the very concept of having to consider warnings and tell readers in advance what the story is about offends their Rights as an Author, AO3 support will go "lol nope, play by our fannish rules or find a different sandbox". In a very polite way.
Doujinshi in Japan are always my favorite example of how "original" stuff can be published in fannish spaces. There's lots and lots of "original" doujinshi, but they're often made by people who also make fannish works, they're not rarely sold at the same conventions, and they often use familiar fannish tropes and formats.
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Post by samjohnsson on Oct 7, 2012 12:03:41 GMT
If I remember correctly, from answers on tickets, the metric that Content Policy and Abuse use is "If the creator considers it to be fannish, then it stays". Case in point: there are a number of "Shousetsu Bang Bang"-style fics (or similar vein) copyhosted to or from the Archive. It comes down to there are large segments of fandom where "original fic with similar tropes to the source material" is fannish. (Historically, I could argue that that statement applies to, oh say, Shakespeare, but it's too early. ^^ )
The bigger concern is commercialization. The minute you mention direct monetary compensation for a work or piece of work, you will be getting a nice email from Abuse (well, at least once a user reports it), because reasons of a legal flavor. (I am uncertain as to the status of Help Haiti/Help Japan-style challenges - to my knowledge, no one's tried hosting one on the Archive.)
Yeah. Vague, isn't it?
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