New Year? I bloody well hope so

[erastes]

Things to be thankful for today - That I'm out of Potterdom.

I made some great friends in Potter fandom, I have a lot to thank fandom for, it started me writing, convinced me I could write, that I could write things that people would like to read and created little playgrounds and nursery slopes for me to run around in and have people say nice things while I made mud pies with words and experiemented. The friends I made have stayed with me, in the main, and that's wonderful too.

But I never enjoyed the wankery and general asshattery and - let's be honest - the bloody mean spirited shadenfraude LOVE that swum in the undercurrents beneath it. Make one mistake and you were mincemeat. This led to everyone always having to praise fics instead of doing constructive criticism - which is vital to any writer's development. To criticise a fic was TEH EVOL and you would be pilloried for it.

99 percent of the fandom moves along without problems and then there's something like the harry_holidays debacle today and everyone in fandom gets to have a good laugh at other people's expense under the guise of "it's in the public interest."

Being a moderator of a community that does gift exchanges is a hard task. I won't say thankless, because everyone thanks the moderator afterwards, but it is hard work and I take my hat off to devotees like gmth who slaves over merry_smutmas every year. I created and modded harry_holidays for one year as a Smutmas overspill and it nearly killed me with all the hair pulling out. I was prepared to do it again in 2006, even though I had left fandom, because people had a need for it, and I was more than thrilled when annephoenix offered to take it over.

She did a stunning job. She created a whole new look - far better than anything I'd managed to do, and worked harder than I ever did in my stewardship, making lists of popular pairings and other such trivia. *applauds*

Everyone makes mistakes, I've made more than I can admit to, and I am so bloody lucky that I never ended up a regular figure of fun over at the Wankery-Pits - setting uphp_literotica was tantamount to putting myself inside a pinata, but luckily, other than a few bitchy grumbles from non-inviteds, the community saved itself from wank, it didn't need me in front of it with a burning sword.

One small balls up does not make you a bad mod, and lets be honest, it's not a mistake she - or any mod - will make again. I certainly didn't read the fics as they were sent to me on HH, I probably should have done. As it turns out, I've just had a comment from one of 2005's participants who accuses me of making almost exactly the same mistake as annephoenix has just done, evidently I got muddled and gave them a gift that squicked them, and even thought it happened a year ago, I've only just found out and I do feel really bad about it. But it does go to show that mistakes are made, and they aren't deliberate. You wouldn't be a mod of a massive gift exchange if you wanted to hurt people's feelings, would you?

I've had gifts I didn't like, but in 99.99 of the cases I am sure that all writers and artists do what the giftee want and if the giftee doesn't like the result, then it's not too difficult to smile and say thanks, just like you did to Granny when she bought you socks. Again.

I hope that the giftee in this instance gets the fic they wanted, and I hope that the thoughtless authors think twice before "being clever" again.

and I hope that Potterdom gets less wanky. But one can't have everything one wants in life.

Comments

[aigooism.livejournal.com]

That's one thing I never understood... Fandom Wank. To me, that is just such a useless thing... a comm where people can bash each other? So much for peace towards men!

And about the person who commented that you almost made the same mistake Anne did...the hell? Why would they wait and tell you this now instead of last year? Just because a similar circumstances happened, they think okay let's open our mouth and accuse more people thing? Good grief.

With all the wankery...I think that's one reason why I don't dwell so deep into a fandom. I realised that I'm the type to hang out by the edge, and with all these nastiness going on...it keeps me somewhat safe. XD

But yah...it does suck that these wankdom lives one. x_x;;

[reddwarfer.livejournal.com]

Wankery exists in multiple fandoms. Or perhaps it's just the same people acting in the same fashion.

It'd be great if a mod could read everything before posting, but sadly there's too much to do in too little time.

You shouldn't have to, anyhow.

People are wankers as I've stated before.

[fleshdress.livejournal.com]

I think the reason Annephoenix is getting a bit of a bashing is that she apparently commented on the fic, to say she liked it. I quite understand mods not being able to read through every submission and God knows I can only cower at the very thought of how much hard work goes into it, but it's the basic stamp of approval that her comment gave that's bringing her into the firing line.

Of course, not having seen the comment myself, I can only assume that that's the reason behind it. :/

[melusinahp.livejournal.com]

Anne commented on every single fic. Because she was the mod, she made positive comments.

She put an amazing amount of work and energy into the fest, with the best intentions, and this is how she is repaid. I can't tell you how angry I am right now.

I am going to post about this later in my LJ.

[fleshdress.livejournal.com]

Yes, I understand that is good practice for a mod to comment on every fic, and I'm not denying that running a fic exchange takes a lot of work.

My point is that by commenting positively, she lets people think that not only had she read the piece, she approved of what the authors had done.

[nassima.livejournal.com]

From what I saw, Annephoenix wrote a nice comment under every fic and art that was posted. It looks like she also emailed a nice reply to everyone who sent something. She probably didn't read everything she commented on with the same attention, nor had the time to get to know every couple of recipient and writer. Honestly, I feel like that she took the time to write something nice to everyone makes her a good mod.

[fleshdress.livejournal.com]

I've just replied to Melusina with pretty much the same thing.

It's good that she commented on every piece, that's good mod-practice. But by reading it and commenting positively, it gives a modly seal of approval to what the authors had done with the request.

[annephoenix.livejournal.com]

just like you did to Granny when she bought you socks. Again.

... :D
My sister would be such a fandom wanker. She got some ugly top from our grandmother last year and wailed: "That's not what I wanted!"

It's hard to not let this sort of thing get to me. I can see all the lovely messages of support. And I think the fest was a great success! That makes it all the more bitter to have to end in on this note. Also, very interesting to see who says what on FW. Most have no clue what they're talking about anyway ... but when Isaw my "friends" are joining the "let's attack the mods" crew, that's when I got really upset. Who needs enemies ... ?

Fact is, I commented positively on every single fic posted in that fest, because I thought that would be the nice thing to do. Obviously this is now a crime!

[melusinahp.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you posted this! I'm just tearing my hair out, knowing how much work Anne put into the fest. Damn. People can be so damn ignorant and nasty.

[rwday.livejournal.com]

I don't think there was any malice at all on the mod's part. She clearly took her role very seriously and worked hard to make the fest a success, which it was for everybody else who participated, apparently. She should get tons of credit for that. However, she did comment positively on the fic in question which indicates to me she read both it and the really nasty author's note at the beginning. I think that note should have been a red flag that there was something wrong about that fic -

"In an effort to help her overcome her profound confusion and extensive squickaphobia, we have written her a simple Christmas tale which includes all of her squicks" -

is not, to me, the way a true gift is introduced, and at the very least, would have triggered me to follow up and see if maybe there was a private in-joke going on between gifters and giftee or some other explanation beyond just plain rudeness.

[midnitemaraud-r.livejournal.com]

That's how I feel about it as well. The blame clearly lies with the authors, and the "I'm taking my toys and going home" response of the recipient was a bit extreme as well. Still, I can understand anyone in that position being upset, regardless of having other personal issues. However, despite hindsight being 20/20, as a now-fellow fest mod, that author's note was inexcusably in poor taste and would have definitely set me investigating.

A lot of the wanky comments have been ridiculous on all sides - it's the nature of fandom to make mountains out of ant hills and mole hills alike. Still, from a mod perspective... you don't have to read all of the fics submitted, but I think it's good practice to at least skim them to make sure they're not completely out of whack with the request. This isn't an issue of "some authors/artists are better than others 'quality control'", and it's nothing personal at all against Anne either. I'd say the same if the mod in question was my best friend, my sister, or even myself.

A mistake happened, you apologize and you move on and try to ignore the asshats - words I hope to remember come March. :)

[eledhwenlin]

See, that's what I adore so much about due South. Almost no wank! Like once a year there's a small kerfuffle! *sigh*

I feel bad for both annephoenix and the giftee.

[zoepaleologa.livejournal.com]

The mod bashing is ugly and unnecessary and cruel. A ficfest mod is there to shuffle the prompts, assign them, and then post the stuff; not to sit there and act as censor.

And in fact, even though the recipient loathed the fic, it's not criminal or even unacceptable for other people to say they found it funny or amusing (er, I found it rather funny and amusing) - and that includes the mod, who is entitled to like whatever she likes. Naturally, I can't comment on the rightness or otherwise about the fic itself, except that I believe it was meant to be a harmless joke that backfired. Stuff like this happens, and it doesn't mean either side is bad. I do not believe there was any ill-intention. And sure, I feel sorry for the recipient as well. Bad stuff all round, really.

But, jeez, the amount of shrieking going on. I'm so very glad no one got murdered...

Potterdom getting less wanky? With book seven out this year?

Dream on. I'm booking holiday as soon as I know the release date, and bookmarking fandom_wank, while consuming loads of booze and popcorn. I aim to post an angry Burn-in-hell!Rowling when Snape dies. Or maybe not, posts like that are gonna be commoner than cat poo.

[sionnain.livejournal.com]

Reading that mess this morning made me damn glad I'd left HP fandom, too. Things like this just don't happen in my new one; people seem to actually be in the fandom because they like the canon. And then, you know. Share that. ::rolls eyes::

The poor moderator. I'm sure that she did everything she could to make it run smoothly, and of course, people are going to jump down her throat instead of thinking about how much TIME it takes to do anything volunteer related for fandom. I guess it takes less time to wank so that's what they do. Ugh.

[melusinahp.livejournal.com]

That's exactly it. People weren't thinking, they were just being jerks and jumping on the bandwagon.

It's kind of good to know that not all fandoms are like this, but it also makes me feel sad. My Flist is nice, at least.

[dementedsiren.livejournal.com]

You know, I wander away for a minute...

But being serious - fest fics, particularly gift exchanges, are hard, both for the writer and the mod. Through via requests/squicks lists the mod tries to match you up as best as possible and I can only imagine what a task that is. Regardless, sometimes the writer still gets something out of their typical "comfort zone", and it can be a fight to finish. It's happened to me, I know it's happened to other people, and it will probably happen again. That said, that's also exactly why you sign up in the first place - I know I've written fest fics I wasn't terribly proud of, either because they were written in a crunch or because I really wasn't that comfortable with what I chose to write. Then again, one of the fics I really enjoy most I wrote for a fest - it was completely out of my experience and I would never have written it were it not part of the request.

I suppose this long comment is to say that it's unfortunate that this happened, particularly since humor is one of those things that not all people share, and perhaps when you don't know who you're writing for a bit of tact is in order. That said, the ballooning level of drama over this is, IMO, really not necessary.

Anyway - happy new year!

[liebesdammerung.livejournal.com]

ARGH, HP fandom. I wanted to leave and just write things for my elite group of friends, but NOOOOOOOOOO I just HAD to stumble across shiny things like ficalbum and 30_deathfics. And I just HAD to sign up. :D Those two comms are pretty shiny though. At least I decided never to participate in an exchange again.

Happy New Year love! ♥