subverting the text

The OTW is currently holding a week-long membership drive. Today I opened my reading list and read the post focusing on Open Doors. This post summarizes many of the reasons I support OTW — history. I can read short stories written by a man 100 years ago just by going to my library, but I can't find the first Final Fantasy VIII story I read. Obviously there's a difference between them; but to me I feel the loss of all stories, not just stories deemed fit for publication in books and magazines. I like history, all history, but fannish history especially, whether it's my fandom, or another fandom where I have no horse in the race.

I became interested in OTW when they first announced they were building an archive. I didn't follow closely during their formation period, but tuned back in during 2008. I joined up and gave them some cash in 2009 (a very small amount of cash, but it felt good!). Then I sent a very whiny form in fall of last year, complaining about the lack of hierarchical structure of the Final Fantasy fandoms. Little did I know that my complaints would lead me into a group where metatags have become the holy grail of the wranglers! WE WILL DRINK FROM THE CUP OF METATAG AND BE HEALED. dizmo always has better metaphors about metatags and the Wrangulator, however, this is one of the reasons she is the other wrangler co-lead and also awesome. *g*

(Seriously, I am ridiculously excited about these tags.)

In 2007, justira and I embarked on building an Final Fantasy archive. We stopped when OTW came onto the scene because the people behind it were powerhouses and had like, PHDs in Awesome. I in particular wanted to see if they could live up to the promise of an inclusive archive that was robust and took into account the nature of different types of fandoms. I didn't want a repeat of FFnet, however integral that site was to my development as a fan. I wanted layers! I wanted to tag my work with more than two characters. I wanted to be able to write porn and use punctuation and not worry who was earning money when their ads appeared on my work or freak out that my stories would be deleted. I wanted peace of mind. It was a tall order, but OTW has accomplished that with AO3 for my purposes so far. AO3 can be good for my fandoms in that it gives a place to grow and create an organized niche. We share the archive with other fandoms, but we can create our own home, move our own language, create our own tags in one centralized place if that's important for us (and it is for me), and they will respect that. The ability to grow and change is built in — and we can take advantage of it. AO3 is descriptive, not prescriptive. We make it what we want it to be, because it's ours.

I think the work they're doing is important. I think it's worth enough to dedicate my time and money to, a group that believes in fans as creative individuals doing free, innovate work for reasons that have nothing to do with profiting, unless by profiting we mean acquiring new friends and laughter and fun. I have a lot of fun with the work I am doing, and the benefits are rad. My resume is going to look awesome. It's like my mentor told me, cue paraphrase: "if you're not learning real world skills, I'm doing it wrong."

I've been a member of OTW for a year, and in that year I have been on the outside, moved to the inside, watched it grow and change and actual feedback from actual fans alter policy. I have become a leader and made changes that will impact the organization in the future. Me, a random plebe, no-name fan in gaming fandoms. I did all this in five months. Anyone can do it by volunteering (especially for wrangling, hint hint). OTW is not being disingenuous when they say by fans, for fans. They don't mean big media fans, or just the fans who write about TV shows. They mean fans, period. It is about all of us, and the support we offer lets them continue making it about us. I am down with that.

OTW FTW! *goes to give them multiple dollars*

Here are some other posts from the wranglers! <3:

OTW by kathgrr
March the Eleventh! by akamine_chan

I get to go see Wicked again this summer!