So, the AO3 allowing original fic thing. To recap: the Archive of Our Own has put out a call for comments on whether or not to allow original fiction (under 'content policy'. I've been following the discussion with some interest- I've definitely gone from 'fairly opposed' to being not sure where I stand on it. I think if I were Queen of the OTW, I would just go with 'if you say it's fanfiction, then it is.' Period, no questions asked, no teams of roving admins trying to play gotcha.

However, there have been responses that say they have a hard time deciding what something is, and others that say no, they want to post things that they do not define as fanfiction, because they feel it's an important part of their fannish experience. ¹

I... don't really understand these arguments? But that's okay! I don't have to understand them to accept that people feel strongly about them, and that I may be overlooking things because I've been in certain circles of fandom that do things a certain way. So I'm certainly open to argument and convincing on this. I don't want to tell anyone that they're doing fandom wrong, or minimize their experiences, or anything like that.

But. Because I am a selfish creature, I keep coming back to what's relevant to me, specifically: art ². The OTW has said (At this time, we don't anticipate ever hosting non-fanwork art or video, regardless of what we decide about stories, because of the greater resource and policy demands.).

And here's the thing- every single argument that has been made about original fiction versus fanfiction can also be applied to original art and fanart. So I've been- honestly a little irritated, irrationally, at people making some of the above arguments, because *I'm* going to need to make this decision, so why can't you?

The obvious thing to say is 'well, move to open it to original art as well!' but I'm.. not actually sure that's a good idea? Art takes a *lot* of resources. And- I don't know how likely it is that the archive is likely to be overrun by original fiction, especially if, as has been suggested, they require people to have some fanfiction in order to upload original stuff.³ I don't know that an original writer is going to write a piece of fic in order to use an archive, but an artist? Pretty much every artist I know has done something that qualifies as fanart, even if most of their stuff is original. I'm pretty sure the AO3 doesn't want to become Deviantart, even if they have infinite money and servers, but if you open it up to original art I don't know how you'd prevent that from happening. So they're going to *have* to come up with some kind of definition of fanart, which is not going to be easier than a definition of fanfic.

Personally, I don't have a problem with having some things that fall into a gray area without allowing everything. A drawing of Batman? Fanart. A drawing of a gazelle you saw at the zoo? Not fanart. A drawing of that gazelle as Batman? Eh, up to you. And again, I'm not into policing that. If I say 'This picture looks an awful lot like a painting of a cat' and you say 'Ah, but it is in fact, John Sheppard, who has been turned into a cat!', I'll roll with it, even if your John Sheppard cat looks suspiciously like the photos of *your* cat that you posted on your journal. But there have to be artists out there that feel as strongly about wanting those grey areas defined/original art being important to their fannishness as the writers do. And it *bothers* me that they wouldn't get the same treatment, even though I understand the practical reasons. I don't know what the solution to that is- it seems petty to say 'well, if I can't do it, neither can you, so nyah!'

I guess what it comes down to is, if the archive allows original fic and not original art, etc, it becomes- to me, anyway- a fiction archive with some multimedia bonuses. Which, again, is an okay thing to be! I would rather have a fiction archive that allows me to upload my fanart than one where I can't participate at all (except reading and commenting, of course). But I'd sort of got the impression that's not what they wanted to be.

1. I debated about linking the actual posts here, because somehow it seems... accusatory? I don't mean it to be, though; I'm including them because I dislike posts that are part of a larger discussion that say 'I've heard people say blah blah blah' and then you find the post you think they were referring to and it doesn't say that at all. Also, because these are not really arguments I understand yet, I may be misinterpreting, and linking to the post itself allows people to form their own conclusions. [back]

2. I don't actually know what an original vid would look like, but I'm sure there's something! However, since art's what I'm familiar with, that's what I'm sticking to in this post. [back]

3. I am resistant to this idea, for some reason. I think I feel like if you're going to allow something, then just allow it. And that really does bring up more questions about enforcing the rules- is one drabble enough to allow for your 50,000 word NaNo Novel? What all your 'fanfiction' is in those grey areas that have been brought up so much? I think saying 'if you post an original work here, you must allow fanfic' is reasonable, though. [back]