I feel like the OTW is prime example of the THE TYRANNY of STRUCTURELESSNESS
@Forestofglory yes although i was ranting to @Satsuma that i feel like this is symptomatic of structurelessness in fandom organizing in general
i think we need to fix fannish organizing before we can fix OTW
@Forestofglory @Satsuma excited for #EndOTWRacism primarily because they seem to be a step in the right direction in that respect
if we can get sustained organized movements of fans that do what we want, we can rely on OTW less and less
@Lady @Forestofglory i think fandom and the OTW are different kinds (?) of disorganized tho i do agree that fandoms disorganization has facilitated the OTWs somewhat
@Satsuma @Forestofglory do you think monopoly leads to internal destructuralization? it definitely has disrupted other kinds of fan organizing but i'm not sure you can blame Ao3’s own disorganization on that
like i see the problem with Ao3 is that it basically scaled up the informal networks which were being used to run things like Yuletide to a level where it stopped being effective
@Lady @Forestofglory primarily i think it being a monopoly is one of the causes of fandom-at-larges destructuralization and not of its own internal lack of organization
However you could argue that it’s internal disorganization is what lead to the org falling short of some of its initial goals—like creating and easily self-hostable archive software—which did eventually contribute to its monopoly status
@Satsuma @Forestofglory oh see i think fandom-at-large has ALWAYS been the kind of structureless freeman is critiquing in her article
AT BEST it grew out of exactly those same feminist consciousness-raising groups and book clubs freeman is saying aren't enough, and at worst it was a boys club where status was defined primarily by proximity to celebrity
@Forestofglory @Lady I have definitely started thinking of Ao3 as essentially exerting monopolistic forces on fandom, not necessarily intentionally but effect matters more than intent