Sophinisba Solis (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophinisba) wrote2011-04-12 11:12 pm
sophinisba) wrote2011-04-12 11:12 pm
Entry tags:
Profiles on the AO3
Every once in a while I'll say to one of my friends, "Gah, I wish people would fill out their user profiles on the AO3!" and my friend, despite being a regular user and fan of the AO3, will say something like, "Huh, I guess I should do that sometime" or "There are profiles on the AO3?" This is totally understandable. Nobody really talks about them and they are not very prominent. They aren't linked in the sidebar or from a person's Works page (the one I look at most often). The URL is http://archiveofourown.org/users/USERNAME/profile, and there is a link from a user's main page. I had some trouble with HTML when I set up my account there in 2009 and didn't actually go back and fix it until today, after I'd been complaining about it on Twitter. So, you know, I understand about it not being at the top of everyone's to-do list.
But I would really like it if more people would put a little information there, especially links! The three things I would love to see people put in their profiles are
-Where else they are on the web (like LJ/IJ/DW)
-How to contact them privately
-How they feel about uses of their work (specifically relevant to my current interests: PODFIC).
It's true that, even though most people don't fill out their profiles, I can usually find their LJ or Dreamwidth by googling - that's what I did today. Then again, some people use names like "Sarah" and "Becky" on the AO3, or just other random names that are not the name of their journal, so that doesn't always work. There are no PMs on the AO3 and if they don't tell me how to contact them the only thing I can do is leave a comment on their fic.
And listen, you guys, at this point I really enjoy making podfics and I'm not freaking out all the time about People on the Internet Hearing My Voice, but you know what's still hard? Asking authors for permission. You know what makes it harder? Asking strangers for permission when I don't know anything about them (other than that they wrote this awesome fic for Yuletide) because I can't see their journals. When I'm going to ask an author I don't know about making a podfic, I usually like to ask by email or private message (in case they feel awkward about saying no), but I can't do that if I don't have their information. The most disappointing thing for me is to get to the end of a great fic and see a bunch of comments with no replies from the author, and to know that the only way I have to contact them is to leave one more comment that they probably won't answer. I understand that people have lots of different reasons for not answering comments and that's not really what I'm talking about here. Maybe, also, some people do not want podfics made of their fics, or do not want to have their names searchable in the Audiofic archive or whatever. That's all fine!
But I'm saying, some kind of statement would be nice. It could be "I don't always have time to answer comments but I love to hear from readers" or "If you'd like to write a remix of my fic or make art or a podfic, please contact me to discuss it first" or "These are my stories and I prefer that you not make other fanworks of them." The kind of statement I would be happiest to see is one like whatkaizoku has on his LJ/DW profile: "You do not need to ask my permission to remix, podfic, translate, create art for or create secondary fanwork of any fanwork I have posted. You should include a link back to my work, and feel free to share the link to your work with me - I'd love to see it."
(And while I'm attempting to boss fandom around, I would also like it if more people put a statement about transformative works in their journal profiles, stickyposts, and/or masterlists, and if people who have journals on different services like LJ/DW/IJ would link those accounts on their profile pages. Links!)
But I would really like it if more people would put a little information there, especially links! The three things I would love to see people put in their profiles are
-Where else they are on the web (like LJ/IJ/DW)
-How to contact them privately
-How they feel about uses of their work (specifically relevant to my current interests: PODFIC).
It's true that, even though most people don't fill out their profiles, I can usually find their LJ or Dreamwidth by googling - that's what I did today. Then again, some people use names like "Sarah" and "Becky" on the AO3, or just other random names that are not the name of their journal, so that doesn't always work. There are no PMs on the AO3 and if they don't tell me how to contact them the only thing I can do is leave a comment on their fic.
And listen, you guys, at this point I really enjoy making podfics and I'm not freaking out all the time about People on the Internet Hearing My Voice, but you know what's still hard? Asking authors for permission. You know what makes it harder? Asking strangers for permission when I don't know anything about them (other than that they wrote this awesome fic for Yuletide) because I can't see their journals. When I'm going to ask an author I don't know about making a podfic, I usually like to ask by email or private message (in case they feel awkward about saying no), but I can't do that if I don't have their information. The most disappointing thing for me is to get to the end of a great fic and see a bunch of comments with no replies from the author, and to know that the only way I have to contact them is to leave one more comment that they probably won't answer. I understand that people have lots of different reasons for not answering comments and that's not really what I'm talking about here. Maybe, also, some people do not want podfics made of their fics, or do not want to have their names searchable in the Audiofic archive or whatever. That's all fine!
But I'm saying, some kind of statement would be nice. It could be "I don't always have time to answer comments but I love to hear from readers" or "If you'd like to write a remix of my fic or make art or a podfic, please contact me to discuss it first" or "These are my stories and I prefer that you not make other fanworks of them." The kind of statement I would be happiest to see is one like what
kaizoku has on his LJ/DW profile: "You do not need to ask my permission to remix, podfic, translate, create art for or create secondary fanwork of any fanwork I have posted. You should include a link back to my work, and feel free to share the link to your work with me - I'd love to see it."(And while I'm attempting to boss fandom around, I would also like it if more people put a statement about transformative works in their journal profiles, stickyposts, and/or masterlists, and if people who have journals on different services like LJ/DW/IJ would link those accounts on their profile pages. Links!)
no subject
Very awesome & thoughtful.