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A Linguist Explains the Grammar of Shipping – The Toast

A Linguist Explains the Grammar of Shipping – The Toast

mugenmine:

Why this is useful for linguistics as a whole

So this is pretty cool, but how did ling-friend Cara DiGirolamo actually get a study of ship names published in a linguistics journal?

Well, ship names are part of a broader phenomenon of blends in English, from Lewis Carroll’s slithy (slimy and lithe) to why we have brunch and smog rather than leckfast and foke. But people don’t actually go around creating blends all that often — one delightful study of English blends looked at 63 of them, from the well-formedguesstimate, mansplaining, and sexpert to the baffling fozzle (fog+drizzle), brinkles (bed+wrinkles), and wonut(waffle+donut). But while 63 is quite a large corpus when it comes to real-life blends, it’s nothing when it comes to fandom: there’s more than that in ship names from the cast of Glee alone.

The fannish culture that ship names are embedded in helps too. DiGirolamo points out that another way blends get created is for advertising campaigns, where they may become popular through sheer paid-for exposure even if they aren’t that great linguistically (see phablet). The fandom process is decentralized and democratic: a ship name lives or dies on its own merits. And while ad execs and literary punsters have a lot of flexibility in terms of whether they choose to use a blend or not, show creators don’t name their characters based on which combinations will make shippable blends, so ship names are also a unique opportunity to see how people cope with words that are seriously difficult to combine.

And that, my friends, is why we need fan-guistics.

(THIS IS THE COOLEST ARTICLE… Read it all at the link… it all makes sense now… Props to the acafans…)

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me: *likes something*
me: *extensively researches and develops an emotional dependency for the thing in the short span of three days*

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The Places Fandom Dwells: A Cautionary Tale

fireintheimpala:

omglawd:

thetimesinbetween:

destinationtoast:

calystarose:

for-the-other-shoe:

fanculturesfancreativity:

mizstorge:

Just about seven years ago, on 29 May 2007, hundreds of fans with accounts at Livejournal made the shocking discovery that their blogs, and those of some of their friends and favorite fandom communities, had been deleted without prior notice.

It’s estimated that Livejournal suspended approximately 500 blog accounts. The only notice of this was was the strike through the names of the suspended blogs, which led to this event being called Strikethrough.

At the time, Livejournal was the primary blogging platform for fandom. Its friends list and threaded conversations enabled fans to find each other and have discussions. Its privacy settings allowed fans to share as much or as little as they chose. It was a place to publish and archive fan fic, art, and meta. These features give some idea why the deletions of so many fandom blogs was devastating.

Speculation and uncertainty were rampant during the two days it took for Livejournal to finally respond to demands from users for information. At first, LJ stated only that it had been advised that journals listing an illegal activity as an interest could be regarded as soliciting for that illegal activity, which put the site at legal risk. It was eventually revealed that Livejournal and its owners at the time, Six Apart, had been contacted by a group calling themselves Warriors for Innocence, a conservative Christian organization with ties to the militia movement who accused of being a haven for pedophiles and child pornography.

LJ had based the account suspensions on the tags used in LJ blogs. LJ users list their interests in their profiles, and those interests functions as tags. LJ took the blanket view that there was no difference between blogs listing “rape”.”incest”, or “pedophilia” among their interests, and blogs with posts tagged “rape”. “incest”, or “pedophilia”. As a consequence, some of the accounts that were suspended were support sites for people like rape survivors and gay teens, as well as the fandom sites that posted book discussions, RP, fan fiction, and fan art.

Livejournal grudgingly issued a partial apology to users on 31 May, but it took months for the organization to sort through the suspended blogs. According to Livejournal, most of the suspended accounts were restored. Not all of the suspended accounts were restored, and some of those that weren’t belonged to the support groups and fandoms.

One result of Strikethrough was that many communities and individual fans locked their blogs so the content could be viewed only community members, or those on their friends lists. Other fans opened accounts at blogging platforms like JournalFen, The Greatest Journal, or Insane Journal. There was definitely an atmosphere of mistrust and paranoia that hadn’t previously existed, and part of the problem was that Livejournal had not come through with promised clarification about what sort of content violated the ToS.

So, of course, it happened all over again.

On 3 August, Livejournal once again suspended a number of accounts without warning. This time, the account names were bolded, and the event became known as Boldthrough.

These deletions were the result of decisions made by a group consisting of members of LiveJournal’s Abuse Prevention Team, made up of LiveJournal employees, and Six Apart staff, that had been set up to review blog content. This group was had been empowered to declare blog content offensive, a violation of the ToS that was defined by the team as content not containing enough serious artistic value to offset the sexual nature of the material. The team was empowered to terminate accounts without warning.

Anxious and angry LJ users had to wail ten days until LJ issued a response. Eventually, the ToS was changed to state that accounts deemed in violation of the ToS would in future be deleted only if the offender refused to delete offending content.

Just a few days before Strikethrough, LJ user astolat proposed a new blogging platform and fan fic archive be created by fans, for fans. This was the birth of the Organization for Transformative Works, a non-profit organization dedicated to provide access to fanworks, and to protect and defend fanworks from commercial exploitation and legal challenge. Strikethrough and Boldthrough definitely pushed the project along. OTW opened DreamWidth in beta mode in April 2009, and began open beta testing of Archive of Our Own in November 2009.

In mid-January 2010, DreamWidth came under pressure by an undisclosed group who tried to convince DW’s server and PayPal, among others, that DW was a platform for child pornography. DW refused to give in to the harassment and intimidation, and promptly notifed users about the situation. The only consequence of the group’s pressure was that new requests for paid services were temporarily put on hold until DW was able to find a new payment processor service. DW remained true to its Guiding Principles by keeping users informed throughout this incident, and respecting freedom of expression by refusing to delete any posts or blogs to satisfy the demands of the group of trolls.

Which brings us to Tumblr.

Tumblr was launched in 2007. While not all fans have embraced it, citing reasons like character restrictions in replies and asks and the difficulty of finding others who share one’s fandom, it’s certain that the majority of fandoms are well-represented.

However, in July 2013, fans once again expressed outrage when Tumblr – without warning – removed without warning accounts flagged as “NSFW” or “Adult” from public searches, made those blogs inaccessible to Tumblr users not already following them, and deleted a number of tags from its mobile app, including #gay, #lesbian and #bisexual. In a manner unsettlingly reminiscent of Strikethrough and Boldthrough, Tumblr did not immediately respond, and the response posted 24 hours later was widely regarded as a non-apology apology. Tumblr claimed it had been trying to get rid of commercial porn blogss, and eventually asserted that all the removed accounts had been reinstated.

If there’s a lesson to be learned from this, it’s that of George Santayana: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Most blogging and social networking sites are in business to make a profit, and fandoms make them uncomfortable. They inevitably take steps to control the content being posted, to keep outside groups or their new owners happy, disrupting fandoms and deleting material that fans had considered to be safely stored.

The only solution I can see is for fans to copy and back up the things that are important. Maintain active accounts at several sites. Keep a list of your friends’ pseudonyms and emails.

Because the only thing that’s certain is that it’s going to happen again.

I highly recommed A brief history of fandom, for the teenagers on here who somehow think tumblr invented fandom: by ofhouseadama.

I intend to make proper footnotes at some point, but until then, here’s a list of sources used in writing this article:

http://astolat.livejournal.com/150556.html

http://astridv.livejournal.com/84769.html

http://boingboing.net/2007/05/31/lj-purge-drama-who-a.html

http://www.dailydot.com/culture/livejournal-decline-timeline/

http://www.dailydot.com/lifestyle/tumblr-nsfw-content-tags-search/

http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/tumblr-statement-banned-hashtags/

http://www.dailydot.com/society/pros-cons-tumblr-livejournal-fandom/

http://www.dailydot.com/society/tracking-livejournal-fandom-diaspora-infographic/

http://dw-news.dreamwidth.org/16590.html?view=top-only#comments

http://elke-tanzer.dreamwidth.org/951013.html

http://fanlore.org/wiki/Archive_Of_Our_Own

http://fandom-flies.livejournal.com/profile

http://fanlore.org/wiki/Boldthrough

http://fanlore.org/wiki/Dreamwidth

http://fanlore.org/wiki/LiveJournal

http://fanlore.org/wiki/Strikethrough

http://fanlore.org/wiki/Tumblr

http://fanthropology.livejournal.com/374988.html

http://hatteress.tumblr.com/post/55834911159/tumblrs-new-nsfw-restrictions-and-why-turning-off-safe

http://innocence-jihad.livejournal.com/159327.html

http://innocence-jihad.livejournal.com/31786.html

http://liz-marcs.livejournal.com/283323.html

http://liz-marcs.livejournal.com/283781.html

http://metafandom.livejournal.com/114942.html

http://www.metafilter.com/61636/livejournal-suspends-hundreds-of-accounts#1712054

http://missmediajunkie.blogspot.com/2013/05/why-i-dont-use-tumblr.html

http://news.cnet.com/Mass-deletion-sparks-LiveJournal-revolt/2100-1025_3-6187619.html

http://staff.tumblr.com/post/55906556378/all-weve-heard-from-a-bunch-of-you-who-are

http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=LJ_Strikethrough_2007#After_the_Strikethrough_-_On_to_Boldthrough

http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/the-death-of-the-blog-and-the-rise-of-tumblr-210071.html

http://transformativeworks.org/sites/default/files/OTW_Annual_Report_2007.pdf

http://www.dailydot.com/business/yahoo-tumblr-fandom-lessons/

https://zine.openrightsgroup.org/features/2012/fandom:-open-culture-vs.-closed-platforms

http://www.zdnet.com/after-backlash-yahoos-tumblr-quietly-restores-adult-nsfw-blogs-7000018342/

Thoughtful summary and great collection of links.

One addition/correction: Dreamwidth is not an OTW project, though both OTW and Dreamwidth were developed by fans partly because of frustrations with LiveJournal, including but not limited to Strikethrough.

A brief history of fandom, for the teenagers on here who somehow think tumblr invented fandom: by ofhouseadama.

Why this is important (READ IT ALL).

Thanks for putting this together!

Just in case: Does anybody know how to back up or save a whole tumblr blog? My tumblr has been my fandom home, of course, but it’s also taken the place of my journal for the past four or five years now. I do worry about losing it.

This reminds me, I need to start posting on DW and xposting to LJ, not vice versa.

This is both interesting and important!

I have mostly discovered fandom through tumblr, but one thing I STRONGLY DISTRUST about using tumblr is that, unlike hosting one’s own WordPress blog for instance, our tumblr archives aren’t our own. As far as I know, there’s no clean and easy way to backup/download your old posts, just some cobbled together scrapers that do them partial justice. 

I love conversations like these, because–especially given the rumblings we’re seeing of Yahoo’s commercial vision of Tumblr–I think a mass platform migration is something we should be preparing for. 

(Also, remember tumblr’s mass deletions last year based on dubious copyright infringement claims?) 

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atmeridiem:

There’s shows that you watch but dont fandom
There’s shows that you watch and avidly fandom
There’s fandoms that you follow but dont watch
There’s fandoms that you follow but dont show

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Fandom Firsts And Currents Ask

aI was tagged by @endellionaeternus

Fandom Firsts And Currents Ask

Fill out as much or as little as you want, and leave any you can’t remember/don’t know blank.

First Fandom: Doctor Who was my parents show. Star Trek was my first fandom that was all me.
First Fanfic Read: Something Firefly. Though I know my first Sherlock fanfic was “Performance in a Leading Role.”
First Slash OTP: Jack/Ten
First Femslash OTP: I still don’t really have one
First Het OTP: Malcolm/Inara
First OT3: Team Tardis (Jack/Nine/Rose)

Current Main Fandom: I’m gonna cheat and say Doctor Who/Torchwood/Sherlock
Other Fandoms: Superwood, Marvel, Firefly, Star Trek, Seaquest DSV, Babylon 5, Tolkien, Muppets John Barrowman
Last Fanfic Read: ReRead of 

Get What We Want by SailorChibi

Slash OTP:  Johnlock, Mystrade, Janto, Harkstiel
Femslash OTP: Still don’t have one
OT3: Sharkstiel, Johnlockstrade

How did you find fanfic/fandoms online? Google. Then I found Chances Archive before finding tumblr and AO3.

When did you first start reading fanfic? Not really until 2012 or so (better late then never?)

If you write fanfic, when did you start, in what fandom, and what pairing?  I wrote a couple G rated Star Trek things in High School, but that was pre-internet. The first fanfic I actually posted was Gen Jack Harkness and River Song Doctor Who fanfic.

Do you have a favorite fanfic?  I have a few I like to reread. The aforementioned Come Get What you Want, 

Brief Interlude Before The Storm by tiger_in_the_flightdeck,

John Joins In by Amuly, 

Torquay Arms by chasingriver, 

Time And Good Fortune by versaphile. Yes those are all porn, heed the tags. 

Do You Beta?: I do sometimes

Do You Have a Beta?:  The writing group betas for me mostly these days. beltainefaerie, hums-happily, phipiohsum475, type40consultingdetective primarily.

I’ll tag hums-happily, jazzforthecaptain beltainefaerie dvancecinco and willietheplaidjacket

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doctornerdington:

cathexys:

doctornerdington:

sincerely-chaos:

hubblegleeflower:

purpleshoeofsex:

theartofforensics:

monikakrasnorada:

doctornerdington:

doctornerdington:

So here’s a thing. Probably tmi, idek.

In my reading for last week’s conference I came across an article (can’t quite remember the citation right now) that described writing slash as a queer act in and of itself: women (usually) writing erotic fiction in order to get other women (usually) off.

And I realized that maybe that’s exactly what it is for me. I miss having romantic and sexual interactions with women. I love my husband, but christ, I miss loving women. When I write and post slash for a largely female audience, I’m having sexual interactions (of a sort) with women in a way that doesn’t count as cheating. Women are still a part of my sexual life, in a way.

Sorry, I hope this isn’t creepy. It feels like an important realization for me.

Reblogging to add:
1. This isn’t all that writing is for me, but I think it’s a pretty big impetus for my slash writing.
2. I always have had a fairly brain-focused sexual life, so this actually makes a lot of sense. Huh.

Thank you, doctornerdington!!! It’s not creepy at all, to me. This is something I’ve always felt so alone with and to see you express the same sort of thoughts is so comforting. I too love my husband dearly, but BUT I long for women. To be with a woman again. It’s something so deeply visceral it makes my heart ache when I let myself think about it. I hadn’t thought of my slash writing in this sense, but maybe subconsciously, that’s what I’m trying to do, or how it feels.

Bless you for having the courage to put this out there. <3

I’ve thought of this but didn’t know how to put it into words.  Yes and yes.

I often wonder why I am obsessed with the sex lives of two male fictional characters enough to write about their activities….I suppose on some level it is about the ‘female’ aspect of it…..my favorite part of all of this is the friendship aspect of it all. The encouragement other female artists are given and just the all around loveliness I have encountered. Also the fact that we can be silly dirty minded people and get to escape our sometimes painful realities and still can have meaningful conversations such as this. Thank you!

I read in some article – of course we never remember citations, do we doctornerdington – that gay erotica written by women has nothing at all to do with the sex lives of men. It has to do with considering what sex could look like between partners who have no inbuilt power differential, who have grown up expecting to be free and self-determining agents of their own pleasure, who think nothing of asking for what they want and expecting to be a complete and active partner in sexual congress. In other words, men. Even writing lesbian erotica does not fulfill these criteria. It is nothing at all to do with the particular body parts involved, and everything to with how partners treat each other when they automatically consider that the person they’re having sex with is as much a person as they are.

And that’s HOT.

This ^

Yes. I think there’s a lot to be said for this. A LOT.

OK, since I tend to be citation gal:

doctornerdington’s essay is more than likely

Lackner, Eden, Barbara Lucas, and Robin Anne Reid. (2006) ‘Cunning Linguists: The Bisexual Erotics of Words/Silence/Flesh’, K. Hellekson and K. Busse (eds) Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in
the Age of the Internet, 207–24. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

hubblegleeflower’s essay is probably

Lamb, P.F. and Veith D. (1986) ‘Romantic myth, transcendence, and Star Trek zines’, D. Palumbo (ed) Erotic Universe: Sexuality and Fantastic Literature, 236–55, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

And just for good measure, here’s an essay that expands upon the idea of slash as queer female space that was kinda floating around fannish meta spaces in the early to mid 2000s

Lothian, A., Busse, K. and Reid, R.A. (2007) ‘Yearning void and infinite potential: Online slash fandom as queer female space’, ELN 45(2): 103–111.

Send me an ask if you want a copy of any of them.

Also, here is an earlier instances post that addresses the imaginary and the real life queer spaces in slash fandom:

hesychasm’s post: http://hesychasm.livejournal.com/74060.html

cathexys for the win!!!! Thanks so much! Yes, that was it! And more goodies to check out, too.

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darkestelemental616:

I love fandom because we see something and think, “This world could be bigger and better and deeper, and then through a collective creativity we do it. It’s like Narnia: the further in you go, the bigger and more detailed and more real it becomes. And that’s just fucking amazing.

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Fan fiction, fan art, the way female fans celebrate what they love: this stuff isn’t a secret anymore – and it shouldn’t be a punch line anymore, either. It’s a big messy world full of amateur writing and unedited work, but it’s also got of some of the best fiction I’ve ever read, published or otherwise. You don’t have to participate in it to afford it even a modicum of respect. I’ll be the first to volunteer if you ever want to learn. But if you’re not interested in that, politely decline to answer. It’s easy to blame the celebrity, dragged into answering these questions. But really, the fault lies with the media. Please, please, please journalists: stop asking celebrities about fan fiction. Unless you’re having an in-depth conversation about fictional constructions of the actors’ personae (like the very one you’ll be presenting in your piece?), it serves no purpose. Non-fans likely don’t get it; fans think you look like a bully – because you are.

Elizabeth Minkel, in her article “Why it doesn’t matter what Benedict Cumberbatch thinks of Sherlock fan fiction”

OMG OMG this article, THIS FUCKING ARTICLE. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

(via holmesianpose)

Brilliantly put..

(via generalgemini-booknerd)

I just love the Orlando Jones bit. Bless him.

(via a-cumberbatch-of-cookies)

Read the full article, it’s wonderful

(via kaciart)