Reading

Entry tags:

Daily Happiness

1. Just one more day until my four day weekend!

2. We had a nice dinner at Disneyland tonight. Waited until later to go down there, so it wasn't hot anymore (though it was still pretty muggy) and the traffic wasn't bad.

3. I feel like I'm already making good progress with tasks for this new project at work and the IT team was very happy with my report today. Also it seems there's interpersonal trouble again at one of the stores and I'm super glad it's not my problem anymore.

4. Silly Jasper.

Entry tags:

Multifandom: Fandom Mixtape Exchange

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Entry tags:

The ABC Book of Problematic Kinks 2025 Zine

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

TV

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

OTW Signal, August 2025

Posted by Lute

https://www.transformativeworks.org/otw-signal-august-2025/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=267025

Every month in OTW Signal, we take a look at stories that connect to the OTW’s mission and projects, including issues related to legal matters, technology, academia, fannish history and preservation issues of fandom, fan culture, and transformative works.

In the News

An article from Roster Con analyzes how fans are reinventing community online, creating inclusive digital spaces that thrive, and fundamentally changing the way people with shared interests connect and interact with each other.

Instead of waiting in line at conventions or gathering in packed theaters, people are now forming tight-knit communities online—spaces where shared interests thrive without borders.
What’s striking isn’t just the tech that brings people together; it’s how fans are reshaping what it means to belong, connect, and celebrate something bigger than themselves.

Today’s pop culture fans are constructing elaborate digital networks that have no geographical boundaries and do not follow traditional media consumption patterns. For example, the article notes that the Stardew Valley network on Discord has grown from a small chat group into an expansive community where players share content and organize multiplayer events. This transformation from content-focused discussion to community-centered interaction is taking place across online fandom spaces. Platforms like Discord and Twitch support active fan communities and host virtual conventions, complete with panel discussions, cosplay, and live Q&As, allowing fans to experience the excitement of fandom gatherings while removing barriers like travel and cost.

What’s even more powerful is the reach. People who would never have made it to San Diego or Tokyo due to cost, distance, or accessibility now have a front-row seat. A fan in Nairobi, a student in Warsaw, and a parent in São Paulo can all be part of the same hype cycle, cheering and reacting together.

The article also addresses how creative platforms like Archive of Our Own (AO3), FanFiction.net, and DeviantArt are no longer simply repositories for fan-created content. Creators post works in progress to seek input and engage in collaborative projects that may span multiple authors and extended timelines. Similarly, social media has become a powerful tool for fan communities, with hashtag campaigns fueling organized fan movements and creative collaboration that spreads quickly and travels far. These activities provide a sense of community and support previously found in schools, clubs, and community groups, reshaping how fans engage with each other in the digital age.

For Gen Z fans in Australia, the sense of belonging that comes from participating in fandom is particularly valuable right now, according to an article by Lucinda O’Brien in Amplify. With the rising cost of living and a looming recession, one in four young Australians reports loneliness and isolation as daily stressors. Fandom offers a space for them to express themselves and to make friends with others who share their passions—an antidote to the ongoing loneliness.
Fandom expert Dr. Georgia Carroll explains that fandom provides a critical sense of community and belonging, especially in difficult times:

Joining a fandom often begins as a light-hearted endeavour for Gen Z to bond over shared interests, but these spaces can deepen into emotionally rich communities where personal stories and identities are shared. Fandoms become places where fans feel seen, validated and safe to express themselves.

For Australian fans of international fandoms, distance often makes it difficult to meet with other fans in person, leading them to seek connection through online communities. As digital natives, Gen Z are adept at connecting through online fandoms.
As conventional community spaces continue to decline and social isolation grows, these digital communities offer something more than just entertainment or distraction. For Australian Gen Z, online fandom offers new and invaluable opportunities for connection and belonging.

OTW Tips

The AO3 community is now nine million users strong! In 2024 alone, users shared over two million new fanworks, and the site received an incredible 34 billion page views. You can find these and other highlights in the OTW’s 2024 Annual Report.

Bonus tip: many of our statistics are also available as graphics that chart the OTW’s growth over the years.

To everyone who helps this space thrive—thank you for building community with us!

We want your suggestions for the next OTW Signal post! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or news story you think we should know about, send us a link. We are looking for content in all languages! Submitting a link doesn’t guarantee that it will be included in an OTW post, and inclusion of a link doesn’t mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.

https://www.transformativeworks.org/otw-signal-august-2025/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=267025

Entry tags:

beasties,
travel

home from the sea

Got in last night around quarter of ten, to a very affectionate cat. He's currently curled up on the heating-pad mat next to the laptop, where he's been for most of the last couple of hours. I think he may have missed me.

This is admittedly the most jetlag I've ever tried to recover from, but I am just not getting it. Been crashing out early and waking up after five or sometimes six hours' sleep. I made it home last night due to copious applications of caffeine and sugar, and still woke up at four AM. Hopefully being Actually Home will suffice to reset my system.

In Pattern Recognition, William Gibson talks about jetlag as a result of traveling faster than humans were meant to travel, so your soul needs time to catch back up to your body. As a description of the sensation it's about right.

Today: shower, unpack, get groceries (ordered, just need to pick up once ready), therapy, farmers market. Probably watch the last two episodes of season 3 of Slow Horses, since I watched S1 on the plane to Paris, S2 on the plane from Paris, and the first four of S3 on the plane from Mpls. Possibly rave about how great that show is. Ideally write up the next stage of the travelogue, but I'm not pushing it.

Meant to link these yesterday but forgot, so, have some Wendy Cope:

Onward.

Entry tags:

author: wendy cope

A Nursery Rhyme (Wordsworth)

A Nursery Rhyme
as it might have been written by William Wordsworth

by Wendy Cope

The skylark and the jay sang loud and long,
The sun was calm and bright, the air was sweet,
When all at once I heard above the throng
Of jocund birds a single plaintive bleat.

And, turning, saw, as one sees in a dream,
It was a Sheep had broke the moorland peace
With his sad cry, a creature who did seem
The blackest thing that ever wore a fleece.

I walked towards him on the stony track
And, pausing for a while between two crags,
I asked him, ‘Have you wool upon your back?’
Thus he bespake, ‘Enough to fill three bags.’

Most courteously, in measured tones, he told
Who would receive each bag and where they dwelt;
And oft, now years have passed and I am old,
I recollect with joy that inky pelt.

Entry tags:

Daily Happiness

1. I had a meeting at 6pm today, which I stayed at the office for but was then told everyone was just joining from their own desks (only four people in the meeting were there in the building, the others were in Japan) so I could have done it from home, which was annoying as my meeting before that had ended at around 3:30. But I did get a lot of work done on a project in the time between those two meetings, wheras if I'd gone home, I would have just said I was done with work for the day and did non work stuff until the meeting.

2. Gemma's soaking in the sun.

Entry tags:

all: betas

Beta Request for Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Hello! I made a Barriss Offee/Ahsoka Tano vid, from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and I would love a second pair of eyes.

I have a couple specific things I'd appreciate feedback on (pacing/flow, coloring, effects) but I'd be grateful for any constructive criticism, honestly--regardless of whether you're familiar with the canon. This is my first full-length vid.

Some further information:

Length is 3:52
It was edited using Premiere
Content-wise, this is an F/F shipping video with some cartoon violence and flashing.

If you're willing to beta, please feel free to leave a comment below or message me. Thank you! <3

Ships20in20 • Round 01

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: nauseated

Thunderbolts

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Entry tags:

scathach,
travel

france travelogue I: Paris

( intro; catacombs, louvre, sainte-chappelle, shakes & co )

Next time: Versailles, an awful lot of driving, Cap Blanc and Lascaux.

Entry tags:

FANDOM EMPIRE offers BINGO

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Music: Cynthia Erivo - I’m Not That Girl

Disney_20in20 • Round 13

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Entry tags:

Daily Happiness

1. I'm definitely starting to feel a lot more comfortable with this new project at work, though it's still a lot of unknown territory. It's been good having this team here from Japan for this month to help hammer things out, but I will also be glad when they're gone and there are less meetings (I've literally have two hour meetings every day with this one guy for the past two weeks; they are productive, but still).

2. It was much nicer weather today. Even when I came out to the car after being at work, I didn't have to blast the AC to get it bearable for the drive home.

3. Yesterday's episode of Game Changer was so good. This season has really been hitting it out of the park, but man. That was amazing. I can't wait to watch the behind the scenes episode next week. The episode also involved mentioning a lot of previous episodes, which made us want to do a rewatch, so I think we'll be doing that soon.

4. I love Chloe's little foot freckle.

Entry tags:

Multifandom: Five Figure Fanwork Exchange

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: tired

Entry tags:

books

Recent non-fiction reads

By which I mean "recently read by me", not "recently published."

1. The Lost Flock by Jane Cooper. One of my favorite genres of nonfiction is "expert on obscure topic rambles enthusiastically about their passion." Much of the time, the expert is a scientist, but not always. Jane Cooper for example, is just a super-enthusiastic knitter who became interested in wool sourced from rare British breeds of sheep, and fell into a research rabbit hole that led to her moving to Orkney to become a sheep farmer tending a flock of Boreray sheep -- a super rare breed that has survived mostly unchanged since the Stone Age. It's a fascinating story, and Cooper tells it well, conveying her love for the sheep and for Orkney itself. Definitely worth picking up, even if you're not a knitter.

2. Owls of the Eastern Ice: the Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl by Jonathan C. Slaght. Slaght, on the other hand, is a scientist, a wildlife biologist who spent five years tramping about in the wildest regions of north-eastern Russia tracking and studying the Blakiston's Fish Owl, which I'd never even heard about before I picked up this book, but which I now love even though I'll probably never see one. Slaght writes vividly not just about the birds, but also about the challenges of doing science in a hostile wilderness, and the motley crew of eccentric and frequently drunk Russians who helped him deal with those challenges. He apparently has a new book coming out in a few months, about Amur Tiger conservation, and I'm totally adding it to my TBR list.

3. The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots: A True Story of Slavery by John Swanson Jacobs. So, years ago I read Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl as background research for a fanfic. Then recently, I came across a Tumblr post informing me that Harriet's brother, mentioned a few times in Incidents, had also written a book, which was published in installments in an Australian newspaper and lost for a long time before being recently rediscovered and published in full. And as luck would have it, my library had a copy on Libby! Who says fandom can't be educational? Jacobs' book is short, more of a pamphlet really, but powerfully written. The editor fills out the volume with a foreword, a lengthy biographical section of Jacobs' life before and after the book, a collection of his letters, and tons of copious end notes. Unfortunately, the editorial sections, while informative and thoroughly researched, weren't nearly as well written as the book itself. There were a lot of places where I felt like the editor was trying hard for pathos -- something that Jacobs himself angrily rejected. Still, I appreciated getting a fuller picture of his life, from slavery to escape to his career as a firebrand anti-slavery lecturer, a gold miner and a sailor. Powerful stuff, and well worth seeking out.

(no subject)

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Entry tags:

TV Tuesday: Style and Substance

Laptop-TV combo with DVDs on top and smartphone on the desk

As the pressure to utilize AI across industries increases and creators go in on it, what do you think this could mean for television production and viewing?