I think it's useful to note that fanfiction.net was opened in late 1998. AO3 only opened for Open Beta (it's still in Open Beta, actually) in 2009, over ten years later. In internet time, ten years is like a century. It is a extremely young for an archive, still invitation only and still, well, growing up. For example, it only just added user subscriptions because we had to wait for better servers, ha ha. PROGRESS!
Also, the fandoms you cited are gaming related. In my experience in Final Fantasy fandom and with anime/manga/gaming outreach, those communities tend to be spread around lots of different sites and platforms, which makes reaching out to invite them in harder. And then it comes down to the whole waste of time issue -- if no one is reading there, why upload? It's an awful Catch 22, I spent a lot of 2010 throwing myself on that particular grenade. I think of AO3 as not a "home" for fanwork, but an archive that will keep my fanwork safe. :) I consider my DW journal my fanfic home and probably always will, but it's a complicated message to get out.
I also suspect a culture issue. I can mention fanfiction.net to nonfanfic reading friends and they know what I'm talking about, but have no clue about AO3. Fanfiction.net was an entry point for a lot of fans, and AO3 lacks that and maybe always will. If we're inside the gate of fannish knowledge and people establish elsewhere, it becomes an issue. I don't necessarily think it's only about people uploading, but that unlike fanfiction.net it hasn't yet established itself as a place to read? You have to have a balance between both reading and writing for an archive to reach critical mass. I think the next five years are going to be really interesting to watch as AO3 establishes itself and begins to enter into popular fannish culture (it will take longer for it to reach FFN in terms of recognition outside fandom). I think the hit counts / review counts will change, especially with the introduction of Kudos, which are a neat way to interact with fanwork and something few other archives have. I think it's a wait and see game. POPCORN.GIF, basically.
Ugh, I am sorry about being a creepershark and vomiting words at you, but commentary like this fascinates me from a fannish sociological standpoint. ;lzkd;lkds JUST IGNORE ME IF YOU WANT.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 03:17 am (UTC)From:Also, the fandoms you cited are gaming related. In my experience in Final Fantasy fandom and with anime/manga/gaming outreach, those communities tend to be spread around lots of different sites and platforms, which makes reaching out to invite them in harder. And then it comes down to the whole waste of time issue -- if no one is reading there, why upload? It's an awful Catch 22, I spent a lot of 2010 throwing myself on that particular grenade. I think of AO3 as not a "home" for fanwork, but an archive that will keep my fanwork safe. :) I consider my DW journal my fanfic home and probably always will, but it's a complicated message to get out.
I also suspect a culture issue. I can mention fanfiction.net to nonfanfic reading friends and they know what I'm talking about, but have no clue about AO3. Fanfiction.net was an entry point for a lot of fans, and AO3 lacks that and maybe always will. If we're inside the gate of fannish knowledge and people establish elsewhere, it becomes an issue. I don't necessarily think it's only about people uploading, but that unlike fanfiction.net it hasn't yet established itself as a place to read? You have to have a balance between both reading and writing for an archive to reach critical mass. I think the next five years are going to be really interesting to watch as AO3 establishes itself and begins to enter into popular fannish culture (it will take longer for it to reach FFN in terms of recognition outside fandom). I think the hit counts / review counts will change, especially with the introduction of Kudos, which are a neat way to interact with fanwork and something few other archives have. I think it's a wait and see game. POPCORN.GIF, basically.
Ugh, I am sorry about being a creepershark and vomiting words at you, but commentary like this fascinates me from a fannish sociological standpoint. ;lzkd;lkds JUST IGNORE ME IF YOU WANT.