The discourse has been interesting to read and I feel much the same as you've outlined here. I've locked my LJ/DW journal for ages because I want to be out there, but not Out There - if that makes sense.
You have a point about AO3 being too mainstream. In some ways, fannish spaces have decentralized (twitter, tumblr, TikTok, etc). But they all seem to feed into the very public AO3, which can cause all those various community norms to clash when they run into each other.
Social media platforms have changed how we interact with.... well, everything. It's most notable in news and politics, but it spills over into other areas like our hobbies and fandom. To me, that feels like one of the key things that sparked what we are seeing now about "content makers" and how it's seen almost as gig work because everyone is supposed to monetize their hobbies these days and be an influencer, right? (/sarcasm)
tl;dr Anyway, centralizing the fannish archive via AO3 has created an interesting conundrum, hasn't it? I don't know the solution to it.
no subject
You have a point about AO3 being too mainstream. In some ways, fannish spaces have decentralized (twitter, tumblr, TikTok, etc). But they all seem to feed into the very public AO3, which can cause all those various community norms to clash when they run into each other.
Social media platforms have changed how we interact with.... well, everything. It's most notable in news and politics, but it spills over into other areas like our hobbies and fandom. To me, that feels like one of the key things that sparked what we are seeing now about "content makers" and how it's seen almost as gig work because everyone is supposed to monetize their hobbies these days and be an influencer, right? (/sarcasm)
tl;dr
Anyway, centralizing the fannish archive via AO3 has created an interesting conundrum, hasn't it? I don't know the solution to it.