so why bother?
someone asked, "why bother?"
well, that's a question i've been trying to answer, and make peace with, for over a year now.
i'm Old. i don't like fandom being so centralised in a time where artists are being run off sites for posting a mere shadow of gaspard's elbow looking too femme, let alone some cock. i miss the prevalance of amateur fansites, where you'd stumble across someone's digital shrine dedicated to whatever they loved. start a justice webring with me, anyone?
i want all fans to participate in the fandom and enjoy fanart without paying for vpns and whatever loopholes are necessary. ao3 isn't universal, there's people in this fandom i speak to who i used to personally send copies of my fics to. yeah, sure, it's only two people. but why bother? because they care. i care about them, too.
crossposting is a good habit to get into, regardless of whatever political strife the world is under. i meant it when i said, we should decentralise fandom a bit. go have a look at what the amazing folks behind ad astra (the startrek archive), comic fanfiction author's archive, and superlove are all doing. i've spoken to devs on some of these sites, and here's a great post by one of them, who kindly invited me onto cffa, on this very topic.
most of all: i hate people who steal from those who pour their heart and soul into art, and i hate websites that host said abominations, when there are fanfic archives who outright reject it and put up a fight on our behalf to protect our work beyond measly lock features that don't actually work.
maybe it's true, i'm not talented enough to contribute to this fandom meaningfully. but at least i try my best with my own hands. yeah. i'm melting an expensive laptop from self-hosting niche french man rpf porn for three views, compared to "just post on [insert socmed here]?".
why bother running a microblog where i talk about the recent fics i've loved reading in this tag, knowing so few people care to read it, when the authors on ao3 don't see it? because it's my hobby. i'm passionate about justice. i curate my site like a well-loved garden, or an old library. i can't keep up with fandom through social media, it's a bit much for me. this is how i find a meaningful way to occupy my thoughts on my lonesome!
folks trawling the web have found my site and said, "godspeed to that one person here writing french man rpf". this makes me laugh. because i wanted to create a place for fans to discover, for this niche fandom to exist outside of usual haunts, so other people can discover it. i wanted to create a piece of treasure for the 'real diggers' as xavier says.
so, why bother, you ask? it's out of love. there's no other reason than that.
and if anyone wants to start that justice webring, i'm all ears.