skuf has an interesting poll
here about fandom newsletters. I read the fill-in answers and the anonymous discussion threads with interest, and noticed that a reoccurring "complaint" seems to be newsletters tend to favor toward certain things, be they genres, pairings, or overall bias in reccing.
This got me thinking — and in fact I've had thoughts about newslettering for a long time now (and was great to get to talk about this with other fellow newsletter editors at
r_becca's newsletter roundtable at Phoenix Rising) — why do people assume newsletter editors have the time to read every single fandom LJ account in the intarwebs? I'm glad the
daily_snitch is not a rec newsletter, because I simply don't have the time to read all the fics that are posted in a day, never mind sifting through them to select recs. But even doing the meta/news/non-fic links alone, each issue takes me hours do compile. I almost always (barring RL busyness) go out of my way to look for links outside of reading my own flist or the Snitch's watcher journal. But I'm just one person, I can't know that someone who posts about RL stuff 99% of the time just happens to post something fannish and linkable today, and oops I missed it but instead linked to posts by "popular" LJers or slashers.
I've said this before, and would probably say it again in the future: if you see something that might be of interest,
e-mail the links/recs/suggestions to the appropriate newsletter! Seriously, newsletter editors don't bite. In fact, every single one of them that I've met has been of the nicest group of HP fans I've had the pleasure to get to know.
</rant> (not directed against anyone in particular; in fact, I'm feeling more amused than annoyed)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-02 12:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-02 01:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-02 01:13 pm (UTC)I just don't know how metafandom *could* establish a comprehensive policy...we take from the meta section of other newsletters if it isn't too fandom specific, we LJ seek for meta...it's impossible to read every LJ and there *is* no community... [plus, I think by the end, we were getting pretty comprehensive, even reading "just" from our flists, simply b/c people who do meta ended up reading the newsletter or were on our flists...]
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-03 12:22 am (UTC)It's the self-perpetuating cycle of venturing "out" for more links, finding nothing, and then going back to relying on a set list of journals for links until I feel the need to venture out again. I'm still looking for a balance -- I checked out a bunch of LJs after meeting new people at Phoenix Rising, but even though the journal owners are definitely fans, they rarely post linkable entries -- and haven't really found a cure-all solution that would cover all the people's complaints.
And I freely admit I miss things all the time. Sometimes I'd send an "oops, I'd meant to link to this but I forgot" email to my fellow editors after I'd posted, and other times I wouldn't come across whatever I missed until months later, when all I could do then is headdesk to myself.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-03 05:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-03 12:47 pm (UTC)That would be cool. I've done this before with one journal, but "meta" seems to have a very broad meaning for that person so I just ended up manually checking her LJ every once in a while ;p
But I suppose one bad experience doesn't a bad system make. Thanks for showing me how tag tracking is really supposed to work... I'm going to give it another try with some of the journals of people I've recently met through cons. At least I know for sure they're still in fandom and are enthusiastic enough to pay money to go talk about fannish stuff :)