The Otaku Journalist guide to Effective interview techniques is live today. You’ll learn:

• How to reach out to VIPs and faceless corporations for an interview (without embarrassing yourself) by using my foolproof email script.

• The pros and cons of recording an interview with paper-and-pen, audio taping, and filming; plus what I personally would do.

• How being a geek presents new challenges and advantages to interviewing.

And a lot more, all from the perspective of one geek writer to another. Give it a look!

• Let the convention get you in touch. If the celebrity is attending a convention as a special guest, that means you’ll need to work with a press liaison or Guest Relations volunteer to organize your interview. Celebrity guests have busy schedules at conventions—autograph signings, panels, and more. If you try to write directly to Vic Mignogna’s agent about his Otakon schedule, he’ll be just as clueless about it as you are! Usually writing to press@[insertcon].com will get you in touch with the right person to arrange the interview.

• If you can Google it, don’t ask it. I always cringe when I hear somebody ask an anime voice actor, “What was your first voice acting role?” This is a simple piece of knowledge that anyone could figure out with a quick Google search, or by scanning the celebrity’s IMDB page. Make sure to research your subject beforehand and only ask questions you can’t find out any other way. A good rule of thumb is to ask the celebrity about her opinions, favorites, and other subjective material instead of readily available facts.

• Be ready to go off script. While it’s important to prepare questions in advance, you don’t want to be married to those questions if the conversation goes off in another direction entirely. There’s a joke I heard in journalism school about a flustered cub reporter carefully sticking to a prepared script of questions:

  Reporter: When did you become president of the company?

  Interviewee: A few months before I murdered my wife.

  Reporter: [sticking to script] And can you tell me about your newest product?

  Don’t miss the forest for the trees. If your subject is telling you a lot of interesting things about a topic you didn’t even prepare for, let her go on about that instead of cutting her off to ask your next question.

Check out the rest of my advice over at Otaku Journalist!

(Photo by excalipoor.)

bookshop:

In case you haven’t heard, IO9 has started a new weekly series called Fanfic Friday. It’s written by Rob Bricken, who previously did Fanfic Fridays over at nerd site Topless Robot.

The sole purpose of Fanfic Friday is to make fun of bad fanfic. I have no fucking idea why io9, which has a mixed but mostly fair track record when it comes to portrayal of fandom (and which recently invited me onto We Come From the Future), has decided to go whole-hog in favor of fic-bashing, but here it is direct from the first column:

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve devoted the last several years of my life to mocking the worst erotic fan fiction the Internet has to offer, for two reasons:

1) for all the glories of this nerd age, we need to remember that there’s a segment of nerd-dom that never will - nor should - be mainstream; and

2) I’m kind of a terrible person. 

….

I’ll fully admit that there’s plenty of good fanfic out there. And really, most erotic fanfic is pretty harmless. You want to write about Captain America and Iron Man boinking their brains out? Fine. Whatever. You want to write about Cap and Iron Man indulging in illegal fetishes, or kids’ cartoon characters engaging in any kind of depravity? That’s getting into creepy territory.

I’ve spent most of 2012 watching the mainstream media “discover” fandom and be shocked at how tittilating/popular/huge/wrong/weird it is, like it’s 1983 and suddenly Trekkies exist and no one knows what to do about it, so they just keep writing the exact same article over and over and over.  

But this is io9, and io9 should know better, except somehow we’re getting a homerun of fail: mansplaining and kinkshaming and mocking and stereotyping! And this is coming from a website I generally consider to be one of the good guys.

In previous moments like this one I would feel so frustrated and enraged and indignant and angry, and I would wish so hard that fandom had a louder voice and a way to fight back against media portrayals like this. After 2008, I would feel helpless and frustrated and then I’d go donate to the OTW, because finally, finally, there was an organized effort to give fans louder voices. (Not be the voice, but to empower more voices.)

But today—today, when I felt like this, for the first time EVER, I had a different option.  Today, I went to my editor. And I asked if the Daily Dot could start reccing fanfic. And the Daily Dot said, “sounds great, let’s do it.” And just like that, Fic Rec Wednesday was born.

I realize that the Daily Dot is relying heavily right now on my voice as a member of fandom. I realize not everyone may want to hear my voice, and that’s okay. But I’m not alone: I’ve had the good fortune of working with laureninspace, who was the Dot’s first fandom reporter, and who has done more to give fans a voice in the media than anybody else I know, from writing excellent articles on Bronies and Homestuck to convincing the Dot they needed to be paying more attention to fandom.  And there will be more fans who will join us.  And this is what happens when fandom has a media outlet that actually cares what it thinks.  We get fandom reporters! We get articles on Red Pants Monday and Inception fandom and Sterek! We get FIC REC WEDNESDAYS! :D

Please, please, if you aren’t reading the Daily Dot’s fandom coverage, consider doing so. It’s one of the few, very few mainstream media outlets that wants to give fans a chance to speak for themselves. But it can only do that if you let it speak to you, too. :)

Fic Rec Wednesday starts this week! No points for guessing what fic I will rec first. :)

Aja is making the Daily Dot more awesome for fans all the time.

crummywater:

Bought and Tumblrfied my Christmas Tree today!

Amazing.

pixelkitties:

My friend Lauren over at the Daily Dot recently posted a rather interesting article considering the various signs of a dwindling fandom, and whether the G4-based My Little Pony community is burning out at the same breakneck pace of which it initially flared to life.

On one hand, the article is a more than a little tongue-in-cheek and clearly meant to ruffle the horsefeathers of a community that has proven exceptionally good at being ruffled over the past several months.  Controversy, reactionary rants and drama wars forged in the fire of hurt feelings, damaged reputations, and public vitriol have been the norm lately.  Far more of the negative than the unofficial (though overused to the point of cliché) motto of “love and tolerance.”

With the airdate of Episode 1 of Season 3 of Friendship is Magic just around the corner, the one thing that continues to be most troubling and, truthfully, a real problem within any fandom, is the issue of bullying.  By nature, fans are simply people from virtually any background who gravitate toward a similar interest.  As I’ve said before, fandom is a double edged sword.  Since literally ANYONE can declare themselves part of the whole, it means the most noble and the most depraved and everyone in between will be found within our number- commenting on websites, creating artistic content, and attending get-togethers.   The drive to be part of a social community is not mutually dependent upon the means to actually function in one.  There are those who simply want to hurt and deride others and will seek out victims for mockery and shaming and all manner of mistreatment because, sadly, that is often the nature of the internet and, consequently, the communities that spring up around it.  It’s a product of both anonymity and an unfortunate level of knee-jerk overreaction and defensiveness towards “haters.” Artists, musicians, and other community members who behave despicably are often protected by a hive-mind mentality to circle the wagons and defend them against real and deserved criticism and rebuke.

But does that mean this community is dying or failing?  Not at all.  It’s simply grown to the point where the fandom is made up of a tremendously wide cross section of people.  Early on, our technicolor world of little ponies was little in itself.  Being a jerk to a small community is much harder to get away with and burning bridges more likely to ruin your reputation with the entire fandom.  As communities grow, cults of personality form, villains and heroes both appear.  People act in ways that are inspiring and kind and moving.  Other people jockey for power and use their time and influence to cause hurt and embarrassment.  Some people will fawn embarrassingly over everything pony related regardless of quality others will hate everything with larger-than-life bile and vitriol.  All these things happen with more frequency because the churning, roiling ocean of news and content swallows it up almost as fast as it happens.  

Sometimes I feel like a broken record, but I feel inclined to say again that our responsibility as fans is to hold fast to the things we love most about whatever it is we are fans of. There are many blogs out there documenting the worst parts of our community, and reading through them it can often seem like there’s little more than racism, cruelty, pornography, and ignorance at the heart of this fandom.  But, like the notion of “love and tolerance,” the idea that technicolor ponies hide a seething undercurrent of hate and intolerance is a skewed concept.  People are simply people.  Whether they are fans of the Minnesota Vikings, Star Wars, Doctor Who, Dark Shadows, American Idol, Anime, Sonic the Hedgehog, vintage Barbie dolls, coins, stamps, or civil war letters people are people.  They are good and bad, involved and indifferent, honorable and hateful, kind and cruel.  A community is a tapestry, there is no election board, no governing body, and no entrance exam.  Anyone can declare themselves a brony, pegasister, casual fan of my little pony, or any other moniker.  They can go on to act in a way that reflects poorly on themselves AND the rest of us.  The only real and true influence we have is to remain upstanding ourselves.  To do our best, to BE our best within the fandom and in our own daily lives.  We needn’t worry about loving and tolerating because a show tells us to act a certain way.  But we do have a responsibility to simply be good people and good stewards of any community we happen to be part of- whether it’s My Little Pony, our homes, our schools, our cities, towns, and countries. 

Let me end by saying that I do my level best to generally ignore the bad behavior in our community.  And I also know many fans disagree with that approach, mistaking it for indifference.  Yes, I could rant and rave, retweet and blog and shout at the top of my lungs until I’m blue in the face and fingertips and at the end of the day people will continue to do their own thing.  But I’m not a celebrity- just a fan of a children’s show who happens to make some silly pictures. I’m not a voice of reason and no amount of art or social media, on my part, will change the heart or mind of someone devoted to their own point of view, right or wrong.  I’ve spent a lot of my life taking part in political discussion as a hobby, and have held steadfast opinions on both extremes of the political spectrum. I am keenly aware that the notion of debate is lost on individual opinion.  Because as much as we may want to have the last word, to call out injustice, to fight to our last breath, the truth is that you don’t win a difference of ideals with raised voices and caps lock.  The truth is that you win people over by living as an example and showing them the right way by doing the right thing.   The best and only way to change someone’s mind is not by fighting for your opinion, but by representing and living your values.  

People have accused me of trolling by writing my article on the decline of brony fandom, but this was my real intent—to start a discussion. Here’s Pixelkitties weighing in.

dailydot:

5 signs of a fading fandom (and why bronies fit the bill)

Discovering a new fandom can be like getting a new lease on life. Suddenly there are new episodes or chapters to analyze, new ideas for fanart and fanfiction, and an entire new community of fellow fans to meet.

But nothing good lasts forever. After a while, that shiny new obsession starts to dull at the edges.

Luckily, there are always a few warning signs to look for. Here are five indicators your fandom has jumped the shark—through the lens of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
[continue]

dailydot:

Behind “Fallout: Equestria,” the ultimate “My Little Pony” tribute

Bronies—adult fans of animated children’s show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (FiM)— are bound to set a record for the highest number of fanworks in the shortest amount of time.

Brony musicians are surprisingly prolific, creating entire albums in tribute to the program, and celebrated fanartists like Pixelkittes have followings nearly as big as the show’s. But neither medium can hold a candle to the massive world of brony fanfiction.

Brony fanfiction has become one of the fandom’s most lasting traditions, with adoring writers creating their own stories that take the original equine characters of the Friendship is Magic universe and portray them in new situations. Serial stories are updated chapter by chapter on brony news site Equestria Daily, where tens of thousands tune in for the latest installment. The site even offers a No-Fanfiction browsing mode for readers overwhelmed by the deluge.

“I think people are drawn to FiM fanfiction because of the way the characters are written,” observed Amanda Brennan, researcher for Know Your Meme. “They each have rich backgrounds that people want to delve into outside of canon.”

Graeme Pollard, the webmaster for one of the largest fanfiction hubs FiMfiction, told the Daily Dot that 30,000 individual stories are hosted on the site. Given that the fandom is around two years old, that’s roughly 40 new stories per day.

Even out of such a wide selection, there’s one story bronies regard as “the most popular fanfic out there without a doubt,” according to Know Your Meme Database Moderator RandomMan: Fallout: Equestria, written by enigmatic author Kkat.
[continue]

bookshop:

fireandwaterr:

SHE’S SO PERFECT.

today one of my co-reporters asked me to explain “life ruiners”

and i was like:

“a bunch of white men who are so beautiful i can’t even what is your face etc etc

oh and jennifer lawrence”

I was that co-reporter. Everything on my dash makes sense now.

bookshop:

leupagus:

bookshop:

Would anyone care to talk to The Daily Dot about the fanwank?  Why do you passionately hate / passionately defend Elementary? 

Shoot me an Ask or an email: aja at dailydot.com.

thanks!

I’d rather shove a rabid hamster up my left nostril, thanks.

FILED UNDER: #wow if it’s one thing I’d rather not have  #it’s some random website turning a magnifying glass on fandom once again #SEE LOOK AT WHAT THE STRANGE FANDOMITES ARE DOING TODAY  #ugh  #and yes I’m sure aja whoever she is is a lovely person #and apparently has been around fandom for a while  #don’t care  #DON’T CARE  #I just want to stop reading and dissecting and scrolling past the endless vitriol  #okay? 

dafjsd;f okay, 1) HI, I FOLLOW YOUR TUMBLR, which I do because a) you are in one or more of my fandoms, or b) you followed me at some point and I followed back. So there’s that. ahaha. 

2) The Daily Dot is paying me to report about fandom. I am in your fandoms, reporting on you guys, but also very much in fandom. (Here’s my sherlock blog from when I went through my sherlock phase!) And I have said repeatedly that I’m trying to be in  and that I want to hear from other fans. 

3) For years, well before I got this job, I have said that if fans want “random websites” to represent them well, then fans have to represent themselves. That is the principle behind the creation of the OTW, and that is the principle behind my going to fans and asking to hear from their opinions. 

I understand that this fact, my being a reporter specifically turning my eye on fandom, makes a lot of people uncomfortable. But I have been an active member of fandom since 1998, and I am committed to representing fans in their own spaces. So even if that makes you or other people uncomfortable, please respect that I am trying to do my job and also trying to allow other fans to share their voices with a publication that very much wants to hear from them. :)

Bravo, Aja. 

Seriously, I don’t get why anyone wouldn’t want Aja writing about fandom—she knows it better than anyone. As a reporter and a fan, she can delve far deeper into the issues Elementary fans actually care about. Meanwhile, a reporter like me with zero Elementary knowledge would have to do an “outsider’s take” or a 101 introduction.