I put together a relatively short survey (about two dozen questions, mostly multiple choice, all optional) to get some data on what fic lengths and completion statuses readers on AO3 prefer or avoid. If I get enough answers to have a good sample size, it should give us some insight into how people search and read on the archive.

If you find this interesting, feel free to share it with AO3 users elsewhere or post it to other platforms. I'd like to get a good crossection of readers that isn't biased by platform, if at all possible.

The survey is just for fun/curiosity, and isn't associated with any university, company, or other entity. It's just me asking you this stuff here :)

I might translate this article later today. This one was the most complete one, even in Italian news it's not talked about that much.

a lot of people think the only point of engagement with art is just to decode exactly what the author was trying to say, and their intent is the "real meaning," and once you've figured out the real meaning you're done you've solved it. that's dumb and boring. don't do that.

things death of the author does not mean:

every interpretation is equally valid

you are forbidden to treat what we can know or reasonably guess about the author's intentions as something that matters to your interpretation at all

the only valid way to interpret fiction is to treat it like it's a documentary of events that really happened and never think about it in terms of "why would the creator, a human person, choose to present it this way"

authors shouldn't get to have opinions about what they intended to say through their work, they should shut up and let me tell them what it means because i know better

actually i, the person reading or watching or viewing this art, am the infallible source of real meaning, and everybody who disagrees with me is wrong including but not limited to the author

First we have one of the commandos – who were taught fairly closely by a mando trainer – noting:

Sicko had much the same neutral accent as most of the infantry trooper clones. They’d learned Basic from flash-instruction and had rarely been exposed to outsiders with interesting accents.

Which implies that Basic is the rank and file troopers’ first language, and that they learn almost all their language from flash training rather than other people.

Then later we have that same commando talking to Sicko and this exchange:

“Vor'e, brother.”

“You’re welcome.”

Where Sicko clearly understands enough Mando'a to know “vor'e” is “thanks”.

I think the conclusion we can draw from this is that the rank and file clones do know some Mando'a, but not a lot. If it wasn’t taught in flash training, they wouldn’t have enough close contact with trainers to pick it up (since they didn’t have enough contact to pick up accents in Basic!), so anything they do know has likely been picked up piecemeal and passed around.

My father, who is an identical twin, has two older sisters who were also identical twins. My grandfather’s favourite way to tell the story was that in 1956 when he was awaiting the arrival of 🤷‍♀️ Child™️, the doctor (who, in the small town where we’re from, had delivered my aunts a few years earlier) came to the lounge, lit a cigarette and took a seat next to him.

“Clifford… how are ya?” the doctor greeted.

“I’m alright… yourself?”

“Good, good…good, so how many ya want this time?”