Oh Come On, Fandom! >:-(
Apparently by being at TGIF/F last week and being sick this, I missed fanfic fandom losing it's collective freaking mindĀ the weekend before last.
https://fanlore.org/wiki/AO3_App_Wars
WTActualF, people? I hate panic and mob mis-/dis-information bringing out the worst in fandom. It's truly painful to see.
For fuck's sake, people: Yes, oneĀ of the apps was apparently scraping and storing content on their site--which is Not Cool. But to go all-out screaming incoherent dogpile over the course of Ā hours on it, instead of, you know, starting by contacting the developer and saying "Hey! What the hell?" is completely out of line. Ā
(And doxxing?!?--Oh HELLĀ no! Not ever, people! No one with any moral standing or standards ever doxxes. It's an on-line equivalent to *lynching*--the deliberate digging out of someone's basic RL information so that they can be more efficiently and severely attacked--not by words on-line, but by an angry mob by physical means in the actual physical world? I don't give a damn how pissed you are or how much you think they deserve it. You do not do that!)
Not to mention the three (or more?) alternative browser apps that also got crushed under the same 'righteous' fury. (If you donāt like them windowing the AO3, then tell them so, but realize that theyāre explicitly allowed to create a new window frame for people to look at the AO3 through, just as you are.)Ā
Charging for it could be problematic, but is worthy of a discussion of whether recouping costs for developing the app is akin to actually monetizing the fanworks. (Is OTW āmonetizingā fan works by raising and accepting money to cover their operating costs?)Ā
Not to mention the one perfectly innocent completely free and open-source app that was also crushed underfoot in here.
Damn, people! Pause for a moment, take a breath, and check your factsĀ before you start inciting a riot and actively attacking people online. It's like trying to explain to my grandmother how (and why) to use Snopes.com before she passes on the next "OMG! Warning!" email she gets forwarded from a friend. And, frankly, that alone is an embarrassing thing to have to explain to a fannish community.
