Meta on AO3: Get it while you can.

[hells_half_acre]

I just got an email from AO3 - because my meta was reported by an unhappy Sherlock fan, the AO3 team had to review it, and they seem to have decided that they want to be a fanfiction-only site and that I have to remove it. 

So, to anyone who hasn't downloaded my Study in Pink rewatch yet, and wants to. You have ~16 hours before I delete it. It is now deleted. 

At this point, I don't really care anymore. And the AO3 team are perfectly within their rights to run their site however they want. It's not like I'm paying them to host things for me.

I still don't think I'll join mediafire or anything like that. I just don't feel like it. Maybe I'm being persnickety, but for some reason I just don't like file-sharing sites. Anyway, I suppose if enough of you gang-up on me, I might eventually break down and upload pdfs somewhere. But, right now that feels unlikely.

AO3 kind of sucks for meta anyway, because so few people comment over there so there's no discussion afterward (which is one of my favourite parts of writing meta, since, you know, I already know my own thoughts, but I don't know other people's).

Unrelated:
TNP People - I have been crazy busy and I'm flying in an airplane all day today, so the chapter is going to be delayed by at least another week. In the meantime, tell me what you think I should change in the next draft to make the story/pacing/plot/characters suck less! 
 
UPDATE: Five minutes after I deleted the meta, I got an email from AO3 apologizing for telling me to delete the meta and saying that I could keep it up until they make a final decision on the status of meta as a fanwork and whether it should be allowed on the site. They also asked to please let them know if I had any thoughts to contribute to the discussion. Even though it's 3am here (and midnight Vancouver time) I wrote them back and gave them a few thoughts. The work has already been deleted, so I can't undo that - but it's nice to know that there's still a chance that I could one day post it again.

Comments

[anatsuno.livejournal.com]

"Original work"/"original fic" is a fandom term / semantic category in some fandoms (non-Western fandoms, iirc?). It doesn't mean the work in question it not actually fanfic. I'm looking for the links I had w/ discussions in regards to this a year or so back. Hope I can find them!

/drive-by led here from unofficialotwnews

ETA: I misspoke, but: - http://fanlore.org/wiki/Original_Yaoi &
http://fail-fandomanon.livejournal.com/37106.html?thread=165796594#t165796594

might shed some light. :)

[elliemurasaki.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm fundamentally misunderstanding something, but it seems to me that for something to be a fanwork, it must be associated with at least one piece of art that somebody else created. Of the first twenty works on that tag, fourteen are not so associated (that is, 'Original Work' is the only thing under 'Fandom').

[anatsuno.livejournal.com]

You might not be convinced, but this thread might help grasp how it comes about.

http://fail-fandomanon.livejournal.com/37106.html?thread=165792498#t165792498