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bladesparkSeeing Fimfiction overrun with Nazis and Nazi defenders right now has made me realize...
As much as I've often been frustrated by the way AO3 doesn't have any real tools to form community, I think that's for the best.
Because you cannot have 100% "any topic is fair" free speech, and diverse community. Allowing the Nazis to be present in a format where people directly interact would mean that, as in all communities, Nazi speech must be restricted, or the Nazis will make marginalized people feel so unsafe that they'll slowly filter out of the community, leaving only Nazis and those who can afford to be oblivious to them in an increasingly toxic cesspit. I've seen it happen over and over and over again.
But AO3's free-speech platform matters to me. I think it really is an important principle! It's just not one that's compatible with community. It's compatible with, well, archiving.
Like statues of racists. You can't have that kind of gorification in a fair society. But the historical accounts of the racists need to be archived somewhere, their likenesses preserved somewhere.
So I guess it's just as well that AO3 doesn't have the kind of community building tools other fandom sites do. Because it can be an archive, and the Nazis can have their stories there too, but in the actual communal spaces where fandom lives, we can tell them to fuck off, and keep their toxic bullshit to themselves.
(Just spitballing this, so I don't think it's a perfect take, exactly, but it's something on my mind right now.)
As much as I've often been frustrated by the way AO3 doesn't have any real tools to form community, I think that's for the best.
Because you cannot have 100% "any topic is fair" free speech, and diverse community. Allowing the Nazis to be present in a format where people directly interact would mean that, as in all communities, Nazi speech must be restricted, or the Nazis will make marginalized people feel so unsafe that they'll slowly filter out of the community, leaving only Nazis and those who can afford to be oblivious to them in an increasingly toxic cesspit. I've seen it happen over and over and over again.
But AO3's free-speech platform matters to me. I think it really is an important principle! It's just not one that's compatible with community. It's compatible with, well, archiving.
Like statues of racists. You can't have that kind of gorification in a fair society. But the historical accounts of the racists need to be archived somewhere, their likenesses preserved somewhere.
So I guess it's just as well that AO3 doesn't have the kind of community building tools other fandom sites do. Because it can be an archive, and the Nazis can have their stories there too, but in the actual communal spaces where fandom lives, we can tell them to fuck off, and keep their toxic bullshit to themselves.
(Just spitballing this, so I don't think it's a perfect take, exactly, but it's something on my mind right now.)