Starting my archive

[altocello]

I've decided (after many months of hemming and hawing) to start posting my art on AO3, despite the fact that they do not (and will not, for the foreseeable future) have any image hosting there yet. I'm just going to embed the images from their storage place on deviantArt, which isn't a perfect solution by any means, but it's the best I can come up with. Though come to think of it, I don't know dA's upper limit on the size of the files they'll let me store for free. Hmm. Part of my deal with myself is that fandom must be free, so I am limited in my image storage options... most places charge after a point, and art can take up a lot of space! I will have to ponder that one.

Anyway.

My primary reason for wanting to do this is to make my art more searchable/findable in a fanwork specific database, with the hope of eventually making it available in perpetuity for others to enjoy. Which sounds really arrogant now that I type it out, but there you have it. I don't want it to disappear. I want to leave my mark on fandom, even if I don't think I'm BNF material. And I want to do it in a place that supports my effort to express my love and admiration for my sources of inspiration.

So, if you have an AO3 account (and even if you don't), I'm altocello over there too. You can see all my random bookmarks and, eventually, all of my art.

(And now this means I will have 4 accounts to update whenever I post something, lol.)

Comments

[disco-mouse.livejournal.com]

I get dizzy with all the accounts I have to post in. Sometimes I think I'm spread too thin, like should I just do one place WELL and the rest with follow? But I'm finding A03 a good place for *new* fandoms more than Merlin.

Do artists rise to BNF status? Perhaps since most of my fandom efforts have been in Merlin I didn't know that was possible, certainly never for me and not something I'm sure someone should want anyway (way to shy and secretive).

[reni-m.livejournal.com]

I dunno about the BNF question too. Though that doesn't mean you can make a lot of noise. Just be obnoxious and I'm sure some sort of popularity will happen ;)

[disco-mouse.livejournal.com]

Oh I'm obnoxious, but privately. :)

[altocello.livejournal.com]

I have similar thoughts about all the accounts, but they all have a purpose. LJ is for interacting with fandom friends. Dreamwidth is my backup for that, even though I know not everyone is on it. DeviantArt is for hosting my images because I can't figure out how to get Box to do it without it being ugly, and to let me in on the art resources like stock images and tutorials. And my hope is that AO3 will become my legacy, such as it is, and a better way for me to keep track of the fic I enjoy. I cannot, in all good conscience, get a twitter or tumblr. What I already have eats up enough of my time as it is!

What exactly defines a BNF anyhow? Why would an artist never achieve it? I happen to agree with your statement about it being a dubious distinction. Not wanting to de-anon shouldn't be an impediment though; in the online world of fandom a handle is as good a name as a given one, and physical location is largely irrelevant. I can say with surety that I have not achieved BN-Anything status, I have nowhere near enough comments/kudos/faves to have done so. And that's OK!

[yue_ix]

Hi! I found this on a strike of lucky FL checking.

On art hosting places and limits and it all being free, and, if you are like me, as accepting of mature content as possible, my current solution has been to accept Paraka@DW's most generous offer. She very nicely checked in with her providers to make sure that kinky content was allowed, and so far I haven't had any problem with any of my pictures. Since getting that space, pretty much every fanart I've posted on My AO3 is hosted there to make sure it's a more stable list than things posted on my journals (which are hosted on photobucket, or imageshack, or tinypic, or even livejournal scrapbook, depending on how many of them delete the picture within the first days and I got to re-host somewhere else).

Multiple accounts updating is a pain! Having a masterlist helped me get rid of some of the stress related to being afraid of forgetting one place or another. Nowadays it often goes Tumblr -> Post it on a comm or journal on DW / automatic x-post to LJ -> weeks later on AO3 -> months or years later on DA. *coughs* It's not very... optimal. I'd love to be able to host directly on AO3 and go "AO3 -> link on DW/auto-LJ-> DA/easy click tumblr" or something like that. I've never tried the DA-to-tumblr share button though - have you? What are the other places you post to?

(To add my own cent to the discussion above, I've seen that BNF status can most certainly be archived by fans specialising or not in any type of fanworks. LJ as a platform, and TV-show based fandoms are just not often as big on the fanart/fanvids/others are others, but for any fandoms with a larger non-fic presence or any website more focused on art, BNF name calling has always and will probably still always happened - even if by any other name. Pointing and calling anyone that is not an positive behaviour in fandoms though, I'd say, and I'm real glad it hasn't really crept into our corner.)

[altocello.livejournal.com]

I need to look up the limit on dA. That is indeed a very generous offer! I'm more inclined, oddly, to stick with the bigger things like dA if I can, just because I have a copy of their terms of use, and I've read their policies firsthand (yes, I am one of those people who reads everything, lol). And yeah, I abandoned hosting things on my LJ because of things like the scrapbook update.

I've made a masterlist at DW and LJ, and shamelessly exploit the crosspost feature at DW to make sure I post both places. DA I have to do separate, and now AO3 too, but honestly, AO3 isn't too bad.

I have decided I definitely DO NOT WANT to be a BNF. Ever. No celebrity status. I'm fine, thanks, lol. :D