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2024-03-08
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Hermione Jean Granger's Guide to Good Fandom Etiquette

Summary:

We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

All readers may bring with them: a familiarity with canon, established fanon, or tabula rasa.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

Dear reader,

We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

All readers may bring with them: a familiarity with canon, established fanon, or tabula rasa.

All readers are invited to consider the House Rules:

  • Fuck JKR and the transphobic bile she peddles. This community thrives despite and to spite her. Don't buy branded merchandise, your galleons fund transphobia. Engage in fandom instead for free and pity the fool who has fallen down a deterministic sinkhole like her fascistic antagonist in her book series did. Remember: love is the most powerful magic of all
  • The internet is a Forbidden Forest - not every creature will be what you're looking for. Fics should be picked based on your interests. This means readers should prepare accordingly by reading the tags listed and proceeding no further if the premise is not to their liking
  • When your mischief is managed, leave kudos and comments! Creators share their works for the love of fandom and the community that sustains it. Engagement is the real magic of the ao3 community
  • If readers find themselves infested with nargles encouraging them to spread negativity, cast the Ysinmsato (Your Ship Is Not My Ship And That's Okay) charm - it's Ysinmsàto, not Ysinmsató - with the appropriate wand movement to the Close or Back button
  • The Mirror of Erised may leave students pining for a particular ending or resolution: you have the power to create your own magic here (but the polite thing to do if your spellcraft is inspired by another’s existing work is to ask permission first - and never complete a fic without express permission)
  • AI is a horcrux. Forbidden magic. You may be killed or, worse, expelled for stealing the magic of others
  • Works in progress in this archive are like all of us - worthy of respect, enjoyment, and love before we are done. Read WIPs, comment on them, appreciate the parts of the story shared and get comfortable with lack of resolution (no one owes you the ending). The magic of fandom is in the journey of creation in community, as much as it is about appreciating a fully formed patronus
  • You may find some fics are locked in the Restricted Section and need an account to access, often because of negative comments and bots, and to prevent AI scraping - practice legilimency (make an account).

 

We look forward to welcoming you into this expansive world of magic, make-believe and mayhem. A veritable feast awaits your arrival. The reading list is substantial.

Your forebears bestowed this archive with their creations for you. Read them well.

 

Signed,

Hermione Jean Granger

Order of Merlin, First Class

Professor of Transfiguration (to some)

Mediwitch (when the occasion calls for it)

Minister for Magic (if not disillusioned with political life)

Mother (brood size varies)

Orphan (although perhaps only by technicality, if they're alive and in Oz)

Wife (potentially law-mandated, often to more than one wizard)

Witch (except when the AU is muggle)

Main character (even when only in the background)

 

P.S. the comments function is not an opportunity to critique writing and bash a writer's hard work. Even a writer inviting constructive criticism (concrit) is not an opportunity to demand they rewrite their work to fit your preferred narrative or characterisation. The umbrage of such entitlement paints you as loathsome as, well, Umbridge. Consider writing lines - perhaps 'I Must Not Spread Negativity' - until the message sinks in ought to do the trick.

Notes:

This is my severely unserious take on the HP fandom members who really ought to be sent a howler, but frankly I prefer to use my energy on silly things like this. I might update it with postscripts when I am reminded of things I've forgotten.

As I said on twitter, fandom lets us explore our meta relationships to the canon - it offers us opportunities to see ourselves in characters or stories we love, challenge or remix things, ask "what if", and provide a base of established pieces to play with or put back in the box as we see fit.

Anti-ship culture in HP fandom can be vicious and vile. The arguments against AUs and gatekeeping against ooc (out of character) creations miss the point of fandom - to expand a universe to fit our individual interests.

Lives are not at stake here in the digital sandbox. I'm not any more entitled to ownership of a canon or fanon take than anyone else, nor do the existence of alternate universes in any way detract from my personal favourites. We are playing with wizard dolls here. Wizards.

Remember what's really important, like supporting your communities and unleashing your creativity.

And fuck transphobes. :)