meta on the AO3

[ratcreature]

There are honestly people who are still surprised/disappointed that the OTW decided on the meta on AO3 issue without broader input/discussion first? (In the comments on the announcement post.) Seriously? Even though the OTW board in the past has said explicitly that the org never builds policy in public because "policies are difficult enough to draft and revise even in private with a small team of participants".

Comments

[astridv]

"policies are difficult enough to draft and revise even in private with a small team of participants".

They're not wrong there, either. If they tried to find consensus on a larger scale they'd never get anything done. Even if I don't follow their reasoning some of the time, it's their archive.

But I sure hope now they'll at least make category tagging *mandatory*, the archive is enough of a mess when it comes to searchability. It's just common sense to have proper labels so your users can actually find stuff. Mandatory tagging for fic/art/meta, mandatory fandom tag, especially crossovers so you have the option to filter the bloody things out. Avengers fusions all over the MI4 fic tag... meh.

[ratcreature]

I don't actually think that is necessarily true. Many anarchist groups work on a consensus seeking model where each voice is heard and have over the last century developed methods and a theory framework to deal with decision finding in that model that is neither through elected officials nor majority rule nor hierarchical. I've volunteered in large, international groups (like a network of women in community radios in Europe and Latin America) who developed policies in a consensus based fashion. It is not a fundamental impossibility, it is an ideological choice.