There is SO much to unpack here, especially in the context of broader conversations around content moderation, racism, and fandom (especially re: Archive of Our Own). Let's give it a shot. [Thread] theatlantic.com/technology/arc…
First, it's important to note that the My Little Pony fandom discussed here, which the articles notes is mostly adult, white men, is (though I assume there's overlap) very different demographics and community than AO3-based transformative fandom.
This paper has demographics from a survey of nearly 2000 mostly AO3/Tumblr transformative fandom folks. e.g., 80% stated they were female; the next most prevalent were non-binary and transgender individuals, with the least number of cisgender men. cmci.colorado.edu/~cafi5706/CSCW…
As a kind of metric for how much overlap there might be between what this article discusses and AO3 (which has over 2.5 million users and over 6 million works), there are less than 3,000 MLP:FIM stories on AO3, compared to, e.g., over 400,000 Marvel stories.
If you missed my discussion of content moderation on AO3 last week go read this thread first since it explains how it works and also the current conversations around racism!
This description of the philosophy behind content moderation on the MLP site is not that dissimilar from AO3's philosophy, with one big difference - AO3 is more active (with required warnings) about trying to protect users from content that might be triggering. 
Also AO3 doesn't have downvotes (which would also go against the positive feedback norm of fandom!) so this kind of thing couldn't happen anyway, but (correct me if I'm wrong) we're not seeing this level of *overt* racism.
I think what AO3 is dealing with is considerably more subtle. Like, what's described here would be pretty easy to moderate for with any definition of intentional racism. (So when I say "this level" I also mean, like, ponies with swastikas.)
And another important subtle difference between the moderation philosophies is that the MLP's is based on free speech, but AO3's is based on inclusivity. (Quote from this paper about the design of AO3: cmci.colorado.edu/~cafi5706/CHI2… )
As Naomi put it when I interviewed her, it was important that a basic philosophy was "This is not my cake, but I will defend to the death your right to post your fanfic." I mean, at that point, even same-sex relationships in fic were still taboo in some circles.
So THIS explanation of the tension happening in the MLP community I do not think is what is happening in AO3 fandom. I think that, for the most part, fans write for themselves and for their sub-communities, and not to intentionally make others uncomfortable.
And this is why (going back to my previous thread that got into social norms) required content warnings work on AO3. I'm pretty sure that, absent really strict regulation, such a system would not work well on the MLP site, if part of what's going on is WANTING to trigger people.
All that said, I love this description of what's happening in the MLP fandom, because the second part does apply to a lot of people in transformative fandom, I think. Sometimes we love fandom so much we want to ignore the toxicity. I am sometimes guilty of this myself.
So I guess my personal takeaway from this article is: the analogies to the current conversations around AO3, paired with what makes us different, makes me think that the underlying values of AO3 make us much more prepared to deal with these tensions.
Also it is REALLY bizarre to realize that there's a space that has the content moderation challenges of fandom and reddit at the same time. 🤯
Godspeed, anti-racist bronies fighting the good fight. I wish you well.
Godspeed, anti-racist bronies fighting the good fight. I wish you well.
