Squaring Access Needs Against The Hell That Is The Internet
I’m going to say something people aren’t going to want to hear, because people with bigger visibility can’t say this.
— T Ash (@crewgrrl) November 29, 2021
We’re going to need to square access needs with the internet’s inability to forgive and we’re going to need to do it fast.
The current hybrid for conventions being slowly rolled out includes blanket consent for permanent recordings.
— T Ash (@crewgrrl) November 29, 2021
This has a million implications for filk that I am not qualified to get into. Filkers, feel free to take this tweet and run with it as regards covers, etc.
Putting every panel at every convention on the record *sounds* like an amazing idea. People who can’t get to the con for a variety of reasons can pay to access the content, great!
— T Ash (@crewgrrl) November 29, 2021
The internet no longer forgives. Read that again. The internet DOESN’T forgive.
I stunt modded the Q&A portion of the panel I sat on in Dublin. It was my first time. I made a number of mistakes, including answering audience questions first, and gendering every person I called on.
— T Ash (@crewgrrl) November 29, 2021
I screwed up. I can give you half a dozen excuses why, but they don’t matter.
But if that’s on the record, then I’m done in a number of circles. I’m “that lady who can’t moderate.”
— T Ash (@crewgrrl) November 29, 2021
Language changes. Standards change. Who knows what we’re going to call things in 5 years, let alone 50. People need to be allowed to change and grow.
The internet doesn’t forgive.
— T Ash (@crewgrrl) November 29, 2021
It does not allow for growth. You get recorded ONCE using language that becomes $_IST 5 years later, you are judged as though you knew for a fact that language was $_IST all along.
We’re seeing this happen right now. Authors I know have been pilloried for using language that they later acknowledged was ableist. They didn’t know it when they wrote the book. They don’t do it anymore.
— T Ash (@crewgrrl) November 29, 2021
But a book published in 2009, that has been acknowledged BY ITS AUTHOR as containing problematic language, is being judged as though it was written in 2021, after said author apologized.
— T Ash (@crewgrrl) November 29, 2021
Let’s go back to me for an example.
— T Ash (@crewgrrl) November 29, 2021
I have Depression. I have ADHD. I, as a person with mental illness, sometimes use ableist language to describe myself. I call myself crazy sometimes, or insane. Often with the prefix of batshit.
Someone who doesn’t know my diagnoses and my use of humor to cope with them sees what I say about MYSELF and says “She’s ableist. No Forgiveness EVER.”
— T Ash (@crewgrrl) November 29, 2021
This is how the internet is RIGHT NOW. Based on rumors and tweets and “I heard this once.”
When it’s YouTube clips? It’s over.
If we don’t square the legitimate access needs of those people who need a hybrid model with the fact that once you’ve said something on the record it’s forever and there is no mercy, we are going to be left with the panelists who don’t care.
— T Ash (@crewgrrl) November 29, 2021
I promise you, you don’t want to be left with the panelists who don’t care.
— T Ash (@crewgrrl) November 29, 2021
That’s old cishet white dudes forever until the end of time.
I care what people think of me. Lots of other people who regularly panel at conventions care what people think of them.
If we’re locked out of paneling because of this new model, conventions are going to suck.
— T Ash (@crewgrrl) November 29, 2021
You didn’t like the 2020 Hugo Awards? Then you better be paying attention to this problem. @chicagoworldcon, are y’all working on this problem?
People need to be able to remotely access content. Other people need to not have that content held against them for the rest of eternity.
— T Ash (@crewgrrl) November 29, 2021
Time limited access and then the files are destroyed is an option. Broadcast only with no recording is an option.
I have no ending for this, so I take a small bow. Also, I have no SoundCloud, but you can buy my and @GeekCalligraphy’s stuff at https://t.co/w7WZu9UlLf or help defray our shipping costs via our ko-fi https://t.co/rZVhXPcDwV
— T Ash (@crewgrrl) November 30, 2021