Mod post

[seanmegansean.livejournal.com]

Hello, everyone :D

There's a few things I'd like to mention:

1) I remember coming to LJ and not having any clue as to what editing meant, but it really is very simple. And I wanted to suggest that those of you who do not know how it works use their own private LJ to practice. Really, nothing is easier than editing a post ;)

So, you go to said post you want to edit, click on the comments or the LJ-cut (cause that way you’re really *inside* the post) and you will see a row of buttons on the top – a green arrow for the previous entry, the little heart with the plus to add an entry to your memories, the little pencil to edit something, the tag button (which you really don’t need to worry about in this comm, as adding tags is usually my job :D) the tracking button to stay on top of things, and another green arrow for the next entry.

Not surprisingly, it’s the little pencil that does the trick if you want to edit a post :) So, you click on that thing --> , the original mask you wrote your entry in will pop up again and you will be able to change whatever it is you want to change. Then you click on “save entry” at the bottom and you’re done! Ta Da! :)

Really, give it a try. It's a snap ;D


2) Please keep in mind that this is a community to look for things related to QaF. It is NOT a place to rec your personal favorites. I know the difference can be hard to see sometimes, since more fic is usually better than less fic, but still – there is a difference between a post about, say, Gus!fic, which actually lists ten or more fic which were found in a private journal, and a post just *linking* to another journal. Just as much a difference as there is between a post reccing five gapfillers from 203 and a post just reccing everything that ever came to mind. Again, I understand if you disagree about the distinctions, but I’d like to keep all the entries in here SPECIFIC, and you know, in HERE.


3) What we can do though, and I'd love to hear opinions on that one, is to have
a) either some permanent links with general fic recs on the comm's profile page, or,
b) one big post in here, to which everybody could post their general links and favorite fic in the comments. I'd appreciate any input :D



Last, but not least - a reminder of another kind :D
*All* the tags can be found here.
All the found it! tags are here - and will probably be listed in the memories, too, at some point. Really, I'm getting there :P
A link to said memories.
And as good a start as any for those days without fic, the found recs/seeking recs tag.
Enjoy!


Thanks for listening, and happy hunting, everyone :D
SMS

Comments

[flamencanyc.livejournal.com]

3) What we can do though, and I'd love to hear opinions on that one, is to have
a) either some permanent links with general fic recs on the comm's profile page, or,
b) one big post in here, to which everybody could post their general links and favorite fic in the comments. I'd appreciate any input :D


I don't see any need to do either. This is a fic search comm, and a good one. Focus on continuing to do this comm's stated goal well. There are several good QaF fic rec comms out there. Why repeat the work that's being done elsewhere yet again? Perhaps the best thing would be to just provide a few links to good fic rec comms & resources on the profile page -- you know, "If you're not looking for a specific fic, but are just looking for more general QaF fic recs, try here:".

[seanmegansean.livejournal.com]

Perhaps the best thing would be to just provide a few links to good fic rec comms & resources on the profile page -- you know, "If you're not looking for a specific fic, but are just looking for more general QaF fic recs, try here:".

I really like that idea. All the comms for that purpose I can think of right now is one meager one though, bjfic - Any other good ones you'd personally want to see in such a list of good rec comms?

[flamencanyc.livejournal.com]

bjfic isn't a rec comm, it's a fic posting comm, but sure, it's worth linking to.
Rec comms include qaf_retread and queerasrecs, and I suppose you could include _in_babylon as kind of a rec comm. There may well be others that I'm not aware of or that aren't coming to mind at the moment too.

[seanmegansean.livejournal.com]

Yes, I thought bjfic wasn't a rec comm, too, but it says This is a community for Brian/Justin fanfiction writers and readers. Members are welcome to post B/J fic, recs and discuss fiction! on the profile, so I thought maybe they were one after all ;D

And I know retread, but of course that's not an "open" comm either, i.e. all the recs will be from HB or AS. And queerasrecs has three reccers if I'm not mistaken (erraticonstilts, turnyourankle, lovebashed), so that wouldn't be an open one either.

This is really harder than I thought lol All the comms on my flist that came to mind at first either have restricted posting access or are for pictures and graphics really.

Anyway, thanks so much for your suggestions, I'll definitely think about at least mentioning _in_babylon on the profile:)

[flamencanyc.livejournal.com]

They may not be open comms, but they are some of the most general rec comms around, and if people know about them, they can join or not as they see fit. The point for you is to point people to places where they can find recs without having to make yet another huge rec list yourself.

[seanmegansean.livejournal.com]

The point for you is to point people to places where they can find recs without having to make yet another huge rec list yourself.

Personally, I don't see it so much as "having" to make yet another post, I think lots of people just want a list of their faves for themselves, something to come back to easily, and they just think others might find something in them, too.

Be that as it may though, there won't be any recs in getithere, in the future I'll just direct everybody to get_it_there -Hopefully that works :D

[flamencanyc.livejournal.com]

Cool. Will do. Love the name. :)

[flamencanyc.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, there's also not_nearly.

There are also a number of them outside of LJ, like:
http://seperis.illuminatedtext.com/qafrecs.html
and those at Queer Eyes.
And of course there are the major archives like bjfic.net.

If you wanted to you could point to the websites or LJs of major authors, but that's a lot of extra work and a lot of picking and choosing, and people should be able to get to them working off of the rec comms and Googling.

It's also probably worth pointing out for newbies, that when they find an author they like, they should always check in their memories section for other fics by them and fics they liked enough to place in their memories.

[agneson9.livejournal.com]

Keep it simple I say. We search here, we don't rec here.

Personal peeve: I keep seeing posts that are too general, which are probably masquerading as recs. For example, "I just read fic A, and I'm looking for more like fic A. Help." or "I just saw episode xyz, where can I find gapfillers for episode xyz."

I know there's those posts will probably keep popping up on f-list but... anyway GIH is a search community not a search engine, I think would help have folks could be specific... more details.

[seanmegansean.livejournal.com]

Personal peeve: I keep seeing posts that are too general, which are probably masquerading as recs. For example, "I just read fic A, and I'm looking for more like fic A. Help." or "I just saw episode xyz, where can I find gapfillers for episode xyz."

Tbh, I'm not sure all of them are masquerading as rec posts (cause if I had thought they had been pure rec posts, I'd have deleted them ;)). Of course "specific" is up to some subjective interpretation, but personally I think gapfillers about one particular ep are specific enough. The other one, the "I just read fic A, and I'm looking for more fic like A. Help." is a bit more difficult to pin down. Usually my deleting them depends on when exactly I see them - if a post like that has already gotten five or more comments with recs, I'll usually leave them there, because as I said, the more fic, the better. Nonetheless, I do get your point.

Keep it simple I say. We search here, we don't rec here. Duly noted - and so true, too :)

Thanks for your comment. Much appreciated :D

[agneson9.livejournal.com]

Your right. It's just that sometimes I feel like there's an expectation that the comm can churn out all the answers all the time, no matter what one ordered.


Links to archives maybe? bjfic.net?

[seanmegansean.livejournal.com]

It's just that sometimes I feel like there's an expectation that the comm can churn out all the answers all the time, no matter what one ordered. I know, sometimes the tone of some entries can seem a little "off" - although that might also be because a lot of the members aren't necessarily native speakers ;)

I created get_it_there for fic recs and will link to it on the profile page of GIH. Maybe that helps ... We will see if there is a demand for yet another rec community, but at least now I have a place to send people to ;)

[known-anonymity.livejournal.com]

In regards to linking to rec communities, while I think that's a good idea, I don't really think that solves the problem that you might see in this community.

Because, for example, if someone posts saying they just started reading AU fics and would love some AU fic recs (which may be a little too general for this comm), you can't really go to qaf_retread or queerasrecs to solve your problem. Those communities only give recs that a few mods choose to their liking. You can't post in either of those communities asking for AU recs.

Either way, this is a fic searching community, and I'm not suggesting that changes, I'm just pointing out that even if you linked to rec communities, while it may help people looking for some subjective good recs, it doesn't really allow them to ask for and find recs that may be too general for this community, but a little more specific that just any reccomendation.

[seanmegansean.livejournal.com]

Yup, I hear you.

There won't be any changes to this comm. I just created a pure fic rec comm named get_it_there - maybe I'll do specific fic search/gathering posts (like AU recs, e.g.) over there every once in a while. Let's see if there is need for yet another comm. Even if it's scope is slightly larger than all the others ;)

And thanks for commenting :D

[court1429.livejournal.com]

I was going to suggest that a comm be started that is a purely recommendation comm. One that allows anyone to post saying, "omg, I just read this amazing story!" and give a little synopsis and a link. My thought was it could be virtually unmoderated, too. Of course, what's one person's amazing fic is another's "worst piece of shit I ever read EVER" fic, but that's ok. Readers can check out what they want and ignore the rest. And nobody flames another's recs.

I also think sometimes people confuse a rec (recommendations) comm with a req (request) comm. Maybe.

[seanmegansean.livejournal.com]

The pure rec comm is taken care off - get_it_there - now all it has to do is find a decent flist for people to *wanna* post there;)

And yes, it will be unmoderated. I think we have to find a balance between posts being simple enough so that people wanna post, and posts being rare enough so people will wanna read them. That's why I came up with the 20 fic-limit. *shrug* Time will tell if that was a good idea or not ;D

[truehawk.livejournal.com]

"Please keep in mind that this is a community to look for things related to QaF. It is NOT a place to rec your personal favorites."

Just a quick question. I read your post and I'm a little confused. Is it all right to look for one specific story that you may have read and can't find. OR Should I be requesting fics in a general sense... like does anyone know any good season one fics, etc?

I thought I understood but just want to clarify.

Thanks

[seanmegansean.livejournal.com]

Is it all right to look for one specific story that you may have read and can't find. OR Should I be requesting fics in a general sense...

No, you shouldn't be asking for general fic recs, please. The old rules (http://community.livejournal.com/getithere/profile) are all still on. So, almost the most important thing if you ask for something in this comm, is still being *specific* :D

In other words, "looking for one specific story that you may have read and can't find" is more than alright! :D

[court1429.livejournal.com]

But it is ok to ask for fics that are around a particular time in a season, right, SMS? For example, "I'm looking for fics that take place/deal with Justin being a go-go boy." That might sorta come under the heading of gapfiller, but not necessarily. And, to me, that's a specific request, even if the searcher hasn't already read a fic about that topic and just can't remember what it was.

I do agree that "I'm looking for S2 fics" or similar is too vague.

[seanmegansean.livejournal.com]

But it is ok to ask for fics that are around a particular time in a season, right, SMS? For example, "I'm looking for fics that take place/deal with Justin being a go-go boy." That is indeed okay :)

As I said somewhere above, I usually think there cannot be too much fic. My main concern with a policy of "any search goes" is that people's flists will be so clogged with GIH posts that they will just stop looking at the comm's posts. Which of course would end in the chances for fics being found being drastically reduced. So I try to see specificness a whole lot, but sometimes there just isn't. Unless it's a particular arc that is known for its high turnout of fic (like the cancer arc, LA, etc), a rule of thumb for unspecificness (word?) is the number of fics you could link to as a reply to that search. If practically every fic ever written could fit the description (like "is there fic out there that has Brian or Justin drink coffee?"), you can tell the search was too general ;)

[court1429.livejournal.com]

specificity and non-specificity would be the words you were looking for. lol

[seanmegansean.livejournal.com]

LOL - thank you :) I thought "my" words sounded a bit off ;)

[court1429.livejournal.com]

One thing that I think would be useful for searching would be to expand the tags and the Memories section to topics rather than just found it. Which creates a bunch more work for you, I know. :-( (Though I'd be willing to help, if you'd like.)

Not every request would necessarily fit into an easily defined topic, but a lot would. And a lot of the requests are repeated frequently and/or are category/topic requests (like my voyeur request awhile back).

Just thinking back on requests I remember reading I'd like to see Tags/Memories categories for Gapfillers by Season/Ep, cancer!fic, hurt/sick!Brian, hurt/sick!Justin, amnesia!fic, post-513 (might be a little broad), married/rings, death fic, minor character death fic, mpreg, B/J with kids, anti-Mikey, BDSM, Brian/Em, Justin/Ben, AU-canon friendly, AR (B/J meet differently, are in different professions, live in a different time, reversed ages, etc.), evil Ethan, holiday fic, super-schmoop, voyeur/others' pov, 3some/4some/moresome, crossover, high school/college, epic/novel length fics... I'm sure other people could suggest more categories.

Re the recs: I know there are several authors/LJers who keep recs in their memories, though how current they are I don't know. I just happened to see darksylvia's recs at her leahclaire website in the last day or so and I know other folks have them, too. Doesn't potentiial have a huge rec list? There's a princesskirsty posting recs, too. qafhappy has big two posts of fics. These are as subjective as the other rec comms in that it's just one person's opinion, I know. and it still doesn't answer the question about where to direct people to post recs, but there could be a categoy in the Memories for Recs and folks' lists could be linked there, perhaps.

/ramble :)

[seanmegansean.livejournal.com]

Due to time constraints and practicality, I'm not a big fan of extending the number of tags. OTOH, we might add some more categories in the memories. Although I also see the problem of having too much of a good thing. There's about thirty categories so far, so there's some room for more, but I think anything from fifty onwards will be none too helpful in the long run.

Lots of the categories you mention are already there yet though. I do like the epic/novel length, the sick!B/J (so far under h/c), anti-Mikey, evil Ethan, super-schmoop, 3some/4some/orgy, and a few others, the BIG problem with all and any of those categories is that I do not know all the fics though. And they hardly ever name all of the aspects for me to be able to tell into which categories they belong. Plus, there's a limit of five memory tags to attach to an entry in the first place.

Having said all that, would you be interested in taking care of the memories for getithere? I can tell you though that it is a lot of work lol. One thing which would make you more suited to it than me, is that you've read far more fic than I have though. So there would be fewer mistakes if you did it - never a bad thing ;D

Let me know what you think. No pressure or anything;) If you agree, all I have to do is figure out how to make you a maintainer (which will probably last a while anyway, seeing how LJ savvy I am LOL). We would have to talk about the AR category, too - I'm afraid I've been using that in a quite different sense.

[court1429.livejournal.com]

*iz embarrassed* I hadn't looked at the Memories in a long time. You do have a bunch of those categories already on there. Sorry. ;\

No biggie about AU/AR. I only found out they were separate in some people's opinions when bjfic.net changed hands. I'd never heard of AR before. And I don't really use it, but I know some folks do. And I certainly won't swear (or even pretend) that my definition is correct. Generally speaking, I don't read and have zero interest in anything that is more than a veer from canon. What some folks are now referring to as "what if" fic.

If we can figure out a good way for me to help, I'd be happy to. Another thing that *might* work, because, like you, I haven't read all the fic (and won't read a lot of it), is when you ask people to edit their post with Found It, to also edit with what Memories category(ies) their fic should be in. Maybe...