Mod Post: On the subject of all those "Can you please send me a copy of..." requests

[seanmegansean.livejournal.com]

I've received quite a few emails and PMs about this issue and have been thinking of how to come up with a solution. Obviously, there are different opinions on whether it is wrong for people to share stories if they themselves didn't write them, and I'm not going to discuss the question here. I want things to be simple and clear for and in this community.

So this is what I've come up with (and I'm going to spare you my thoughts leading to these):

1) For the sake of this community, i.e. quick answers to (mostly fic) searches, I'm not going to friends-lock the entries, have posts mod-approved before posting, or disable anonymous comments.

2) If you are an author and don't want stories you've flocked or taken down for whatever reasons shared as documents, please tell me and I'll try to make sure that nobody asks for your stories in entries in this comm.

If people post a request wanting your stories as documents, I'll delete the entry. If they do it again after being told not do, I'll ban them.

However, I would appreciate it if I or my co-mods were the only people in this comm chastising people for unwanted entries. It's what we're here for, let us do it. Feel more than free to send us a PM telling us about an entry if you think we're not quick enough, or for that matter, send the person posting that request about your stories a PM asking them to stop it, but the comments in this comm should remain neutral and friendly, and I'm not sure that jumping newbies for (at least in their eyes) legitimate requests is the way to go here.

3) If you are a reader and are continually disappointed by all the comments to posts, i.e. it's not 20 new stories in the comments, but just 20 requests to send a copy via email, I suggest clicking only on those posts that have been edited with something like "Tons of recs in the comments". That's the only way of not wasting time on entries that are of no interest to you and the main reason why we have the "Please edit your post with the result of your search" rule in the first place.

******
As always, if this doesn't please you, or you have better ideas of how to deal with any of this, feel free to leave a comment or send me a PM or an email at seanmegansean at livejournal dot com.

Thank you for your attention, and have a good day :D

Comments

[vlredreign.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm gonna find that cool hat *snerk* that Aretha Franklin wore to the Inauguration, and make us mod hat icons.

Thanks for the post. MUCH appreciated. Will PM you later. ♥

[camjakefan.livejournal.com]

I wanted to know if this would effect people if they're searching for lost work and authors not flocked work and the only way to get it is if it can be emailed to them. If it is flocked or taken down I respect an author's wish.

[sgibneva.livejournal.com]

hi, i do not write the STORIES but i really love to reads them, not everyone is so tallanted to write ... but i still love this community...!!!!!!!

[eva213.livejournal.com]

"What we don't want is a fic request that has a hundred people commenting, "Oooh, me too, send it to me!" "

Why? People will have their PM boxes full of requests. Isn´t this community here exactly for this? If the authors didn´t flock their fics and it´s OK with them to share or left LJ long time ago for unknown reason? Why wouldn´t be people allowed to ask HERE for their fics?

[court1429.livejournal.com]

I agree that it works better for the person who's offering to email a copy of a fic around to say: "Please email at xxx@xxx.com if you want me to send you a copy so as not to clog this request."

I really think, though, that if a fic's been posted and removed for whatever reason, if someone's got it saved on her hard drive, there is absolutely nothing wrong with sharing it with other readers. Nobody's going to repost (and if they did, that would be a whole other issue), they're just going to enjoy the fic. It's the internet; it's fanfic. Just not that big a deal, IMO.

[josieb1.livejournal.com]

I agree with the rules, and don't have a problem with them, and will admit to being guilty of the odd 'could you email it to me please' posting.

The problem is I am a new QAF fan, I only discovered the show 7 months ago, and people like me will always be intrigued by anything we can't get hold of easily, i.e. fics from authors no longer around, who have left the fandom for whatever reasons, authors who don’t have sites, or fics uploaded anymore, such as Mouse, so there will always be a demand for those fics, especially as quite a few of the older links in memories don't work anymore.

I do agree with not emailing or asking for flocked fics though, if they are flocked then the author has a site so it’s only polite to ask to join their site. If they say don't contact me I would always post a comment, if its possible, then its up to the author to decide what to do, most authors on LJ and IJ are very good so I can't see it being a problem.

Thanks for clarifying what is allowed

[netlagd.livejournal.com]

You might want to look at my post over at coffee club IJ
though it devolved down to copyright issues, it was rather enlightening on this subject:
http://asylums.insanejournal.com/qaf_coffeeclub/163351.html