Mod note, re: Tags, f-locking

[rihani.livejournal.com]

I just went through and cleared out a whole bunch of tags that were cluttering up the tags list. For various reasons, but almost all of them were for misspelled words/typos. So if I could please ask that you actually look through the tag list when you go to tag your fic, rather than entering in your own -- unless you've verified that the tag you want to use doesn't already exist -- I would really appreciate it. It's time-consuming on my part to go through and remove redundant tags.

I'd like to keep the tagging simple, so some guidelines:

• rating (g, pg, pg-13, r, nc-17 -- this is how they are established in the tags)
  
• your name (so if that's not listed, feel free to add it)
  
• the team(s) (full team names, starting with the city, rather than nick names; these should all be listed already, at least for the NHL)
  
• players (full names, and no person a/person b tags, please!!)
  

This will hopefully save the tags list from filling up too quickly again, and then I won't have to spend an hour clearing it out again. :-) Keep in mind, we only have 1000 tags to work with, and while that may seem like a lot, when you think about how many different people write how many different players, our tags list gets quite the workout! In case you're curious, here is a complete list of all our tags currently in use.

Thanks everyone... if there's any problems or questions about this, please let me know!

One more thing: I'm heavily leaning toward making this comm where all the posts are, by default, friends-only. This is mostly due to a lot of "outing" of fic going on outside our insular little communities, and some other smaller issues. I'm mostly curious about people's opinions at the moment, so let me know what you all think about that, please?

Comments

[zdarovyeh.livejournal.com]

Yay for beating me to the clean-up. And for being all official mod-like and saying what I'd been thinking for a while now! :)

[rihani.livejournal.com]

I do what I can. *laughs* I really didn't feel like working this morning.

[musicksempire.livejournal.com]

Do you think you could you post a link to the tags page on the info page if you haven't already? Sometimes I like to search tags to read fic about certain players, and I can't be the only one that does that ;)

EDIT: I think its a good idea to f-lock the comm.

[rihani.livejournal.com]

I just finished adding the link to the user info when I got your comment. :-)

Thank you.

[savvyfan.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all the hard work. :-)

As for the posts, I prefer access for anyone who wants to read. I never would have found this place myself if not for it, as I didn't have an LJ account.

[rihani.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. :-)

Noted. Thanks.

[rin-x-x.livejournal.com]

Yay for mods! x3

I dunno about entirely f-locking the comm. It can often show that a comm is dead (when it entirely isn't). Plus I mean..well. If it helps. But I dont know if its needed. Someone could just as easily join the community and then copy over some stories. I think that if you really want to try to keep your identity safe, make a story-only journal. Its the only thing I can think of if you want to keep posting and truely keep your online identity safe.

So Im in agreeance with savvyfan here.

[zdarovyeh.livejournal.com]

It can often show that a comm is dead

If it's clear that the community is friends-lock only, by like a banner or something, then this should be preventable.

Someone could just as easily join the community and then copy over some stories.

If someone does this, there's a far bigger problem going on :) [and I think reasons to ban someone].

But the issue isn't whether or not someone copies the posts out somewhere else, but to make the posts less easy to find by Google searches or other web spiders.

I was freaked out recently to have some slash fic posted on LJ community show up in a Google email alert I'm subscribed to. If it's coming up for me, then it'll certainly come up with any friends or family of the person looking for news items for him.

[rihani.livejournal.com]

I highly doubt that anyone would think this comm is dead -- besides, if you have a question, you can always look at the info and see when the last post was made. But it would be made clear that the content was (mostly) f-locked, and to join for access.

If people are joining and copying fics elsewhere without author permission, that's an entirely other set of issues, and one I would happily deal with the massive amounts of banning. This isn't so much about keeping a singular identity safe, it's about keeping the fandom... quiet. I don't know how long you've been in fandom, but I've never, ever found a situation, in my 20+ odd years of fandoming, where it was good to be "outed" in general. It's like an unspoken thing -- people know it happens, but if you don't publicize it to the populace at large, it's better for everyone. It's like sharing fanfic with actors, you don't do it. So keeping the comm off the radar to a greater extent seems prudent to me, personally. There's nothing to stop anyone from posting and then making their posts public, if I do make the change.

Thanks for your input. I appreciate hearing all perspectives. :-)

[skye-chan14.livejournal.com]

I think friends-locking the community is probably a good idea, because really, with all the outing that's been happening, how do we know that one of the players that gets written isn't going to stumble upon the community somehow, and then throw a big stink about it? It's a distinct possibility, really, with the outings in the baseball fic community to Deadspin and that site that got posted a few days back.

And like someone else said, if you so choose to take the risk, you can always unlock it yourself.

[savvyfan.livejournal.com]

Actually I've heard that there are players who are well aware of slash fic and find it highly amusing. Really, wouldn't you, if it were you?

But seriously, raising a stink about this would be pretty counterproductive. For one thing, all it would do is invite publicity, which you'd think is the last thing any embarassed player would want. And legally, there's not a thing anyone could do about it anyway. Even without disclaimers.

A more serious consideration, IMHO, is whether or not an author is worried about their RL identity being revealed. That could be awkward. But there are safeguards for that, aren't there?

I just think the more, the merrier. That's what I write for - for people to enjoy. If I didn't want an audience, I'd write my fics in a notebook and hide them, only allowing select friends to sneak a peek. What fun is that?

[rihani.livejournal.com]

That's what I've been thinking too. Thanks for your input! :-)

[believe51.livejournal.com]

Thanks for taking all that time! I know from experience that mod-ing is usually pretty thankless and exhausting. =]

I've actually taken to f-locking everything I post on my journal and here anyway, lately. With everything that's going on it just seemed like the best decision for me. Obviously I'd be in favor of you totally f-locking the community, but if you decide not to that's cool too.

[rihani.livejournal.com]

Thank you... yeah, it's a hassle sometimes, but it has to be done. :-)

I've actually noticed a lot of people have been locking their own posts. Which is good, but also lends itself to supporting my rationale for wanting to lock the comm by default. I think more people are becoming aware of keeping an eye on themselves. But it's so easy to forget to select the "friends-only" setting sometimes, god knows I do it in my own journal once in a while! lol

[officerjudy.livejournal.com]

I think f-locking the community is a good idea -- then again, I've been f-locking my own fic since day one. If an individual author wants their posts to be public, they can always unlock the posts themselves.

Just my $0.02.

[rihani.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your input, I appreciate it. :-)

[eggybread.livejournal.com]

I've always been in favor of unlocked fic -- that is, after all, how I found this place -- but if there's an 'unlock' option per author, than I suppose it doesn't make very much difference?

THANK YOU FOR THE AWESOME EDITING OF THE TAGS!!
(However, I still found a few: daniel/danny briere, olaf/olie kolzig, dominik/dominick hasek, and of course my nemesis "pittsburgh pengins"...
and I'm glad we have room again, but just as a thought: maybe you should be required to post 2 or 3 things before using an author tag, instead of just one? save some *more* space?)

[eggybread.livejournal.com]

oh, and there was also an "frao" rating one...

[littlestclouds.livejournal.com]

Personally, I would have no problem with the community becoming friends only if it's unmoderated membership. If I were a non member who, for example, wanted to read a fic someone linked me to, but couldn't see it and had to wait to be approved, I'd probably just go, "Fuck it" and not bother. I'd hate to see people get scared off.

Also, I think if people want their posts to be FO they'll lock it. That happened with theboysofsummer, and I didn't have to bother making the community FO (though I never planned on it anyway).

In general though, I'm not concerned with "outing". It usually dies down.

[rihani.livejournal.com]

The only reason the comm would ever go to moderated membership is if there was a huge trolling outbreak or something (been there, done that, had to clean up the messes more than once).

We'll see... I'm all for personal responsibility, but I'm also for protecting the insular nature of fandom as it should be too. It's a fine line sometimes.

[ginny305.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tags :)

If we're all tossing in our two cents, I vote for friends only. I'm paranoid about things, but not well enough to remember to flock posts here.

[rihani.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. :)

Thanks for your input.

[bkm5191.livejournal.com]

People can post here under a f-lock but link to journals that are open anyway. But not everyone cares that people know they write / read hockey fic, so I don't know that it is necessary to make everything locked yet.

[rihani.livejournal.com]

I know, and the other way around they can unlock. I really don't know, I'm mostly tossing the idea around and asking for opinions. I'm not going to do anything today, anyway.

And your icon is making me laugh. It's clearly telling me I need to dust off some of my unfinished LeafsFic.

[notsomediumdrip.livejournal.com]

I vote hell yes for making it friends only.

There are too many drama queens and homophobic people on the web.

[ocenbrez.livejournal.com]

Frankly, I think it's a good idea. I've been in other fandoms where it has been outed and it leads to a lot of embarrasment to the peoplefeatured in the fics, and ridicule in the press.

[cavefelem.livejournal.com]

Just about everything's been said in other comments already, but count me in as one more supporter of friends-only by default. If someone is dead set against their fics being f-locked, they can always unlock them, right? Plenty of people are f-locking their fics already, so it's not like it would be such a big change.

[eggybread.livejournal.com]

Is there a way to "sticky" this post at the top of the comm somehow? Just so/until everybody gets the news?

[ljhockey.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I just saw this. Thanks so much for all that work! I know it had to have taken a great deal of time, and being a mod is often a thankless job where you end up coming under attack. So, good job, and thanks for running this place :)