Community Guidelines
Feb. 10th, 2015 10:08 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
reading221b-mod.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
reading221bHello and welcome ! We are a reader-centered community for discussing Sherlock fanfiction. We hope you find it to be a place that is both engaging and comfortable .Our members have worked hard to build an atmosphere that is friendly and gracious. We try to ensure there is room in our discussions for a full range of responses to the stories we read: enthusiasm, confusion, frustration, interpretive speculation, and critique. Our readers have found all sorts of ways to learn from one another, and to keep their disagreements friendly and constructive.
We're glad you're here, and look forward to hearing your thoughts during our next discussion (or in one of our older conversations - our discussions never close, so although the older ones are usually less active, plenty of people have the discussions tracked and are still paying attention!)
In order to make sure that the community continues to be thoughtful, friendly and constructive, we have instituted some guidelines for participation.
***Author Participation Policy***
as noted above, this community is focused on the readers of fanfiction (though of course, plenty of us are writers as well!) Our primary purpose is to provide a place for people to discuss the fanworks they've read in a way that is about their experiences and interpretations as readers, and those of other readers. Because the authors of the fics we read are among us as friends and fellow-fans, we often give primacy to their ideas about their own work: their inspiration, their goals, their sense of whether the story succeeds. It's one of the great privileges of the fanfiction community that we get to learn those things, and we don't want to ignore that, which is why authors are welcome to participate in discussions of their fics; but we ask that they do so on a limited basis, because authorial presence can also sometimes inhibit the reader's freedom to think about her own encounter with the story. This community is here, first and foremost, to give readers a space to discuss their thoughts and feelings about a story with other readers.
Here are the parameters for an author's participation in discussions of their own work. (comm members, please help the authors observe these boundaries!)
* In order to give your fic's readers time to bring up their own concerns and ideas first, do not join the conversation until 48 hours after the iniial discussion post has gone up.
* In order to preserve the comm members' freedom to engage with your story on their own terms, please do not join the main discussion threads. Instead, create your own "author thread" and use this thread to ask or answer questions, or to raise other ideas. You should absolutely feel free to respond to points that have been made in the main discussion, but please put your responses in your own dedicated thread. Soe of our readers are very interested in talking to authors, and others are not; we want that choice to be theirs to make.
taking part in conversation: come on in, the water's fine!
* Conversations are moderated to make room for people to speak frankly but also treat one another graciously. With this in mind, we encourage you to share your thoughts and interpretations, even if they seem to be at odds with the general current of opinion so far, or if they take the conversation in a different direction.
* One of the benefits of LJ is that a new line of conversation doesn't overwrite or cancel out an old one: by raising a new topic, you're only adding to the discussion, not taking away. Please feel free to raise points about a fic under discussion, even if it's not been included in the initial kick-off post or any of the discussion leader's points for discussion.
* The more, the merrier! We would love to hear from you, even if you feel like you don't have much to add beyond a "me too," or if you aren't sure why or how you've formed your opinion. If you take the time to raise the point, somebody may chime in and help you get some clarity about your own thinking.
challenging other people's opinions and judgments: I'm ok, you're ok
* We are all here to learn from one another. That means making room for opinions and interpretations that are not your own. You should feel free to challenge interpretations that don't seem right to you, but please remember that there are a lot of ways to respond to the same text. Maybe they see the story differently than you do; maybe they saw it the same way, but responded to it differently. That's what makes discussion interesting and keeps it flowing!
* If somebody else's response or reading feels wrong or upsetting to you, please don't feel like you need to withdraw! It is absolutely okay to talk about the things that feel inaccurate or upsetting to you, as long as you do it constructively. You can do this by asking the other poster (and other members as well) what about the story makes them interpret it, or react to it, in the way they do, and follow it up with an explanation of why you see it differently.
* In the same vein: please remember that it's okay to agree to disagree in your head and leave it at that. You are not required to engage in topics of conversation that are upsetting or triggering for you. While these discussions may tackle some serious issues and delve into serious topics, we don't want to make your life difficult by implying that you must participate in all facets of the conversation. If you don't like a conversation or the way it is heading, you are welcome to disengage in order to keep yourself safe.
* This community has worked hard to cultivate a comfort with disagreement. That means that you should feel free to push back on things that other people have said, but also be prepared for the fact that somebody else might push back on you. We have managed to navigate some pretty significant disagreements in the past without anybody turning nasty or dismissive.
keeping our doors open
* If you get excited about someone else's ideas and wind up going back and forth with them for awhile, that's okay! We only ask that you make sure to seed your comments with at least one question that is open to anyone who wants to respond, and not just to the person to whom you're responding. That will help reinforce the sense that these conversations are open and shared.
* If you have concerns about the way another community member is participating, please drop the mods a private note by clicking here.
nominations etiquette: matching stories to streams
We try to be as inclusive as possible, to folks from all across fandom: that means creating space for conversations about less-popular genres and fics, while making sure that everybody feels welcome to participate in those conversations, if they so choose.
In order to make sure that the nominated stories are well-suited to streams, we have built a few layers into the nominating process.
1) we ask all nominators to consider whether their story is a good fit for the stream, and whether their enthusiasm for this particular fic is at odds with the stream itself. (that is: if you find yourself writing "normally I don't like reading angst, but this particular angst story..." in your nomination post, you probably want to think hard about whether the story really belongs in the angst stream, and whether it's fair to folks who are really invested in the genre at hand.)
2) we ask other members of the community to weigh in if they see a nominated fic that does not seem to match the stream. We have, at present, no ironclad policy for determining when a fic gets pulled from the nominations list; what happens next will depend on how that discussion develops.
To keep this process running smoothly, please:
1) be polite, whether you are challenging someone else's nomination or responding to someone who has challenged yours.
2) remember that when someone questions the suitability of your nomination, this challenge is in no way a reflection on the quality of the fic: they are simply about whether the fic is a good fit for the stream. These challenges are also not about you as a nominator. Everybody draws genre in different places, and the question of fit is always a local one. People can legitimately disagree with each other about the boundaries of a category or genre; boundaies like that are never clear, or stable, or absolute. If somebody questions whether your nomination belongs in a given stream, that's about this community, right now, not a judgment for all readers at all times.
We're glad you're here, and look forward to hearing your thoughts during our next discussion (or in one of our older conversations - our discussions never close, so although the older ones are usually less active, plenty of people have the discussions tracked and are still paying attention!)
In order to make sure that the community continues to be thoughtful, friendly and constructive, we have instituted some guidelines for participation.
***Author Participation Policy***
as noted above, this community is focused on the readers of fanfiction (though of course, plenty of us are writers as well!) Our primary purpose is to provide a place for people to discuss the fanworks they've read in a way that is about their experiences and interpretations as readers, and those of other readers. Because the authors of the fics we read are among us as friends and fellow-fans, we often give primacy to their ideas about their own work: their inspiration, their goals, their sense of whether the story succeeds. It's one of the great privileges of the fanfiction community that we get to learn those things, and we don't want to ignore that, which is why authors are welcome to participate in discussions of their fics; but we ask that they do so on a limited basis, because authorial presence can also sometimes inhibit the reader's freedom to think about her own encounter with the story. This community is here, first and foremost, to give readers a space to discuss their thoughts and feelings about a story with other readers.
Here are the parameters for an author's participation in discussions of their own work. (comm members, please help the authors observe these boundaries!)
* In order to give your fic's readers time to bring up their own concerns and ideas first, do not join the conversation until 48 hours after the iniial discussion post has gone up.
* In order to preserve the comm members' freedom to engage with your story on their own terms, please do not join the main discussion threads. Instead, create your own "author thread" and use this thread to ask or answer questions, or to raise other ideas. You should absolutely feel free to respond to points that have been made in the main discussion, but please put your responses in your own dedicated thread. Soe of our readers are very interested in talking to authors, and others are not; we want that choice to be theirs to make.
taking part in conversation: come on in, the water's fine!
* Conversations are moderated to make room for people to speak frankly but also treat one another graciously. With this in mind, we encourage you to share your thoughts and interpretations, even if they seem to be at odds with the general current of opinion so far, or if they take the conversation in a different direction.
* One of the benefits of LJ is that a new line of conversation doesn't overwrite or cancel out an old one: by raising a new topic, you're only adding to the discussion, not taking away. Please feel free to raise points about a fic under discussion, even if it's not been included in the initial kick-off post or any of the discussion leader's points for discussion.
* The more, the merrier! We would love to hear from you, even if you feel like you don't have much to add beyond a "me too," or if you aren't sure why or how you've formed your opinion. If you take the time to raise the point, somebody may chime in and help you get some clarity about your own thinking.
challenging other people's opinions and judgments: I'm ok, you're ok
* We are all here to learn from one another. That means making room for opinions and interpretations that are not your own. You should feel free to challenge interpretations that don't seem right to you, but please remember that there are a lot of ways to respond to the same text. Maybe they see the story differently than you do; maybe they saw it the same way, but responded to it differently. That's what makes discussion interesting and keeps it flowing!
* If somebody else's response or reading feels wrong or upsetting to you, please don't feel like you need to withdraw! It is absolutely okay to talk about the things that feel inaccurate or upsetting to you, as long as you do it constructively. You can do this by asking the other poster (and other members as well) what about the story makes them interpret it, or react to it, in the way they do, and follow it up with an explanation of why you see it differently.
* In the same vein: please remember that it's okay to agree to disagree in your head and leave it at that. You are not required to engage in topics of conversation that are upsetting or triggering for you. While these discussions may tackle some serious issues and delve into serious topics, we don't want to make your life difficult by implying that you must participate in all facets of the conversation. If you don't like a conversation or the way it is heading, you are welcome to disengage in order to keep yourself safe.
* This community has worked hard to cultivate a comfort with disagreement. That means that you should feel free to push back on things that other people have said, but also be prepared for the fact that somebody else might push back on you. We have managed to navigate some pretty significant disagreements in the past without anybody turning nasty or dismissive.
keeping our doors open
* If you get excited about someone else's ideas and wind up going back and forth with them for awhile, that's okay! We only ask that you make sure to seed your comments with at least one question that is open to anyone who wants to respond, and not just to the person to whom you're responding. That will help reinforce the sense that these conversations are open and shared.
* If you have concerns about the way another community member is participating, please drop the mods a private note by clicking here.
nominations etiquette: matching stories to streams
We try to be as inclusive as possible, to folks from all across fandom: that means creating space for conversations about less-popular genres and fics, while making sure that everybody feels welcome to participate in those conversations, if they so choose.
In order to make sure that the nominated stories are well-suited to streams, we have built a few layers into the nominating process.
1) we ask all nominators to consider whether their story is a good fit for the stream, and whether their enthusiasm for this particular fic is at odds with the stream itself. (that is: if you find yourself writing "normally I don't like reading angst, but this particular angst story..." in your nomination post, you probably want to think hard about whether the story really belongs in the angst stream, and whether it's fair to folks who are really invested in the genre at hand.)
2) we ask other members of the community to weigh in if they see a nominated fic that does not seem to match the stream. We have, at present, no ironclad policy for determining when a fic gets pulled from the nominations list; what happens next will depend on how that discussion develops.
To keep this process running smoothly, please:
1) be polite, whether you are challenging someone else's nomination or responding to someone who has challenged yours.
2) remember that when someone questions the suitability of your nomination, this challenge is in no way a reflection on the quality of the fic: they are simply about whether the fic is a good fit for the stream. These challenges are also not about you as a nominator. Everybody draws genre in different places, and the question of fit is always a local one. People can legitimately disagree with each other about the boundaries of a category or genre; boundaies like that are never clear, or stable, or absolute. If somebody questions whether your nomination belongs in a given stream, that's about this community, right now, not a judgment for all readers at all times.
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