DYW FAQ!
Hey, lurkers (or participating non-members)! Sometimes I get asked questions about DYW, and often those questions are the same ones over and over. So I wrote up an FAQ, which I will be putting in the userinfo shortly, so that I will never have to answer questions again. *dreamy look* Also, members, you can point people here if they ask you stuff. This is directed at non-members at the moment, since most of you in here know what's up, so save up membership-related questions for...um, a rainy day or something. \o/
DYW FAQ
Why are some of the primers locked?
In all instances, this is what happened:
1. We said, "Post primers unlocked!"
2. People posted primers locked.
3. We said, "Please unlock these primers!"
4. They ignored us, then left the community.
We don't have the power to unlock locked posts, and it would be really, really unethical and rude to completely repost those entries publically. So that's not going to happen. We're very sorry, we know it sucks. :( We don't like it either.
Why is fic locked?
Trick question! It isn't. When we started this community, it was for a couple of reasons, mostly: we were all in this new fandom, and we wanted a place to talk to each other about it, and we wanted to write fic, and encourage other people to write fic. Therefore, locking fic makes no sense.
That said, there are still a few people that lock their fic here from time to time. This is completely 100% their choice, and they would lock their fic no matter where they posted it. You are not missing anything you wouldn't be missing anyway.
Why is anything locked?
Okay, say you just read this article about a band you like. Do you want to tell your friends about it and talk about it with them, or do you want to tell 400 people you don't know, some of whom will chime in to say completely random things, or pointless things, or talk about how they don't like that band, or ask if they can come hang out even though you don't know them?
The point is when this community started it was a place for us and our friends to talk about stuff we liked. It's grown a bit to extend to new folks who are sweet and whose writing we like, but it's a small place, it's meant to be a small place, and we're all pretty friendly with each other, as LJ communities go. We are not locking up the secrets of...whatever it is people think happens here, we're mostly just talking to each other about stuff we like. It's a place for us to be happy about things. And it's a cult. Wait no, just kidding!
How do I get in?
All of the myths and secrets and answers you seek are located quite handily in the userinfo!
Why isn't DYW an open-membership community?
Because we like nice people who don't suck, and if we let everybody in, along with the people who are undoubtedly 100% awesome, we would get people who suck and are mean. If that's elitist, then so is everybody that's not friends with every single person they meet.
We also want DYW to be a place where people can come and know they'll get good fiction to read. As the fandom gets bigger, it becomes less likely that we'll have every single good writer in here, but it's still a decent jumping-off point for bandslash. If we let in every writer, this would become slashatthedisco or patrickxpeter, and...yeah.
Why isn't My Chemical Romance considered a DYW band?
When DYW first started, there were maybe...two people writing really good fic in the Fall Out Boy fandom. (Three? Maybe three?) Nobody was writing good Panic! fic. Nobody was writing good The Academy Is... fic. Cobra Starship didn't yet exist as a band (dark days, kids, dark days).
MCR, however, had a very active fandom. It had good writers. It had a community for good writers (yeahchemical). If you wanted good MCR fic, you could find it. People were talking about them. The fandom existed, and it included people who had been in fandoms before, who had fandom experience, who wrote decent fic, and were good people.
FOB, P!ATD, TAI..., they didn't have these things. There wasn't much of a fandom, in terms of all the things you'd want out of one (good fic, good information, footage, nice people). This is why we created DYW, so these bands we liked could have these things, so we could encourage our friends, and their friends, and other nice people, to make the fandom better.
MCR fandom already existed. It didn't need the help.
There was initial minor interest (oh Mikey/Pete, what mysteries you contain!), but then Yeahchem picked back up again, and most of the people in DYW who liked MCR (not all of us; in fact, probably less than half the community) also had membership there. The original issue still stood: MCR already had an active fandom, and moreover, a community like DYW.
Crossovers are still welcomed, of course (with MCR and others), but for these reasons MCR is not, and will not be, a DYW band.
So then what's the deal with all these other bands?
Very simply -
Fall Out Boy: Patient zero. Maybe you've heard of them.
Panic! At The Disco: Signed with Pete's label, Decaydance, were initially very small and cute, are now very pretty and gay with each other.
The Academy Is...: Signed to Fueled By Ramen at Pete's insistence. Lead singer William Beckett very pretty and gay with Pete (and others).
Gym Class Heroes: Signed to Decaydance. Lead singer Travis very handsome and gay with William Beckett (see: Warped Tour '06). Patrick produced their last record.
Cobra Starship: Signed to Decaydance. Lead singer Gabe Saporta very handsome and gay with...gayness. Examples include William (in general), William and Travis (in Cobra Starship supergroup), Pete (in general), Mikey Way (at a party once? and apparently since Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge).
All-American Rejects: Toured with Fall Out Boy (spring '06), later Gym Class Heroes (fall '06), also The Academy Is... (winter '05). Are really very, very, extraordinarily gay and awesome. Fandom did not exist, information and fic were needed; ergo, AAR became a DYW band.
The Hush Sound: Signed to Decaydance. Toured with Fall Out Boy (spring '06) and Panic! At The Disco (summer '06). Tiny and very, very darling. Patrick produced their last record.
Other people you might see mentioned: Maja from the Sounds, sang on the first Cobra single, toured with Panic! in the UK, fall 2006, is very, very hot; Tom Conrad, former guitarist for The Academy Is... (and former bandmate/current buddy of Jon Walker, in Chicago band 504Plan), photographer, went around with Panic! on a few dates during the Nothing Rhymes With Circus tour; Jack Marin, Panic's tour manager on the Truckstops and Statelines tour, then bassist for (Decaydance labelmates) Cute Is What We Aim For, then former bassist for Cute Is What We Aim For; Amanda and Brian, the Dresden Dolls (second opener for Panic! on their summer '06 tour; Ryan and Amanda were fairly friendly, also they filmed this as a tongue-in-cheek response to the often poor reception the Dolls received on that tour); Andrew McMahon, lead singer of Jack's Mannequin, second opener for Panic! on the Nothing Rhymes With Circus tour. Probably more people I'm forgetting. (Who am I forgetting?)
More questions added as they come up!
DYW FAQ
Why are some of the primers locked?
In all instances, this is what happened:
1. We said, "Post primers unlocked!"
2. People posted primers locked.
3. We said, "Please unlock these primers!"
4. They ignored us, then left the community.
We don't have the power to unlock locked posts, and it would be really, really unethical and rude to completely repost those entries publically. So that's not going to happen. We're very sorry, we know it sucks. :( We don't like it either.
Why is fic locked?
Trick question! It isn't. When we started this community, it was for a couple of reasons, mostly: we were all in this new fandom, and we wanted a place to talk to each other about it, and we wanted to write fic, and encourage other people to write fic. Therefore, locking fic makes no sense.
That said, there are still a few people that lock their fic here from time to time. This is completely 100% their choice, and they would lock their fic no matter where they posted it. You are not missing anything you wouldn't be missing anyway.
Why is anything locked?
Okay, say you just read this article about a band you like. Do you want to tell your friends about it and talk about it with them, or do you want to tell 400 people you don't know, some of whom will chime in to say completely random things, or pointless things, or talk about how they don't like that band, or ask if they can come hang out even though you don't know them?
The point is when this community started it was a place for us and our friends to talk about stuff we liked. It's grown a bit to extend to new folks who are sweet and whose writing we like, but it's a small place, it's meant to be a small place, and we're all pretty friendly with each other, as LJ communities go. We are not locking up the secrets of...whatever it is people think happens here, we're mostly just talking to each other about stuff we like. It's a place for us to be happy about things. And it's a cult. Wait no, just kidding!
How do I get in?
All of the myths and secrets and answers you seek are located quite handily in the userinfo!
Why isn't DYW an open-membership community?
Because we like nice people who don't suck, and if we let everybody in, along with the people who are undoubtedly 100% awesome, we would get people who suck and are mean. If that's elitist, then so is everybody that's not friends with every single person they meet.
We also want DYW to be a place where people can come and know they'll get good fiction to read. As the fandom gets bigger, it becomes less likely that we'll have every single good writer in here, but it's still a decent jumping-off point for bandslash. If we let in every writer, this would become slashatthedisco or patrickxpeter, and...yeah.
Why isn't My Chemical Romance considered a DYW band?
When DYW first started, there were maybe...two people writing really good fic in the Fall Out Boy fandom. (Three? Maybe three?) Nobody was writing good Panic! fic. Nobody was writing good The Academy Is... fic. Cobra Starship didn't yet exist as a band (dark days, kids, dark days).
MCR, however, had a very active fandom. It had good writers. It had a community for good writers (yeahchemical). If you wanted good MCR fic, you could find it. People were talking about them. The fandom existed, and it included people who had been in fandoms before, who had fandom experience, who wrote decent fic, and were good people.
FOB, P!ATD, TAI..., they didn't have these things. There wasn't much of a fandom, in terms of all the things you'd want out of one (good fic, good information, footage, nice people). This is why we created DYW, so these bands we liked could have these things, so we could encourage our friends, and their friends, and other nice people, to make the fandom better.
MCR fandom already existed. It didn't need the help.
There was initial minor interest (oh Mikey/Pete, what mysteries you contain!), but then Yeahchem picked back up again, and most of the people in DYW who liked MCR (not all of us; in fact, probably less than half the community) also had membership there. The original issue still stood: MCR already had an active fandom, and moreover, a community like DYW.
Crossovers are still welcomed, of course (with MCR and others), but for these reasons MCR is not, and will not be, a DYW band.
So then what's the deal with all these other bands?
Very simply -
Fall Out Boy: Patient zero. Maybe you've heard of them.
Panic! At The Disco: Signed with Pete's label, Decaydance, were initially very small and cute, are now very pretty and gay with each other.
The Academy Is...: Signed to Fueled By Ramen at Pete's insistence. Lead singer William Beckett very pretty and gay with Pete (and others).
Gym Class Heroes: Signed to Decaydance. Lead singer Travis very handsome and gay with William Beckett (see: Warped Tour '06). Patrick produced their last record.
Cobra Starship: Signed to Decaydance. Lead singer Gabe Saporta very handsome and gay with...gayness. Examples include William (in general), William and Travis (in Cobra Starship supergroup), Pete (in general), Mikey Way (at a party once? and apparently since Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge).
All-American Rejects: Toured with Fall Out Boy (spring '06), later Gym Class Heroes (fall '06), also The Academy Is... (winter '05). Are really very, very, extraordinarily gay and awesome. Fandom did not exist, information and fic were needed; ergo, AAR became a DYW band.
The Hush Sound: Signed to Decaydance. Toured with Fall Out Boy (spring '06) and Panic! At The Disco (summer '06). Tiny and very, very darling. Patrick produced their last record.
Other people you might see mentioned: Maja from the Sounds, sang on the first Cobra single, toured with Panic! in the UK, fall 2006, is very, very hot; Tom Conrad, former guitarist for The Academy Is... (and former bandmate/current buddy of Jon Walker, in Chicago band 504Plan), photographer, went around with Panic! on a few dates during the Nothing Rhymes With Circus tour; Jack Marin, Panic's tour manager on the Truckstops and Statelines tour, then bassist for (Decaydance labelmates) Cute Is What We Aim For, then former bassist for Cute Is What We Aim For; Amanda and Brian, the Dresden Dolls (second opener for Panic! on their summer '06 tour; Ryan and Amanda were fairly friendly, also they filmed this as a tongue-in-cheek response to the often poor reception the Dolls received on that tour); Andrew McMahon, lead singer of Jack's Mannequin, second opener for Panic! on the Nothing Rhymes With Circus tour. Probably more people I'm forgetting. (Who am I forgetting?)
More questions added as they come up!