Make your indexer's life easier...
Just in case anyone cares, I thought I'd post some guidelines that would help me and the other dcfic_index indexers out. Please note that I'm not trying to tell you what to do, nor will we yell at you if you *don't* do these things-- it's not like this is a 'real' archive where things must be submitted correctly or they won't be approved. I'm just
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Well, to be honest, I was wary about even *making* this post in the first place, because I didn't want to be percieved as telling people how they should post. If this were the usual sort of archive that offered free web hosting, then yes, in return I'd expect people to post stories formatted according to archive guidelines, blah blah blah. But I originally created this community for my own personal benefit, so I'm a little hesitant to tell everybody in DC fandom how to do things so that they're more convenient for *me* and *my* needs. There's 150 watchers of this community, so I feel pretty confident that a large segment of DC fans/writers are now at least *aware* of some of the things we have to take into consideration when we're indexing. But I'd rather not cross-post this everywhere, because to me it feels bossy-- maybe that's neurotic, but oh well.
In regard to #5, what about 'fics where the idea is to disguise the identity of the character(s)? Could there be a category for "Unrevealed" or would that best be under the "Other" category?
Well, in a story that, for instance, featured someone undercover and then at the very end, revealed it to be Cass, I'd just put that story under "Cassandra Cain." (Yeah, it kills a bit of the suspense, but doing it any other way just creates too much work for the indexers-- what about a story where Cass' identity is revealed 1/2 way through the story-- does it go under 'Unknown,' or 'Cass?' What if only the tension of the beginning scene depends on the fact that you don't know it's Cass? Should we check with the author every time? Basically, I have often found that the more options that are available, the more likely it is that someone's going to pick the wrong one at some point, so in the interests of keeping things simple, my general rule is to not go for 'Unknown' or 'Surprise pairing' options.)
I was mainly talking about the type of story that's like, "You touch your lover's hair. Your lover smiles at you and you kiss. You discuss your angst in general terms that could apply to anyone. Then you have sex, but without revealing what gender either of you are. The end. Hope you liked my Justice League fic!" And I'm looking at it going "well, if I can't tell who these people are, or even if it should go under 'slash' or 'het,' then I really can't index it..." You know?
Any chance of getting a Justice Lords category? (More of a wishlist on this one, I understand.)
At this point, probably not, since it would involve going back and re-reading all the stories that had already been indexed. (And errors tend to slip in a lot more than usual during re-keywording, thanks to how LJ sets up the process.) If someone wanted to go back through all the memories, pick out all the Justice Lords stories, and make a list of them, that would be something the dcfic_index would definitely be interested in linking.... :D
Thanks for your comments!
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Well, another idea is to make it part of the userinfo for the communities. You and Te run jl_fic, batfic and titans_together, yes? Add something like "We'd appreciate it if you put X and Y in your header info." Then you're not dictating to the whole fandom, just providing guidelines for the communities you're modding anyway.
Re #5: Gotcha. :) Makes perfect sense.
Re Lorders: Give me a few days and I'll see what I can come up with.
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I run titans_together by myself, I believe Te's the mod of jl_fic, and I forget who runs batfic-- it's been around longer than either of ours, I think. It's a good idea to put it in the community userinfo, though. :)
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You are truly awesome. :D
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