Fandom Netiquette for Newbies: a Navigational Guide

[erinya]

I've noticed that there are lots of newcomers participating in PotC fandom on LJ these days, which is wonderful. But I also know that LJ fandom can be daunting to a newbie. There are quite a few unwritten rules and conventions of courtesy that are taken for granted by those of us who have been around for awhile, and people sometimes react

Comments

[naotalba]

Thank you for this. It clears up a lot of questions.

[erinya]

Yay! I'm glad it's helpful. Anything else I missed?

[naotalba]

One more. I see "fake cut" or warnings that what looks like an lj-cut is actually a link. Are there rules about that, or does it depend on the community?

[erinya]

You know, I don't know how others feel about this, but I almost always link to my own journal because I like keeping the comments in one place--and it means it's easier for me to remove a post if I ever decide that's necessary, rather than tracking it down in several different places. As far as I know, there are no solid conventions about this. It's done so frequently that I don't think it's a no-no, but some communities might have their own rules for how to post.

[choose2live]

Thanks for posting this, Erin. As a relative LJ newbie myself, it's the kind of thing I'd have loved to have seen when I first came on board, and now am happy to read and relieved to see I haven't committed any major breaches of etiquette. :-) I think the internet would benefit hugely from some sort of basic 'must-read' site that covers FAQs and etiquette for the internet in general... but, as it is, we have to do it ourselves in our own little communities, and you've done a fine job here.

[erinya]

Oh, good. :-) I was trying to be thorough and talk about everything that I had to figure out when I was first venturing into fandom.

[crystel_dream]

Good point for the internet in general. That would probably help a lot of people.

[laisserais]

hi! [here via metafandom]. thanks for this! some of this stuff is still hazy for me, so i found this to be informative.

[erinya]

No problem! I'm glad you found it helpful. Any questions I didn't answer?

[laisserais]

"Any questions I didn't answer?" uuummm, there's a thousand i could ask, lol, but i think you covered all of the basics. maybe if you were going to do an intermediate guide... it was interesting to see the issue of fake lj cuts come up in comments, though. i hadn't been sensitive to that as an issue before, but it's certainly food for thought.

i liked your explanation of the friending thing a lot. that was something it took me a long time to figure out. because, yeah, it felt a little weird, that you could "friend" someone without permission, and then just start responding to their posts. it seemed intrusive. so i like your suggestion of letting folks know. it kind of made me feel better that i wasn't the only one who'd puzzled over it. lol

[erinya]

:-) It's kind of common-sensible when you think about what other people are going to see on their friends list, but I figured a nice clear guide couldn't hurt.

Re: Here via meta_fandom

[erinya]

Yes, by all means, link it around!

Good thought on commenting--I assume you're talking about threading comments, and replying to other's comments vs. replying to the main post...i.e. how LJ is not the same as a message board. I'll be adding a category for this.

Re: Here via meta_fandom

[azurelunatic]

Yes -- because on a flat message board it doesn't much matter, but on a threaded message board, it really does.

And the signature block seems to be sort of taboo on LJ. Same with making one's comments colorful.