3) What we can do though, and I'd love to hear opinions on that one, is to have a) either some permanent links with general fic recs on the comm's profile page, or, b) one big post in here, to which everybody could post their general links and favorite fic in the comments. I'd appreciate any input :D
I don't see any need to do either. This is a fic search comm, and a good one. Focus on continuing to do this comm's stated goal well. There are several good QaF fic rec comms out there. Why repeat the work that's being done elsewhere yet again? Perhaps the best thing would be to just provide a few links to good fic rec comms & resources on the profile page -- you know, "If you're not looking for a specific fic, but are just looking for more general QaF fic recs, try here:".
Perhaps the best thing would be to just provide a few links to good fic rec comms & resources on the profile page -- you know, "If you're not looking for a specific fic, but are just looking for more general QaF fic recs, try here:".
I really like that idea. All the comms for that purpose I can think of right now is one meager one though, bjfic - Any other good ones you'd personally want to see in such a list of good rec comms?
bjfic isn't a rec comm, it's a fic posting comm, but sure, it's worth linking to. Rec comms include qaf_retread and queerasrecs, and I suppose you could include _in_babylon as kind of a rec comm. There may well be others that I'm not aware of or that aren't coming to mind at the moment too.
Yes, I thought bjfic wasn't a rec comm, too, but it says This is a community for Brian/Justin fanfiction writers and readers. Members are welcome to post B/J fic, recs and discuss fiction! on the profile, so I thought maybe they were one after all ;D
And I know retread, but of course that's not an "open" comm either, i.e. all the recs will be from HB or AS. And queerasrecs has three reccers if I'm not mistaken (erraticonstilts, turnyourankle, lovebashed), so that wouldn't be an open one either.
This is really harder than I thought lol All the comms on my flist that came to mind at first either have restricted posting access or are for pictures and graphics really.
Anyway, thanks so much for your suggestions, I'll definitely think about at least mentioning _in_babylon on the profile:)
Keep it simple I say. We search here, we don't rec here.
Personal peeve: I keep seeing posts that are too general, which are probably masquerading as recs. For example, "I just read fic A, and I'm looking for more like fic A. Help." or "I just saw episode xyz, where can I find gapfillers for episode xyz."
I know there's those posts will probably keep popping up on f-list but... anyway GIH is a search community not a search engine, I think would help have folks could be specific... more details.
Personal peeve: I keep seeing posts that are too general, which are probably masquerading as recs. For example, "I just read fic A, and I'm looking for more like fic A. Help." or "I just saw episode xyz, where can I find gapfillers for episode xyz."
Tbh, I'm not sure all of them are masquerading as rec posts (cause if I had thought they had been pure rec posts, I'd have deleted them ;)). Of course "specific" is up to some subjective interpretation, but personally I think gapfillers about one particular ep are specific enough. The other one, the "I just read fic A, and I'm looking for more fic like A. Help." is a bit more difficult to pin down. Usually my deleting them depends on when exactly I see them - if a post like that has already gotten five or more comments with recs, I'll usually leave them there, because as I said, the more fic, the better. Nonetheless, I do get your point.
Keep it simple I say. We search here, we don't rec here. Duly noted - and so true, too :)
Your right. It's just that sometimes I feel like there's an expectation that the comm can churn out all the answers all the time, no matter what one ordered.
It's just that sometimes I feel like there's an expectation that the comm can churn out all the answers all the time, no matter what one ordered. I know, sometimes the tone of some entries can seem a little "off" - although that might also be because a lot of the members aren't necessarily native speakers ;)
I created get_it_there for fic recs and will link to it on the profile page of GIH. Maybe that helps ... We will see if there is a demand for yet another rec community, but at least now I have a place to send people to ;)
In regards to linking to rec communities, while I think that's a good idea, I don't really think that solves the problem that you might see in this community.
Because, for example, if someone posts saying they just started reading AU fics and would love some AU fic recs (which may be a little too general for this comm), you can't really go to qaf_retread or queerasrecs to solve your problem. Those communities only give recs that a few mods choose to their liking. You can't post in either of those communities asking for AU recs.
Either way, this is a fic searching community, and I'm not suggesting that changes, I'm just pointing out that even if you linked to rec communities, while it may help people looking for some subjective good recs, it doesn't really allow them to ask for and find recs that may be too general for this community, but a little more specific that just any reccomendation.
There won't be any changes to this comm. I just created a pure fic rec comm named get_it_there - maybe I'll do specific fic search/gathering posts (like AU recs, e.g.) over there every once in a while. Let's see if there is need for yet another comm. Even if it's scope is slightly larger than all the others ;)
I was going to suggest that a comm be started that is a purely recommendation comm. One that allows anyone to post saying, "omg, I just read this amazing story!" and give a little synopsis and a link. My thought was it could be virtually unmoderated, too. Of course, what's one person's amazing fic is another's "worst piece of shit I ever read EVER" fic, but that's ok. Readers can check out what they want and ignore the rest. And nobody flames another's recs.
I also think sometimes people confuse a rec (recommendations) comm with a req (request) comm. Maybe.
The pure rec comm is taken care off - get_it_there - now all it has to do is find a decent flist for people to *wanna* post there;)
And yes, it will be unmoderated. I think we have to find a balance between posts being simple enough so that people wanna post, and posts being rare enough so people will wanna read them. That's why I came up with the 20 fic-limit. *shrug* Time will tell if that was a good idea or not ;D
"Please keep in mind that this is a community to look for things related to QaF. It is NOT a place to rec your personal favorites."
Just a quick question. I read your post and I'm a little confused. Is it all right to look for one specific story that you may have read and can't find. OR Should I be requesting fics in a general sense... like does anyone know any good season one fics, etc?
Is it all right to look for one specific story that you may have read and can't find. OR Should I be requesting fics in a general sense...
No, you shouldn't be asking for general fic recs, please. The old rules are all still on. So, almost the most important thing if you ask for something in this comm, is still being *specific* :D
In other words, "looking for one specific story that you may have read and can't find" is more than alright! :D
But it is ok to ask for fics that are around a particular time in a season, right, SMS? For example, "I'm looking for fics that take place/deal with Justin being a go-go boy." That might sorta come under the heading of gapfiller, but not necessarily. And, to me, that's a specific request, even if the searcher hasn't already read a fic about that topic and just can't remember what it was.
I do agree that "I'm looking for S2 fics" or similar is too vague.
But it is ok to ask for fics that are around a particular time in a season, right, SMS? For example, "I'm looking for fics that take place/deal with Justin being a go-go boy." That is indeed okay :)
As I said somewhere above, I usually think there cannot be too much fic. My main concern with a policy of "any search goes" is that people's flists will be so clogged with GIH posts that they will just stop looking at the comm's posts. Which of course would end in the chances for fics being found being drastically reduced. So I try to see specificness a whole lot, but sometimes there just isn't. Unless it's a particular arc that is known for its high turnout of fic (like the cancer arc, LA, etc), a rule of thumb for unspecificness (word?) is the number of fics you could link to as a reply to that search. If practically every fic ever written could fit the description (like "is there fic out there that has Brian or Justin drink coffee?"), you can tell the search was too general ;)
One thing that I think would be useful for searching would be to expand the tags and the Memories section to topics rather than just found it. Which creates a bunch more work for you, I know. :-( (Though I'd be willing to help, if you'd like
( ... )
Due to time constraints and practicality, I'm not a big fan of extending the number of tags. OTOH, we might add some more categories in the memories. Although I also see the problem of having too much of a good thing. There's about thirty categories so far, so there's some room for more, but I think anything from fifty onwards will be none too helpful in the long run.
Lots of the categories you mention are already there yet though. I do like the epic/novel length, the sick!B/J (so far under h/c), anti-Mikey, evil Ethan, super-schmoop, 3some/4some/orgy, and a few others, the BIG problem with all and any of those categories is that I do not know all the fics though. And they hardly ever name all of the aspects for me to be able to tell into which categories they belong. Plus, there's a limit of five memory tags to attach to an entry in the first place.
Having said all that, would you be interested in taking care of the memories for getithere? I can tell you though that it is a lot of work lol. One thing which would make you more suited to it
( ... )
*iz embarrassed* I hadn't looked at the Memories in a long time. You do have a bunch of those categories already on there. Sorry. ;\
No biggie about AU/AR. I only found out they were separate in some people's opinions when bjfic.net changed hands. I'd never heard of AR before. And I don't really use it, but I know some folks do. And I certainly won't swear (or even pretend) that my definition is correct. Generally speaking, I don't read and have zero interest in anything that is more than a veer from canon. What some folks are now referring to as "what if" fic.
If we can figure out a good way for me to help, I'd be happy to. Another thing that *might* work, because, like you, I haven't read all the fic (and won't read a lot of it), is when you ask people to edit their post with Found It, to also edit with what Memories category(ies) their fic should be in. Maybe...
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a) either some permanent links with general fic recs on the comm's profile page, or,
b) one big post in here, to which everybody could post their general links and favorite fic in the comments. I'd appreciate any input :D
I don't see any need to do either. This is a fic search comm, and a good one. Focus on continuing to do this comm's stated goal well. There are several good QaF fic rec comms out there. Why repeat the work that's being done elsewhere yet again? Perhaps the best thing would be to just provide a few links to good fic rec comms & resources on the profile page -- you know, "If you're not looking for a specific fic, but are just looking for more general QaF fic recs, try here:".
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I really like that idea. All the comms for that purpose I can think of right now is one meager one though, bjfic - Any other good ones you'd personally want to see in such a list of good rec comms?
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Rec comms include qaf_retread and queerasrecs, and I suppose you could include _in_babylon as kind of a rec comm. There may well be others that I'm not aware of or that aren't coming to mind at the moment too.
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And I know retread, but of course that's not an "open" comm either, i.e. all the recs will be from HB or AS. And queerasrecs has three reccers if I'm not mistaken (erraticonstilts, turnyourankle, lovebashed), so that wouldn't be an open one either.
This is really harder than I thought lol All the comms on my flist that came to mind at first either have restricted posting access or are for pictures and graphics really.
Anyway, thanks so much for your suggestions, I'll definitely think about at least mentioning _in_babylon on the profile:)
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Personal peeve: I keep seeing posts that are too general, which are probably masquerading as recs. For example, "I just read fic A, and I'm looking for more like fic A. Help." or "I just saw episode xyz, where can I find gapfillers for episode xyz."
I know there's those posts will probably keep popping up on f-list but... anyway GIH is a search community not a search engine, I think would help have folks could be specific... more details.
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Tbh, I'm not sure all of them are masquerading as rec posts (cause if I had thought they had been pure rec posts, I'd have deleted them ;)). Of course "specific" is up to some subjective interpretation, but personally I think gapfillers about one particular ep are specific enough. The other one, the "I just read fic A, and I'm looking for more fic like A. Help." is a bit more difficult to pin down. Usually my deleting them depends on when exactly I see them - if a post like that has already gotten five or more comments with recs, I'll usually leave them there, because as I said, the more fic, the better. Nonetheless, I do get your point.
Keep it simple I say. We search here, we don't rec here. Duly noted - and so true, too :)
Thanks for your comment. Much appreciated :D
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Links to archives maybe? bjfic.net?
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I created get_it_there for fic recs and will link to it on the profile page of GIH. Maybe that helps ... We will see if there is a demand for yet another rec community, but at least now I have a place to send people to ;)
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Because, for example, if someone posts saying they just started reading AU fics and would love some AU fic recs (which may be a little too general for this comm), you can't really go to qaf_retread or queerasrecs to solve your problem. Those communities only give recs that a few mods choose to their liking. You can't post in either of those communities asking for AU recs.
Either way, this is a fic searching community, and I'm not suggesting that changes, I'm just pointing out that even if you linked to rec communities, while it may help people looking for some subjective good recs, it doesn't really allow them to ask for and find recs that may be too general for this community, but a little more specific that just any reccomendation.
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There won't be any changes to this comm. I just created a pure fic rec comm named get_it_there - maybe I'll do specific fic search/gathering posts (like AU recs, e.g.) over there every once in a while. Let's see if there is need for yet another comm. Even if it's scope is slightly larger than all the others ;)
And thanks for commenting :D
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I also think sometimes people confuse a rec (recommendations) comm with a req (request) comm. Maybe.
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And yes, it will be unmoderated. I think we have to find a balance between posts being simple enough so that people wanna post, and posts being rare enough so people will wanna read them. That's why I came up with the 20 fic-limit. *shrug* Time will tell if that was a good idea or not ;D
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Just a quick question. I read your post and I'm a little confused. Is it all right to look for one specific story that you may have read and can't find. OR Should I be requesting fics in a general sense... like does anyone know any good season one fics, etc?
I thought I understood but just want to clarify.
Thanks
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No, you shouldn't be asking for general fic recs, please. The old rules are all still on. So, almost the most important thing if you ask for something in this comm, is still being *specific* :D
In other words, "looking for one specific story that you may have read and can't find" is more than alright! :D
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I do agree that "I'm looking for S2 fics" or similar is too vague.
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As I said somewhere above, I usually think there cannot be too much fic. My main concern with a policy of "any search goes" is that people's flists will be so clogged with GIH posts that they will just stop looking at the comm's posts. Which of course would end in the chances for fics being found being drastically reduced. So I try to see specificness a whole lot, but sometimes there just isn't. Unless it's a particular arc that is known for its high turnout of fic (like the cancer arc, LA, etc), a rule of thumb for unspecificness (word?) is the number of fics you could link to as a reply to that search. If practically every fic ever written could fit the description (like "is there fic out there that has Brian or Justin drink coffee?"), you can tell the search was too general ;)
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Lots of the categories you mention are already there yet though. I do like the epic/novel length, the sick!B/J (so far under h/c), anti-Mikey, evil Ethan, super-schmoop, 3some/4some/orgy, and a few others, the BIG problem with all and any of those categories is that I do not know all the fics though. And they hardly ever name all of the aspects for me to be able to tell into which categories they belong. Plus, there's a limit of five memory tags to attach to an entry in the first place.
Having said all that, would you be interested in taking care of the memories for getithere? I can tell you though that it is a lot of work lol. One thing which would make you more suited to it ( ... )
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No biggie about AU/AR. I only found out they were separate in some people's opinions when bjfic.net changed hands. I'd never heard of AR before. And I don't really use it, but I know some folks do. And I certainly won't swear (or even pretend) that my definition is correct. Generally speaking, I don't read and have zero interest in anything that is more than a veer from canon. What some folks are now referring to as "what if" fic.
If we can figure out a good way for me to help, I'd be happy to. Another thing that *might* work, because, like you, I haven't read all the fic (and won't read a lot of it), is when you ask people to edit their post with Found It, to also edit with what Memories category(ies) their fic should be in. Maybe...
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