Mod-ly Announcement: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, hpthemes!

[hpthemes_mods]

Hello, all you fine reccers!

We've had some staffing changes here at hpthemes, and want to let you know about them.

Sadly, purpledodah and werewolfsfan are no longer able to serve as Moderators for this community. We thank them mightily for their work to keep the community up and running in the immediate aftermath of jamie27's "retirement", and wish them much luck and love

Comments

[la_localfreak]

It is wonderful to see that hpthemes will be running again. Many thanks to songquake and dwarfandelf for taking this on!

I would love to see a 'Master of Death' rec list (stories which explain/are about those who have posessed the Hallows, and specifically the repurcussions of being Master of Death for Harry) but I have a feeling it would be rather too specific a category. Also we have time travel...any dimension travel? I(eg character goes to a world in which certain things did not occur or other things did)?

I don't really know to be honest- just glad to see that there will be more themes a coming! :) Are we still allowed to comment on current lists if we find more?

[songquake]

You are ABSOLUTELY allowed to comment on the current lists if you find more - and we will update delicious as time allows. We probably won't have a "make-up" week for a bit, but last year there was one about every four months. The themes are all tagged, so you should be able to navigate to them easily from our home page.

[lost_stray_cat]

Hi la_localfreak,

Thank you for welcoming us (well, me, since songquake has been here for a while.) :-)

I love your suggestion for Dimension Travel! I am already thinking of two stories (of the top of my head) I want to rec for that.

About "Master of Death/Deathly Hallows Masters" theme - it is a very interesting suggestion. We thought about combining it with "Immortality" which is on our "big list of themes" already and would seem to explore similar concepts?

I'm happy to say, both of your suggestions are now on our proposed schedule of themes.

[yanagi_wa]

Thanks to Purps and Wolf for all their hard work.

Welcome to Songquake and Dwarfandelf.

[lost_stray_cat]

Thank you! What themes would you like to see that haven't been done yet?

[yanagi_wa]

Since I have a brain like a sieve, I don't remember them. But ... after a check, I don't see anything left out that I'm interested in. Maybe ... Harry raised by other than Dursleys?

Adoption recs.

[songquake]

You might want to take a look at the recs we have for Adoption; Harry's probably the most commonly adopted character. And if you have more to add (or have an idea for a theme in which Harry's raised by someone else but not through adoption), go ahead!

More themes

[vaysh]

These new themes came to mind. ;)

♦ Cross-over fics/art (HP x other book/movie/series)
♦ Major Character Death fics/art
♦ Male Pregnancy (mpreg) fics/art
♦ Travel fics/art (not time travel, but travel to other than the usual canon places

Re: More themes

[lost_stray_cat]

We have done crossovers before. If you have any recs to add to it, we would love that! Go to the original post (follow the link above), or indeed for any other themes that have been done - you can add any new recs you might have to the original post for that theme.

death!fic - oh no! :-) I'll just have to hide that week.

Mpreg is coming soon!

Travel fics - nice idea, one or two great travel!fics come to mind right away.

Thank you for your suggestions!

[hogwartshussy]

I'd really like to see major holidays as themes. Like New Year's, Valentine's Day, and Christmas.

But one thing stands out for me MUCH more than new themes. I'd really, really like to see "new" pairings. Your recs are very overwhelmingly Harry/Draco, Harry/Severus. Besides that, much more than half m/m. Where are the het pairs? And canon pairs in general?

The lists just don't feel encompassing to me because of the lack of variety in the pairings. When I look at a community like crack_broom, the majority of pairings are het but there is a wide variety of pairings/characters every month. The idea of this community is great. But the lists don't feel encompassing to me because every time I click a new theme, I see the same pairings, over and over.

[lost_stray_cat]

This is great feedback! I was actually thinking about promoting the community and was just beginning to wonder about *where* to advertise it. Then comes in your comment, and I suddenly realize the enormity of the HP fandom...

As you say, if we mean to include *everything* (het, slash, femslash, and gen) then we really should make an effort to have wider range of pairings (and gen).

And I am now just beginning to appreciate what a huge task it will be to figure out where are the best places to promote the community. I think I'll start making a list of characters and pairings and...try to find out what are the most active communities to post in... Do you have any suggestions??

I will appreciate any help in this direction! (Given that normally I move only in Harry/Snape parts of the world...and an occasional Albus Severus/Scorpius fic...)

[hogwartshussy]

First, ask the newsletters to cover your theme. The biggest of course is the daily_snitch but there is the quibbler_report for gen and rare pairings. There is a Snape centric news and many pairings have newsletters.
There is one, obhwf_weekly that hits the majority of major canon pairings but because they publish on the weekend usually, they probably wouldn't be of much help with weekly themes. You could how ever, ask about affiliating with them and see if they will mention the comm once a month or so.

I would either post each week asking for recs for your theme in the search communities and/or affiliate.
hpgenreficfind, recmehp, hp_ficsearch and accio_marauders. Plus there are pairing specific fic search communities. I've used the very active accio_rs_fics with success.

To invite recs from more fans, you should probably affiliate or post banners/requests from time to time in communities. For figuring out which, your resource is hp_directory. Every profile page has a date at the top as to the last time there was a post which should tell you how active the community is at a glance.

[lost_stray_cat]

Thanks for that, I appreciate it. And thanks for the explanation about the availability of various types of holiday-fics. :-)

New theme ideas

[sandystarr88]

Birthdays
Friendship
Wizard Law/Politics
Infidelity
Foreign Locations (outside of the UK)
Christmas
Five Times and various adaptations (i.e. Five Times Character A did something and One Time they did something else)

Re: New theme ideas

[lost_stray_cat]

Hi Sandystar

Re: New theme ideas

[sandystarr88]

Well, the "Five Time . . ." fic is kind of a pan-fandom phenomenon I don't know if I'd really call it a theme but it is a very common story structure. I guess that travel fics are really a subgroup of foreign locations fic, I mean if you had a story about Fleur in France or Viktor in Bulgaria it's not really a travel fic, but yes I'm sure there's a lot of overlap.

Thanks for the wonderful community, you guys are really doing a great job here :)