tight like dynamite
Timberkid and Rainbow Boy have kept me pretty well entertained over the past couple of days (for several meanings of entertained, come to think of it). The joys of being a fangirl, yay.
I'm doing website redesign--actually, I've been fiddling with it off and on for so long now that I worry I'll be tired of the new colors before I get around to uploading. So I'm looking at my warnings pages and thinking about losing them because I don't know if anyone jumps through those hoops and actually looks for any warnings, and there are rarely any warnings to look for, anyway. And then I think, wow, it'd be cool if I could have a little link next to every story and there'd be a pop-up window with warnings and stuff. Except that it would be a whole lot of work, and since I'm not that attached to warnings myself, I'd rather do something else with my time. (Like write lj posts and procrastinate on site updates.)
I probably have some kind of warning deficiency or something. I'm never sure what, exactly, people want to be warned for, and I can't go by what I want to be warned for, because then the warning categories would be deliberate (self-)mutilation, dire embarrassment, and on certain days, beloved character is belittled and ridiculed and dismissed by an uncaring world. When people say they want warnings, I usually assume it's for stuff like violence and death and rape and whatnot, and I was kind of surprised the other day when someone mentioned multiple partners (like, threesomes and stuff) as a must-have warning. I just went to check a couple of archives, and what do you know, that's one of the warning options. I don't think I would ever have come up with that as a warning on my own. Huh. Anyway, I figure people can get that kind of stuff from the pairing listing (which, come to think of it, I don't have on the stories either, and for which readers also have to jump through hoops, and I think maybe I should cut down on the number of hoops there, sheesh).
A little while ago, there was a really civil discussion of warnings on zendom. It was so civil and rational that I started to wonder where warnings-related arguments come from. People who want warnings on their stories read from archives and lists where warnings are mandatory, people who don't want to put warnings on their stories don't post to those archives and lists, and we all live happily ever after. Except, I suppose, that some people want to post without warnings everywhere, and some people want to have warnings in place everywhere, and some people very like me post death stories with just a caveat lector warning and then say, oh, oops. Like I said, warning-deficient, that's me. Blind spot. When I write something myself, I know how it goes, so it doesn't upset me.... (I think, though, that I didn't actually violate list policy, because I don't think there was one at that point. Though that could just be retroactive wishful thinking.)
One thing I've really liked about popslash fandom is reading stories without warnings listed, without pairings listed, with barely a summary. It's probably a consequence of stories being on people's personal sites rather than in archives, so there's no mandatory policy blah blah. Maybe it works better in one's honeymoon period, but still, there's something intriguing about going into a story knowing nothing except the fandom, and to play spot-the-pairing. (Most of the time, the first two guys to appear in any given story are the ones that get it on. No, I don't have statistics on that.) Then again, I did ask wax_jism to make me a list of torch-safe stories, since she has a knack for alternately squicking and delighting me (and sometimes both at the same time). I'm not a wimp, really. Except for when I am. And sooner or later, of course, I reach a point where I lose my complete willingness to be open to any brand-new-fandom experience whatsoever and I look at a story and think, but does it give good JC? Not that there's really a rating or pairing or warning in the world that tells me that.
Babble. I should get back to the html. Sigh.
I'm doing website redesign--actually, I've been fiddling with it off and on for so long now that I worry I'll be tired of the new colors before I get around to uploading. So I'm looking at my warnings pages and thinking about losing them because I don't know if anyone jumps through those hoops and actually looks for any warnings, and there are rarely any warnings to look for, anyway. And then I think, wow, it'd be cool if I could have a little link next to every story and there'd be a pop-up window with warnings and stuff. Except that it would be a whole lot of work, and since I'm not that attached to warnings myself, I'd rather do something else with my time. (Like write lj posts and procrastinate on site updates.)
I probably have some kind of warning deficiency or something. I'm never sure what, exactly, people want to be warned for, and I can't go by what I want to be warned for, because then the warning categories would be deliberate (self-)mutilation, dire embarrassment, and on certain days, beloved character is belittled and ridiculed and dismissed by an uncaring world. When people say they want warnings, I usually assume it's for stuff like violence and death and rape and whatnot, and I was kind of surprised the other day when someone mentioned multiple partners (like, threesomes and stuff) as a must-have warning. I just went to check a couple of archives, and what do you know, that's one of the warning options. I don't think I would ever have come up with that as a warning on my own. Huh. Anyway, I figure people can get that kind of stuff from the pairing listing (which, come to think of it, I don't have on the stories either, and for which readers also have to jump through hoops, and I think maybe I should cut down on the number of hoops there, sheesh).
A little while ago, there was a really civil discussion of warnings on zendom. It was so civil and rational that I started to wonder where warnings-related arguments come from. People who want warnings on their stories read from archives and lists where warnings are mandatory, people who don't want to put warnings on their stories don't post to those archives and lists, and we all live happily ever after. Except, I suppose, that some people want to post without warnings everywhere, and some people want to have warnings in place everywhere, and some people very like me post death stories with just a caveat lector warning and then say, oh, oops. Like I said, warning-deficient, that's me. Blind spot. When I write something myself, I know how it goes, so it doesn't upset me.... (I think, though, that I didn't actually violate list policy, because I don't think there was one at that point. Though that could just be retroactive wishful thinking.)
One thing I've really liked about popslash fandom is reading stories without warnings listed, without pairings listed, with barely a summary. It's probably a consequence of stories being on people's personal sites rather than in archives, so there's no mandatory policy blah blah. Maybe it works better in one's honeymoon period, but still, there's something intriguing about going into a story knowing nothing except the fandom, and to play spot-the-pairing. (Most of the time, the first two guys to appear in any given story are the ones that get it on. No, I don't have statistics on that.) Then again, I did ask wax_jism to make me a list of torch-safe stories, since she has a knack for alternately squicking and delighting me (and sometimes both at the same time). I'm not a wimp, really. Except for when I am. And sooner or later, of course, I reach a point where I lose my complete willingness to be open to any brand-new-fandom experience whatsoever and I look at a story and think, but does it give good JC? Not that there's really a rating or pairing or warning in the world that tells me that.
Babble. I should get back to the html. Sigh.