Archiving Tips & Tricks

[girl_reader]

Note :: These are taken from the rules that thenewhope posted in madeofgay.

This post contains specific guidelines and such for archivists. The basic directions to creating a femslash_today newsletter post are here.

The watch list is made up of femslash-specific communities, femslash-friendly challenge communities, femslash writers' journals/fic journals, and fandom newsletters. Many of the posts that appear on it are of no relevance to femslash_today and can be skipped over. The trick to being an f_t archivist is learning to recognize which posts are relevant.

Some guidelines to cull by:

• Just because something is posted in a femslash-specific or pairing-specific community doesn't mean it's actually relevant. If it's not fic, art, or something easily identifiable as femslash-related, take a close to make sure it's relevant before listing it.
  
  
• Just because a BNF said it doesn't make it meta. Or for that matter, just because a BNF said it doesn't make it femslash-related.
  
  
• For the most part, we do not include "always a woman" stories about men. If the character is canonically male and being written as emotionally/intellectually male, it's still a male character and not appropriate for posting to femslash_today.
  
  
• Pay attention to those fandom newsletter posts. You can get a lot of stuff off of them.
  
  
• You don't need to list every challenge announced on the watch list. In fact, if it's not for a fic community that expressly allows femslash or somehow otherwise related to femslash, don't even bother with it.
  
  
• You don't need to list every community that gets pimped on the watch list. In fact, if it's not expressly open to femslash, don't even bother with it.
  
  
• Meta, poll, and commentary posts should only be linked to if they mention/deal with femslash related topics.
  
  
• Never link to the cut-tag or comments of a meta or commentary post, but rather to the post's direct URL so as to maximize the chance of readers seeing spoiler warnings. (The direct URL can be found either through the "link to" button on the tool bar at the top of the post, or by removing the "?#cutid#" value from a cut-tag link.)
  Note :: The only exception to this rule is for comment-fic.
  
  
• Videos should only be listed if they focus on a femslash pairing or are otherwise easily identified as femslash-related.
  
  
• Art and icons should only be listed if they contain femslash or subtext content. One subtexty icon in a batch of 30 is not enough to get an icon post listed.
  Note :: The general rule of thumb is if the femslash content is less than 30% of the whole post, it's not considered a femslash post and wouldn't be included.
  
  
• If it's a crossover between two fandoms, list the story under the first fandom the author lists/mentions only and include the other fandom in parenthesis at the end of the listing. You only need to list it once.
  Note :: If you're getting the link from a fandom-specific or pairing-specific newsletter, click on the link to the author's story to find out how they listed the fandoms.
  
  
• For crossovers that are between three or more fandoms, list them under the larger {crossover} heading and list all of the covered fandoms in parenthesis at the end of the listing. If there are more than three pairings, don't bother listing them.
  
  
• Crossovers between two parts of a canon universe are listed as normal under the universe's heading, while the distinct shows are listed in parenthesis at the end of the listing.
  
  
• Many of the fandoms that are routinely listed on f_t are part of larger canon universes. For ease of both listing and finding, we group all parts of canon universes together under a main header and then mark which part each listing belongs to in parenthesis.
  
  Here is the list of universe headings and the fandoms that fall into them:
  
  ~ Jossverse - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS), Angel the Series (AtS), Firefly (FF), and Dollhouse (DH)
  ~ CSI - CSI Las Vegas (Vegas), CSI Miami (Miami), and CSI New York (NY)
  ~ Law & Order - Original Series (OST), Special Victims Unit (SVU), Criminal Intent (CI), and Conviction
  ~ Stargate - Stargate SG-1 (SG1), Stargate Atlantis (SGA), and Stargate Universe (SGU)
  ~ Star Trek - Original Series (OST), Next Generation (TNG), Deep Space 9 (DS9), Voyager (VOY) and Enterprise (ENT)
  ~ Dr. Who - Dr. Who (DW), Sarah Jane Adventures (SJA), Torchwood (TW)
  ~ MCU - all movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
  ~ CW-verse: Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow (LoT), Supergirl (SG)
  
  
• When listing a story's pairing, list the pairing as it is written on the original post unless it is either a smoosh/portmanteau or not present. People can get weird about the way pairings are listed, and can sometimes leave comments to f_t posts complaining about how one character is listed by their last name while the other is listed by their first. As long as the person complaining isn't the original author/creator, just ignore them. (This goes for all sections, not just fic.)
  
  
• Some authors use name smooshes or portmanteaus when listing pairings, or fail to list them all together. This is often a trend in pairing-specific communities, so I've listed the main ones below, along with their fandom and how the pairing should be listed.
  
  ~ chenzel_monthly - Wicked RPFS - Idina/Kristin
  ~ bree_lynette - Desperate Housewives - Bree/Lynette
  ~ cathandsara - CSI Vegas - Catherine/Sara
  ~ ashscribbs - Murder in Suburbia - Ash/Scribbs
  ~ tamy_love - SNL RPFS - Tina Fey/Amy Poehler
  ~ sara_sofia - CSI Vegas - Sara/Sofia
  ~ maca_esther - Hospital Central - Maca/Esther
  ~ gelphie_lovers, wicked_fanfic and wickfic - Wicked - Glinda/Elphaba or Galinda/Elphaba (often listed as "gelphie." The two different spellings of the first name is actually an important distinction, so if you have a few seconds, scan through the story and try to figure out which is correct.)
  ~ duvista - CSI Miami - Calleigh/Natalia
  ~ burn_ingcity, otaliavs - Guiding Light - Olivia/Natalia
  ~ faberittana - Glee - Quinn/Rachel/Brittany/Santana
  
  
• For the Glee fandoms, please make note of the following smooshes:
  ~ Faberry - Rachel/Quinn
  ~ Brittana - Brittany/Santana
  ~ Quinntana - Quinn/Santana
  ~ Pezberry - Rachel/Santana
  ~ Faberrittana - Rachel/Quinn/Brittany/Santana
  
  
• rpfs_sports and wickedrpfs are multi-pairing communities with the same pairing listing problems. if you're not able to figure out the pairing by skimming the story, either leave a comment asking for clarification or skip it.
  
  
• If a story has more than one femslash pairing listed, make sure to list them all (unless it's a crossover between three or more fandoms, then you follow the rule for that situation).
  
  
• Only list stories at speed_rent if the first pairing listed is a femslash one.
  
  
• Multifandom recs posts get listed under the larger {recs} heading, with the fandoms but not the pairings listed.
  
  
• So you've got a link that you absolutely feel needs to be listed. It's femslash related, you're absolutely sure of it, but it isn't fic, art, meta, a vid or anything else that falls into the usual categories, nor is it specific to a single fandom. Slap a {misc} header onto it and be done with it.
  Note :: This works especially for people looking for specific stories/artwork/etc or offering prompts.
  
  
• Any comments left on your update that pertain to kudos for you and/or comments about possible errors in your update should be answered by you. Any other comments, either of an f_t nature [general questions or policy questions], derogatory comments of any kind, spam, or anything else, will be answered by ariestess.
  
  
• Got a question that wasn't answered here? Look through previous femslash_today updates and see if you can figure it out for yourself. Or, if you can't, contact ariestess for a definitive answer.