The Alternative Guide to Stargate Atlantis: Discussion Part III

[skieswideopen]

Conversation seems to have died down, so on to the next step. (If you feel like you're not being given time to participate because of the speed with which this is happening, I'm sorry. I'm trying to maintain momentum here, so once I feel like a consensus has been reached--or as close to a consensus as we're going to get--I move on. But feel free to

Comments

[melyanna]

I can help with the comm layout (to an extent, anyway; I'm hardly an expert and someone else might be better at this). But sadly I am rubbish with community names as well. ;)

[skieswideopen]

We have a name! And I would absolutely appreciate help with the layout, because I have almost no experience with that. I've actually set up the community now--and I'm going to start posting some basic admin posts soon--so if you want to start playing with it, I'll send you an invite and give you access so that you can experiment.

As I was saying below, if we go with a layout that has a header, I think the way to go will be to use some very neutral header, like a picture of Atlantis. (Creating the header doesn't have to be your responsibility, but maybe keep that in mind in terms of colour schemes and so forth.)

[melyanna]

Sure thing. I've got some other things on my plate at the moment, but I can at least get something temporary set up until we have graphics. If we're going to have a header, like you said, I'll want the graphics on hand to get the colors right. (If need be, I can also make a header for it, but it'll take me a while to get to, as I'm starting to feel guilty about the editing and reading I keep procrastinating on. ;) )

[skieswideopen]

There are probably other people I can recruit to make a header, so don't worry about that. And obviously there's no point in finalizing the look until that's done, so you don't have to rush.

[ultranos_fic]

I might be interested in helping with admin. (Not so much with the guide writing. /o\)

Minimum requirements...I dunno, 3? 5? 3 creators and 5 works? I don't know, I'm throwing out numbers.

[skieswideopen]

Thank you, and sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you. I'd love to have you as a co-admin. Organizational skills...very useful things. :D

[ultranos_fic]

Hey, things are crazy. No problem. :)

[scrollgirl]

Community name: sga_altguide, the Stargate Atlantis Guide for All Your Alternative Fandom Needs? *g* Or just The Alternative Guide to Stargate Atlantis, to reiterate the titles of your posts?

Or sga_newbieguide. Or hell, just sga_guide.

I do think we need minimum requirements for a pairing to qualify--at least a total of 10 fanworks (any type) by at least 3 creators? If I'm the only person writing Jeannie/Bates and I've written 20 fics, I wouldn't expect to get my own page for the pairing. The really rare pairings can go on the rare pairings page.

[havocthecat]

I really like sga_guide, actually. I kind of like newbie_gate or newbie_atlantis, but I'm pretty crappy at coming up with names.

I think at least three creators is good for pairing requirements. I mean, I love Elizabeth/Janet, which is even smaller than Elizabeth/Kate, and there are really only a couple of us who ever wrote that regularly. It definitely belongs lumped in on a femslash page, not broken out into it's own page.

[skieswideopen]

That's about four or five people who have said they like sga_guide now, so I think I'll go with that.

And for minimum requirements, it looks like the consensus is somewhere around three different creators, plus ten fanworks of some sort that are worth of recommending or otherwise representative in some way of that character/pairing/relationship (and I really need to come up with some sort of shorthand for that).

I need to start working on a guide for people who want to create pages for this, so I'll put those minimum requirements in there, then put it up to the new community for feedback and see if anyone objects.

[havocthecat]

All that sounds good to me!

[tielan]

sga_alternative? sga_altguide>? sga_alt_atlantis? Or even just sga_guide? (lj comm=sga_primer, sga_fandomguide...)

I think that qualifying for one's own page should require at least 10 fics/meta/etc. by at least 4 or more creators. But that's because I feel that a page would otherwise look spindly. I'd prefer 20, actually, but we're just not going to get 20 recs for some characters.

Also, query as to whether we're going to make this a set of recs and suggestions for starting points and authors, or an "allfics" list. Is the reccing up to the discretion of the person putting together the page? And what happens if one person thinks "this is the best fic for X/Y ever" and someone else thinks "this fic is crap"?

[skieswideopen]

I think to a point, it is going to come down to the discretion of the person who takes the lead on the guide, because I don't know how else to do it. But I'm really hoping people will collaborate on these pages, and actually, I'm thinking now it might not be a bad idea to require people to set up at least one collaboration post before a guide is finalized. The post could go under lock on the community, or in a pairing- or character-specific community...anywhere it's likely to draw attention from the other fans who might be familiar with that area. So then at least other people would have a chance to comment, and if it looked like someone was ignoring the general consensus (which I hope won't happen!), we could step in.

And of course, people could also leave comments on the guide once it's posted, and again, if a lot of comments lean the same way, it would be something to take into consideration.

Do you have any other ideas for how to do it?

[tielan]

Yeah, a collaboration post would certainly be an idea! And would mean that there'd be a certainty that it's not just one or two people's view of the fandom.

[scrollgirl]

I'd prefer 20, actually, but we're just not going to get 20 recs for some characters.

I said 10, but perhaps what I really mean is there should be 10 fics/meta/art you'd be willing to recommend, not just 10 fan works in existence. We're not going to get 20 recs, but 10 recs should be okay.

I'd argue for a set of recs/suggestions for starting points, not an "allfics" list. (Of course we can always point to "allfics" lists where they do exist, like skieswideopen's John/Cam list, even if it hasn't been updated in a while.)

And what happens if one person thinks "this is the best fic for X/Y ever" and someone else thinks "this fic is crap"?

I suspect that's going to happen no matter what. I mean, I don't think it's crap because Cesperanza is a great writer, but I have no plans to read Written by the Victors no matter how often people rec it.

[race_the_ace]

I'm a little late for the party, but can I offer up services for John/OMC?

[skieswideopen]

Anyone's welcome to jump in at any time. :)

You can definitely do John/OMC, but that may turn out to be rare enough that it gets combined it into one general SGA character/OC page. Or maybe not...John's very popular and if you can find enough material to meet the minimum requirements after we set them, then we'll give it a separate page.

If it does get combined, you wouldn't have to be responsible for coming up with material for all possible pairings--we could recruit other people for that--but you would have to be willing to work them them on the intro and share space. Is that okay?

[race_the_ace]

I'm down with working with others. But I *think* I can scrounge up a fair number of John/OMC fics. But, yup, willing to work with others. =)

[race_the_ace]

Also, maybe a SGA/Crossover section? With pairings that include an SGA person and someone from another fandom?