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

[somehowunbroken]

Is something like sga_guide available? It seems like something that should be simple and easy to remember.

I think that there should be minimum requirements, but I’m not sure what those should be. I’d say it should have something to do with number of works - for example, I know John/Parrish doesn’t have a lot of fanwork creators, but those who have made things have made more than one, so it’s a somewhat rare pairing but I can still find five works for it without too much issue.

As for posting access, I’d say that there should be a group of administrators with access, and guides should be emailed to a mod account for some sort of review before posting. It’s always good to have another set of eyes looking over something before posting - typos are nobody’s friends. I’d be happy to help out with administrative duties.

[scrollgirl]

sga_guide is indeed free to go to a good home. *g*

ETA: Whoops, apparently you can't use LJ tags until the comm is actually created.

[skieswideopen]

I like it! Or do we need to keep alt in the title somewhere?

What do we want the full title to be? The Alternative Guide to Stargate Atlantis? The Underground Guide to Stargate Atlantis? The Other Guide to Stargate Atlantis?

[scrollgirl]

I think "Alternative" is the best descriptor. *g* I don't actually want us to be underground, in any case!

After some thought, I'd love to just be plain old sga_guide. I'm tired of being the non to somebody else's ______. You know? The user profile and header and everything else will make it clear this is an alternative guide, but I'd love to keep it out of the comm name.

[havocthecat]

A discussion of common fandom tropes and patterns for this character or relationship, possibly with links to examples

What are we going to do about the problematic tropes, like the "Heightmeyer is shit at being a therapist" trope or the "Weir is a bad leader" trope? Which show up in fic, but which I absolutely despise. I think it might be worth ignoring them because they're very character-bashy tropes, but I think it's also something we should clarify too.

[skieswideopen]

That...is an excellent question. Character/pairing/relationship bashing is definitely against the rules and most of stories featuring those tropes will tread awfully close to that line, so I would be okay with ignoring negative tropes. This is meant to be a positive, fannish guide, not a neutral, all-encompassing account. I'm kind of assuming that people who come in search of these pages will do so because they like the characters (and if that's not what they're looking for, they can always to go sgagenrefinders).

Does anyone feel differently?

[havocthecat]

Oh, yes! There are multiple requests for the "Weir is a shit leader" trope over on sgagenrefinders.

I mean, obviously there's some give, because there are a lot of people who love Elizabeth who write her as being really crappy with her emotions, but they write it in a balanced way, not in a bashing sort of way. I'm sure there's a way to make that clear.

But the generally really negative ones, or mentioning the "Kill Elizabeth" and "Kill Sam" comms, I have to say, those I would prefer to avoid as bashing.

ETA: And those aren't meant to be inclusive; those are just the examples I can think of. I'm anti bashing any pairing or character.

[skieswideopen]

Oh, I agree! No linking to communities whose sole purpose is to bash characters. I don't think that's what we want to do at all.

Balanced critique based on canon flaws is something else entirely. I think it would be reasonable to discuss fic that focuses on Rodney's lack of social skills, or John's difficulty in expressing his emotions. A lot of it is going to depend on tone and phrasing, rather than the specific topic or trope.

I think what's going to happen is that every guide is going to be reviewed by the mods/admins or maybe by the whole community before going public, so that if anything like that does slip in inadvertently, it can be addressed.

[briar_pipe]

Do you know if someone has actually volunteered to work on a team OT4 guide yet? I would love to help someone do that, but I really don't want to be in charge of it. Hm. So I guess this is me volunteering to be someone's dogsbody, if a bolder volunteer has been found. ^_^

Oh, and one other question: have you considered what type of header/layout and default icon to use for the main account? It can be difficult to make those neutral in this kind of situation.

[skieswideopen]

I don't think anyone has volunteered to do OT4 yet, but tonight or tomorrow I'm going to go through all of the comments and compile a list of what everyone's volunteered for, and then I'll let you know for sure. And I'll put you on the list as a possible back-up source for OT4. Perhaps that will encouraged someone to volunteer. :)

I think if we have a header, the best thing to do is probably to avoid all characters and stick to a picture of Atlantis. And the same idea (Atlantis or a puddlejumper or a stargate) for the default icon. I'm really hoping someone will volunteer to help with all that. I can make icons, but I'm not great at headers, and I have very little experience with layouts.

[briar_pipe]

Thank you! I really hope someone does volunteer.

Agreed on the header and other images being general Atlantis ones. I was going to suggest that, but I wanted to see if you had another plan first, rather than step on toes.

It sounds like you've put a lot of thought into this beyond even what you've posted so far. That's very good to see. ^_^

[melyanna]

I almost mentioned this in my comment this afternoon, but I'd say for graphics, it's best to go with things that represent the show as a whole, like the city or the Stargate. If you're going for inclusive but add pictures of people, then it feels like you're really only focused on those people in the header. (Plus my taste runs to more streamlined graphics, generally, and when you start adding people's faces it gets less minimal.)