welcome, plus a template

[thalia]

Welcome to tpm_flashback! This is a TPM/prequel recs community; the plan is for it to start up on Tuesday, June 1. The first eight-week period will end on Monday, July 26. See the user info for a few more details.

If you're one of the first seven reccers, don't forget to join the community so I can give you posting access. Everyone else is welcome to join, or, if you'd prefer, just add the community to your friends list.

Also, if you're one of the first group, leave a comment here and let me know what days you'd be able to post--at least a first and second choice, please.

It looks like our first group is darthfox, ausmac, glasshouseslive, gloriana, the_emu, mrshamill, and splix. Thank you all for volunteering! I'll start looking for the next set of seven volunteers toward the end of July.

Don't forget, any stories about Star Wars prequel characters are acceptable--including characters like Bruck and Xanatos that come from the books. I suspect that most of the stories here will be Q/O, but it would be great to have a little variety.

Please try to post on your assigned day. But if something comes up and you miss one, just post when you have a chance, or post two recs the next time you're scheduled.

Here's a template to use for posting recs:

The subject line should state the title and author of the story being recced.

In the body of the post, include
Title:
Author:
Rating:
Pairing:
Warnings: Warnings are required for chan, rape/non-con and character death. In general, specify the warnings that the author used. If you want, you can put the warnings behind an LJ-cut if you think they might spoil the story.
Author's e-mail, web site and/or LJ id:
Link to story:
Reasons for recommending: A short, spoiler-free explanation of why this is a good story.

Quote from story: Include a blurb from the story that gives readers a feel for the story. Put this behind an LJ-cut.

Optionally, you can include some more detailed story discussion that includes spoilers. Put this behind a separate LJ-cut.

Comments

[mrshamill.livejournal.com]

I am here. I can take any day, in fact, I already have a story in mind.

terri

[thalia]

Thanks! I'll get the schedule put together as soon as everyone responds.

[the-emu.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Thalia!

I like the colours and your icon (aww!), but can I request a slightly wider layout? Trying to read newspaper column-sized web pages just doesn't work with the eyes. I'd rather be able to see more text on the screen.

Also, while I think we're sensible enough to do it anyway, it's good insurance to state a warning policy: say, 'reccers must warn for chan or rape or heavy angst'. Or 'warnings are entirely up to the reccers.' Just so the readers know what the waters are.

As for days... ~considers camp schedule~ Thursday or Friday is probably best, if not then Tuesday or Monday.

8^-

[thalia]

I love your Troy icon. Hee! Matt liked that movie, too, but I'm not sure why, since I'm fairly sure that whatever he liked about it isn't quite the same as what I liked about it.

Is the width better now? My fault for not checking what it looked like at 800x600.

Good thought about warnings. I forgot.

And thanks for the days. I'll post the schedule once I've heard from everyone.

Another community , just what I need.

[bant.livejournal.com]

But it's a wonderful idea.

Must we warn for character death. I find that usually is a story spoiler. I know it's traditional to have it but I find it works against the writer. Your main character dies so why bother reading it. We know what will happen.

I know what you're thinking, the list hasn't even started and already this a whiner complaining.

Re: Another community , just what I need.

[the-haunt.livejournal.com]

Well, there are some of us (I know I'm not alone) who don't do death or rape fics. Call me a whimp, but I just don't want to go there, and I get rather upset if I'm not properly warned. If this is going to be a no warnings/spoilers rec community, then I'll probably back out gracefully. I can't handle surprises of the darker sort. :(

on a totally different subject...

[thalia]

Thanks for your thoughts about warnings. In this community I'd really rather have the warnings--the point is to be reminded of stories that a lot of people like, not to do anything dramatic.

Is your schedule a little more free at this point? Matt and I were talking about cooking up some brats this weekend, and I was thinking if you were available, I could drive up to WI and buy some brats, and maybe we could have lunch or something. What do you think?

Re: on a totally different subject...

[mrshamill.livejournal.com]

Matt and I were talking about cooking up some brats this weekend

You're cooking up some brats? Would you like mine? I can have her on a plane this evening...

Re: on a totally different subject...

[thalia]

*rim shot*

Re: on a totally different subject...

[the-haunt.livejournal.com]

Is your schedule a little more free at this point?

Were you thinking about driving up this week sometime? If you were...arrgghhhhh! I'm leaving town tomorrow and I will be gone until Thursday (I'll be even further north and west than I am now); then on Thursday I've got a million errands and a meeting, and Friday/Saturday I'm entertaining guests. :(

I'm in Wisconsin until the beginning of July, though. We should definitely try to get together - I have yet to meet *any* slashers in person! What do you think? My schedule is much more free after this week.

Re: on a totally different subject...

[thalia]

Yeah, this week, darn it. Do you know of anyplace near Kenosha that sells really good brats? I've found some fabulous ones at local butchers, but usually farther up north, and I'd rather not drive all that way if I don't have to.

We'll have to get together sometime later, then. I'd love it. I'll e-mail you this weekend.

Re: on a totally different subject...

[the-haunt.livejournal.com]

Do you know of anyplace near Kenosha that sells really good brats?

I don't; I'm not familiar with that area at all, actually. :( I do know that if you can find something nearer to Chicago, I'd do that for sure because many parts of Kenosha county are under water right now. People are using boats to travel. And more rain on the way this week.....joy.

I'll e-mail you this weekend.

Sounds groovy! I'll talk to you then.

Re: Another community , just what I need.

[thalia]

I know what you're thinking, the list hasn't even started and already this a whiner complaining.

[g] Well, no, that's OK. Warnings have always been a touchy issue on M-A. And I can really sympathize with both sides--I generally prefer not to be warned, but every once in a while I really, really wish I had been.

In this case, I think I'd rather err on the side of caution. Most of the stories are going to be familiar to a lot of people. But if there's anyone who hasn't read them before, I'd rather they get too much information than too little.

I will, however, make a note in the template that warnings can go behind an LJ-cut.

Aren't ljs wonderful

[bant.livejournal.com]

That's a great idea. Something that couldn't be done on a yahoo list That way we can peek under the covers or not. Certainly, it's something to be taking advantage of.

Re: Aren't ljs wonderful

[thalia]

Yeah, LJ-cuts are great for things like this. I've done similar things on websites, but you're right, on a mailing list it's pretty much all or nothing.

Re: Another community , just what I need.

[mrshamill.livejournal.com]

Just a note... before this starts, can somebody show me how to do that? I really have no clue. I'm still trying to figure this out.

Re: Another community , just what I need.

[thalia]

If you type

<lj-cut text="click here for warnings">
warnings warnings warnings
</lj-cut>

What will show up is
( click here for warnings )

...and if someone clicks there, they'll see the whole entry.

You might seriously want to think about downloading a client. See the FAQ for more info. I really like Semagic. It makes it a lot easier to do things like lj-cuts and links.

Re: Another community , just what I need.

[mrshamill.livejournal.com]

I done dood that, thanks. It looks (and acts) easy, and I've already figured out how to do the cuts. Thanks!

Don't forget, I can still ship my brat to you...

[ausmac.livejournal.com]

Hi, just joined up. Any day is fine for me, though week days are probably better than weekends, due to family commitments.

[thalia]

Gotcha. Thanks!

*waves*

[glasshouses.livejournal.com]

No problems about warnings from my posts - all rec's will feature death, and be in the "gloom, despair, and agony on me" category *eg*. Extra points to anyone old enough to remember where that came from.

I may have to send you my first post and have you post for me - hopefully I will be out of town next week.

Also, do you mind if I cross-post to crack_van?

Re: *waves*

[thalia]

If you're posting to crack_van, I'd rather you post a link to your post here instead of posting the entire rec, just for marketing reasons, if that's OK with them. If it's not, we can talk.

Have a preference for a day of the week?

Not touching the "gloom, despair and agony" thing. Yes, I remember. No, I don't want to. Ewww.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

hi, hi, sorry i'm late --

1. any day of the week is fine for me, but i'll probably miss less frequently if i don't have friday or saturday. i really do get out of the house sometimes. (i know!)

2. i don't know about ts_flashback, but at ds_flashback there were nifty reccer-specific icons for each day of the week. are we going to get cute like that? i volunteer to make them for the first round, at least.

3. i'm with bant on the warning issue, and beyond her, even. i think we all know how i feel about warnings and spoilers. :-) can i respectfully request that instead of saying warnings can go behind a cut, we say warnings must go behind a cut? in fact i'd like the line to say "warnings, if any", and the actual warning information -- including, if appropriate, "none -- you're good" -- to go behind a cut. making, you see, a story with no warnings and a story with "goat necrophilia" warnings look precisely the same to those of us who would just as soon know as little as possible. because besides the warnings themselves, the fact that there are warnings can be a spoiler, if you think about it.

i know, i'm a pain in the ass. sorry.

4. i forget what the fourth thing was.

[thalia]

Did you actually join the community? I didn't see your name.

About the icons: I think ds_flashback did that because it's a normal journal, not a community, so all the posters have to have separate icons because their names don't show up. (Right now I think they all have Dief icons, and they're adorable.) That said, if you wanted to make icons for everyone, I think it would be great. Just not as necessary.

About the warnings: I take your point. Let me think about it. I really don't want to make this overly regimented.

Thanks for posting. I'm going to try to get a schedule put together before Emu leaves.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

i think i didn't join it initially, because i clicked the wrong "yay this community" link and only watched it. but i believe i am a Member now.

icons: i don't quite get it, but -- oh, i see. in that case, and hmm, we probably don't get more than three icons for the comm, do we. suppose we have two different icons, one for recs and one for admin posts?

warnings: i sympathize with you, really i do. but it's bad enough we're going to be warning on stories where the writer might originally not have warned because the requirements were different then, she had different standards, etc. -- i'd be happy to put together a template complete with coding, where each reccer can just fill in the blanks labeled "your text here" so it wouldn't have to be something each of us would have to remember.

also: why can't we have weekends more often? waaah.

[thalia]

Icons: When each person posts, it's their icon that will show up, not the community's. (I've got the tpm_flashback icon saved as one of mine, too, which is why it's on this post.) Really, the only time the community icon is seen is when you read from the community page. So we could have coordinated icons, if each of the reccers had room for one more.

And I'm thinking a template might not be a bad idea. I made one myself for tsflashback. If you can put a useful one together, I'll cave on the warning thing. But please stick a note in there that warnings for chan, non-con/rape and character death *are* required behind the lj-cut.

Can't help with the weekends. At least you got to go to NYC--i'm very, very jealous.

[the-emu.livejournal.com]

~wrinkling nose~

I'm not going to get my knickers in a twist or anything, especially since this is going to apply to very few stories anyway, but just, y'know, to show the range of opinions...

I've always been anti-character death warning. 'Heavy angst' is a good and appropriate warning that covers exactly that, but 'death' is just an out-and-out spoiler.

But, like I said, I'm not about to throw a tanty over it.

8^-

[thalia]

Yeah, yeah, yeah... I should have known warnings would be a hot button here.

I don't think I want to get rid of character death, because there are some people who are *really* sensitive about it. Do you feel better knowing that the warnings will be behind a cut tag? Fox is making a template for everyone to use, I think. In this community, since we'll be talking about stories that most people have already read, I'd rather err on the side of caution.

[the-emu.livejournal.com]

Yeah, definitely better behind a cut tag.

And I started to say that, but then I led into saying that there's other stuff behind the cut tag which defeats the purpose of them being behind a cut tag and then I started to say but I couldn't think of a better alternative and then I thought oh screw it it really doesn't matter all that much anyway, especially when - as you say - most of us have read them already anyway, and it's not like we need to defend against a massive onslaught of spoilable death fics. I'd be surprised if there were 10 fics on the entire archive that would suffer for death spoilers. And none of those are mine.

Hence, no tanty over the issue. Just wanted to raise my hand and wave it for the general record.

8^-

Gloom, despair and agony on me

[cynical21.livejournal.com]

Dammit, Glasshouses - now you've done it:

Gloom, despair and agony on me;
Deep dark depression, excessive misery.
If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all.
Gloom, despair and agony on me.

As you can see, I absolutely DO have the lyrics - but can't remember, for the life of me, where it came from. Jerry Reed, maybe?

This, incidentally, is a nice idea, Folks - and I'll look forward to dropping in to see what you come up with.

CYN

Re: Gloom, despair and agony on me

[thalia]

Hee-Haw. One of my most traumatic childhood memories.

And thanks!

[heartequals.livejournal.com]

a late straggler at the end of the parade; this is such a welcome resource after weeks of searching for someone to tell me what to read in this fandom. skip 240 and i don't regret a minute of it. thank you!

[thalia]

Thanks! It's nice to know the comm is still useful. I keep thinking I should do something with it again, but it's been so long....

[heartequals.livejournal.com]

if you do, know that you've got at least one member who hasn't seen it all! (far from it!) this place is wonderful.