| xmas_rocks pairing nominations are open! |
[Sep. 17th, 2008|09:33 am] |
Pairing nominations are now open for xmas_rocks, an annual Secret Santa slashfic exchange for all rock-related artists and bands. Write a story, and get a story in return for the holidays!
The F.A.Q. is here, the nominations post here, and the archive of previous years' stories right there. Please take a look, and feel free to nominate pairings now even if you're not sure you want to sign-up officially. This makes sure the pairings you want are eligible to be requested and written by others. |
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| What's new, part 2: The Wiki Edition |
[Apr. 19th, 2008|09:44 am] |
Wiki work. It's cracktastically addictive, especially when the work is completely never-ending.
For one, there's just getting PoliceWiki off the ground this past month, at last. My main task at the moment is putting templates in place and pimping and just trying to get enough basic info up that folks will feel comfortable and less intimidated about jumping in with their own entries. But then nothing rocks like having folks come in and add timeline entries like this one. Which is made of so much win I don't even have words for it :). And it's just the kind of trivial info that I want in the wiki because, really, where ELSE would you put it? Certainly not wikipedia, and not on any other fan page that I know about.
But yeah, there IS that whole templating issue that came up with Fan History before, with some folks saying that we shouldn't add articles there if it's just to put a blank template in place. And being told that templates aren't necessarily a good thing in general for wikis. "That will stifle people's willingness to contribute! You can't dictate a format for information when you don't know the details of a particular fandom!" Or "You haven't done a discography before like I have, therefore you can't dictate a format for one!"
Um. Basically. No. You can. Because as my co-sysop Kel at PoliceWiki and I have found, people tend to freeze up completely when presented with a blank page. No one wants to jump in from scratch and add information without SOME kind of direction, if they haven't already done a lot of wiki-work before. And that keeps people who might otherwise have a lot of information to share from participating. Whereas, in contrast, give them a template and put it in place, and you're going to start getting edits, even if it's just in little drips and drabs. Corrections. A set-list here and lyrics there (or with FH, a link or a timeline event). Even if it's not a perfect template, people will add info when they see that handy "edit" button to click on each section. I mean, at FH I put a lot of Smallville pages in place, and we started getting edits. Whereas nothing was happening there until the templates were there. And as a person gets more comfortable working with wiki coding, they can figure out how to tweak those templates as necessary to convey the information that should be there better, if there's something unique about a topic as compared to the generic form provided.
Because here's the thing, again like I said to Kel: Everyone can talk and say something's a great idea (like building a wiki), or suggest ways it could be better (why isn't THIS entry here? Why is this information not more complete? Why did you chose THIS template format?), but when it comes down to it you're looking at maybe 1 in 100 people who will actually DO something about it (beyond just complaining that NO UR DOING IT WRONG), and that's only if it's made relatively simple for them. The number who will do the same without direction is very, very, very much smaller than that.
So, yeah. It'd be one thing if it was just my experience working on ONE wiki, but when I see the same thing happening repeatedly it just makes it all that much clearer to me (and I think I'm rambling on about all of this because it'll help me write up notes for the wiki panel at MediaWest....)
Anyway, then I have to really get back to my sysop duties as Fan History, because there's still so much work there to do. Going from around 8,000 to almost 90,000 pages in the course of a couple weeks thanks to the FanFiction.Net Bot has been awesome but made for a lot of clean-up work in different naming conventions for various fandoms, creating new fandom pages and categories for all the new entries--plus just monitoring for vandalism with people deleting content as a result...oy! Just looking at the Harry Potter fans section is enough to make me weep a little (or reach for the bourbon): over 19,000 names to go through fixing spaces and the like. *flail*
Lots of work but it so appeals to the OCD organizer in me. And I get really excited when we start thinking about future plans to make the site better and more comprehensive as well.
So yay to the Wikis. As my new super-hero alter-ego the Wiki-Wench of the West shows, I am chained to my wikis but it's a duty I embrace happily--if just with plenty of alcoholic fortification.
And oh yeah, got spring & summer concerts & conventions to start planning for! At some point!
[ETA: Linking to LJ entry that was more or less the same but with additional comments...] |
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| "You can ply your trade and push your crusade" |
[Apr. 16th, 2008|08:13 am] |
So what's new?
Friends of Leroy Coolbreeze - a determined group of fans walking in honor and memory of Ian Copeland, May 10, 2008, as part of the Melanoma International Foundation's "Safe from the Sun" event. Please consider making a team donation or via my personal donation page...and thank you!
In other news, I'm mostly busy working on this, god help us all. |
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| xmas_rocks! |
[Jan. 6th, 2008|11:20 am] |
xmas_rocks is live for 2008, are there are 31 aweseome stories to read this year in fandoms including Aerosmith, The Beatles, FOB, MCR, Green Day, the Police, and some truly cracked out crossovers (King Diamon/Pete Wentz FTW!)
Come on in and check it out! Authors revealed on Jan 12th. |
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| xmas_rocks pimpitude |
[Oct. 17th, 2007|08:09 am] |
xmas_rocks is a Secret Santa fiction exchange exclusively for rock band slash pairings, and sign ups for this winter's edition are open now until November 3rd. 198 different pairings are available to choose from, including many rare and unique crossover possibilities with bands such as My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Interpol, The Strokes, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Police, Metallica and many, many more. (Pete Wentz/King Diamond, anyone?)
If you might be interested in joining us, please check out the FAQ, look over the final pairings list, and if you're interested in joining us, fill out the sign-up form.
[Mod's note: OMG I'm seriously excited about the range of possible stories we might get this year, even if I'm also terrfied about whether or not we'll get enough sign-ups to satisfy everyone's requests. So, please, if you might be interested, give it a look!] |
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| A survey for band fiction readers & writers |
[Oct. 5th, 2007|08:18 am] |
The following survey is open for all fans who participate in some way in a band fiction community (you write, you read, run a community, etc.) I don't care if it's rockband fic, emo-band fic, popslash, whatever--all of your input is desired. If you don't understand a question or terminology, don't stop or feel like you have to look stuff up--I want your first impressions, how you would answer these questions based on your familiarity with these terms and ideas now.
Please feel free to pass this along to communities where it might be appropriate, and also to leave comments if you feel you couldn't answer questions properly with a check box choice. If you don't have a jf account, please feel free to copy and paste your responses in the comments below.
The results of this survey work, when completed, will be posted to fanthropology. Thank you for taking the time to complete it. It was simply written--by me with the input of several other folks on wording--out of curiosity based on recent discussions and is not "sponsored" or being run officially by any particular community or group.
Please be sure to include your answer to the first question about what bandfic communities you participate in or follow (even if it's just to say you read what shows up on your friends list). Otherwise, I won't be able to use your data to see which area(s) of bandom you participate in, or if you're really participating in bandfiction communities at all.
( survey this way ) |
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| Pimpin' a new project, of course! |
[Oct. 11th, 2006|07:41 pm] |
If all you want for Christmas (or the winter holiday of your choice) is some slash about your favorite rockers, please come join xmas_rocks - a secret santa exchange being planned for this holiday season! |
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| Community pimping |
[Feb. 3rd, 2006|09:38 am] |
I'll probably regret this later...or maybe it will just die a quiet, boring death, but hey, it's worth a try, right?
Anyway, allow me to introduce...a community to fill a void that may not exist in anyone else's mind but my own...
Please feel free to pimp anywhere and to anyone you think might be interested! Because I am still sadly addicted to my new wave era bands, and while there are big communities for certain bands (Duran Duran, U2...), there really isn't a good place for fics about some of the smaller fandoms (or fandoms of one author ::cough::). Most of the other "band slash" communities are dominated by or only for other time periods (either 60s/70s-era rock like The Beatles/The Who, or modern-day rock/pop/punk.) So here, at least, is an attempt to start a community for those of us who remember the days of big hair and the Big 80's fondly. |
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| RPF survey |
[Jul. 31st, 2005|09:03 am] |
I'm running a survey right now for any RPF readers/writers who would be willing to help out.
It's to help me pull my thoughts together for a panel discussion this fall.
Interested in helping out? Take the survey here. Thanks! |
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| Polling for panel help |
[Mar. 28th, 2005|10:21 am] |
Okay, so I'm co-moding this panel at Connexions, The "It" Factor
(( Description ))
And I'd like to get some thoughts from folks before this weekend to sort of solidify my thoughts on the topic and come up with some good discussion topics. So if you feel like answering any/all of the questions below, I'd totally appreciate it!
1. What are some "popular" (in your opinion) slash pairings that you are into, or have been into in the past? And if you can, could you summarize briefly what in particular draws/drew you to that pairing? Do you find any similarities in the kinds of pairings you enjoy, or are they very different in nature?
2. What are some slash pairings you are into that you wish were more popular? Any thoughts on why they never really took off?
3. What factors are most likely to draw you into a new slash fandom? (Authors you like migrating to it, the source, certain actors, active pimping, etc...)
I'm making this post public, so feel free to pass the link along to anyone you think would like to share some thoughts on the subject. Thanks! |
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| I have nothing much to say... |
[Jan. 20th, 2005|10:57 pm] |
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Except that I love this new icon, and I am actually working on a vid again for the first time in over a year. Ph33r m3!!!! |
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| grumble grumble grumble |
[Jan. 15th, 2005|01:36 pm] |
Okay, so I know that Stewart, Andy, and Incubus got bumped from the NBC Tsunami Aid concert because they weren't "major major" enough stars.
So how the fuck out of it am I that I have no clue who ANY of these people who ARE performing are!?! Have I been living in that much of a cave these past few years?
If Rog Waters got bumped too I am seriously gonna cry...
[ETA: Okay, Brian Wilson, at least ONE person I know of...] |
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| life is good |
[Jan. 15th, 2005|07:57 am] |
Y'know, LJ may be fucked, and it's freezing cold outside, but I gotta say life is pretty good right now.
I had a great second date with Dr. D. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the idea that I might actually have a love life again after all these years.
I'm in love with art school and the way it just has my creativity inspired, along with meeting all sorts of cool, interesting, and smart people too. I was telling my mom that in a lot of ways it makes me feel like I haven't felt since I was an undergraduate at MIT--being inspired by truly gifted teachers, being surrounded by other people who share my passions and don't think I'm weird for them.
Anyway, yeah. So the sun is out and even if it's cold, I think I'm gonna go out and enjoy some sunshine today. |
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| A general update on sidewinder's state of affairs. |
[Jan. 9th, 2005|08:21 pm] |
So, erm, it's been like forever since I posted anything of any real substance here. Largely because I have done so very little writing in the past year, so there was nothing much to talk about. But it's one of my resolutions this year to get back into writing again, so we shall see. I have a real personal love/hate relationship with it, but the band!slash muses seem to be nagging at me and also looking at me to start possibly writing some Beatles slash, of all things, along with more Police slash. Hey, at least it wouldn't be so damned obscure...but why is it I want to write John/Ringo of all things? (Why? Because I'm a drummer slut, that's why.)
And let it not be said that fandom_wank isn't good for some things. If not for f_w I would have never heard of rockfic, which is like, OMG. A little piece of heaven to me. Now if I can just pimp some more good authors to post there. Seriously though what an ego-boost; I got more feedback in one day on a couple of my stories there than I've gotten in over a year in my journal and various other lists/archives/etc. Just when I'm ready to give up, suddenly I realize maybe my writing isn't as crap as I think it is. Or even if it IS, at least it seems some folks out there enjoy it. |
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| Dear World, |
[Oct. 31st, 2003|12:25 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | *Snarl* | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Andy Summers - "Myself When I Am Real" | ] |
PLEASE stop pissing me the hell off today.
Kthxbye.
[Y'know, with the crazy number of icons I have now, I may start using this account an awful lot more] |
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| The hurt gets worse, and the heart gets harder |
[Sep. 18th, 2003|12:50 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | Morose | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Warren Zevon - "Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School" | ] |
Anymore it seems like this journal has become my obsessional overflow outlet--whenever I start feeling like I've just gone on about something way too long in my LJ, I move over here to continue wallowing in the obsession with less embarassment. Or something like that.
( As that is the case, here be way too much depression over Warren Zevon, eating me up again... ) |
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| I wouldn't normally do this sort of thing, but... |
[May. 26th, 2003|10:04 pm] |
How could I resist?
You are the hivemind!
A highly sophisticated form of mob rule, you issue
edicts which must be obeyed and rule the
community with an iron fist.
Unfortunately your memos frequently go astray...
Which article of Fandom Wank culture are you?
brought to you by Quizilla |
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| journaling thoughts. |
[Mar. 19th, 2003|12:12 pm] |
So I've got this <http://www.journalfen.net/users/sidewinder">journalfen account</a> now, and I've been debating how and if I'm going to use it besides posting to/reading f_w. I do really like the idea of a journal site just for fen, but I'm not inclined to pack up my bags and jump ship or anything like that. For one, I've already paid for a permanent account at livejournal and I fully intend to get my money's worth out of that--at least until something big happens and I no longer feel comfortable supporting/using lj, which very well may happen, who knows.
I don't feel like using one journal for general posting and the other for fannish posting. I'm really too damn lazy to remember where I should post what, and sometimes it all blends together in my thoughts and mood anyway. Similarly, I don't feel like separating out all my RPS thoughts and postings to journalfen just b/c some people may not want to read RPS content. I figure, by this point anyone horribly offended by me talking about RPS stuff has already stopped reading my lj.
But I do want to put my journalfen account to some use. So I'm going to use it for now as a depository for writing notes & references as I compile them--a way I can easily keep track of story notes, thoughts, quotes, images, etc. All those tasty little Sting & Stewart exchanges I've been compiling, timeline details as to who was where and when?stuff I want to keep handy and hey, put it on a website in case I manage to tempt anyone else to slash these guys and they need some research help. Of course for now that means it's mostly going to be Police-related but who knows--that may expand when I feel like writing other things again.
[Additional note: I will probably be making these writer's note entries friends-only, at least for now. So if you want to read them, just friend me, I'll friend you back.] |
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