rules and guidelines

[ozqueen]

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY GEN?

We mean a story of any length or genre, in which the focus is not on a romantic or sexual relationship. Fics may acknowledge romance/relationships/sex, but these things should not - at all - be the focus of the story. Instead, we request that you rec fics that focus more on family, friendship, plot, character exploration, adventure, whatever! So long as the primary focus is not a romantic or sexual relationship, you're good! If you have any questions, ask!

I'M NOT SURE IF MY REC IS GEN...

Gen can be a bit blurred with other genres sometimes. We get it! If the fic you want to rec really is open to interpretation, we won't stop you recommending it. But we ask that you think very carefully about it. There are plenty of places to recommend and find shippy fic. This is not one of them, so please think carefully about each rec and, if you're in doubt, perhaps hold off for a bit and try to find something more fitting to the genre we're really looking for.

CAN I RECOMMEND ONE OF MY OWN FICS?

At this stage we won't be allowing self-recs.

HOW DO I POST?

Please use this handy template! (Note that you will need to use the HTML updater, not rich text.) <b><small>FANDOM:</small></b> <b><small>FIC LINK:</small></b> <b><small>AUTHOR LINK:</small></b> <b><small>RATING/WARNING(S):</small></b> <b><small>WIP?/WORD COUNT:</small></b> <b><small>MAIN CHARACTERS:</small></b> <b><small>FIC SUMMARY:</small></b> <b><small>RECCER'S NOTES:</small></b> HTML MODE? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME? Mwahahahaha! There's nothing complicated there. It's all just copy and paste. But if you're not sure how to pretty your links up so it displays as the fic title, or you're not sure how to code somebody's user name, Dreamwidth has some handy instructions! DW FAQ: How to code usernames. (Or you can copy and paste from these text boxes) - Dreamwidth username or community: <user name="usernamegoeshere"> Username on another website, like AO3 or livejournal: <user name="usernamegoeshere" site="homepageofwebsitegoeshere"> To display a link as the fic's title: <a href="link-to-fic-goes-here">Title of Fic Goes Here</a>

HOW MANY RECS CAN I POST?

As many as you want! But please don't take to spamming our flists! If you want to put your recs in separate posts, that's fine, but please limit it to two recs per day. If you're going to combine your recs into one post, we'll allow two recs outside of a cut - but the rest should go beneath. (If you're not sure how to create a cut, the dreamwidth FAQ has a great guide.)

WHAT'S UP WITH THE TAGS?

We're pretty informal around here! Just tag your post with - fandom name, and then you can add a few fun/squeeful/whatever tags to go with it! If the tag you want to add can apply to more than one fandom, that's great! But don't worry if it doesn't. If your fandom has pet nicknames for brOTPs, families, or friendships, use them! If the fic you're reccing has a list of tropes, tag them! The only mandatory tag is the fandom tag, and even if you miss that, one of the mods will add it for you. (We'll also merge any similar tags, purely for searching purposes - similar tags just split the searching into too many little threads. But if you've noticed one of your tags has disappeared and you really want to keep it, just say so!) The point is, don't stress about the tags! Feel free to have a bit of fun with them. That said, however, one tag does have a restriction on it, and that is the 'gensploder' tag. This tag needs to be earned through the GENSPLODER OF THE MONTH challenge before you get one of your own.

I HAVE ANOTHER QUESTION!

Ask away! One of the mods will answer you as soon as we can, but please give us a day or so to get back to you, due to time zones and such. Your mods are isabelquinn and ozqueen.

credits: profile | layout

Comments

[akamine_chan]

The promo I followed here said any and all fandoms, but for some people, that means any and all fandoms except RPF. I would love clarification on that before I join the community. Thanks!

[ozqueen]

RPF is fine! :)

[akamine_chan]

Awesome! And thanks for the quick response.

[akamine_chan]

I tried to tag my post with - fandom: bandom, - frandom: mcr rpf and podfic available but DW told me I didn't have permission to create tags... :(

Also, the style for comment boxes is really hard to read - very light grey text on a light grey/off-white background. A higher contrast would be nice for those of use with visual issues.

[ozqueen]

Ugh sorry! I'll fix that up once I get back to my pc :) and I've just noticed the comments myself and I'll get onto our coder about that one :) I can't read it either haha, and somehow we forgot to check it!

[ozqueen]

Tags should be fixed, but the layout will take a little longer ♥

Edit: The comment text has been speedily fixed, also. Sorry about that! In our excitement we didn't think to check the comments before we went wide with our advertising ;)

[akamine_chan]

Awesome! Thanks so much!

[omnicat]

Uh, guys, the grey-on-grey text in this post is almost impossible read. ^^;

[isabelquinn]

Are you talking about the text boxes? If so, those have been fixed :) (Unless there's something else we missed? In which case, oops, let us know what's still wrong and we'll get our awesomesauce coder to do her ~thing.)

[omnicat]

I mean that it still looks like this to me right now. O.O

[ozqueen]

Whoaaaaa :/ I am so not sure how to fix that. The code is definitely black text on a white background, and that's how it's showing up for me.

We'll look into it to see if there's a glitch somewhere, but I honestly don't know why it looks like that on your screen :/ If we can fix it, we certainly will!

Does the rest of the layout look like that, or is it just this page? Is it like that when you look at the user info?

[omnicat]

The user info has the same problem, yeah. None of the other posts in the comm do, though.

Code, wut are you doing? @_@

[ozqueen]

Right? I don't have an answer, sorry, but our coder might! She's not in my time zone so I'm not sure when she'll be around, but she might pop in and have a look to see what's going on! She'll probably be able to ask you better questions in order to pin down the problem too, haha.

[lucida]

Coder here. ;) The code on this post hasn't been changed yet because ozqueen will have to edit it in when she's around, but I've updated the user info if you want to check that out and let me know if it's working for you yet!

[omnicat]

The profile page looks fine now. :D

[lucida]

Yay! The code in this post is the same as the user info, so it should look better as well once it's swapped out. Let me know if you come across any other issues. :)

[omnicat]

Will do. :) Glad to have helped.

[ozqueen]

All fixed! :)

[sylvaine]

Request/suggestion: might it be possible to change to code so that the fanwork link is at the bottom of the post? I often check my rlist on my phone, and this way I always have to scroll back up if the description/rec sounds appealing. It's a minor thing, obviously, so I don't mind if you decide not to change it! Just thought maybe it annoys other people, too, so I might as well suggest it. ^^

[isabelquinn]

Hi sylvaine :) We road tested a few different templates before the comm went live, and since your comment we've tried some of them out again. We realise this decision is way subjective, but we just can't figure out a link-at-the-bottom template that sits right with both of us. Sorry to be annoying :( but if it becomes a consistent problem among more people, we're happy to revisit the issue!

[sylvaine]

Alright, no problem. Thanks for trying it again! ^^

[masu_trout]

Hello! Sorry if this is written somewhere and I just missed it, but: is there a standard header format for when you're reccing multiple fics in one post?

[ozqueen]

Sorry for the delay in answering this! We don't have a header in mind for multiple recs in the one post at this stage. Feel free to format it in whatever way works for you - the only real concern we have is how far people have to scroll before a cut is required, but that's a bit of a Your Mileage May Vary sort of thing. Just use your best judgement, I guess, and invent a header you feel works for you! It might be something we need to look into in the future, but for now just go with what you think is best. :)

Don't forget we allow two recs outside of a cut, so if you're only reccing two you can just stick to the standard format :)

[masu_trout]

No problem at all!

And thanks, that's good to know! I'll make it work as best I can.

(The reason I ask is that ridiculously long titles are kind of a thing in a few of my favorite fandoms. The standard header works for two fics with reasonable-length titles, it's not really long enough for How Karkat Vantas Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Con Air and While Recognizing the Importance of Luck in Certain Situations, Eve Genoard Continues to Disapprove of Gambling, haha.)

[intrigueing]

Hi. I would love to recommend a fic that I'm 99% sure qualifies as gen but I'd like to be sure -- the main plot focuses on the fact that one of the main characters was sexually abused years ago at the age of thirteen by an Original Character. However, the central relationship in the fic, and the support system as the character comes to terms with his abuse, is a very close platonic friendship with his best friend.

I thought that as the goal of this community is to focus on non-shippy fics, and this fic's sexual content is definitely not remotely shippy, it would qualify as gen. But I just wanted to ask just in case.

[ozqueen]

If it's largely gen, it belongs here :) We're fine with fics that do contain shippiness, so long as it's not the main focus. Sometimes friendship can be a bit blurred with romance and we get that. Platonic/family relationships definitely get the green light!

Without reading it myself it's hard to judge on it at all, but from what you're saying it sounds like it belongs here :) We won't throw a hissy fit if it turns out you've made a mistake, if that makes the decision any easier for you! ;)

[sylvaine]

Apologies if you've answered this question elsewhere and I haven't seen it, but what is the comm's stance on WIPs and on abandoned works?

[espresso_addict]

Not a mod but the posting header includes 'WIP?', so I assume it's ok to post both ongoing & abandoned WiPs as long as they're noted as such in the header. The mods MMV, of course!

[sylvaine]

Oh, good point; I'd managed to overlook that. Thanks!

[ozqueen]

Thanks for stepping up to answer that one, espresso_addict, haha ♥ You are 100% correct.

[ozqueen]

Wow I am so sorry I overlooked that question! espresso_addict is totally right though, WIP are absolutely allowed; just adjust the header to indicate it is, indeed, a WIP :)

Again, sorry for missing that Q! Please feel free to bug us with repeat comments if we don't answer after a couple of days ♥

[sylvaine]

Awesome, thanks! And I'll remember to do that next time I have a question. :D

[ozqueen]

Haha please do. I have a terrible habit of reading alert emails while I'm half asleep or while I'm at work and can't answer, and then I forget about them. I should make sure I keep them as "unread" until I can deal with them! But seriously if all else fails, you guys bug away at us until you get your answers ♥

[mythicmistress]

Bit of a stupid thing to ask, but the rec post I made doesn't look like the rest, so I'm wondering what I did wrong (please forgive me, I'm still learning how to code HTML).

[ozqueen]

Haha that's okay! I botch my HTML all the time. I've had a quick look and it's a quick and easy fix! I've just taken the text you've added out of the bold tags, that's all :) I'll past the text below if you want to copy it and compare it with what you've got, so you can see exactly what's different.

Don't panic too much, it's still totally readable! And I'm so excited to see new reccers coming in :D

<b><small>FANDOM:</small></b> Animorphs <b><small>FIC LINK:</small></b> <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/791435">Live-learned</a> <b><small>AUTHOR LINK:</b></small> <user name="Zelos" site="ao3.org"> <b><small>RATING/WARNING(S):</small></b> General Audiences/No warnings <b><small>WIP?/WORD COUNT:</small></b> Complete/2788 words <b><small>MAIN CHARACTERS:</small></b> Jake Berenson, Marco, Cassie, Tobias, Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, Rachel <b><small>FIC SUMMARY:</small></b> Five lessons they learned that will never make it into Jake's memoir. <b><small>RECCER'S NOTES:</small></b> Wow, just wow. This fic really brings out the consequences and effects the war has had on the group. The lessons learned fit well with the canon's take on war.

[mythicmistress]

Just a heads up for my fellow reccers-You cannot link to a username that uses spaces, for example "red blue". It needs to have an underscore (_) or a hyphen (-). (I figured this would be the best place to post this)

[sylvaine]

Is this community for reccing fic only, or for other gen fanworks as well?

[ozqueen]

Hi! At this stage we only rec fics, though I'd be happy to open up a poll or something to see if we should open it up a bit? What other fanworks did you have in mind?

[sylvaine]

None particularly - I'm currently putting together a rec post for communities and wanted to clarify, since the language seemed aimed at fic specifically but I saw that recs for other media had recently been posted, too, and wanted to make sure I put the right description of this comm in the post :P

[ozqueen]

Oh has there? Hahaha I didn't even realise, I've been a bit out of the loop with modding recently!

It's not against the rules or anything to rec other fanworks, but we are primarily primed towards fic at the moment, if that helps with your description at all ;) (I might have just made your task more difficult.)

Also, thanks for reccing us! ♥

[sylvaine]

That's perfectly doable in terms of description, thank you for clarifying! ^__^