You know there is a third option, here: you could notify the writers that the discussion is about to take place or is taking place. Or the poster could, not you the moderator necessarily.
I say this because I think it would probably be easier, as a writer, to watch a discussion forming, and have the choice to read or not read, than to come across it afterwards, or to be completely unprepared for it.
This is not giving the author any kind of veto power, just letting them know it's coming. I'd see it as a courtesy, giving me some choice as to how I would respond.
There was some fairly blunt public criticism of vids in the Vid Review panel at VVC this weekend; but that comes out of a community that historically has participated in that sort of dissection. And everyone who submits a vid to Premieres knows it's going to happen, and has time to prepare themselves. While everyone who puts a story up on the internet hopes people will talk about it, it's not the same as knowing your work will be subjected to an intense, and public, scrutiny. While some of us may want this to be common, and accepted, it's not the reality for much of fandom, and so many people are unprepared for the experience and their own response.
Additionally, I must say that many of the commenters are unprepared to participate in such a forum appropriately. Fandom isn't the same as English class, and I do think we err by trying to make it so. It's more, and it's less, and it's different. Dickens is dead, but I'm not, and I'm only one or two LJ clicks away from whoever starts the thread critiquing my Teyla characterization.
Additionally, the number of participants in any given conversation on LJ is nearly infinite; this is less of an issue on a mailing list (or a locked post), and I've seen people engage in "pile-on" behavior on LJ that wouldn't happen on a list because the list (or filter) has a finite number of members, and once they've had their say, the discussion moves on. On the other hand, I have no way to fix that, so.
Just a few thoughts, none of which are intended to question your ownership of the community or your right to make these decisions; I'm mostly thinking out loud about how to make such a discussion work without hurting too many feelings.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2005-08-23 01:19 am (UTC)I say this because I think it would probably be easier, as a writer, to watch a discussion forming, and have the choice to read or not read, than to come across it afterwards, or to be completely unprepared for it.
This is not giving the author any kind of veto power, just letting them know it's coming. I'd see it as a courtesy, giving me some choice as to how I would respond.
There was some fairly blunt public criticism of vids in the Vid Review panel at VVC this weekend; but that comes out of a community that historically has participated in that sort of dissection. And everyone who submits a vid to Premieres knows it's going to happen, and has time to prepare themselves. While everyone who puts a story up on the internet hopes people will talk about it, it's not the same as knowing your work will be subjected to an intense, and public, scrutiny. While some of us may want this to be common, and accepted, it's not the reality for much of fandom, and so many people are unprepared for the experience and their own response.
Additionally, I must say that many of the commenters are unprepared to participate in such a forum appropriately. Fandom isn't the same as English class, and I do think we err by trying to make it so. It's more, and it's less, and it's different. Dickens is dead, but I'm not, and I'm only one or two LJ clicks away from whoever starts the thread critiquing my Teyla characterization.
Additionally, the number of participants in any given conversation on LJ is nearly infinite; this is less of an issue on a mailing list (or a locked post), and I've seen people engage in "pile-on" behavior on LJ that wouldn't happen on a list because the list (or filter) has a finite number of members, and once they've had their say, the discussion moves on. On the other hand, I have no way to fix that, so.
Just a few thoughts, none of which are intended to question your ownership of the community or your right to make these decisions; I'm mostly thinking out loud about how to make such a discussion work without hurting too many feelings.