Admin: Things we learn heading West

[carolyn-claire.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Moonmoth, for that great opening post, and thank you to everyone who is participating (keep participating!) in the discussion of Hindsight. It's been a fascinating first discussion with a lot of interesting and opposing views being discussed civilly and intelligently. Only a few bumps in the road, so far, which I'll go over again, here.

* Discussion in this comm is to stay focused on the stories, not the authors, posters or commenters. People's motives in saying and doing what they say and do are not open to speculation or comment; debate the ideas presented and not what you assume are the thoughts behind them. Authors, in particular, are not open for dissection on the board. You may have insight into their thought processes, but this isn't the place to share it because authors are not invited to refute or add to anything said about them, here. Focus on the story itself, as presented, and your reactions to it, when answering the post and other commenters' points.

* The purpose of the comm is to discuss, debate and even argue points about stories we've read. If we were all to agree to disagree and go home to sit quietly with our own thoughts, there would be no comm. That's no fun. *g* We won't come to any conclusions here, will not agree to disagree or accept that everything ever written is perfectly valid and right and has its own place in the universe and its own following. Of course it is, and does, but that's not what we're interested in, here. We're about stating opinions and supporting them, arguing positions, and sharing our thoughts. No generalizations about what we should all bear in mind or accept about stories, please. The fact that we don't accept everything about stories is why we're here.

* All posts to this comm must be self-contained; no linking to previous posts made outside this comm, please. Conversation begun here must stay here. Previously written essays and reviews are very welcome, here, but must be reproduced within the post for response within the comm.

As I said, you guys have done very well, and I'm really pleased with the response to Moonmoth's post. If I swoop in with my Admin icon and correct anyone in the course of discussion, it's only in service to maintaining open, civil discussion in the way I think is best; I'm not out to poop on anyone's head. There will be errors made early on, obviously, as everyone gets used to the rules, and in future as new people join, that's expected, but I will police pretty thoroughly to make sure that rules are followed and things stay orderly. Thanks for understanding.

And, excuse the caps, but this is very important and I don't want it missed: READ THE GUIDELINES THOROUGHLY when you join, all of them. There's info there that's vital to your not getting corrected or even removed from the comm. I really do intend to be fairly strict, so please read them. Also, I'll add people as soon as I've noticed they've joined, but feel free to email me and let me know if you've been waiting. I'm currently working nights and sleeping days, so it may take me a few hours to get to you, or to make an admin correction in a post or comment, if needed. I promise not to sleep any more than absolutely necessary. *g*

Thanks, everyone, and have fun!

Comments

[sinden.livejournal.com]

Hey, just a thought. A lot of things do get brought up about people's stories and the motivation behind certain events, actions etc in the discussion of our liking/not liking them. Could there be a point in time [say after a week of discussion or something] that the author could post a seperate post addressing some of those things? ie clarifying their thought behind what happened in this section or what they were attempting to achieve with the story.

I don't know about anyone else, but that would be something that I would be interested in seeing because sometimes what was attempted and what was achieved can be two totally different things and it's kind of fun to nut out what happened along the way to get there. Plus, it gives a different perspective on the stories themselves that can make you see something you may not have seen before?

[sivib.livejournal.com]

A humble suggestion: might it be a good idea to ask the author before subjecting their literary efforts to criticism? Feedback is one thing, but this group is attempting something much more intense than that. This is the equivilant of a writer's workshop in which anything is fair game. Quite a different animal.

I know you don't want writers asking for feedback, but perhaps an open invitation to writers to say "Any of my stuff is available for litcrit here. Go to it." Or conversely, "Please do not discuss my stuff without asking first, or at all." That way, no one gets blindsided.

[amalthia]

My main concern about not asking authors their permission to pick apart their stories is the risk of hurt feelings. Good authors have run for the hills for less offense.

Most people are writing for fun and don't expect to see their story disected in a LJ community without their prior knowlege or permission. Some might love it regardless of the circumstance, but I think it's a good idea to ask first.

It does not take long to write an email and ask the author if they are okay with opening a discussion on their story in this community.

No one likes to be blindsided like this and after reading the discussion on Hindsight I didn't see anything remotely useful come out of that discussion for the author or the readers.

I know it's a discussion but basically people picked apart the characterizations of her characters in the story and really it came down to how you want to see the characters.

As a writer you can't please everyone. The disccusion said nothing that could help writers improve their own skills and it came down to two things, either you liked the characters or you didn't.

Maybe I'm missing the point of what a literary criticism is supposed to be about, but I feel strongly that if the authors aren't allowed to respond to the disccussion for what was it? 24 hours? Then you better ask their permission before posting, because it's not right to take someone's story, tear it apart, and then ask them to not say anything about it until your time limit ran out.

It's one thing if the members of the community offered their own stories with the knowledge of the rules but to take someone else's work who isn't even in the community...it feels wrong. And here's the catch, most authors would love to have their work discussed if you asked them. But when you don't ask them it opens a whole new bag of worms and I don't think it's good for fostering a sense of community and safety when posting stories.

Sure all fan fic writers post their works to a public forum where people can discuss them privately or in their own journals but when you set up a community and that specifically says the members can't nominate their own work for discussion but instead have to grab some other person's story, and the authors permission matters not at all, and then the author isn't allowed to voice his/her opinion. I just don't see how the community can last.

I'll never feel comfortable voicing my opinion about a story with this kind of set up. It's one thing if the person offers their story up to the community for critical discussion. I know that person expects the good and the bad that comes with them offering their story.