A Community Update Part 2

[bottomdraco-mod.livejournal.com]

How's everyone doing so far? Guys still with us? xD

As promised, we're posting another update for the community!

Please take note of them~ :D

1. As requested by several members of the community as well as by the mods, Rule #8 in our rules list has been edited to apply only to dead links and MIA authors / artists who locked their posts. Changes have also been applied to our userinfo page.

2. Secondly, we encourage everyone to rec fics and art in the masterlist. If you click the specific rec lists asdjhk has posted an easy format that you can use to copy-paste your recs in! :D There is serious shortage of pairings with Draco that isn't HPDM! And HPDM could also use a variety of fics from different themes as well.

3. To protect the fictions and art coming in on October when the first bottom!Draco fest commences, we shall be raising the community's rating to "Explicit Adult Content" for 18+. However, the mods are not aware if doing so would lock the community for below-18 yrs of age members, and we do know that there are younger fans mature enough to enjoy and participate in the fest. Should this be a concern, please do comment in this post so we can opt for an alternative - such as an IJ account for the fest.

Based from the results of the previous poll on the fest, we have finalized some aspects:

As mentioned before, the fest will commence on October, while the sign-ups will be on June 5 to celebrate Draco's birthday. This will give the artists and authors 3 months to work on their prompts.

We have also decided for the first fest to be a showcase instead of a competition. Maybe in the future we can try for challenges like in hd_worldcup but for now we'd just like to showcase bottom!Draco talents.

Since we'll be using prompts for the fest, the mods have talked with one another and majority agreed that it would be nice to have a themed prompts list, as most other fests already do. For now we've come up with the theme, "Disney / Fairytale". Let's admit, High School Musical's "Breaking Free" can lovely apply to the HPDM pairing.

Some of the mods also thought of Disney / Fairytale remixes, like spin-offs of the real, Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm stories that were morbid but are decidedly gorgeous.

Still, everyone gets a voice in the community, so please do help us decide!

[Poll #1401112]

Please comment for any of your questions, point of considerations or suggestions!

Comments

[spare-change.livejournal.com]

I lovelovelove High School Musical! But I just don't see the connection between Bottom!Draco and Disney. Or fairytales. In fact, just typing that out feels kind of silly to me. ;D I vote for leaving the theme open, or maybe even opening up the prompts to the community at large? Folks could contribute ideas for stories they've always wanted to see written, and anyone who felt inspired could write a story to match. That's been a successful strategy at other fests. It would also make the fest feel a bit more of a community effort, rather than a top-down one.

After all, we're all here to celebrate Bottom!Draco, so my vote is always going to be against any limitations that might interfere with that. (Actually that sentiment applies to a lot of the changes that have appeared in this community ... as someone who's been lurking around here since the beginning, I personally don't think it's necessary to have so many rules in place given that the community worked for so long without them -- really, I would argue the only rule should be DON'T POST FICS THAT AREN'T BOTTOM!DRACO. :D But I realize mine is only one opinion and some folks prefer to make things more bureaucratic, much as I do miss the more freewheeling and joyful spirit of Simmy's original efforts ...)

Also, I may have been mistaken, but I was going through some of the Master Lists and I didn't see Simmy's original recs (from her site) on the list. Is there a reason for that? A lot of them were channier and darker than what appears on the Master List, and so -- given also the Disney suggestion -- I wanted to confirm that this new community wasn't limited to the fluffier side of Bottom!Draco. That would be so sad.

[dadomz.livejournal.com]

D I vote for leaving the theme open, or maybe even opening up the prompts to the community at large?

We plan to opening the prompts at large but not for the first fest. :) We're still testing the ropes.

But I just don't see the connection between Bottom!Draco and Disney.

It's not necessary to stick to that. I mean, one of the mods suggested the writers and artists can pretty much take inspiration from the songs. :) I'm not against it, I think it's a very good challenge considering it allows the artist and writer to exercise their creativity--being a writer myself, I usually like the challenge of being given prompts that people don't usually see as conventional, as opposed to being left to my own devices. However, to each his own.

After all, we're all here to celebrate Bottom!Draco, so my vote is always going to be against any limitations that might interfere with that.

Of course, I agree with you. :)

, I personally don't think it's necessary to have so many rules in place given that the community worked for so long without them

The rules are there to keep the community organized. :) We try to keep it as open as possible but sometimes, people overstep boundaries. It's not to say we're going to ban people if they commit an error, but if we want a healthy community, we need a little bit of structure. This isn't to say that we're not open to suggestions (so if there's a particular rule bothering you, please feel free to point it out). We've after all, consulted with the members and the former mod and she's given us the thumb's up.

I didn't see Simmy's original recs.

We're not done with the master list. The one we've currently made were compilations apart from this community. We're going to add them in soon.

I wanted to confirm that this new community wasn't limited to the fluffier side of Bottom!Draco. That would be so sad.

Heavens, no dear. To be honest, I pitched the fairytale theme--my co-mod initially pitched Disney, precisely because I had a thing for Hans Christian Andersen's and the brothers Grimm's semi-macabre themes. :) Like I said, everyone is allowed to interpret it in any way--just because the theme's fairytale (which is of course, easily associated with Disney and Happily Ever Afters) doesn't mean we have to stick on the brighter side. It would take a very, very talented author to write a dark spin-off. :)

[plotting-pen.livejournal.com]

Please wait! The masterlists are being slowly, but surely, updated as I get more time on my hands! It is surprisingly hard work, especially now that we're deciding to have a big tag system for all the fics in the lists ^^;

Like we said, the lists will eventually be compiled of ALL fics/art of bottom!Draco. It's just, with only five people, it can take a while to get everything ready. We put the lists up because we also want members to add it to them (some are already reccing), but they are always a WIP :)

The rules can seem pretty scary and overbearing at first glance, but they're not there to dampen the excitement! Like dadomz said, let us know which rules seem unfair and we'll try to rectify that ASAP! I'm looking at the rules now, and most of them seem more like common sense than anything else (i.e. no stealing other people's work, don't flame/wank/be mean ^^;). I think that if you just follow the rule of all rules: NO TOP!DRACO, then all the other rules will automatically fall into places :D

I hope this is not too many changes to handle. Our goals are to keep the comm clean and neat, and for everything to run smoothly, with all posts tagged, fic searches non-repetitive, no top!Draco works being recced here, no flaming, no linking to dead links, etc. And well, it's hard to do all that if there are no rules. The comm is run by its members, and so only the members can keep it a awesome place to be! So we're just setting some standards, both so members know what to expect/how to help one another enjoy what's already been offered and for their own benefits (it would suck to find a fic that sounds interesting, only to click on the link to know that it's dead), which is why you, and any member, really, are always welcomed to suggest what we should do differently if some things seem unfair!

As for our fest, I hear what you're saying, and it makes sense! This is why we have a poll up so all suggestions are heard and considered :)