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

[dadomz.livejournal.com]

We can only showcase 2 writers and 2 artists per day for the entire month of October. 15 writers and 15 artists are invited to join while another 15 writers and 15 artists are offered slots to volunteer themselves. It's just for the first fest, as we want to gift our members with fanfiction from their favourite bottom!Draco writers and artists while at the same time, giving buddying writers and artists to showcase their work.

However, we can only showcase 2 writers and 2 artists per day for the entire month of October, which is why we require around 30 writers and 30 artists. If we have around 15 willing to write then the lottery basis of selection of the first-come-first-served option is no longer necessary.

[dadomz.livejournal.com]

BUDDING WRITERS. Jesus, where did the y come from? D:

The reason also, why we want to showcase only 4 is that, the polls came out with people wanting to post at the same time the fest is occurring hence we don't really want to leave the site too cluttered. :) And like we said, it's the first fest, we don't want it to be too labour intensive--hope you don't think we're lazy or anything but we're just trying to find an intermediary between showcasing a lot for our members but at the same time, giving ourselves air to breathe without having to compromise our members. :)

[spare-change.livejournal.com]

Ok -- thanks for clarifying because this structure was not at all clear to me from previous posts. Perhaps that's my fault and I didn't read carefully enough.

Personally I prefer a format that is more laidback and democratic. I think the goal should be more fics, rather than limiting participation. I think that's how the first Bottom!Draco fic fest here worked, fwiw.

Anyway, I understand where you're coming from, since this has become an increasingly popular format. From previous examples of fests that used this strategy (Snarry Games, HD Worldcup), I'm not sure at the end of the day if it results in a better "quality" of fic or anything like that, and it tends to over-privilege the folks who get "showcased" first, while those at the end get significantly less comments. But it is certainly your prerogative to do things this way.

Anyway, I would be curious to know what your criteria will be for the 15 who are invited ... will that be something that people can vote on, to determine who are indeed their favorite writers, or will it be the mods' favorite writers? thanks.

[dadomz.livejournal.com]

it tends to over-privilege the folks who get "showcased" first, while those at the end get significantly less comments.

I understand what you mean. That was initially my concern when I joined hd_worldcup because frankly, pitted against well-known authors, I hardly think people would want to pass by my work, you know--that's a definitely sound and logical concern. Although I tried to bring up to the other mods the possibility of keeping the identities anonymous until the end of the big reveal to remedy that particular problem. Of course, we're trying to answer all possible concerns but most of our decisions are based on the results of our previous polls. We don't make decisions purely based on what we think would work as we do take into account, the members' opinions and votes. :D


Or will it be the mods' favorite writers?
Honestly, I hope it doesn't come off in the manner you put it. XD I mean, it's not our intent to make it sound like we're governing things as we see fit without consulting the members--after all, the members are our primary concern. :) So we hope it doesn't come off that way. However, we're basing the list of invited writers and artists on (1) availability, (2) if they're consistently bottom!Draco writers and artists, (3) the number of works they've produced, (4) quality of work--which can mostly be seen based on the fic recs in this community.

Once again, I do understand where you're getting at so I'll try to consult with the other mods if there's a possibility to bring out the idea of allowing other members to vote which authors and writers they want to showcase however, I think the primary concern there as discussed by the mods is that we're not entirely sure if the proposed roster of authors are available or would want to jump in aboard. A well known bottom!Draco writer enchanted_jae mentioned her availability and of course, that's something that we have to consider. At the same time, we don't want to make the poll results of preferred authors up for the public as we don't want to make it appear we're pitting one author against the other. I hope you understand. :)

[bottomdraco-mod.livejournal.com]

I assure you than we get simmysim's idea-s on issues regarding the community, even with the new rules we have applied. We do not finalize most of our stuff without majority's consent. ^^

Actually, the Bottom!Draco Fest isn't the only one we'll be having. I think what you're talking about is more in line with our second project for the community - that is, the "Monthly Themes".

For the main reason that bottom_draco is not just a fest community unlike as you have mentioned the Snarry Games and the HD Worldcup, we needed something that will fill up the months wherein there are no fics coming in from the "Big Fest". A bottom!Draco fic and art traffic that will ensure some measure of fics coming in, that is very much liberal, or "laidback and democratic" as members like you and most likely more others want :D

This first Big Fest we're planning is for now a rip-off of the traditional fests around, since it is our first, and as dadomz mentioned just tot est the waters. However, with our "Monthly Themes" there will be no restrictions whatsoever (unless, GASP it's top!Draco) and the themes itself will all be suggested by the members majority - ranging from fluff to kink, as you guys would want it.

Also, I'm not sure if you've been visiting the comm as much before we started the changes. Back then the comm was filled with fic searches and repetitive fic theme-findings. Tags were practically non-existent and fic recs get buried from fic searches finding the same fics over and over again. Now I don't know about you, but I think we could do better, no?

As for over-privilege-ing, that is very much inevitable, because we cannot control people's attention span. By limiting the number of fic / art posts in a day, at least we can assure that each fic would get attention.

As for now the mod's choice of invited writers and artists are those already popular in the bottom!Draco fandom - those whose names crop up in the rec lists of bottom!Draco stuff the most. Should we hold a poll for that now, we'll never be able to settle into a limited list of invitees, as well as frustrated grudgings on why some weren't chosen. This way, invited and sign-ups will stay anonymous until the Big Reveal.

But don't worry, 100% sure for the next Big Fest we'll poll who are the best writers in accordance with member votes. We'd just like to see too if we can get gifted people from the Monthly Themes to be invited for next year's.

Please bear with us, we're really trying to be as democratic as we can about everything regarding the community.