News

Fic Challenge and Summary of Ideas

Hey y'all! So here's a summary of what's going on right now in FIA-idea-world. :)

First of all, the ideas that we've gotten from members can be boiled down to these:

Facebook (new page)
Tumblr (new page)
Twitter: the wonderful IDreamofDraco is running this! :)
Fic exchanges/Challenges
Podcasts

The ones that won't happen right away, but I would like to keep working on them:

ETA: Wordpress has a plugin (P2) that kind of structures the blog page like a FB group. The advantage is that everyone who posts would have multiple options for signing in-- UNLIKE FB. So I think that's where we're going to go.
I might even reserve the name of the page now (www.dracoandginnyblog.com) More as events develop.
Youtube channel
Ofic forums for fanfic authors moving into original fics they ultimately plan to publish. This one's going to happen, y'all, and it'll be a separate Wordpress forum. But it's not going to happen right away! ;)

Now, for the challenge location...
EVERYTHING has pros and cons. I like the possibilities of dreamwidth. The problem is that they have a few issues of functionality to work out, and it would be a new thing to learn, which I don't think I can manage right now.

Facebook-- we're more than ready to have a page, but as IDoD pointed out, it has too many privacy issues to host a challenge there. Same with tumblr.

Wordpress-- we really need to have a blog there. That platform has unlimited functionality, basically. There's a plugin for EVERYTHING, including mobile apps, crossposting everywhere, unlimited pics and artwork, free quadruple chocolate cake to all members... (it's possible!) But RIGHT NOW, I have to admit that I just don't have time to add it. Also, I'm still trying to find a journaling plugin. But something tells me it's out there. ;)

SO... I think the way all of this ends up is that we should do the FIRST fic challenge on the forums here, and then decide where to host them next time. HOWEVER, news about it will announced on the fb page and other places. That seems like a good compromise for now.

THOUGHTS?? Questions? Comments? Snide remarks? :)

Posted by Anise on Aug 17, 2013 07:39 pm (17 Comments)
Comments

Sounds good to me! :)

xxprincessofdarknessxx @ Aug 18, 2013 01:43 am


Personally, I'm not an avid fan of FB purely because of those privacy issues. Would it be an open group or invite only? Not sure how that would work, but it would definitely expand the ficverse and fandom beyond FF.net and the FIA archive.

I love the idea of Wordpress and Podcasting, so you have my 100% support on those. Let me know if you even need volunteers for the Podcast. I'd love nothing more than to add my own Southern Iced Tea voice to the mix, hehe.

Rinney @ Aug 18, 2013 08:28 am


@Rinney: For FB, there are two routes we could go. The first is a group, which could be private (though that would be hard to manage because anyone who wants to be a part of it would have to be invited by an admin) or public. This makes for a community where FIA fans can interact with each other and with admins, post content, etc. HOWEVER, anyone who is a part of the group can see who all of the members are, and that takes away from everyone's privacy.

Personally, I'm leaning toward an official FIA page. Now for a page, all you have to do is like it, and whenever a new post is posted to the page by an admin, you will recieve the update in your own Facebook feed. People who like the page won't be able to see the identities of anyone else who likes it, unless you have a friend who also likes the page. I'm pretty sure you'll see something that says "so and so likes this page too."

I BELIEVE the FB page/group is going to be an option for people who want it. If you decide not to like the FB page or join the FB group, whichever one it is, that doesn't mean you'll be missing out on updates and information. Anise can correct me if I'm wrong, but you can still recieve those updates on Twitter, here on FIA, and other places Anise is trying to put together (such as the WordPress and Tumblr blogs). We're just trying to create different avenues for people to connect to FIA. Social networking is a great way to spread information, and we want as many people as possible to know that the great ship Fire and Ice hasn't sunk yet!

idreamofdraco @ Aug 18, 2013 09:35 am


I really like the idea of the FIA page, too. The thing about a group is that the only way to make ALL content only available to members is to create a secret group rather than even a private one. At that point, it would just make more sense to have a WP blog. So I like the idea of an official page. Eventually, everyone could pick and choose. :) The WP blog is going to be a little bit down the road, so FB (and maybe tumblr, too) would be good to work on right now. And we have the amazing IDoD to cover Twitter, of course!

(goes back to painting the ship. I really like periwinkle...)

Anise @ Aug 18, 2013 11:59 am


Could we not just have it on FIA and notify the members? Home page with links to the FIA blog and review this later? Other avenues are fine in the future but i think it is important to have it on the home page as main source. I would like to see on the FIA blog some discussions around challenges and ability for the members to suggest a challenge, so we don’t miss pp who are already linked to FIA. This is just my view as a reader, but writers may have a different opinion on this.

Marinka @ Aug 18, 2013 01:16 pm


I like the idea of an official FB page, at least to start out with. Later on, we could set up groups for things like book clubs (a group discussing a fic in depth) or to exchange recs, for example. So pleased to see all this energy around my favorite ship.

Grizel @ Aug 18, 2013 03:24 pm


You could just host challenges and fests on LiveJournal. A new community wouldn't be ignored and majority of FIA users already have accounts there.

Nutmeg44 @ Aug 19, 2013 03:19 pm


Nutmeg44, I think Anise is looking at platforms that will make it easier to host the exchange. LJ isn't necessarily the best option, and it would probably make more sense to host the FE on the FIA forums, since they're already part of the site.

Anise, it seems silly to put a challenge on Facebook or Tumblr. If anything, you'd only use both to promote FE's, stories and authors at FIA. The FIA Forums or Dreamwidth seem like the best options, but again I think it makes the most sense to host it on the Forums so that everything is kept together.

haniqua @ Aug 19, 2013 03:38 pm


(pops head in)

Hey all,

LOTS of wonderful ideas! But more later. I have people visiting from Memphis, so I just wanted to make sure y'all know I'll be back soon. :)

Anise @ Aug 20, 2013 10:54 am


Okay, I'm back. Sort of. I have a few minutes, anyway. :)

I agree with the ideas about FB, etc. Those would be better places for discussion and promotion, and the FIA forums would (for now) be the place to have the actual challenge itself. The thing about LJ... it's not that it's a bad idea, and I do appreciate the suggestion, but the problem is that I just don't want to be *continuing* things there on an ongoing basis. So I would hate to even start down that path. Forums it is! :)

As soon as I get some time (by the end of the weekend, for sure,) I think that the agenda will look more or less like this:

1.) Go through the original rules for the LJ exchange and use those as a basis for this one.
2.) Start the FIA FB page... MAYBE the Tumblr page, but that also might have to wait a bit.
3.) Start actually setting up the exchanges.
4.) Announce them, yay! :)

And ALL help for the exchange itself will be very very welcome, and there will be lots of free prizes. (In the 64th dimension. Y'all have that interdimensional travel thing worked out, right? ;)

Anyway, I'm kind of thinking the middle of September for the start of the exchange. The thing is that as soon as my visitor goes back to Memphis, I only have a few days to do 10 days' worth of work before going to Minnesota! But it will happen! Yay to the ultimate power! :)

Anise @ Aug 20, 2013 06:36 pm


Yay for Ofic forums! I can't wait for that. They will be a tremendous source. :)

Incognito @ Aug 21, 2013 02:03 pm


I think so too. :) It's really time for them to happen, and I just haven't seen them working the way I'd want them to anywhere else. I'll work on a lot of these things while I'm in Minnesota, too... my sister's grandma wants us back every night at 6 so that we can eat hot dish with her. (85 years old, and still making hot dish... :) So the point is, I'll have a lot of time in the evenings. ;)

Anise @ Aug 21, 2013 06:22 pm


Okay, I seriously need to know what the heck hot dish is. At the moment I'm envisioning a well muscled man spread out on the dining table (in which case, your grandma has good taste).

haniqua @ Aug 21, 2013 07:57 pm


No... ;)

Hot dish is a Minnesota thing. A lot of the time, you don't really even want to know about it. Cream of mushroom soup might be involved. But Grandma made it, so we try to be nice...

I'm still trying to figure out/remember how links work on this page, but a recipe for tater-tot hot dish can be found here:
http://www.minnesota-visitor.com/minnesota-hot-dish-recipes.html BTW, to keep this on topic... I found a plugin for WP that kind of makes the blog behave LIKE a FB group. But comments wouldn't be linked to real-name accounts. So that might eventually be the way to go in order to have that type of community blogging group.

Anise @ Aug 22, 2013 02:11 pm


P.S.: The amazing Aphrodite already started a FIA FB page, and I'm now an admin! Yay! More news about that very soon.

Anise @ Aug 22, 2013 06:55 pm


RE: Fic Exchange/Challenge

I was thinking that instead of *just* a fic exchange that other media could be included to accompany the fics. These media would include art (drawings), manipulations (screenshots or other photographs) to create banners or posters, fanmixes (with cover art) and fanvids.

eg. Artist A gets assigned to create art for Writer X's story - whether that be a fanmix or banner ow what have you.

Of course I'm thinking about how the Big Bang challenges are run on LJ and they don't require anonymity once posting, but I still think it's feasible. Artists, for example, could make two banners or posters, one with just the story title and the other would include the writer's penname, to be revealed after the challenge.

Incognito @ Sep 01, 2013 05:09 am


I like this idea a lot. I think that IDreamofDraco and Aphrodite mentioned something very similar.... (I think we're going to call ourselves the D/G Triumvirate or something... ) It MIGHT be too complex for the first one, though. Think of my poor, poor brain. ;) I'll see what the other two think.

Anise @ Sep 03, 2013 01:52 pm