Small Announcement

[subluxate]

I spoke with arrogance, the maintainer of the community for the past four years, on Sunday, intending to bring up what's been going on recently, as well as maintaining the memories and such. She's no longer interested in M*A*S*H, and offered me the position of maintainer. I accepted, and wanted to let everyone know about the change.

I'd also like to ask for a couple of volunteers. I'm coming up on a final and midterms, not to mention two papers, and if anyone could assist with going through and adding fics and other posts to the memories or tagging them, I'd really appreciate it.

Now, a few questions. Is there anything you'd like to see here? Should the userinfo be changed (it will be altered, at least a bit, later), and if so, how? Do we need a new layout? I'm willing to spring for a paid account to get us a really great layout, if anyone will make it. What about a mood theme? Do you want any sort of impromptu challenges or contests? Input is endlessly valuable; let me know what you think, and changes, assuming they're wanted, will be implemented.

Thanks in advance, everyone. I'm much nicer than I sometimes seem, and if you have concerns about anything, feel free to e-mail me at hawkeyecat@livejournal.com, or message me. On Y!M, I'm bluearcher85; AIM, it's rogue12885.

Comments

[soi.livejournal.com]

Hi, I've been a total lurker so far, but I'd love to help out with whatever I can. Just tell me what to do, and I can take care of adding some memories and tagging things.

I think a new layout would be great. I'm... not great at fancy layouts, but if I have the time, I can try to do that too. You can look at my journal for an example of my most recent one, although from what I hear, it's probably a little messed up unless you're using Firefox because IE hates pngs. If you don't mind a left-aligned layout, I could probably do more with that.

In terms of mood themes, loridarling has one here (http://loridarling.livejournal.com/65106.html). It only covers early seasons, so there's no BJ or Charles or anything, but it's something, and I'm grateful for it.

So... just let me know if you want me to do something, and on AIM I'm Rob Lucci if you need that. <3

[fairestofkisses.livejournal.com]

Ditto for being a lurker; I've done nothing more than comment on a handful of fics. :) Overall I think this comm is doing pretty well by itself. A new layout might be a fabulous idea to sort of herald its turnover to new hands, but I'm horrid at making them, so I can't do anything more than suggest. XD I wouldn't spring for a paid account, though; some of my best layouts have been using the unpaid Generator format.

I do think turning the memories into a sort of archive would be a good idea. I maintain the community kyokao, and we've taken on something similar, as you can see (http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=kyokao), and there is not a week that goes by without me thankful I made that decision. It makes finding specific posts so much easier, you wouldn't believe. What gets posted in here seems to be mostly fanfiction, so you wouldn't even need as many complicated categories as all that- maybe just divide them by pairing? My only concern is that utilizing the memories feature as a sort of fic archive is only so good as how organized you are, so if you do decide to do that, I heartily recommend selecting a uniform format for titling the entries- i.e. "[author] title, part 1". Or something lile that :D I've seen plenty of communities that archive the fanfiction posted in them, but don't stick to a pattern for the titling, which makes it just as hard to find what you're looking for as if you had gone back through all of the entries yourself.

[murf1013.livejournal.com]

YAY you! (No longer interested in MASH? How can that be possible ;))

The suggestions I have right now (besides the one I told you about earlier in my oddly incoherent email) are regarding the format of the community.

1) If you decide to change the layout (which would be nice), it probably shouldn't be based solely on the first few seasons of MASH. There are a lot of us BJ/Charles/Potter fans out here who would love to see equal treatment of the later part of the series. I wish I knew how to do these things (I can't even format my own LJ!) because I'd love to help with it. But, alas, I can't.

2) I love the idea of challenges. Sometimes, a challenge is what inspires someone to write a fic. I know that there have been times when I've had horrible writer's block and saw a challenge somewhere. It broke me out of the block! So that's a wonderful idea.

>>I'm coming up on a final and midterms, not to mention two papers,<<

*shivers at the memory of those days* I remember during one particularly bad semester (I think it was my senior year) - wearing the same pair of sweats for an entire week. I'd study in my dorm room, go to bed, get up, go take my final, go back to the dorm, study some more ... etc. It was a vicious cycle. And a smelly one.

However, I digress.

3) I'd love to volunteer to do the memories/archiving stuff ... BUT ... someone would have to give me a crash course. I'm a fast learner though. :)

So, let me know what I can do. I'm more than willing to learn how to do anything to help you out.

[bekkypk.livejournal.com]

Good for you! Not much to suggest I'm afraid though, but people might hear if anything upsets me :D
xx

[teapot-yo.livejournal.com]

yo.

give me a holla if you need me, for anything from coming up with challenges to helping to tag fics. i am obviously not really amazing at anything computer-wise but i can learn if you need me to.

also i 100% endorse the idea of a well-organized archive. i've always thought it was kind of a shame that mash_slash hasn't yet taken advantage of the memories system.

oh man that's about it other than congratulations!

[katiemariie.livejournal.com]

Dude, I cannot tell you how bitchin' it is to have a mod who is active in the community.

1) I am more than willing to help out with tagging and adding to memories. However, I think it would easier to ask people to tag some of their past fics, at least the recent ones. I'm sure people would be willing to tag some of their own.

2) I'd like to see a more communal feeling around these parts. I remeber when all of the mash-slash listers moved to LJ and we were all friends and everybody knew everybody. It wold be nice to have that again.

3) A new layout and a mood theme would be cool. I am pixally-challenged, so I'm no help on this front.

4) As far as the userinfo goes, I think a list of links to related comms and sites would be bitchin'.

5) Where is this allusive fife?

[epicet.livejournal.com]

I'm on break all of next week, so I'd have time to spare to work on going back and tagging entries. With that task, it's probably the more people, the better.
I'm not brilliant with layouts or anything, but I could fiddle around in Photoshop. Perhaps we could hold a layout contest? ;)


Also: Wilson face! XD What episode is that from? Tuxes!

[xmusic-angelx.livejournal.com]

I might be able to make a layout. I'm ok at them, but the thing I'm not too sure is on the coding for the LJ layouts.

[xmusic-angelx.livejournal.com]

Wait, I just realized, I have a free account with a layout xD ok i'll see what I can do. No guarantees but I'll try xD

[likethesun2.livejournal.com]

I basically do not exist in M*A*S*H anymore (actually I basically do not exist ANYWHERE), but I am a compulsive organizer and I'm going to have a free day or two. So if you still need any help with memories/tagging or that sort of thing, I'm your girl.