Better Mashfics Group?

[aura218.livejournal.com]

Hi, group.

Like many older fandoms, stories are all over the place in MASH. And story requests seem to be pretty popular posts around here. Wouldn't it be great to have all the best links in one place?

I'd like to propose a lj comm called Better MASH Fics, based on the esteemed group Better Buffy Fics. Here's how it would work:

1. Any group member recommends a fic, with relevant headers, a working link, and a one sentence reason why it's a Better MASH Fic.

2. The recc gets tagged, so that link is always there.

3. The group reads the fic and by a 2/3 majority, decides if it's really a Better MASH Fic. (Be prepared to back up your opinion.)

4. Here's the best part: If the recommended story is declared a Better MASH Fic, the Archiving Committee contacts the author for permission to archive the story on the Better MASH Fics archive.** No more losing MASH fics to the aether and having to find them with the Wayback Machine!

** Anyone have hosting ideas?

Also permitted in this comm would be requesting fics of a type ("Anyone know good Trapper/Hawkeye/Sidney?"), as we do here with glee. However, those links wouldn't be voted on as Better MASH Fics unless a formal, new post was made. (It's too confusing to have links all over the place.)

I'm aiming for a nondiscriminatory group, slash and het both welcome.

So. What say ye? If I get five positive responses, I'll go ahead and create the comm.

Think I'd need:
An assistant archivist
Someone to do the graphic layout

Comments

[skymouth.livejournal.com]

I really like the idea!

[aura218.livejournal.com]

Well you're in luck! Thanks for getting back to me, I'm letting all you responders personally know that the Better MASH Fics comm is a go.

[mirai-gohan.livejournal.com]

I am in favour of this idea.

[aura218.livejournal.com]

Well you're in luck! Thanks for getting back to me, I'm letting all you responders personally know that the Better MASH Fics comm is a go. The link is bettermashfics.livejournal.com

[idle-dylan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, great idea, That sounds awesome.

[aura218.livejournal.com]

Cool, I hope you'll come by. I decided to go with it. I just finished up setting it up. The link is betterMASHfics.livejournal.com

[skew-whiff.livejournal.com]

There's a lot I really like about this. MASH fic is so widely dispersed in hard-to-find places, it'd be good to have some list to collect together the stuff worth reading.


One thing, though, I'm a tad wary of the potential for wank. This fandom seems very relaxed and polite, as they go, but I've seen enough arguments over recs comms and fic awards to know that taste is very subjective, and what one person may love, another may think is horrendous crap, and the original author may not be happy about having their work randomly assessed by a bunch of strangers.
I'm not saying that's reason enough to stop this going ahead, I'm just wondering how you plan to deal with awkward eventualities.

[aura218.livejournal.com]

fanfic should be treated like any other literature. After all, we work hard on our fic and we expect respect. But once a work is out there, it's out there. People read it and have reactions and opinions. You can't stop the public from reacting to your work.

IIRC, on BBF, the author wasn't permitted to weigh in. But, this isn't the powerhouse that Buffyfandom was. So. Standard comm rules apply. Crit the work, not the author or the recc'er. Wank will be deleted. Inappropriate threads will be locked and the fic made inellidgable for voting. That would make people think twice about getting excited, I should think.

But I'm open to suggestions. BTW, do you want to be a moderator?

[skew-whiff.livejournal.com]

Oh, myself, I'm all for concrit, and honest fic discussion. Other people, however, really aren't - just wanted to know how you were going to head off potential arguments, and you sound like you've got a good idea of how to keep things in order.
There probably wouldn't be much trouble, anyway. It's my experience that smaller fandoms, when they fall out, tend to be much more polite and measured in dealing with things than larger ones where people can get away with stirring up trouble.

And thanks for the offer, but it's best I don't - I've modded before and I'm not much use at it. (I swear, I have the organisational and leadership capabilities of Henry Blake.)

[aura218.livejournal.com]

Yah, like you said, with a small, older (both in terms of age of show and age of fans; I don't think there's a majority of kids like in, say, HP) fandom like this, I don't expect every day to be a wankfest like, say, HP. :D I have seen some feathers get ruffled in this kind of fandom -- Frasier, Moonlighting, i've hung out in some odd fandoms... -- and it just takes a leader who doesn't take no guff. :D I've worked in customer service and i've lead a few online groups, so I'm pretty confident with shutting down a thread, and stepping in to remind people it's about the fic, not each other.

Too bad about not being a mod! You're the first person who's taken an interest in how the joint gets run. Yo wouldn't even want to do some background stuff like keeping track of links or archiving?

[aura218.livejournal.com]

Hey there --- Just wanted to let you know that I decided to go with the Better MASH Fics idea. I just finished setting it up, so I'd love if you looked it over and told me what you thought. The link is betterMASHfics.livejournal.com.

[underthenameof.livejournal.com]

Frank & Hotlips in my icon disapprove; I think that means it's a good idea, lol.

Seriously though, I was just thinking the other day that it would be a great idea to have an easily accessible archive for M*A*S*H fanfics. I hate it when good fic disappears because the hosting service shuts down (as with Geocities, for example) and/or the writer moves on/deletes their journal/whatever!

[aura218.livejournal.com]

Weeeel you're the first to know that the comm is a go. I'm just setting it up now, about to make a real announcement. It's betterMASHfics.livejournal.com.

[underthenameof.livejournal.com]

Yay! It looks awesome *joins*

[aura218.livejournal.com]

Awesome. I wanted to get the opinion of you early responders first. So go rec someting!

Are the <a href='http://community.livejournal.com/bettermashfics/640.html">Posting Guidelines</a> understandable? I pretty much copy/pasted this post into the <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/bettermashfics/profile">about page</a> as the comm manifesto.

[underthenameof.livejournal.com]

They look pretty straightforward to me :)

[aura218.livejournal.com]

sweet :D

[aura218.livejournal.com]

Well those links didn't work at all... (I just got up)