Discussion post: how should this community work?

[fiercelydreamed]

 There'll probably be a couple more discussion posts coming up about the operational aspects (particularly the tagging system), but I wanted to get to the biggest question I've got:

How do you want this community to work?

First off, while I initially created queerlygen with a festival in mind, I'm hearing a lot of interest in having it provide a continuing resource. I've got no problems with that. Right now my intent is, at minimum, to have the community act as an ongoing noticeboard where people can post gen works (both fan and original) about sexual and gender minorities. But what should it be beyond that?

• Should we have some kind of periodic challenges? If so, what would you be interested in?
• Are there specific ways to encourage the posting of works beyond just fiction?
• Are there things that have worked well at other communities that you'd like to see replicated here?
• Most pressingly, how should we kick the community off? I'd originally talked about a festival: should I just throw open the doors for people to post any works? Should there be a structure of some kind? Maybe prizes for people who post the most works / in the widest range of 'verses / in the widest range of media? 

Of the discussion posts I've put up so far, this is probably where I have the least idea of how to proceed. So please, bring on any and all suggestions, as vague or as specific as you like.

Comments

[lomedet]

I think starting with a festival/some sort of fictive extravaganza is a good idea. I'm in favor of some limits/structure rather than a total free-for-all - maybe having a period for people to post prompts and then whoever wants to can write to the prompts? (the Porn Battle model, more or less.)

and after whatever the Opening Event is, I like the idea of having the community around as a resource/place to post Queer Gen. Maybe it could operate on a flash-fictionesque model, with different prompts every month/every couple of weeks, or maybe it could be more of a noticeboard - people could post here works they define as fitting the category.

[lady_ganesh]

I like these ideas!