Discussion post: headers and tags.

[fiercelydreamed]

My apologies for the unexpected radio silence. I've been out of town for a bit, and while I had an eye on the comm during my trip, I didn't manage to find time to post, or get it together to recruit some help before I left. I just shot off emails or messages to three of you who'd expressed interest in helping out here, and if you wanted to pitch in but didn't hear from me, please feel free to drop me a note and remind me. 

I'm hoping to get to the actual posting of works within the next few weeks. Based on the input I've gotten so far, I'm thinking we'll likely kick things off with a short prompt-based fest (and maybe a recs post), then open things up to let the community serve as a noticeboard with periodic fests or challenges. Before we get off the ground, though, I want to make sure that we've got a clear set of guidelines and policies based on the input you've all given so far, and I'd like my co-mod(s) to be able to help me craft those.

One of the last major things I think we need to talk about is what kinds of header and tag systems would work best. When you answer, keep in mind what kinds of content you personally would want to be able to find, as well as what kinds of content you personally would want to avoid. As people have had a variety of different views on what constitutes "gen," it seems like the best way is to set the guidelines inclusively but create ways for people to find the works that meet their personal preferences. 


Headers. I'm personally a fan of clean, simple header systems and standard post subject formats; I think they make it easier to navigate separate posts. As a starting place, here are the fields I might include:

(Subject line): Foodfight, with Incidental Accompaniment [Original art by Fiercelydreamed]

Title: Foodfight, with Incidental Accompaniment
Creator: <user name=fiercelydreamed>
Universe: Original
Type of work: Art (pen and ink illustration, digital collage)
Warnings or sensitive content: Mild nudity but no sexual content. 
Summary and notes: The Wenatche Gay Men's Acapella Choir has an annual family summer barbecue. Every year, they purchase six dozen assorted pies, eight packs of balloons, a crate of whipped cream, and an entire flat of paper towels. This is why. Big thanks to K. for the concrit and to M., he knows why. 

Anything I missed that should be there? Any alternate wording? (I'm not wild about "sensitive content.") In case you're wondering, I'm leaning deliberately away from asking for ratings -- I think they're very subjective and can lead people to skip works that might be exactly what they're looking for because they think they won't enjoy something G/R/whatever. I'm hoping that requiring people to warn for and name certain kinds of content will serve the same function, only in a more informative way. However, I'm definitely open to other opinions.


Tags. I think that tags are going to be instrumental in helping people sift through the very broad array of content this community welcomes to find what they're looking for (though I'm also hoping that people will branch out, too!). I plan to establish the tag categories and many of the tags in advance, so that they're there already for creators to use when they go to post. Here are some categories that I think we should have, and examples of the tags they might contain:

Type of work: art, fic, poetry, podcast, vid. Any other types of work to include?
Universe: fandom: full name, original. Does this work? Any problems?
Warnings or sensitive content: This one is challenging me. I'd essentially like there to be tags for the absence of certain kinds of content, so that someone wishing to avoid sexual content, romantic content, or potentially triggering content can do so. It seems like we also need a tag indicating that the work contains no content requiring a warning. Clearly these kinds of content are judged subjectively, and the best we can do is offer guidelines, request that people comply, and have a clear policy regarding how moderators will handle complaints or requests that creator add warnings. So, accepting those limitations as given, what kinds of content might someone want to filter out? How should we phrase these tags? Can you think of a reason you'd want to search for these kinds of content on a community for gen works?
 

Any other tags or tag categories you'd like to see that I didn't include here?


Again, thank you all for your patience with the slow start and for your thoughtful input so far.

Comments

[landshark]

Any alternate wording? (I'm not wild about "sensitive content.")

Maybe instead of "Warnings or sensitive content" something like "Contains:" could be used? It gets the message across without the negative connotations that sometimes comes with the word "Warning". I'm not married to it or anything, it's just an idea.

Also, you've probably already thought of this, but it would be nice to be able to cut and paste a 'blank' header from the community profile page.

[alchemia]

I agreed with this (re: Contains vs Warnings.)

[fish_echo]

I third this point. It is what I was going to suggest.

[softestbullet]

+1

[lomedet]

"Contains" is my preferred language, too.

[alchemia]

Type of work: art, fic, poetry, podcast, vid. Any other types of work to include?

I don't know if anyone will post such things or if it is within the scope of the comm, but I'm thinking of essays/discussion/meta on queer-fandom/queer-media?

[fiercelydreamed]

Belatedly replying: I think meta/discussions would be welcome here.

[fish_echo]

The headers/subject line format as you have it seems fine (with the substitution of 'contains' for 'sensitive content', or some other rephrasing).

For 'type of works,' I think you have the main ones listed. The only things else I can think of are filk or picspam? But do you really need a comprehensive list of works? Couldn't the comm have a statement that we welcome any other sort of fanwork, and add more tags if needed?

For 'universe', I think what you have is fine.

For 'content', I'd say make the tags what you have italicised (if it will fit within the character limit for a tag). The only reason atm I can think of why someone would want to search for specific content is if they were searching for a story which they remembered included that specific content.

[fizzyblogic]

+1 to everything here, it's pretty much what I was going to suggest.

[naraht]

Might need a tag for "RPF"? Possibly also for historical periods of RPF?

Can you think of a reason you'd want to search for these kinds of content on a community for gen works?

My basic philosophy is that any category that exists, someone will want to search for. Having said that it might be too much work to accommodate everyone's tastes.

[brewsternorth]

Might need a tag for "RPF"? Possibly also for historical periods of RPF?

I would've thought that would come under the Universe category:

fandom: rpf, fandom: historical rpf

maybe?

And agreed with upthread that "Contains" is probably better than "Warnings".

[naraht]

I think RPF is very far from being all the same fandom. As is historical RPF for that matter. Yuletide divides it up by centuries at least.

[pionie]

I like 'contains' rather than 'warnings' too, as one person's thing to be warned against is another person's yay.

[theleaveswant]

I agree with the "contains" movement. I also like the idea of tagging for absence of sexual, romantic etc. content--I haven't seen that before but I think it could work well here. I think if people are searching for a particular story they'll have enough other factors to search by that tagging for presence is unnecessary. Might need to put a negative ("no romantic content") in the tag just to make it clear for people new to the system.

[facetofcathy]

I like the contains idea, it allows the writers and readers to independently and individually decide what's a bug and what's a feature.

So, should we consider Contains: and Does Not Contain: as header items and have the likely suspects for those two lists as available tags, thereby providing guidance for the posters when they write their headers?

One thing spnroundtable does well, in a fandom specific way, is have themed rec posts where commentors are encouraged to add their own. They also have discussion posts on meta themes that are sometimes very popular and full of interesting comments. By having someone get the ball rolling with the original post, you get more response than just saying you allow recs or meta posts.

[executrix]

I'm a "member of" and "subscribed" to the comm, but I didn't get this message--I just said, hey, whatever happened to queerlygen?

[turlough]

Type of work: art, fic, poetry, podcast, vid. Any other types of work to include?

Recs?

[naraht]

I know this comment is a bit late but I'd like to suggest that there are separate tags for the identity of the characters depicted and for the contents of the story. Because one might not necessarily imply the other but it would be very useful to be able to find, for example, all the stories featuring genderqueer characters.

[fiercelydreamed]

Great suggestion! We'll add that to the system. Thanks for thinking of it.