the trick is to keep breathing

I've got stuff coming soon! Even smut!

...Don't be discouraged, Sev. They've all gotten a bit shorter recently. I think maybe some of it just has to do with the time of year.

But yeah. FANDOM! *shakes fist*

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Considering that a lot of people are being rather paranoid in fandom, maybe you guys should start up a directory, or like, a discussion that "fandom = getting in touch" and all that. Likely a part of the problem with

ff_press right now (and I've noticed it over the past week steadily dwindling) is that a lot of people don't feel the incentive to link here or something.

Just some thoughts.

Granted, I haven't been writing in fandom as much as my original stuff lately.

~Cendri

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I was seriously wondering whether it was the LJ kerfluffle, or if fandom is just going back to school, or something.

BUT! OMG SMUT!!

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Oooh, elaborate! What sort of directory? What sort of discussion? I LIKE DISCUSSIONS.

I mean, it's going to be basically impossible for

ff_press to actually CHECK LJ, GJ, IJ, and Jfen for links to all the fandom work. No one has that much time, not even me at work ;). At the same time, if people made LJ posts linking to their off-LJ stuff, we'd be happy to list that in the newsletter. We list and link to anything ON LJ, even if it's a three-word post containing header information and a link to ff.net.

I'll be a little depressed if that much of fandom left that quickly, though. >.>

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I was thinking a comm or something where people fill out a form with their "contact info" and the way to list it as a list is through tags--namely, they tag the first letter of their username, their fandom(s), and if they're a writer, artist, cosplayer, or general fan. All you would need is a linklist of the tags, see, and it updates itself (yes, I've put some thought into this).

This wouldn't help out the newsletter per se, but it might generate some more recs and help people to find stuff over the internets.

Sure, some people might argue that it would give a way for The Man to find fandom but it's not like you can HIDE ANYTHING on the internets and if it's just general fandom stuff how can they assume it's a OMG CHILD PORN RING.

As for discussions, well, general discussions like this. XD I've got the idea for a dynamically updating list set up, but I don't have all the details of the form set up (and technically someone could file under a couple letters if they have several pennames, I personally would file under two, since some people might be following over from FF.net or something).

~Cendri

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SMUT IS GOOD. ALWAYS.

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There's Fanworks Finder, where anyone can add links to stories people are looking for, or put in requests to find authors they've lost online.

Then there's FanHistory, which is a fandom Wiki. They're archiving people stubs for LJ users (and anyone else, provided it's stuck in the right category) who want to give out their information. I made up a page the other day (it was confusing as hell learning how to write in Wiki, but I was able to figure it out by looking at other people's text fields). Hm, I have to go back and add to it still, but I wanted one up. Is that egotistical? I don't know, I think it's kind of neat. Anyone can search Fanhistory.com for Darknightdestiny, and my page pops up!

~Rach

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I know, but that's like EVERYONE. I was just thinking an FF thing. XD

~Cendri

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It would be cool to have a listing of fans, where they post, and what fandoms they usually write for. Since FF is such a splintered fandom.

Maybe I should get Nay in on this!

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Oh! Well I'm stumped there. ^^;

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I mean, the key to it working is the fact that you don't have to update the linklist all the time. USE THE TAGS. USE THEM WELLS.

Shit, I've even set up my computer under a tag system and am trying to abandon folders. INSANITY.

I thought about just being like, "hey, who wants to help me make this" but then I held back. XD But I'd be willing to help if the idea gets off the ground. Because lord knows it's hard to find people, especially now.

~Cendri

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I mean, those places are cool, but I'm a little skeptical of Wikis that don't have some kind of structure to them (because you get enough people adding pages and it can get messy REALLY quick). And fanwork finders are only good for works, not for authors/artists themselves.

I'm from the Google School of Efficiency. XD Really, it's just a list that doesn't need the links to be entered by anyone other than the contributors. That's the concept, at least.

I'm all about stuff that doesn't take much to maintain.

~Cendri

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Hell, if you've got webspace and are trying to keep LJ from being bitchy at you, you could even got Wordpress software and easily run it from another site, so long as you give people posting access (which isn't hard).

Been playing with wordpress a lot myself lately, only reason I mention it. And it has tags.

~Cendri

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What about the del.icio.us tag system? Nay has fallen in love with that one, and it would only be a series of links, so we wouldn't have to worry about questionable content or anything like that. Although then again you wouldn't have a central post for each author where they could list their information. Hmmm.

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As you can tell, I am commenting as things come to me.

Yes, there can be several tag bundles (you know that you can bundle on there, right?). One for the 'fan name', which can essentially but whatever the hell their alias is. So, I would put up four links, say. One for my GJ, one for my FF.net account, one for my SEC.net account, and one for my blog. (possibly one for my fanlisting, you get the idea)

when you click on the tag 'Cendri', you get all those tags on a page, and you see that there are related tags (like that I'm in FF7, FF8, and FFX, I'm a writer but not an artist, and I rant a lot). Next to my entry for my GJ archive it would also have the tags "fic" and "icons" or somesuch thing.

So that technically IS a central post.

Duh, I don't know why I didn't remember that sooner.

Here's an example of the related tag structure that I use for my work links

God, that's even simpler. It even alphabetizes for you. Win.

You guys should do that. XD Seriously, it would help people like me that like to browse more than see stuff updated all the time (not that the newsletter sucks, and I've found awesome stuff through it, but it's got its limitations).

~Cendri

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when you click on the tag 'Cendri', you get all those tags on a page

I mean LINKS. You get all those LINKS on a page, god I can't type.

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Well, Nay is currently working to transfer all of the ff_press archives/memories into a del.icio.us archive for browsing. Which is why I thought of it in the first place. XD http://del.icio.us/ff_press/

But I really like the idea of using the del.icio.us system as an author database, where you could figure out all the places X or Y might post. ("Does he/she write original fic?", even! We could have a link to that.)

OK, so assuming that I can get del.icio.us installed in my computer (I can call in a favour!), would you be interested in helping me out with this a little?

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Sure, I wouldn't mind helping. And even if you can't get it 'installed' you can still use it as an account (no nifty shortcuts or buttons, but it is web based). We should make some kind of page somewhere that says if someone doesn't want to be listed on the directory and are they can get removed or something.

And I've seen the ff_press directory. Not bad, and a good way to be like "I saw this one story on the newsletter, what was it" but ya, author/artist (because I don't want to leave out some fanartists, you know?) finding is always win.

~Cendri

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Well, I was thinking of a voluntary sort of thing -- like you were talking earlier, some kind of form you fill out listing everywhere you would like us to link to. We could then advertise the hell out of it through LJ and FF_P and the other journal systems. It could be either a community, where users post their own information, or it could just be a single post which people would post comments to.

In fact, we could do it both ways - an LJ community like you were talking before, with a tag archive system, and then you and I could work on transferring users' links over to a del.icio.us archive for those who don't like LJ.

This is a better idea the more I think about it, too. You could find, say, writing LJs for your favourite ff.net authors that you didn't know existed. Or something!

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Actually, ya. Ya. That was my original idea, some sort of comm but you can maintain both at the same time without it EATING YOUR LIFE because people are posting for you. And I think we should let people post other people (for the cases of old favorite authors that no longer write but left their stuff up) or something.

Yes, I'm all about things that don't require five billion hours to maintain. You're an engineer too, you understand lazy. XD

Can you tell I've been wanting a fandom project? XD

~Cendri

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I think that'll work nicely, because people can post to their heart's content in the community, and then you and I can update links in del.icio.us whenever we have time, and we won't feel pressured to get a move on it.

because i support the lazy! basically.

OK, we're on. As soon as I finish this damn batch of polymer - stupid work! - I'll rope us a community, something like ff_fanlisting or something.

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Sounds nifty. XD We are such bad workers, doing fandom business on the clock, lulz.

~Cendri

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yeah, seriously. i'd feel guilty but they gave me a raise recently, so I must be doing something right >.>

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I'm really excited about the new community. And glad you figured out a good way to organize it. I mean, there has to be a good balance—obviously if it was hell to maintain, no one would stick with it for long, but also the success of a page usually depends on how easy it is for the user to navigate.

Which is why this is great!

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YAY. <3

Can I ask you to pimp the hell out of it, then? Maybe this afternoon once we've worked out all the final bugs? ;)

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WILL DO THIS.

Writing a reminder down now, actually. I'm putting a bunch of things on my sites today, and planning on putting up one big post on my site's blog, and a smaller one in LJ (why not, I'll just copy it in there). I'll add it to the list of things to check out, and I'll also stick it in my wordpress sidebar.

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See, this is why! I can basically only reach LJ and ff.net (and my LJ reach is limited, although I'm totally going to abuse my ff_press priveleges), and so it would be an awesome way to spread the word to other sites we may not be able to get to.

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ff_press watching the

vincentxtifa community? Since I'm updating that shrine a lot, I'd be putting a lot of fics and art in a post for them, too (with the proper headings, of course!). And since my main thing the past several days has been, "CONNECT EVERYTHING! MAKE IT SIMPLE FOR EVERYONE!" I'd be pointing them all to my syndication feed as well, "if they want to know every time something new happens with the shrine." And since

ff_listing will be on my list of things to check out, everyone will see it.

I had also planned to add it to my list of networks on my FanHistory page, once I'm able to post my info in the community.

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*cough**hack* I totally meant

ff_fanlisting.

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