Non-Star Wars fan fic forum - Forums now open!

http://www.freecomicbookday.com/The Mod Squad has been talking about creating a new fan fiction forum for all the non-Star Wars fan fic. The forum would include all types of fan fic (books, comics, movies, TV, etc.) but not original fiction. Weâ??re still ironing out some details, but we want to know what you guys think of the idea.

We were thinking that it might draw back some older users who post different types of fanfic at other sites, and be a valuable addition to the JC, especially since character discussions would benefit the SFFs and Amph.

 

Well, I absolutely like it for one. It seems like one of those "why didn't we have this idea years ago?" things. Heck, even before the Non-SW RPF was created, there were still many non-SW RPGs in classic RPF. Why not the same for FF? Of course, I'm not familiar with the differences between FF and RPF, but I really don't see why not.

 

I think it's a brilliant idea. I could never understand why there never was a Non-SW fan fic board. I mean, there is a Non-SW RPF, a non-SW Comic book and TV section, why not have a non-SW Fan fic forum?

Besides that, I think it could be very beneficial to the forums...I also think it will garner a lot of attention. Though, why not include original work?

EDIT: I guess Coruscant said what I said as well...sorry for reiterating it.

 

If the author ever wants to publish a story with those characters or the exact story, the publishers won't go for it because of copyright issues.

 

If the author ever wanted to publish though, couldn't they just take the story down?

 

There are copyright issues with anything posted on the internet. While it's up, people can steal ideas/characters.

 

As much as the idea of a forum for original fiction intrigues me, I must say I would never, ever use it myself and I would advise other writers not to, either. There are vultures out there, sweeping the internet carefully for original fiction and the moment you post anything of quality, it stands a good chance of finding its way into someone else's published book. How would you like that feeling? I know I wouldn't.

 

I've absolutely no interest in fanfic of any kind, but I think it'd be a good idea to seriously consider a forum for non-SW fanfic if the interest is there.

As far as people stealing other's ideas, I suppose that's a valid point. However, I'd imagine fanfic is just a hobby for many of the people that write it, and it probably wouldn't be a very big deal to them either way. At least you get to have some of the material you've written read by others. I'd imagine that that's got to be at least a little gratifying to the people that take the time to write it.

Coming from an outsider to the existing fanfic forums, from the viewpoint of a user that doesn't even browse them, that's my two cents on the issue.

 

For fanfic, absolutely - we're stealing other people's ideas by writing it, after all. I think the comments about idea theft were directed towards the subject of posting original fiction on a new board.

Personally, I'm all in favour of a Non-SW Fanfic forum, and likewise think that allowing original fiction would be a bad idea. I know a lot of writers here who hope to publish original work one day and keep their original stuff offline for that very reason. Anything that is or ever has been available for free on the Internet is pretty unlikely to get commercial publication.

 

I think it's a good idea. I wont visit it very often, it's just not my cup of tea, but I can certainly understand that others are interested in this.

 

The contest is on a small basis. We're able to very clearly warn (multiple times) that if they allow us to post their stories, they could have serious trouble getting them published. There aren't very many people who participate (hint, hint ) and we can control it. If we allow it in a forum, there is a very good chance that a great deal of people will either ignore the rules or not take them seriously, and then there'll be issues when they can't get them published.

 

"Shot down" sounds so harsh. It wasn't even a definite "No", it was only a "Not now", because the SFF forums had just been opened. Sapient practically said it's a good idea for later. It's "later" now.

unless I only found early diplomatic posts and missed the later "what? get outta here"s in less obvious threads

 

Since you (NYCG) said that discussion of such issues should be here instead of JCC, I'm importing this from there....

This had been my understanding as well, and I've defended the tfn policy both here and elsewhere on this basis. Now if the rule wasn't because of the various LFL crackdowns but just because the owners don't like it, that's their decision, and I'm not going to waste time arguing against it. But at the same time, I need to know for sure before I stick my neck out again.


EDIT: That said, of course I have stuff I could post there, even with the rule, including some responses to challenges here that I couldn't post at the time.

 

I'd be really interested to know if the owners will reconsider the rule.

 

I can totally understand where you are coming from with the whole no posting of original works. But, perhaps instead of saying no original works, you could have a clear warning that says "Post at your own will," and tell them that their stories could be ripped off.

But, I am glad that so many people think this is a good idea.

 

Much as I think it would be an interesting idea, this is opening one hell of a huge can of worms.

As has been mentioned over and over again in the JCC, the prevailing sentiment has always been that "there are no homosexuals in the universe" (but for what it's worth, for many years we've had an excellent team of mods who understand the difference between PWP/Han/Luke/Chewie and characters who happen to be gay) and imposing the limitus on published fan fiction that might actually have gay characters (Dumbledore, anyone? Is he going to be off limits?) is going to be incredibly tricky.

Also, don't forget there are some writers who are absolutley armed with attack dogs when it comes to fan fic like Anne Rice (or in a sadder example, Marion Zimmer Bradley, who USED to encourage fan fiction and fan world building, until a fan actually sued her and cost her a book...

Some interesting reading on fan fic and copyright issues:
Chilling effects FAQ

and here


While I think it's a lovely idea, I fear that the 'Rules and regs' that would need to be involved may choke it in it's infancy.

 

Well my opinion on that is the homosexual...well, rules are rules. Unless the owners are going to change the rules, then it can't be allowed. I like what NYCitygurl posted in one of the threads (YJCC I believe). She said that you can have homosexual characters in your fanfic, just not allowed to have the relationship status (not exact quote, but close). Besides, when I go to the Fan fic section, I don't want to read about relationships, I want to read about action, adventure, comedy, drama and I don't want relationships falling under those categories. While, at times, it is a nice sub plot, but judging by the SWFFF, it seems to be working out so far without them.

Mitth within the RPR forum brought up a good question, how will you go about categorizing these forums? He mentioned one forum for Comics, one for television and one for movies. I think, at this point, that's putting on too many limits on a new forum. I suggested a team of indexers who will categorize them into the separate categories within one index thread. Then, if it gets really popular, branch out from there into separate forums.

 

Yeah seriously, relationships are very poor material for both comedy and drama. I can't imagine such a thing.

Edit: Oops, I forgot about almost every story ever written in the history of writing.

 

Homosexuals: Excellent paraphrasing Yes, you are allowed to use gay characters (Dumbledore, Willow, etc.) but they can't be in the relationships.

Owners: When SW got a gay couple last year, the MS emailed the admins and asked them to list the rule for truely homosexual characters and original characters. They said no. The MS can't change it, just be in a bad position between users who want it and owners who don't.

MZB etc.: The mods will make sure that there is a good list of allowed and disallowed authors in the forum. Stories in disallowed fandoms will be locked/removed and not tolerated.

Splitting: We've been discussing that, but it might not come to pass. We don't even need to go to the extent of having a team of indexers or anything complicated; lazy (a fanfic user) has a wonderful fic search system coded to the JC. It can find any story or thread in fan fic. He's told us that it would take about five miniutes to include NSWFF.

 

Lazy did a great job with the fic search thing, I use it to link to all my fics.

Would it be worth starting a petition to allow same-sex relationships, or would it just be ignored no matter how many people signed it?

 

It would be ignored. Utterly. Sorry.

 

Wait a moment here. Is this whole "The owners still say no" statement based on something said within the discussions about creating this new section or something said a year ago about a different topic? If the latter, I find this worrying for several reasons. First, why this reluctance to ask them about anything? Is there some Himalayan trek involved, or are they just so frightening that people are afraid to initiate any kind of contact? Second, if they haven't been consulted on this, how do we know they would even approve of having non-SW fanfic at all? Third, there's the issue I mentioned earlier; it was always my understanding that the prohibition was based on LFL's history (going back to the days of zines mimeographed in someone's basement) of sending out C&D letters to anyone who wrote slashfic. As I said, I have gone out and defended the board's policy on that basis. But with other fandoms, particularly ones like Buffy and Torchwood, Lucas's dislike of slash is no longer an issue. A blanket ban would negate every defense I've made, and as unhappy as I am with the idea of looking like a chump for all these years, I'm even less happy with the idea that it's all based on speculation.

 

Don't forget The L-Word and Queer As Folk.

I think it'd be a good idea if the owners were asked if they're willing to reconsider, and if they won't then at least we tried.