Story Reminder! Please Read! (Fandom tags & Disallowed list)

Hi guys!

As a formatting issue for this forum, please remember to put a set of brackets before the title of your story and include what fandom your story is (even if it's in the title).

Example:

[High School Musical] Singing till Armageddon! - Angst


Thank you!

 

My reward for compulsively editing my own reminder thread - someone else posts first.


In case people are wondering, we need you to include brackets so we can keep tabs on what fandoms are floating around - some authors don't allow fanfics of their works. Please check the Disallowed Works List before posting stories.

 

I presume that a crossover between two fandoms would just include both in the brackets, but what if someone wanted to post a drabble thread with a hundred or so fandoms? Those could be some awkward-looking brackets.

 

Thanks for reminding us to use the brackets. That should clear up confusion.

 

What about fandoms that have different canons? Or where the books and movies differ? For instance, (and my main reason for asking *grins*) DCU. There are TV shows, movies, comics, different continuities within the comics, etc. While I think the idea of putting the fandom in brackets is a great idea, what do you do in a case like that? If I say that my fic is a Batman fic, it could be from the cartoon in the '90s, the cartoon on at the moment, Batman Begins, Batman Beyond, the other "original" Batman movies from the '80s-'90s, or one of many various comic versions. And while that was a bit of an extreme example, there are many books where the movies turn out different and fans loathe to put them in the same category (Harry Potter, for example) or where the books and TV show are completely different (Blood Ties or True Blood to name two off the top of my head).

So, er, what should we do? Put in Harry Potter-BOOKS? Batman-COMICS? Or just leave it up to the reader to click and hope for the best?

 

I think the brackets are for general indication, to give an idea (and to make verboten fandoms easier to spot). So if it's a Batman story, you can put that in the header, allowing those who care about Batman to take a look inside (where your summary will give the specific continuity) and those who don't care to skip past.

 

AHHHHHHHHH questions!!!!

1) Drabbles

My best suggestion is that you put something like [Multiple Fandoms] in the subject. Then, in the first post, list all the fandoms you've used. That way, you don't clog up your subject bar, and we can easily spot your thread in case the Disallowed List changes.

If you plan on using 100 fandoms...we'll figure something out when it happens.


2) Different canons

Drabbi's correct. The fandom tag doesn't need to be so specific, only a general indication of what fandom you're using so that we can check for disallowed fandoms. We don't need to know whether you're writing fanfic on Harry Potter books, as opposed to the movies. Maybe someday, Rowling will decide that she doesn't want people writing fanfic on the books but will be okay with fanfic on the movies. Unlikely scenario, but if it happens, then we might need specifics. For now, generic [Harry Potter] is enough.

With the Batman example, if you want to indicate you're writing Batman: The Animated Series, you can say [Batman: BTAS] or [BTAS] - we have a list of abbreviations in the FAQ, so we'll know what BTAS means. Even [Batman] alone will work, if you want to save the specifics for author notes. There's only so much we can do to cater to a reader's preferences.

 

That's what I figured, but I thought it'd be better to ask first.