FKFic-L, War and Crossovers

[brightknightie]

FKFic-L, the FK fiction mailing list, is presently playing FKFic-L War, an elaborate, round-robin fiction game in which the players descend on FK's fictional Toronto (as themselves), and work (in faction teams) around, with and against each other and FK's characters in pursuit of a goal (usually, some sort of scavenger hunt). I believe this is War XV, but I lost count a long, long time ago. (I actually played live only in War VII... but that was the most important one, right? ~grin~)

Anyway, Lisa McD made an unfiltered (non-War) admin post this morning, in which she wrote: "One of the list's rules is no crossovers..." That was news to me! The last time Don F. posted the fic list rules to the fic list (granted, over a year ago, now), they still said: "3. FK may be crossed only with movies and television shows. It cannot be crossed with other shows which are based on print-published media including comics. (Books and comics based on the movies or TV shows do not normally cause crossing to be prohibited.) Disney characters and movies are never acceptable for crossing. Crossovers must have the subject header XOVER: at the beginning of the subject line. It has to be spelled that way because the listserv doesn't recognize 'crossover,' and it MUST have the colon. Crossovers must state which show FK is being crossed with."

I've emailed Lisa and asked for clarification. I'll pass on whatever I learn.

Addendum 2:00PM Pacific: Good news! Crossovers are still permitted on FKFic-L in general, and just not during War games.

Comments

[celli]

That's interesting that under non-War rules comics & books crossovers can't be posted.

FKFic-L's Print Media Crossover Ban

[brightknightie]

Yep. It's been that way for almost a decade.

What irks me a little, just me myself privately, is that this rule even includes crossovers with books long since in the public domain — so no crossovers with The Odyssey, The Canterbury Tales, Hamlet, The Three Musketeers, Pride and Prejudice or Sherlock Holmes, or any movie or TV series based on them. (Lisa McD herself posted a crossover with A Christmas Carol before the rule; today, it would be forbidden. She uses this example to illustrate the rule.)

As I remember it, the rule was created just as I'd mapped out a YB/FK crossover, which I then unhappily dropped. In those days there was really no place besides FKFic-L to share an FK story (and no place at all to share YB). I suppose that I could pick it up again at this end of history...

[havocthecat]

I believe it's the "please don't sue us" holdover rule from the nineties.

[brightknightie]

If I remember correctly -- although I could be confused! -- I think that the no-print-media rule is c.2005-6, after Young Blades.

I may be misremembering, but I believe that the original "please don't sue us" rule came in 1996, still on JMR's watch: "6. No real person may be depicted by name without the express, written permission of the person. Email counts as written permission."

As I remember it, that rule came from the Torri Spelling incident, when someone wrote uncomplimentary RPF, or uncomplimentary RL references in a story -- I don't remember the exact content; I think the animus was that certain other shows were surviving while FK was being canceled -- and Ms. Spelling's father's lawyers apparently actually sent a letter to PSU.