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brightknightie) wrote2024-02-05 08:12 am
brightknightie) wrote2024-02-05 08:12 am
Entry tags:
noodling toward FKFicFest 2024
It's time to start thinking about this year's ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fkficfest. If at least 5 people would like to play, I'll run it.
Probably due in early May? (Easter is March 31 and Passover April 22-30 this year.) I don't want to overlap with other games that permit FK, but I don't know any of their schedules! Last year,90s_channel_tv_exchange was due May 28, but it had already finished sign-ups by mid-February, and I haven't seen a peep from it yet this year. everywoman was due July 25, with its nominations and sign-ups both wholly in June.
Definitely challenge-style, not exchange-style. Period. Now,havocthecat shared a very interesting idea about how to pick the challenge(s), which I'd like to try: brackets (aka direct eliminations). That is, as in many sports, we'd have rounds of votes pitting the nominated prompts against each other, with the winners moving to the next round. (This would be instead of me trying to deploy ranked-choice voting math meant for situations with fewer candidates than voters.) It would require an initial vote to rank the nominees, though, in order to slot them into the brackets (highest v. lowest). Then the "final four" become the challenge pool.
For years now, I've been paring away at the gameplay instructions/rules, trying to make them as short as possible, while still comprehensive enough for a total newbie. Last year, we did add the new rule prohibiting using AI/LLMs to write/draft (as a research or brainstorming tool, fine; but not as a co-writer!). I'm wondering whether we need to add any rules or admonitions this year, from lessons learned across fandom last year...? For example, do we need to point out that it's generally considered polite, in a community game, to read and reply to at least a few other stories, not exclusively your own? Do we need to say anything to help educate incoming fans about the norms of commenting on stories -- for example, that fan-culture suggests that a comment should be primarily about the story it's left on, or the expectations of constructive vs. destructive criticism, and general community feeling? (For example, I personally got some upsetting -- seemingly bigoted -- comments on older fic last year, one so upsetting that I reported and deleted it. It purported to be complimentary, even more ick. Never seen the like before! And I saw some other fandom events get hit with unanticipated behaviors.) I'd like FKFicFest to be a positive experience for all. We're all we've got!
fkficfest. If at least 5 people would like to play, I'll run it.Probably due in early May? (Easter is March 31 and Passover April 22-30 this year.) I don't want to overlap with other games that permit FK, but I don't know any of their schedules! Last year,
90s_channel_tv_exchange was due May 28, but it had already finished sign-ups by mid-February, and I haven't seen a peep from it yet this year. everywoman was due July 25, with its nominations and sign-ups both wholly in June.Definitely challenge-style, not exchange-style. Period. Now,
havocthecat shared a very interesting idea about how to pick the challenge(s), which I'd like to try: brackets (aka direct eliminations). That is, as in many sports, we'd have rounds of votes pitting the nominated prompts against each other, with the winners moving to the next round. (This would be instead of me trying to deploy ranked-choice voting math meant for situations with fewer candidates than voters.) It would require an initial vote to rank the nominees, though, in order to slot them into the brackets (highest v. lowest). Then the "final four" become the challenge pool.For years now, I've been paring away at the gameplay instructions/rules, trying to make them as short as possible, while still comprehensive enough for a total newbie. Last year, we did add the new rule prohibiting using AI/LLMs to write/draft (as a research or brainstorming tool, fine; but not as a co-writer!). I'm wondering whether we need to add any rules or admonitions this year, from lessons learned across fandom last year...? For example, do we need to point out that it's generally considered polite, in a community game, to read and reply to at least a few other stories, not exclusively your own? Do we need to say anything to help educate incoming fans about the norms of commenting on stories -- for example, that fan-culture suggests that a comment should be primarily about the story it's left on, or the expectations of constructive vs. destructive criticism, and general community feeling? (For example, I personally got some upsetting -- seemingly bigoted -- comments on older fic last year, one so upsetting that I reported and deleted it. It purported to be complimentary, even more ick. Never seen the like before! And I saw some other fandom events get hit with unanticipated behaviors.) I'd like FKFicFest to be a positive experience for all. We're all we've got!
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Sorry to hear that people left upsetting comments on your stories (I really don't get why, because afaik you mostly write gen and nothing gory or unsettling, but well, these days it's weird what gets people frothing at the mouth. :/).
I've heard about some major WTF going on with someone in the fandom, but I really hope that it won't be an issue anymore.
You're right, we're all we've got and even though I'm not part of the fandom that long, I've always felt at home and safe here, especially with FKFicFest.
Maybe some general rules about commenting in FKFicFest might be helpful? Sure, it's up to everyone to comment or not, but since it's a fandom event, it comes alive through the engagement of every writer, right?
Elimination style for the challanges sounds good. :)
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The one comment that was so upsetting that I had to delete it actually presented itself as "agreeing" with my fanfiction of a nineteenth-century novel, but the commenter had misunderstood (or pretended to misunderstand) my story (and the original novel) so badly that the comment was in fact promoting a bigoted approach. I felt very "gaslit." I have wondered whether it was a human troll or an AI bot or a very confused person with poor reading comprehension. Either way, my story suggested no such thing!
It was the first year I ever got such comments, and I got 3 total. What a weird phenomenon.
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As for how it's run: I thought last year worked pretty well; but, if you feel something else would be better, that's fine. You're the one organizing it; so, as far as I'm concerned, whatever works best for you is best for us, too. I'm just glad to have FK Fic Fest run again!
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Brackets will be an experiment. If folks find them fun, we'll stick with them. If not, we'll revert.
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If the new prompt choosing mode is less time-consuming for you, go for it.
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It's not so much that brackets would save me time, but that I worry they're not enough fun and not transparent enough for everyone else. This will be an experiment; I hope people will find the bracket part itself fun.
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FKficfest challenge brackets sound way more fun than March Madness brackets (apologies, college sportsball fans).
If you think it would be helpful re: commenting norms/expectations/etiquette in this challenge, perhaps some friendly "best practices" rather than "rules," especially if you're trying to keep the actual rules brief and perhaps save yourself from having to enforce something. I'm sure no one (who isn't an intentional jackhole, can't do anything about them) wants to inadvertently misstep or seem rude.
I'm really sorry to hear someone left you such an upsetting comment! I hope that was an outlier and not to be repeated, but I gather from your remarks that there has been some sort of unpleasant behavior or misunderstandings in fandom-at-large over the past year that you want to head off at the pass in this event.
Thanks for all your thoughtful approach to ensuring a positive experience for participants. Like
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Yes, friendly best practices is exactly right! Thank you. "If you're new here, here's how we generally do things..."
My corner of fandom is pretty small, but even from my vantage, watching other folks' journals and events, this past year had several never-before, not-right, why-would-anyone incidents. Perhaps it's just the world being stressful! Or perhaps it's collisions between different fan cultures, as Tumblr fan society -- and others such -- begin to outgrow email-list-legacy fan society. Or... goodness knows! Anyway, yes: I'd like FKFicFest to be a joy for all; that's why we do it.
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As to brackets, I do hope it would be fun! As it was for the best Methos competition over in
I don't think there needs to be a huge rules change, I think, as this is a prompt fest and not an exchange fest, so one doesn't need to worry about "surprise, here is a thing that does not technically violate your DNWs," but possibly a reminder and example of proper tagging practices, especially in a fandom rife with historical flashback possibilities and actual flashbacks to some quite dark times in history would be good?
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Tagging practices friendly reminder: good thought. If you're going to choose to not tag for something generally considered a trigger, then go full in and select: "Author chose not to use archive warnings."
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So I should say that even for CNTW, it is good tagging practice to also warn? But definitely if you have some fraught topics, you should also choose CNTW! I will use myself as an example, my latest fic is definitely a CNTW, I also have Dead Dove Do Not Eat, Graphic Violence, Consensual But Not Safe or Sane, and many other, worse tags on it, because it's a real humdinger of a dark fic. (I won't link it. I'm sure you could find it if you wanted.)
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I would blame myself, not the author, if I read a tagless "Chose not to warn" story and it upset me. But I suppose full, old-fashioned taglessness is a different signal than some tags, but not enough tags, which could seem deceptive. I don't read many "current" or "younger" fandoms, so newer tagging conventions are... new to me!
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If anyone takes offense, that's on them, not on you.
After a certain point in time, some tags are kind of duplicative, and sometimes authors miss them, but yes, I thought I'd try to help with my understanding of how tagging conventions have evolved over the years. (Blame Tumblr, for sure, for those weirdass freeforms. I love them. But they are weird.)
I'd go back and revise the tags on my older fics, but that's hard work.
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I meant for the winking emoticons to convey that I wanted to be cheeky and kidding with that pretend draft. I should have said "just joking around" in so many words, instead of relying on emoticons.
Likely, the one thing I would definitely try to communicate about tagging is that it -- and summaries, prefaces, endnotes, etc. -- are available for being fair, appealing, and kind to your readers. Something along those lines.
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I think whatever makes life easier for you is the way to go. We want this little slice of the fandom to continue as long as possible.
Sorry for the unfortunate remarks you received. It does seem odd at this juncture in time. I do think Switchbladeeyes made a good recommendation that an encouragement or comment about 'best practices' is the way to go.
Thanks!
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Yes, Switchbladeeyes 's idea is good. I'm considering making a short "commenting best practices/suggestions/customs" post separate from the actual gameplay instructions/rules post.
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Playing this year.
This keeps my brain alive :-)
Re: Playing this year.
I hope to get the nominations started either next week or the first week of March.