recthething | admin note: rectember brainstorming?

snickfic posting in

Hey, folks! I've been thinking about doing an event in September to encourage reccing and maybe even draw some people out of the woodwork who haven't recced anything here yet. I was thinking of some kind of daily or mostly-daily themes, so for example:

Sep 1 - rec a work you've read many times
Sep 2 - rec a work rated explicit/NC-17
etc

Would folks here enjoy doing participating in an event like this? I'm envisioning coming up with the themes in the next day and a half, publishing them all in a list on Sep 1, and then posting weekly reminders.

It would be zero-pressure - people could post for days that inspired them and skip the days that didn't. You would be posting your recs each day directly to the comm (both to increase posting at the comm and because it means less tagging work for me). You could also post several days in one post if you wanted.

Yay? Nay? Suggestions on daily themes? Suggestions for improvement?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

slashmarks

As one of the people who hasn't recced anything yet, that sounds like a good idea to me! Part of why I haven't is that I kind of feel paralyzed by choice, so soliciting a specific kind of work regularly would definitely make me more likely to.

From:

snickfic

Awesome, thank you for the feedback!

From:

badly_knitted

That sounds like fun!

From:

snickfic

Yay!

From:

doranwen

I like the idea. Except for one thing - I know you would like less tagging work, but if multiple people are posting recs on a single day, it'll blow up my reading page on DW and I really don't want that. I'm sure other people would also find that a bit overwhelming. Daily posts x multiple people per day is a bad combo. If it's a themed post, I'd much prefer having all the recs be comments to a single post.

That said, you could ask for volunteers to host (post and tag) each post for a specific day. That way you wouldn't have to do it each day. Like someone would post on Sept. 1 and someone else would post for Sept. 2. I'd be happy to take a day or two as long as they're not back-to-back, and I'm sure others would too.

From:

badly_knitted

I second this, recs in comments would work much better than individual posts if there are likely to be a lot for each theme, especoally if fandom is included in the subject line so people can quickly find anything of interest to them.

From:

snickfic

I think I've decided to do a smaller number of weekly prompts - probably three a week - rather than daily prompts, so that should cut down on total amount of posts. However, I am going to be encouraging people to post directly to the comm. Part of the purpose of the event is to get people to do that more, because I think it really improves visibility. Not everyone is going to check the comments of a post multiple times to see what's in there, and just in general it's more work to browse comments of several posts than it is just browsing content of posts.

If it still turns out to be too much activity for your reading page, you might want to unfollow for the month and then follow back afterwards? I don't have plans for any more events like this until at least next year, and maybe not then - this one's kind of an experiment.

From:

doranwen

Mmm, then I really would wish it would be one theme for a whole week, not just three times a week. I tend to check my reading page once a day at the most and anything with too tight of a response schedule feels a bit stressful. Then we'd have time to *find* the fics in question that would match the theme. (I created a database to help me with that but I don't have quite 1000 fics in there yet and only most of my tiny fandoms, so it's only a little helpful so far.)

I guess I have a different perspective than a lot of people! If it's a post of a theme I like, I *would* check the comments multiple times or use Ctrl+F to find fandoms I know are in there. And I'm far more likely to post comments to a post than I am to post a post all on its own. If I only have one or two recs for the theme, I won't post a post for it. It's just too few for me. Even if you say it's fine, it won't feel right to me. I *would* post the same recs in comments to a theme post. The reason I haven't posted a post on its own yet is I haven't had the time to properly curate to put together a post (I put comments in the recs post of just the best of whatever I read in the past week that I've rec'd to friends - I have a few friends who've asked me to rec all the Leverage fic I read that I liked), and I'm not likely to any time soon. So if it's a case of I'd have to post a set of recs to the comm directly in order to participate in the themed recs, I probably wouldn't end up participating at all, or at least VERY little.

…Just had an idea then - what if you had an introductory post for the theme where people could post just one or two recs if they didn't want to make a separate post? Won't help your goal of getting people to make separate posts, but hey, those take time, and they can feel more stressful to people. That's precisely why I haven't.

I do recognize that the tagging is proving a lot of work (I noticed the last couple community recs posts weren't tagged with the fandoms), so I understand why you don't want to encourage more of that.

From:

snickfic

No, I think you misunderstood. There'd be three themes a week, but they'd be announced at the beginning of the week, and you could respond to any or all of them at any point during the week. For example, you could make one post with all of your recs for the week, if you wanted.

If you prefer to post recs in the comments to a post, then the community recs posts are still there for you to use! Outside of that, this event may just not be for you. But I think that's okay! What we already have seems to be working really well for you (and I always really appreciate your Leverage recs <3).

Part of the goal here is to encourage other people to post who aren't already posting, and also, like I said, to post where there's more visibility, for the people who don't tend to check the comments.

As far as tagging the community recs posts, it's not that it takes all that long, I just have to remember to go and do it. So now that you've reminded me, hopefully I will get around to doing that today. :)

From:

doranwen

Ah! Yeah, I did not catch that you meant multiple themes at one time. I was assuming one theme at a time. That might help, actually. Like if I can only think of one or two per theme, I might actually be able to come up with five or six recs that way, if I can post for multiple themes in the one post. We'll see, it really depends on the themes.

I actually *want* to post actual posts at some point (that's one of the major bonus features of the database I built, how easy it makes that to do based on themes and stuff), I just have had projects weighing me down and I haven't felt like I had a lot of free time for even writing, but I'm hoping to wrap some of that up in the next month.

Hee, yeah, I don't find tagging takes that long, but I didn't know if you found it just mentally exhausting or what. :)

I should repost one of the recs posts I did in the past on my own DW, maybe - or link to it or something. I had a super extensive recs post I did a couple years ago for Rookie Blue (180+ fics, organized by episode and to some extent, by ship), and I've got a general multifandom recs post on my DW by theme (romantic friendship, hurt/comfort, friendship, missing scene, AU, etc.) that would be really easy to share, but I didn't know whether I should link to it from here, whether I should just copy the text from the post, or what…

From:

yourlibrarian

To me, more recs are always a good thing, and if these prompts get people involved that would be a real plus. However I know that I'm not likely to take part since I tend to rec whenever I get a set of items together and that happens unpredictably. I would personally have a harder time coming up with something to match the prompts. But given that this is an effort to get new people posting, I think it's worth trying.

From:

snickfic

That's cool! Part of the goal here is to get people to rec who usually don't, and you're already one of our champion participants. You'll still be welcome to post unthemed recs at any time. :D

From:

sef1029

Thumbs up for me! And I'd much rather have/make recs in posts. Buried in comments, I think most will be missed.

I'd love some themes that dig into the past. Fandom is so focused on what's hot this week that terrific stories and writers disappear. So themes like first story you loved, oldest story you still reread, forgotten writer you rec to everyone, flashback to 1990s, etc.

Let's not delegate gen to just one day.

How about best drabble, or fic that cheers you up, fic that makes you cry. Best character development. Best fix to canon. Most poetic. Most impressive/intellectual. Sexiest, of course. Fic you once hated and now love. Flying colors on the Bechdel test. Best story for kids.

Edited Date: 2020-08-31 01:59 am (UTC)

From:

snickfic

Thank you for the suggested themes! And yeah, I agree about worrying that things will get buried in comments, even if they're tagged.

From:

rosefox

I, um, just want to note that anything starting "rect" makes me think of "rectal" and that might not be the vibe you're going for. Unless the theme is "look, just pull some recs out of your ass". :D

From:

snickfic

Well, darn. XD Honestly I may just go for it anyway, unless I can come up with something better by tomorrow. (Suggestions welcome!) Maybe little unintended humor is good for group bonding...?

From:

kore

I think that's a wonderful idea! I love it.

From:

snickfic

Yay! \o/

From:

wolffyluna

I'd be interested, though I probably wouldn't be able to produce a rec for each day.

From:

snickfic

Upon further consideration, I think we're going to do three prompts a week, posted at the beginning of the week. But you absolutely would not be asked to post recs for anything you didn't feel like! Even just one rec is better than no recs. :)

From:

glitteryv

I second the suggestion to make one post (frex, "Day 1 - Rec a work you've enjoyed many times*") for ppl to post under.

* I changed a bit of the wording from "read" to enjoy so that ppl can remember that podfics, vids, etc are valid.

Suggestions

- Rec a fanwork that gave you intense feels (cry, laugh, etc)

- Rec a fanwork that lured you into a fandom (or, conversely, a fanwork that you rec to ppl interested in your fandom)

- Rec a fanwork with your fave ship or trope

From:

snickfic

Thank you for the phrasing! I do like that better. I try to be inclusive, but "a work you consumed" feels so awkward. I like "enjoyed" much better. And thank you for the themes!

From:

sholio

I really like that idea! :D You could maybe get some ideas for themes from the list of themes previously used on

fancake - many of them might be too narrow for a challenge like this, but they have a ton of interesting tropes for inspiration.

From:

snickfic

Ooh, thank you for the suggestion!

From:

garonne

As one of the people who has been lurking in the woodwork, I think this sounds like a great idea.

From:

snickfic

Yay! We'd love to have you participate. :)

From:

feckyeslife

Sounds fantastic!

From:

snickfic

Yay! \o/

From:

lannamichaels

I'm interested but I'd prefer it to be a week theme rather than a day.

From:

snickfic

Upon further consideration, I think we're going to do three prompts a week, posted at the beginning of the week, and then you could decide which/how many you wanted to post for.