000b. Editorial Guidelines

[thisweekmod]

Hello all! Wow, this has been some week. The newsletter opened on Sunday 1/20/19, and as of today, Thursday 1/24/19, there are 443 subscribers. That's like 100 new subs a day! Thank you all so much for your interest in the newsletter; I hope we'll have many, many posts filled with interesting links for the next [insert length of time here]. ♥

Having said that, I took some time over the last two/three days and developed these newsletter guidelines. I'd always meant to flesh out the guiding principles of the newsletter, but let my enthusiasm get ahead of me and just went for newsletter creation without being 100% sure about the rest. There were also some concerns brought up in the FAQ post which I wanted to respond to.

This is mostly finished to a point I am happy with. There are a few things I'm still wondering about and I'm sure some of you will be able to see if there's anything missing, but I wanted to get this out before doing the next issue. So, here it is!

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thisweekmeta Editorial Guidelines v.1.0

Last updated: January 24, 2019

Newsletter Manifesto

• To share interesting links featuring fandom meta, fandom history, fandom/fan experiences and helpful tips and information for fen.
• To present a selection of links that may interest newsletter subscribers and spark discussion. Curated, not comprehensive.
• Older and newer meta is equally as interesting, and so both can and will be featured.
• Selection of materials from multiple platforms, to create closer ties between a widespread fandom community and encourage exploration of online fandom spaces.
• “This Week in Meta” does not necessarily mean meta written this week, but only links that the editor is sharing this week.

Choosing Links

• Search multiple online platforms to find a wide range of links.
• Focus on: written, audio and visual documentation of fandom meta, fandom history, experiences in fandom/in fandom spaces, helpful guidelines/tips for fen online.
• Focus on: interesting, compelling or funny, as determined by editor. Prioritize substantial, well-written meta over shitposting. Prioritize general fandom meta over super-specific fandom meta.
• Meta trying to deliberately troll is discouraged.
• Having a single person searching for links can create a narrow viewpoint, thus newsletter subscribers are welcome to submit links that they find as well.
• Submissions by subscribers of relevant websites, users, authors, etc. are encouraged and actively sought out. Submissions by readers must follow guidelines.
• Inclusion of a link does not imply editorial endorsement of meta positions, nor of the opinions or persons of meta authors, only that we feel an individual piece of meta contributes to or is otherwise important in the context of overarching fandom discussion.
• Not including a link, either submitted by a subscriber or otherwise, does not imply editorial disdain or community disinterest.
• Subscribers do not have to have DW accounts, or even leave a comment to submit links. Submissions are accepted by email (thisweekmeta@gmail.com) or Dreamwidth comment/private message.

Linking Etiquette

• Locked, private, and otherwise hidden posts will not be linked to.
• For Tumblr, Twitter, Reddit, Mastodon, and other microblogging sites: if there is a way to ask for permission to link, ask.
• For Dreamwidth, LiveJournal, InsaneJournal, and other amateur/personal blogs and sites: ask first, through comments, private message or email.
• For professional blogs and sites, academic publications: assume permission given, until otherwise notified.
• Links may be removed through request of link owner and only the link owner.
• Any “do not link” notices on either single post or overall journal will be respected by the editor.
• Blanket linking approvals/disapprovals will be respected by the editor. Link owners may revoke or change their linking permissions at any time.

Maintenance

• thisweekmod email account/reading journal for finding links and communications with subscribers.
• thisweekmod/thisweekmeta accounts on relevant websites as a reading/notification account. A list of current reader accounts are at the end of this post.
• Feedreader subscription to aggregate off-DW/non-account websites.
• New issues/posts will be done using thisweekmod DW account, to contain comments/notifications off personal DW account.

Posting Schedule (Tentative)

• New posts: Sundays, and Wednesdays or Thursdays.
• Bonus Friday issue when time/links available.

Formatting the Issue

• Use markdown to format.
• Notes from editor goes at the top, followed by newsletter info.
• Meta organized by broad topics, using H2 headers and lines to separate.
• Cut tags for each major section. Post tags to match.
• Link text is either the title of the document, or a succinct description.
• When linking to multiple meta discussions on the exact same subject, compress list by linking to one comprehensive document, and then linking individually to responses using the author’s name. Example: Elisa posted “I Love Fanfic a Little Too Much.” Responses: Jack, Kathy, Thomas Mann.
• Comments on thisweekmeta do not have to be from Dreamwidth accounts. Anonymous comments are allowed, but with IPs logged.

Moderator/Reading Accounts

• thisweekmod
• thisweekmod
• thisweekmeta

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Suggestions, requests for further clarifications, and brainstorming about whether posts older than 5 years (or linked to on Fanlore) still need permission to link are welcome.

Comments

[muccamukk]

Again, really excited about this project!

It's really cool of you to do it, and I really appreciate how receptive you've been to suggestions from everyone.

<3

[luthienberen]

Thank you for doing this and I hope the newsletter grows positively!

The guidelines seem good to me, especially the rule on linking or not based on whether permission has been granted or not. :)

[runpunkrun]

Thanks for linking to that conversation in the FAQ post; it was interesting to see other people's perspectives and how they shaped the newsletter's policies. I'm really impressed with how much work and thought you're putting into this. <3

[espresso_addict]

You might want to clarify whether posts to communities are treated differently from private journals.

[terresdebrume]

Good job on the policies ^^
I'm still trying to read through the conversationsame that led to this because they're pretty interesting in themselves tbh, but I can tell some serious thought went into this and it's nice. Again, thanks for the newsletter too :)

[sorchasilver]

Thanks for the work you've put into this!

[oracne]

Thank you!

[brithistorian]

This sounds great! Thank you for all of this!

[manna]

Thank you so much for starting this. It's been delightful to see so much more activity on DW recently.

[thisweekmod]

Possibly? Considerations: 1. It has its own Fanlore page (albeit only for a few weeks), 2. Fanlore gets way more traffic than the newsletter, 3. older meta is important to share. That said, I do know that there has been some contention about Fanlore linking to stuff, too, and the newsletter is a different beast than an academic Wiki.

[mekare]

Thank you thank you thank you for doing this work for fandom. I miss metanews and I am so glad to have a meta newsletter again <3 <3 <3

[littlerhymes]

Hello, thank you for organising all of this!

I think the twitter link is broken? Should it be thisweekmeta?

[thisweekmod]

Whoops! Yes, it should be. Thanks for catching that!

[yourlibrarian]

I saw your title poll on Fandom.ink but wasn't able to reply to it. I'd say the second choice, both because it makes the post more searchable and also because the date is also helpful for various reasons.

[thisweekmod]

Thank you! ♥