Special Edition: TWM Content Poll

[thisweekmod]

Hello all! After the most recent kerfuffle, I thought I would take this opportunity to ask what folks felt would be the best practices for the newsletter regarding certain sites and types of links.

I have made a Content Poll-- it's not long, and if you don't like any of the options you can totally post a comment here instead. It asks about etiquette regarding Dreamwidth/LiveJournal communities, Fanlore pages, Fanlore-found links, and what to do when an Original Poster is not available for contact.

All these questions assume the post being linked is not locked or private, and that the entity doing the linking is a newsletter.

Edit: Some further context for why linking and linking permissions is so hotly debated in fandom (Fanlore).

My own answers are currently along the lines of: community posts are probably fine to link because they were posted widely to begin with; Fanlore pages made through explicit permission of OP is best, but for certain historical meta it's okay to link anyway; linking to Fanlore to provide further context is fine; no way to ask for permission means no link; if the OP has completely disappeared from fandom and/or online, it's fine to link their stuff.

But I want to know what you think! :)

The comments here are open, and I encourage you all to discuss your thoughts with me and with each other. We've had some really good discussions in the last few days, and I'm interested in seeing what you all think about these specific linking situations.

If you can think of anything else that might be missing from either the poll or the editorial guidelines, please let me know.

Thank you! ♥

Comments

[morgandawn]

On Fanlore, there are always too few editors working on anything which means the selections will always be limited. I cannot tell you how many times a fan has asked: "but why is X not on Fanlore?" The only answer I can offer is: because you have not added it yet, pretty please?

That is also true of meta essays. I know users who are going through the old metafandom newsletters. They are looking for items that are (1) still online and public (the majority are not) and (2) sill relevant. Relevant in either that the conversations were unique and are no longer part of the fandom lexicon or relevant in that they are similar/echoing ongoing discussions (the more things change.....)

Examples of how meta is chosen:
https://fanlore.org/wiki/User_talk:Mrs._Potato_Head/2018_Archive#Meta_pages

Fanlore does not have a notability requirement - mainly because under that requirement (as defined by Wikipedia) very little fandom history or women's contributions qualify as "notable" ( which is weighted towards professional publications,celebrity or corporate).

As to what meta has been recorded so far on Fanlore...if you see a topic or an area that is missing or needs counterbalancing, jump on it.

Take a look at the Meta Category on Fanlore and you will see a wide range of topics
https://fanlore.org/wiki/Category:Meta_Essays

and dive deeper into Meta by Platform
https://fanlore.org/wiki/Category:Meta_by_Platform

the biggest category is
Public websites
Then Journals (personal blogging)
Then Print
Then Tumblr

I don't see stand-alone pages for Meta on Twitter, perhaps because of the character limit.

Anyhow I hope this is helpful to our wonderful host thisweekmeta .....lots of history on how meta was selected and how fandom has interacted/continues to interact with the meta selection process.