ADMIN: REC CATEGORIES

[angelsgracie.livejournal.com]

So I admit that I've been somewhat out of it for a while and [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] has been doing the rec'cers posts. But with my concussion and the LJ headaches of the last week, I decided to give [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] the month off completely and do the categories and rec'cers on my own. In doing so, I went through all the posts and found that... wow... we have some TRULY NEGLECTED categories.

That set me to thinking. I realize that both SG-1 and Atlantis are over and that SGU didn't make it beyond what... one or two seasons? I just find it hard to believe, though, that even with the demise of the shows that fanfic writers are no longer writing. I'd be even more astounded to learn that there was no more GOOD FIC in some of these categories.

This leaves me to wonder then... why so few rec'cers each month... why have some of these categories been dormant since 2009? A few of them are categories that the community as a whole wanted set up... and those are some of the ones that haven't had a rec'cer in two years or more.

The question becomes, then, what do we do with these categories? How do we get more people to volunteer to rec? How do we get people involved in general? I've faced this situation before. Years ago, when I took over this community, it was all but dead. I think there was one month when there was only one or two rec'cers, and one of them was myself. So yeah, I know that life gets hectic. I know that people have other commitments and sometimes even posting four recs seems daunting.

But the harsh reality is that with no new episodes coming out, breathing new life into the fandom is difficult on a good day. Breathing new life into the comm is even more difficult. So [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] and I are going to put our heads together and talk a few things out. We're going to try to come up with something, and I've no doubt that that 'something' is going to involve YOU. So what I'm going to put out there now are two things: (1) A list of each category and the last month we had a volunteer to rec it and (2) A request to everyone who reads this to think about a) if you'd like to become more involved and b) how much? Because it's going to take a good deal of us to keep this comm going. I am so very proud of this comm and what it has accomplished. I'd just like to see it continue to grow and flourish, even with the shows no longer in production.

Character

Teyla Emmagen-- December 2010
Elizabeth Weir-- November 2010
John Sheppard-- July 2011
Rodney McKay-- April 2011
Cameron Mitchell-- December 2010
Ronon Dex-- June 2011
Character: Other-- August 2011
Janet Fraiser-- October 2009
Teal'c-- March 2011
Samantha Carter-- January 2011
Daniel Jackson-- August 2011
Jack O'Neill-- July 2011
Evan Lorne-- June 2011

Friendship

Jack O'Neill and Samantha Carter-- August 2011
Jack O'Neill and Daniel Jackson-- May 2011
Friendship: Other-- August 2011
John Sheppard and Rodney McKay-- June 2010
Daniel Jackson and Samantha Carter-- June 2010

Genre

Genre: Other-- August 2011
Humor-- May 2011
Slash-- August 2011
Het-- September 2009
Gen-- April 2011
Drama-- April 2011
Crossover-- August 2011
Alternate Universe-- August 2011
Original Character-- January 2010
Hurt/Comfort-- February 2010
Femslash-- March 2009
Team-- May 2011
Episode Related-- July 2011
SGU-- July 2011

Pairing

John Sheppard/Teyla Emmagen-- July 2009
John Sheppard/Rodney McKay-- August 2011
John Sheppard/Elizabeth Weir-- July 2010
Cameron Mitchell/Daniel Jackson-- December 2010
Threesome-- March 2010
Het: Other-- July 2011
Slash: Other-- July 2011
Janet Fraiser/Samantha Carter-- February 2010
Daniel Jackson/Jack O'Neill-- July 2011
Jack O'Neill/Samantha Carter-- October 2010
Daniel Jackson/Samantha Carter-- January 2011
Rodney McKay/Samantha Carter-- November 2009 (This category has only had 1 rec'cer EVER!)

Take a look over these categories and see what I see? Some of them have been without a rec'cer for quite some time, and I'm sure good fic is out there for them.

(I'm leaving this open for comments but please DO NOT use this post to volunteer to rec a category. Thanks!

Comments

[aim2misbhave.livejournal.com]

For the record, I only started reading fanfic at all within the past few months, so there's still new people coming into the fandom! (I guess? I've been watching on and off since the early days of SG-1, but didn't do anything else fandom-wise for years)

Although I'm kind of picky about what I read and I'm still kind of new so I don't think I'd be up for being a reccer right now.

[angelsgracie.livejournal.com]

Being picky will make you an excellent rec'cer. It's what we look for... picky readers. :) And it's good to see we're getting new readers. I love that!

[annieb1955.livejournal.com]

I was reccing Sheppard/McKay last month and had quite a lot of recs lined up until LJ went pear-shaped and I wasn't able to get them all posted before the month was up and they'd fixed it. I promise to do better next time.

[angelsgracie.livejournal.com]

Sign up again for next month. We don't have anyone on the list!

[annieb1955.livejournal.com]

Okay. I'll do that now

[jerusha]

I just started reading/writing Stargate fic within the last year, and I haven't been seriously reading until fairly recently. I think there's new blood, but the question may be how to let the new blood in on the existence of this community...

[popkin16]

About when do the volunteer posts go up? Toward the end of the month, or the beginning of a new month...?

I would have volunteered this month, but I never seem to spot the volunteer posts and I have so much going on.

If annieb1955 can't do it, then I'll sign up for Sheppard/McKay next month (or the month after) as long as I remember to look for the sign-up post :\

[annieb1955.livejournal.com]

You can just sign up for the next free month. I always track the post so I'll get notified by email when it's been answered.

[popkin16]

Are you sure? It sounds like you already have your recs already lined up, and I don't want to steal your month :(

[annieb1955.livejournal.com]

I'm happy to do the month after. I signed up to rec Daniel Jackson fics too : )

[popkin16]

Okay, great. Thank you :D

[annieb1955.livejournal.com]

No worries. I'm looking forward to your recs already : )

[danceswithgary]

There is no sign-up post - you sign up under the character/category at:

http://sgrecclaims.livejournal.com/

The previously recc'ed stories can be found at:

http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=stargateficrec

Let me know (send me an LJ message) if you need help. :-)

\o/ for more reccers.

[popkin16]

Thank you so much for the help! :D I'll be sure to keep this bookmarked for reference.

[angelsgracie.livejournal.com]

It's also on the userinfo page under the link 'Volunteer to be a Rec'cer'. And I'm talking about the [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com]. You have to be careful with going over to the sgrecclaims comm and volunteering from there because that also has inactive categories there too. If you go to THIS comm's userinfo page, click on the link that says 'volunteer to be a rec'cer' you'll have everything you need right there.

[popkin16]

Okay, that's much easier than what I was attempting to do :) Thank you so much!

[cynic2022.livejournal.com]

Just a thought, I think for me the problem is that I don't have anything new to rec in the pairings that I typically read (I've recced McBeck and McKay/Zelenka in the past), and while I'm open to reading new pairings/characters and reccing them, I have difficulty knowing where to start. By that I mean that I don't know what pairings/characters/story types might have the most interest, as to which I should bother with or not. If some people wanted to chime in with stuff they might want to see recs for, though, I'd be willing to jump back in with some new stuff. (I am better relied upon for SGA than SG1, although SG1 is not un-doable. SGU is right out for me, though, I never could get into the younger characters.)

[delphia2000.livejournal.com]

I get most of my fic recs from here. Otherwise, I don't read that much and I don't have a wide circle of friends who write that I could rec either.

I could suggest a 'submitted for your approval' community where writers could post links to their works and if the reccers like what they read, they'd have new people to rec.

[laetificat.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly new to the fandom (I came on with SGU and ended up watching SG-1 in a matter of weeks thanks to an extremely boring and lenient job). Stargate is the first fandom where I'm actually continuing to read (and write! shocker!) fanfic instead of just tossing the show to the side and moving on to the next shiny thing, and that's partially thanks to communities like this. So thanks!

That said, my life is insane right now and I wouldn't have time to rec. But I would like to take this comment space to thank everyone who does. :)

[duonoaikouka.livejournal.com]

I've already got two categories in which I'm reccing this month. This month marks a year exactly in which I've done two categories a month. And I do eight recs a category on average. So picking up a third is, unfortunately, not in the cards for me.

However, in regards to your request to get more involved? I would love to do that, angelsgracie, specifically in putting recs in memories or tagging. I've noticed that my recs for the past two months for SGA have not been put into memories, specifically in the "team" category for June, the "horror" category for June, and the "character:John Sheppard" category for July. And I haven't seen a post tagged since December of 2010. So if you at all need help in these regards or in anything else, I would love to assist. I cut reccing teeth on StargateFicRec and would love to do more to keep it alive. :)

[hooloovoo_42]

I'd just like to thank you and all the other people who do rec fic, both on a regular basis with one or two categories a month or one every few months. I don't always read everything, but having the posts there for when I'm in need of something diverting to read is wonderful.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I think this comm does an invaluable service for fandom. I love it and every person who recs and maintains the comm.

When I first found the comm, I volunteered to rec in several categories on the posts specified for those characters/pairings/genres/whathaveyou. I was never chosen to rec, so I stopped volunteering.

[winter-elf.livejournal.com]

I like the stuff that gets rec'd - but I think having soooo many categories is actually working against the com. That might have worked when the shows were on - but now - its just way too much.

Simplify. Have only like people to sign up to rec 'sga' and what they are planning on in general, and have a large list of stuff they can pick from (genre/character/friendship/etc) - and let them rec - maybe do a wide range of stuff - or just stick to one favored character or pairing. If they say they are going to do 'x', then you can pick several people who volunteering for different things.

[reddwarfer.livejournal.com]

IAWTC. I belong to a few other reccing communities. What they do is give the popular pairs their own categories and then they have a separate one for "rare pairs".

Anyhow, a lot of categories will invariably overlap. Maybe streamline it somehow.

[hooloovoo_42]

I was going to say something similar. There are some pairings that lead more to friendships than relationships, but a reccer may not be able to find enough of one type of fic. By combining friendship with pairings, someone could rec both McShep fics and John & Rodney friendship fics.

I think having a more open set of categories may lead people to both rec and read more things.

Saying that, I rarely read SG fic other than through this community, so I'd be useless at finding new or unrecced pieces.

[schneefink.livejournal.com]

I don't think the current categories are too narrow. As I always understood it, one could rec a Teyla/anyone fic or Teyla gen for the category "Teyla". There are "relationship: other" and "friendship: other" categories, and personally I think that relationship fics and friendship fics are sufficiently different to merit the distinction (and the separate existence of "friendship" is particularly convenient for gen only readers.) If someone wants to do multiple pairings they can sign up for a genre.
(I do agree some of the existing categories, e.g. pairings, could be combined in "other".)
I think the current categories help promote a variety of recs that signing up for "sga" wouldn't.

To be honest, I don't think I quite understand what you're proposing ^^
Just my two cents.

[theemdash]

Here's a question: Do you guys see more volunteers during months when you mention there are few reccers? I know that when I first joined this comm ages ago, I found it very confusing to find where the volunteer posts were. Maybe newbies are having the same problem and would have less difficulty with a monthly post that links to the rec categories.

Or perhaps when you post that posting access has switched over, include boilerplate text that has a reminder of how reccing works and a link to the volunteer posts?

I think the key is to make the community and volunteering more accessible to newbies. I've been in this fandom for quite awhile now and my brain has half moved on to other things and I'm not reading much SG any more, so the audience you need to capture are the people coming to it fresh.

Also, a reminder, stargatefic and atlantisfic started with the intention of being a resource for reccers, since our tagging system followed many of the same categories used here. It grew into its own thing, and I lost volunteers for tagging, but there are still tags available to authors and a LOT of tagged fics at both communities that can be a good place to start for people who are reccing outside of their "expertise."

Also also, another suggestion for volunteers, the SG-1 Big Bang is drawing to a close within the week, and there are SGA and SGU Big Bangs either in progress or recently ended. I don't know the comms for SGA and SGU, but SG-1 is stargate_summer and there's lots of different pairings and genres.

[roeskva]

I know that when I first joined this comm ages ago, I found it very confusing to find where the volunteer posts were. Maybe newbies are having the same problem and would have less difficulty with a monthly post that links to the rec categories.

Or perhaps when you post that posting access has switched over, include boilerplate text that has a reminder of how reccing works and a link to the volunteer posts?

I think the key is to make the community and volunteering more accessible to newbies. I've been in this fandom for quite awhile now and my brain has half moved on to other things and I'm not reading much SG any more, so the audience you need to capture are the people coming to it fresh.

THIS - so very much. I totally agree, and I had the same problem finding the volunteer posts.

[roeskva]

I basically ONLY read fanfic with a strong focus on the Tok'ra, but I will sometimes read fanfic about Goa'uld - and sometimes humourous fics whether there are Tok'ra/Goa'uld in them or not.
There are not terribly many of these fics, but there are still many good ones I haven't recced.

I have, however, already recced Lantash, Jolinar, and Tok'ra in general, as well as Sam/Martouf/Lantash, so I fear people would not really like another round of Tok'ra recs? And that's really all I can do...

[schneefink.livejournal.com]

I signed up again this month - actually, I signed up for July, but didn't get a response, wasn't included in the volunteers' post and never got an answer to my question why, which was puzzling and a bit frustrating because I like to plan my reccing commitments in advance.

I got a bit distracted by reccing for fanart_recs, but have now exhausted my fanart archives and if time permits will try to rec a category at least every second month or so.

[openended.livejournal.com]

Maybe something like an author rec option? There's nothing like finding a new-to-you author and spending a week reading everything they've ever written...but sometimes you have no idea whether to even take a chance on someone or not, or if the single fic rec'ed here is the norm or an outlier. I've noticed a lot of personal rec lists have Authors Who Consistently Write Great Stuff in addition to Fic You Really Ought To Read Right Now.

Part of the reason I only signed up once to rec is because I came late to the Stargate party and a good chunk of what I like has already been recced. Every time I come across a story I'd like to rec here, I feel like I can't because I don't have four other stories to rec alongside it. What if there were one week a month with unlimited posting access so people who have read a really great fic they want to rec can do so without being obligated to find a few others?