telophase | (no subject)

(no subject)

Starting to work on community information for manga_talk. Way too wordy, not formatted to be easily readable, and I keep getting myself bogged down into what-if scenarios where I can justify posting something. Suggestions and advice very welcome; I'm off to eat lunch now since my brain is being starved of sugar and other nutrients and is therefore shutting down.

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Under "what we are not looking for":

Posts promoting communities, online comics and manga, published manga, etc. unless directly related to the community or its members in good standing.

"members in good standing" could be construed as elitist. This is an open community, yes? Does "in good standing" mean I haven't done anything to make you dislike me, or does it mean I've been around for a while, or does it mean I have a personal relationship with a mod or long-standing member....? There's no "point" system on livejournal like on other message boards, so this becomes a tricky issue.

I'm also not sure what "unless directly related to this community" means. Assuming you meant that promotional posts are fine as long as they are incidental to the community's primary purpose -- manga analysis and discussion -- I'd reword that paragraph to somthing like:

Posts whose only purpose is to promote websites, communities, online comics and manga, published manga, etc. This is not a pimping journal.

I might also condense the "things we don't want" section, because isn't scrolling past a few stupid posts better than discouraging unintended-but-still-illuminated debate? I say urge all prospective members to keep the goals of the community in mind while posting, but also emphasize that the rules are flexible and you don't eat babies.

...Aha, but then, I think that the primary purpose of the userinfo is to convince people to join, and the secondary purpose is to prevent abuses. You might think differently. That this community will be mostly self-selecting, though, so you probably don't have to worry so much about OT posts.

"members in good standing" could be construed as elitist.

I havne't yet come up with a better way to say "people who actively participate." In other words, if you're a community regular and you sell a manga, I have no problem with posting a happy-dance (this is the 'community' part of it). If you've never posted or commented on anything, then dropping by and posting that you've got a manga coming out is just advertisement.

I want it articulated in the rules, otherwise you get one person getting congratulated for selling, and someone else getting beaten with the modstick and not understanding why.

because isn't scrolling past a few stupid posts better than discouraging unintended-but-still-illuminated debate?

It's not that. It's that if the posts are there, people look at them, think "Hey, they posted a link to their online manga, it's OK for me to do so, too!" and post it, which means you end up with a community dedicated to nothing but people saying they've just updated their comic, come check it out. I'd prefer for a mod to take the post down, after explaining to the person why, of course. Which means it needs to be again articulated in the posting guidelines, because one thing I hate is having a post or comment deleted when it's not clear in the guidelines that such a thing is not welcome - that's not fair to the person who posted it.

Rather than having all that in the community info, I may just make a post titled "Posting Guidelines" and refer to that, so it's not such a slap in the face at the outset.

I like your rewriting of the paragraph. *steals*

Ohh, I see. That makes sense. Especially the part about a separate post for posting guidelines, since it'll let you play lawyer if there are any objections and you won't have to worry about keeping things short.

The other thing I'd so is write a short statement of purpose at the beginning, emphasizing that the community isn't for discussing specific manga, but the mechanics, business, etc of manga, sometimes with specific examples.

You know, where the placeholder is. XD. *wishes she could be more specific, but can't think of how such an introduction ought to be worded*

If you haven't looked at it yet, I've ripped out all the dos and don'ts and placed them into a separate post, and linked to it. Will start pondering the short statement of purpose.

Wow, it's shortened. Very snappy. Maybe that could go into the userinfo after all.

*is supremely unhelpful!*

That's how I write: I have to barf out everything I'm thinking, then clear away all the detritus. :)

Would manga novels be considered on-topic? I'm asking since at least one company is branching into that area. Or rather, branching out more into that area.

Good question. I'd be willing to consider them so, because they're all tied up in the manga industry as a whole. Of the three I've read, two are easier to judge as acceptable - a CLAMP one taking place in the same school as their manga, and the Slayers novels, which were made into an anime and now are also manga. Vampire Hunter D is closer to a regular novel, but the author is also a manga writer, so -- that's a good enough connection for me.

If anyone has serious reservations about that, we can debate, but I expect it'll be fine.

*nods* That's why I was unsure, because there are titles like Slayers and CLAMP School Paranormal Investigators and then there are titles like Vampire Hunter D and Juuni Kokki.

I figure maybe it's up to the poster to say why they think it's appropriate - I'm OK with a justification that says the work in question follows a number of the same themes as regular manga, or that it's the same publisher and marketed in the same way, or using it as one of the examples in a larger essay about something else.

Sounds good. Thanks for the clarification. :)

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