Welcome from the new FanFiction Moderators
Greetings everyone, from
MaineWriter (Leslie) and
louisev (Louise). We are your newly-appointed moderators for the FanFiction forum. You may know MaineWriter as a long term ChezTremblay member and the author of "A Love Born from Steel" and "Through the Veil of Time" linked on this forum. Louise is the author of "The Laramie Saga" books, and has been working with Leslie to establish some fan discussion on Bettermost for the past few weeks. We are introducing ourselves in order to give some guidelines to moderating the FanFiction section of Bettermost in accordance with the Bettermost Forum's overall mission.
A few guidelines:What this Forum Is:
It is about fiction, stories, drabbles, shorts, poems, etc. based upon or related to "Brokeback Mountain." As such it is a fan discussion, inviting authors and readers to interact and discuss their stories, announce updates, post links to resources and entries made by authors. You may post links to work that is not your own if you like. If you would like to start a topic regarding a story, then press the "New Topic" button to create a new topic. We recommend you include the name of the story as the topic, so that others will recognize it and join in.
The general style we follow is to create a topic for each major work (such as a book), or for each author (if there are very short works the author would rather have in a single thread.) This is a matter of personal preference, rather than a hard and fast rule. However, if you glance at extremely busy forums (Rotten Tomatoes Film Discussion, for example), there are literally thousands and thousands of topics, many of them exactly the same. For tidiness' sake, when creating a new topic, please be sure that there isn't already a topic created for the item or items you wish to discuss.
In addition to discussion about stories by authors and readers, an additional type of topic that is welcome are issues that are more tangential to the actual story at hand, but still pertinent to FanFiction. For example, many people ask the question, "What is canon? Is it the movie or short story?" Another question might deal with issues of dissemination--what are the best sites to post stories, how to attract readers, how to create a reading community, and so on. Our goal is to an active community of readers and writers. Newcomers can learn from old timers and vice versa. We believe that sharing on every level is at the heart of a good fic. Questions that relate to actual stories as well as the process of writing and sharing are appropriate for the forum.
What This Forum Isn't
This is not a critic's corner. Authors come here to share their work, which they do out of their love for Brokeback Mountain, for no fee and no reward except the pleasure of sharing their writings. Most of us who have written fanfiction stories have experienced the downside of this sharing: non constructive criticism, panning a fic you personally do not read, and negative recommendations. If you would like to offer constructive criticism for an author of any detail, please check the individual threads. Please be aware that some authors do not ask for this kind of feedback and may not be interested, and that is their right. The primary purpose of this forum is sharing and discussion by authors and readers alike.
AUTHORS: If you would like to receive constructive criticism on your individual stories, please post that in a message at the beginning of the story thread. For already-existing threads, readers please contact the author either by pm or by leaving a message in the thread asking of constructive criticism is desired.
If you do not wish to read a fic or find it not to your liking, then simply stay out of that discussion. We want authors to share their work, which is why individual threads are posted as desired, so that everyone can feel equally welcome and attract whatever readership is available to them. Our philosophy is that there is no one "correct" way to finish the story of "Brokeback Mountain," and that each of us completes the story in our own lives. This is equally true of fan stories. Every fanfiction author has their own "take" on Ennis and Jack, and readers will read what they enjoy and leave the rest. There is no one "correct" interpretation of Brokeback Mountain, the story, or the film, and there is no one "canonical" correct reading of the text which makes one fan story more authoritative than another.
Please keep feedback to authors polite and engaging, and remember that no author HAS to provide you with fanfiction. They do it for the pleasure of the readers. The nicer you are to them, the more they will write.
The Most Important Rule:Positively no personal attacks are allowed on Bettermost. This policy will be rigorously applied, and extends to making attacks upon authors and their style of writing or topic. If you feel uncomfortable about a post in the FanFiction section of the forum, please report the post to moderator, and/or send a private message referencing the post to
MaineWriter (Leslie) or
louisev (Louise). If you have a disagreement with another participant, please approach the person in PM.
Also, please observe that what constitutes "fan fiction" is at the discretion of the moderators. We reserve the right to remove posts or threads if they are deemed to be insulting, vulgar, or disrespectful to the existing stories, fans, or authors represented here or in other archives. We believe that good taste and respect for our fellow users should be an adequate guide as to what is posted here. if you are concerned about the content of a story or about something that is not included, please send a pm with your concern.
***IMPORTANT***: Due to content guidelines from our advertiser, GoogleAds, please do not post stories containing pornographic, adult, or mature content (ie. explicit sex scenes or PWP (porn without plot) stories. If you would like to share your more mature stories, you may do so, but please use a link to an external site, i.e.
www.divshare.com or
www.livejournal.comAs applies to the rest of Bettermost: please do not post private messages in the open forum threads.
Again, we are delighted to be here and look forward to having many active discussions around the those Brokeback Mountain fanfiction stories that are near and dear to our hearts.
Leslie and Louise
MaineWriter louisev
From Phillip: "In order to be supportive of our original authors, it is important to me that positive comments and encouragement be the order of the day here. Personal attacks are not welcome here, but constructive criticism is appreciated. (Check individual threads for whether constructive criticism is welcomed for the particular story before posting.) Before posting parodies of others' original works or utilizing another author's original characters/situation, you should seek the original author's permission. Plagarism will not be tolerated. I want our users to be assured that BetterMost remains a nurturing and supportive home for all fan fiction works. I appreciate your understanding."
