Fellowshippers

Everyone, at long last, The Hobbit is finally in production!

I want to remind you all that fellow_shippers is open and welcome to your fiction, art and general excitement for the two Hobbit films as well as our beloved trilogy. Please take a moment to review the comm rules, and then go forth and keep this wonderful fandom going strong!

Hello all. Just a few things.

• Due to the fact that my old computer can no longer keep up with the internet and other personal issues, I fell way behind on tagging this year. Tagging is rough when every page has a lag in loading time and I have to load at least three pages for each and every tag in such a busy community! Therefore, I have asked msilverstar to co-mod and help catch up and keep up. I trust most of you know and love her throughout all facets of LOTRiPS fandom, so I believe she will be an excellent co-mod. Please welcome and thank her for the generosity of her time and mad organizational skills!

msilverstar will also be going through the older 2002-2006 posts in the comm for tagging, so if you happen to have easy access to any of your old or long-running series in the community, it would really help her out if you could check that it has pairings and ratings available. If not, don't worry about it. We know we can't make everything fit the current guidelines.

• Since the subject has come up a few times, I would like to make it known that fellow_shippers is currently set to minimize the community's inclusion in search engines. However, it states right beneath this setting that "Not all search engines recognize this request". There is no setting to completely block the community from all search engines. This means that your fic may still show up if searched. The only other option I have is to lock up the community, and I don't want to do that. fellow_shippers has always been open to all, and will remain that way unless we are forced to do otherwise.

There are ways to protect your privacy in this respect. Consider friends-locking your fic in your own journal and link to it through the community, just provide your readers a way to contact you for friending. You might begin a friends-filter specifically for people to see your writing. You might also start a fic-only LJ that is completely separate from your main LJ (or IJ, or other blogging/private site, F_S does not require you to link only to other LJs, though you do need an LJ for for membership). Remember that YOU are in control of your personal info, and when you post anything online, your privacy is entirely up to what you make public, and what you don't.

• Since were are just about at the halfway mark of the year and we have a new mod, it's a good idea to re-familiarize yourselves with the community rules. There are currently no new rule changes since the previous ADMIN post in Jan '08.

• Are you excited for The Hobbit? I know I am! Hell, three more years of anticipation is all kinds of fun in my book, but I'm a weird one.

Hey all. Apologies, I've been in the process of a surprise move, so I've been neglectful here. A couple things:

• Since the issue has come up a few times recently in this comm as well as others, I'd like to reitirate something that I can't help but think is unspoken around here: Plagarism is not tolerated under any circumstances. Fanfic is for fun, but anyone who has spent large amounts of their free time on their creations would be upset if it was taken, changed and posted without their permission. Having read accounts of what happened while I was away, I have to say it's no excuse. As both a writer and an artist myself, I've had my own work taken and manipulated by people who claim to respect me, and it doesn't make me feel much love, but rather used and betrayed.

Now, I've been around for a few years, but like all of us, I tend to stick to my own interests, so I'm not always familar with every piece of writing there is in this fandom, especially those that are more than four years old or exist in archives outside of LJ. I count on you members and watchers to let me know if something's up. Never hesitate to email me if you believe something has been plagarized, and if at all possible, link to the original if it still exists. If not, I will take the accounts of at least three separate people telling me a fic is plagarized and I will remove the posting (and please use the comm email, as I don't get comments from this community emailed to me). Past that, it is up to the original owner of the fic to deal with the problem if they choose to.

I know many of you have been around longer than me, and you'll sniff out troublemakers. We are a zealous bunch, but let's avoid the wank as much as possible, yes?

• Are you happy with the way things are since I have taken over? I personally am finding tagging a bit difficult. How I have tagged up to now doesn't seem to be covering all the bases and I'm unsure on how to change it. Fics that have multiple pairings and pairings with actors from other films prove the most difficult, as well as those that don't list much in the way of info on the fic itself. I'd like to find a system that keeps the tag list from getting too huge and just as difficult to navigate as it was without one. Do you want me to institute a formatted heading rule? Any suggestions would be appreciated!

In light of today's apparent LJ Inquisition, I've added a precautionary rule to the user page regarding underage characters.

• Fiction in this community must not involve individuals under the age of consent. It is understood that legal age varies from country to country, however, for the purposes of this community, characters involved in fictitious sexual situations must be over 18 years to be posted here.

Generally, this does not really concern this community and fandom quite as much as others, and I don't see too much of a threat (just yet, anyway), but I do feel a need to mind the community's backside. Hopefully this ridiculousness will blow over, yes?

Back to your positions, run along.