Was there a coup? Am I just coup-less?

[crazydiamondsue]

I know a couple of you on my flist have started and/or are involved in these, so I have a question:

What's with all the new "friends only" fanfic communities? Are we morphing into the "Queer as Folk" fandom and no one told me? Is it because of "adult content"? 'Cause if so - I've posted quite a bit of unflocked "adult content" in my day. Is it adult-adult? And what exactly does "darker" mean? Does Xander eat a live chicken while Tara circles him slowly, burning incense; as Spike makes a questionable collage of pre-pubescent Elijah Wood manips?

I'm being flip - but seriously, what's with the Friends Only? (Please attribute the bemusedly bitter tone to the fact that I use communities to track down fics for the su_herald and if they're locked, I can't link them.)

So why are we suddenly becoming a fandom of the "down low?" Um, I think Joss knows we're writing smut. Seriously.

Comments

[entrenous88.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't quite get it. Um. Sometimes I think that it's a case of keeping out the kids. Sometimes it seems a bit of a weird loop-de-loop measure of who is reading/lurking.

I have noted an additional level to this trend -- first you see a rec or a link, that leads you to a locked community. Then Random Author posts a link in said locked community. The link leads to his/her LJ, which is (surprise!) also locked. So you have to do a bit of jumping through hoops friending twice-over just to get to fic, which may or may not be to your taste.

Honestly, with warnings/ratings, why lock things at all? Shouldn't we assume what most of our websites do -- that if the person is of age, they read/enter the site, and if they're not of age/maturity, they should click away (or, you know, what are their parents doing letting thirteen year old Billy on the prOn sites?)?

The only instances I can think of in which it would seem necessary to have locked communities are hot-button issues like incest or chan. But there's tons of that stuff posted publically, so...yeah.

[crazydiamondsue.livejournal.com]

I had previously thought that it was a reaction to policies of other communities - which is fine. I'm a life-long member of the Bible Belt - don't like this church? Start another one. (We seriously had a church separate and become two based on a "windows open vs. air conditioning" kerfuffle.) Then I saw all of the "darker" notations and went, "Ah. It's just pornier than your average fic. Gotcha." But then I just clicked on a new Gunn (yay!) community that seems to be welcoming to any and all Gunn fic, but is flocked. So I'm confused and hoping someone will drop the knowledge on me.

Also? "Pretend That We're Dead" is on the radio. Remember when L7 was cool? No?

[oolongtea.livejournal.com]

Hey! L7 is still cool!

::spins up Smell the Magic::

[crazydiamondsue.livejournal.com]

Hey! I was singing every word with a big grin on my face. I guess I should have said, "Remember when you could hear them on the radio in Oklahoma?" Heh. Thank God for VH-1 cable radio.

[oolongtea.livejournal.com]

Last time I heard them was a rock retrospective on *public radio*. Eeekk....feeling old.

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

*jumping in to add my 2c*

I had previously thought that it was a reaction to policies of other communities - which is fine.

Hee! Yes, indeedy. The evil graphics-cut debacle that upset so many *g* seems to have been the catalyst for the creation of darker_spike. Amusingly enough, they now have a rule saying that anything bigger than an icon, or three actual icons, has to be put behind a cut - so very strangely familiar. *giggles all over again*

Flocking fic communities is pretty damn useless anyway. All anyone has to do is claim to be 18/21 or whatever age makes them 'legal' where they are, and wtf are the mods going to do, run a credit check before they okay membership?

And hey, did you see the new BtVS/AtS drabble comm, btvs100? I might have joined if they'd been bothered to actually spellcheck their user info. The least they could do is learn how to spell the word 'challenge' properly. There's no way I could put up with 'And this week's challange is...' posts every single Monday without snapping and commenting 'for the love of Joss, this is a writing comm. Learn. To. Spell! /rant

[crazydiamondsue.livejournal.com]

All anyone has to do is claim to be 18/21 or whatever age makes them 'legal' where they are, and wtf are the mods going to do, run a credit check before they okay membership? I joined a locked community that required that I fill out an application and then they checked out my journal. Um. Okay. I guess it can be a CYA thing at a later date - if I had been 12 and my Mom had gotten pissed, they could have said, "Here's her electronic checkmark saying that she's 18+!!!"

Yeah, I figured some comms had done begun with, "I'm not happy with this church because the pastor didn't shake my hand, I'll start my own," mentality - and possibly the best thing to do in some cases. (Like in the 10th grade when my cheerleading squad split in two because half had been to camp and felt superior and the other half felt looked down upon. So as captain, I practiced with both groups, but they ate separately and sat on different sides of the bus on the way to games. What's that? Oh, Sue, that's high school - we're talking grown-up issues here! Oh. You're right. Carry on.) So now am I bitch for the analogy, or because I used to be a cheerleader? *waggles brows*

Hmm. It appears that comm now has mutliple mods, and challenge is correct on the posting page, so hopefully they'll get around to catching the one on the info sheet. Someone else did that...some community somewhere...I can take "challange." What I can't handle is "cannon."

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

You? A bitch? Never! *smooch*

To be honest, I didn't even get to the posting page, I read the user info, wincing at the typos and then clicked the useful little X in the corner. I think I'm getting worse in my old age - I used to be able to see past the glaring errors, now I just want to point out every single one and buy people dictionaries for Christmas. *g*

cannon! Yes! makes me want to light the damn fuse and take aim. :D

[crazydiamondsue.livejournal.com]

I used to be able to see past the glaring errors, now I just want to point out every single one and buy people dictionaries for Christmas.

Hee! Or at least provide the link to dicitionary.com....

And yes, that "X" function is handy....