Kittens and Spitefic: Comm in Progress

[soc_puppet]

Welp, I got the account kittens_and_spitefic registered as a community! There's literally nothing there yet, but I'm sitting on the name and no one else can have it now.

I'm currently working on the rules, and I think I'm going to change my mind about the boy-wizard-with-a-scar-and-glasses series; or rather, I'm going to be changing my mind about everything else. I tried a couple of times to write up the rule about posts for that particular fandom being locked to the community by default, and just... couldn't make myself do it. It's both easier and kinder to go all-or-nothing with this as well, so I'm going to have all request/prompt posts be locked. I... think that's something I can set up in the community itself? But I think I'm going to make it a rule, either way.

I'll be leaving (some? all?) mod posts unlocked, like a pinned post explaining the comm and linking to the rules, and a couple of example posts, but other than that, locking by default just seems more straightforward. (Current plan is to use the imaginary fandoms from Anime Twine Con for the example posts, but I might make one Any/All Fandoms instead.)

Still working on requirements for wording prompts for religious representation. My go-to mental example is someone who wants to see Spock practicing more Jewish holidays and trying to work backwards from there, but I still feel woefully underqualified to figure this out. IDK, I may have to all-or-nothing this as well; goodness knows I want people to be able to ask for the representation they need in whatever manner they need to, but even if I can think of a way to enforce wording that doesn't accidentally bash whatever religion someone wants more representation of except Messianics, would the prompts be something I'm comfortable with the community hosting?

IDK, input welcome.

Edit: I think might have it now? Came up with it at work while rolling hamburger buns.

When prompting for religious content, particularly for a minority religion that you are not a member of, please word your prompt with care. When in doubt, stick to the practicalities involved. "How would Spock know when to celebrate Sukkot while on a space ship in the first place, let alone what would be involved in setting up a sukkah? It'd be way too much trouble!" or, "Hardly anyone even worships the Greek gods these days, there's no way that Percy Jackson would end up meeting a follower of Poseidon, let alone hanging out! The odds are just too low!"

Still kinda nervous, but it's the best I've got at the moment. Input still very welcome!

Comments

[conuly]

I think it's okay to make a general rule of "No actually being offensive". There's a bit of a fine line, but I think we can all reasonably expect nobody to actually do bigotry in their requests.

[soc_puppet]

IDK, I really prefer to have things spelled out when possible. It gives me firmer ground to stake out if someone actually is offensive, and it gives any community members firmer ground to call me out if I ever screw up! (And it would also potentially mean less work for me, if everyone is more certain about where the line is.) Still, having some sort of "including but not limited to" clause at least shouldn't confuse things too much. Thanks!

[vriddy]

I think making it all locked is a good idea, since it can all be misinterpreted easily. It does make it a bit harder to promote the comm/show it's active but perhaps an occasional open mod post can help with that!

I'm not sure if you can prevent people from making open posts, but you can at least change the default so that new posts are set to "Locked" by default when someone starts writing a new post.

[soc_puppet]

Yeah, maybe occasional super-general posts that are open to the public? Like interactive example posts. I'm thinking of kicking off the comm with one along the lines of, "Listen, I know what you're thinking, but it's just not possible for the smaller, more feminine, or less aggressive person in a ship to top, even from the bottom." I think people would have a blast 😉 (Hmm, I think I should try and come up with a SFW prompt option as well.)

That's what I was thinking, yeah. If I set posts to locked-by-default and make it a rule, I then have grounds for gently prodding people if they manually unlock a post. As a moderator, I'm pretty sure I can re-lock posts as well.

[vriddy]

When I was poking at the technical aspects of comms, unfortunately access/lock-level wasn't changeable by the admin, only by the post author ;(

[soc_puppet]

Huh; I've got a private/personal comm that I've set entries to be made as private by default, but maybe it only works because of how I have membership set up? More research required.

[mistressofmuses]

I think locking all posts is a reasonable plan. It's kind of an extra layer of the "this is an opt-in experience" just like the prompts being under a cut is. It makes it less likely for anyone to feel like they've accidentally stumbled on either mentions of a canon that makes them uncomfortable, or that they're suddenly forced to see rants about how much their fave sucks (despite it being opposite-day rules.)

I think the wording on that sounds good. I mean, as with most things, it's a subjective rule for subjective scenarios, but I think that's good guidance. I think that the reminder to please be careful with your phrasing (and some good examples) will keep people on the right track with those sorts of things.

[soc_puppet]

Yeah, I'm liking the "keep most things locked up" approach more and more. It'll also do more to keep bad actors out, IMO.

Oh, good! I'm tentatively going to go with it then, I think.

[mistressofmuses]

Having to join a community - and therefore being pretty easily kick-out-able - does do a lot to discourage bad behavior.

[bluedreaming]

I think (?) you can moderate posts, which would allow you to make sure that posts are comm-locked. However, that’s an entirely extra level of work 😅

I know of at least one comm that’s locked except for an info post - I was initially confused because it was hard to tell it if was active (it is!), but I think that the idea of posting an occasional open mod post is a great idea.

[soc_puppet]

Turns out there's an option in the Privacy tab of community account settings where you can select a "minimum entry security", which seems to be exactly what I want! I may have to toggle it occasionally to make public posts, and some stuff may slip through as a result, but making "locked" the community minimum post security level by default would potentially save me a few headaches.

For public posts, I'm thinking: Important mod posts/info posts in general, plus one post a month that's super-general and for any fandom, so people can get a more interactive idea of how the community works. Alternating SFW and NSFW every other month, I think. Plus a mod post where people can suggest future themes for public posts in the comments.

[bluedreaming]

Oh excellent! That sounds like the simplest approach (the community privacy settings). Your idea about super general monthly posts (alternating sfw and nsfw) also sounds like a great way to showcase the community, and I like the idea of theme suggestions for public posts.