cap_ironman | Possible community activities... and a poll!

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Possible community activities... and a poll!

Now that we're going into our second year as mods, we've decided to get a bit more active with community activities. We'd love to plan the challenges, fests, and posts that make you excited to be a Steve/Tony fan and inspire you to create the most excellent of fic, art, and meta. But we realized we don't know what kinds of challenges, fests, and posts excite and inspire you the most. Hence, a poll!

Big Bang
Artists and writers both sign up. The writers must write a long fic - a minimum word count could be decided by poll, but generally the lowest minimum is 10,000 words - and before posting the fic, they are paired with an artist who creates a work based on the story. Then the fic and art are posted simultaneously for everyone to enjoy.

Perfect for: Writers with ambition and stamina. Artists who get inspired when reading fic and who can create on a deadline.

Reverse Big Bang
This one starts with artists who create a fanart. Then writers are paired with an art piece which they use as inspiration for a fic. Word count minimums are generally lower for this challenge, but again we could poll to decide on that.

Perfect for: Artists who feel that there are plot-filled stories behind their art. Writers who like prompts in art format.

Flash Fic Post/Drabble-Off
Every so often (perhaps once a month) we could have a themed post in which people could post drabbles or flash fic that fit that theme. For those unfamiliar with the terms, drabbles are generally defined as stories of exactly 100 words, and flash fic is generally defined as very short stories and is often synonymous with the terms 'comment fic' and 'ficlet'. Definitions vary, however. I have seen epic drama over the definition of drabble.

Similarly, we could host a monthly drabble-off, in which one writes a drabble (or flash fic) and ends it with a prompt for the next person. The next person writes a flash fic using that prompt and posts it as a reply, again ending with a prompt. With a large group like ours, one long chain of flash fic would be hard to maintain, so multiple fills to a given prompt would be welcome.

Perfect for: Fans of the art of capturing a story in one comment box. Fans of the take-a-prompt, leave-a-prompt sensibility of kinkmemes.

Monthly Prompts
There was a 12 Month Challenge in 2009, but it didn't get too far off the ground. If people feel like giving this another go, we'd create a list of prompts - one for each month - and fans could post art, fic, icons and meta for each prompt during that month. This differs from the flash fic post in that the fic can be as short or long as you want, and that you post it straight to the comm rather than in a comment to another post. It would be similar to the popular Fairytale Challenge, except that the prompts would change each month.

Perfect for: Authors and artists looking for inspiration, but who balk at word count restrictions.

Bingo Cards
Upon signing up, a fan receives a Bingo card created from a list of prompts. Each Bingo box has a prompt in it, and a fans mark off each box as they fill the prompt through fic or art, aiming to fill in a whole row or column to 'win'.

Perfect for: Fans who like to choose from a variety of prompts. Fans who really love playing Bingo.

Round Robins
These are something I've noticed a lot more in older fandoms. Are they out of style? You decide. Basically, one fan starts a story and writes a few paragraphs to a couple pages. Then the next fan takes up the reins and continues the story a bit longer. Then the next fan goes. Generally people sign up beforehand and are assigned a place on a list, so that writers aren't stepping on each other's toes. Fans agree on restrictions before starting so that all those signed up are comfortable writing their section.

Perfect for: Fans who like creative interaction. Fans who are flexible with plot twists.

Exquisite Corpse
Kind of like a round robin for fan artists. I suggested this last year and got absolutely no response, but hey, maybe some surrealism fans have joined since then. There are a lot of ways to play this, but I think the easiest way would be to start with one person drawing part of a picture, then sending only the very edge of that picture on to the next person to continue, who would then cover up all but the edge of hir drawing. Meanwhile, the complete sections are sent to one person who assembles them into a whole, bizarre, surreal picture. Here are some Google search results to give you some idea of what this game can produce.

Perfect for: Fans who like creative interaction. Artists who like odd art.

Remix Challenge
Everyone who signs up for this offers some or all of their fanfic body of work to be remixed. That means that you find a designated fic that interests you, and you redo it, twisting it in some way to make it similar and yet completely different. Maybe it's the same events from a different POV, or more of a What If? where one small change affects the outcome of the original fic. Maybe it's a similar story in a different genre. The possibilities are endless.

Perfect for: Fans who wish there were no fandom taboos against writing fanfiction of fanfiction.

Podfic Challenge
As far as I know, Steve/Tony fandom has very little - if any - podfic. We could change this by holding a fest where authors and podficcers pair up to produce podfic. We'd also post tutorials and links to help those interested in podcasting for the first time.

Perfect for: Fans who love to listen.

Rec Week (or Fortnight)
Each day of the week a post will be made for a designated a genre or theme, i.e., Fluff, Dark, Smut, Adventure, etc. Then, on that day, you can rec fics that fit that theme in the comments of that post. At the end of the week, all the recs will be compiled into one easy-to-read rec post. This is designed to connect newer fans with older fic, and to give lesser-known fic a larger audience.

Perfect for: Fans who want everyone to read their favorite stories.

Off-Topic Posts
Every week we could post entries where fans can chat about things that are not Steve, Tony, or Steve/Tony. This might help build a sense of community, break the ice for new members, and encourage lurkers to say hi.

Perfect for: Fans who like Steve/Tony but are shy about talking about comics. Fans who want to get to know other Steve/Tony fans better.

Discussion Posts
Similarly, we could have discussion posts that aren't necessarily about Steve/Tony, but could be a place for ficwriters, fanartists, betas, graphics creators, comic readers, etc, to just talk about something that affects them as a Steve/Tony fan or simply as a member of fandom. This category would also include challenges for comm members to create meta/squee posts about other facets of Marvel, like our recent Women of Captain America and Iron Man challenge. We might do one for Avengers that Time Forgot, or favorite Cap & Iron Man villains, or ask members to recap older story arcs.

Perfect for: Fans who like to spread the love through meta. Fans who are looking to learn more about the Marvel universe. Fans who want to discuss the process behind fanworks.

Chat Sessions
Every so often we could schedule a Cap_Ironman community chat. We'd vote on a chat service or chat room, and vote on a time. Then anyone who feels like it could chat with other members in real time.

Perfect for: Fans who find LJ comment conversations unwieldily.

[Poll #1585835]

Feel free to propose your own ideas in the comments!

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:( There is no "Ticky" ticky. This makes me sad.

I love round robins. I haven't actually been in one for years, but they're so much fun. The remix challenge looks like extra fun too. We do not have nearly enough Remixes in this fandom, IMO. (Of course, I am a big proponent of treating fanfic as a valid source in the same way we treat the canon, but it does seem to be a fandom taboo. Again, sadface. :( )

For people who aren't writers/artists... Perhaps regular posts and scans of Old School comics? Scavenger for things posted to the comm, or specific other comms. Um. Macro Contests. I would suggest a drinking game to go along with them, but that seems severely out of place with Tony and all. Badfic Idol, with posts of deliberately terrible fiction? (One case of Badfic Idol that I know of resulted in warnings of "always warn for leopard sex", soooo.)

Also... BIG BANG. (pounces) My... Precious... (snuggles it)

Of course, I am a big proponent of treating fanfic as a valid source in the same way we treat the canon, but it does seem to be a fandom taboo.
lol i agree, but i'm not entirely sure why it's a fandom taboo. personally i think i'd be pretty flattered if someone wrote something based off a fic of mine, honestly. and in terms of canon, half of what i know of steve and tony as characters and the avengers fandom as a whole i learned through fanfiction, lmao. fanfic tends to be how i find new fandoms.

If I had to guess, I would say that it's the difference in perspective between consumer and creator. I know a few fanfic writers who also do original fiction, and they treat the idea of fanfic about their novels as a horrifying but unavoidable reality. IDGI. I have not seem much meta discussion on it though.

I always get into fandoms through fanfic and other fans, though I'm wary of fanon. Steve/Tony doesn't really have that sort of problem, but I remember anime fandoms back in the day. (puts on a false Gandalf beard) Back when I was in anime, the fanon could get so thick a character would be completely warped. But at the same time, I've no interest in fandoms that don't have plenty of fanfic.

And we had to walk five miles! In the snow! Up hill both ways, just to see a poor VHS pirated version! And it didn't even have subtitles!

On the other hand,

astolat, for example, actively encourages further fanworks based on both her fanfic and her published original fiction.

I find the hypocrisy inherent in "Don't touch my *derivative* works" staggering, personally.

Maybe people have a stronger emotional investment in their fanfic than they do in their original fic? I know I do, for example. It's much easier to hear criticism of your original work, so it's probably easier for some fans to handle the idea of fic being written about it, too.

I find that odd though... I think I'd be vastly more protective of *my* babies, ie the characters I invented, than those I'd filched, *g*, from someone else. Still, each to their own.

Ultimately I *do* subscribe to the idea that since we are, at our best, a community, we're more careful of each other's feelings than we are of The Man's. But as a *principle*, I'm always flabbergasted when someone who gleefully does what they will with other people's characters and worlds cries foul when someone does it to them in return.

A VHS? A VHS! You lucky bastards! We used to dream of having VHS tapes back in my Sentinel days.

We had to depend entirely on highly biased episode recaps and screen shots. Not one writer in ten had actually seen the show. The fanon evolved into a sentiant life form and chewed my leg off.

/snark.

We'd have to be careful with scans, since Marvel cracked down on scans_daily. I think it's a good idea, though. Especially if people can post some Golden Age Cap stuff - it's very difficult to find.

Ooh, or we could collectively post and mock scans from The Crossing and Heroes Reborn, as a reminder that writing and art can always be worse (unless that would offend/upset people, but I don't think there are likely to be too many people out there who are deeply attached to Liefeld art).

As long as we kept the scans locked to the comm, I think that would be a good idea. I know there are some story arcs I'd love to share. Also, I love your macro contest idea! That could be lots of fun.

Sorry about the lack of a 'Ticky' ticky. I think I might have been at the limit. :(

:( There should always be a "ticky" ticky. It should be built in to the LJ polls. This is your ticky! You shall eat with it! You shall sleep with it! When it says vote, you say, what color!

I like a lot of these ideas. At most of the comms I'm in, we haven't even heard of doing some of these. I'm particularly interested in the Remix, Round Robin, Exquisite Corpse and Podfic challenges. They sound fun and are something a little different for the comm. I also like that they involve some direct interaction between fans.

On that note, the Big Bang challenges look fun too.

I like activities that promote interaction between fans, too. I'm glad to see a lot of these ideas getting responses. I'm also glad to see I'm not the only person who likes the Exquisite Corpse idea. I was starting to think I was a bit weird when I suggested it last year and got a resounding silence in return. ;-)

Collaboration between members of the community is always, I think, a good idea. It makes new friends. Plus, the end results tend to be fantastic.

Exquisite Corpse looks fun! I'd never heard of it before now, but the pictures from google look awesome. I'd be excited to try it out. There's never enough thought provoking fanart, in my opinion.

I had to pick the round shield, but I remain very fond of the shield Sharon gave Steve, largely because Tony was so intensely jealous about it.

I picked it, mostly because it turned into a staff. How dorky/awesome is that?

Honestly, I was squeeing in anticipation for nearly all of those :D

Big Bangs have always been my favourite type of events, thorough my long years of lurking. I'd be really excited to actually do art for one~
Also - podfics! I love them so much <3 <3 <3 and I really love reading aloud, too, but I have a stupid accent *sulks*

I've never heard a stupid accent. Is it anything like a Minnesota accent? :-P
Even if we don't get a huge response for the podfic challenge, we'll probably do it anyway, because the lack of Steve/Tony podfic is sad. And I hope you participate, because now I'm curious what your voice sounds like!

I'm French, but my accent doesn't even sound French ._. I've had people asking me if I was Russian (I live in England). It's also weirdly posh, for some reason.
If there is a challenge, maybe I'll try to do one, but it would have to be a short fic - I'd have to obsessively check where the stress is on every word first X)

Just a suggestion:
what about the 4th of July?
anything planned to celebrate Steve´s birthday?

That's... coming up, isn't it? *shifty eyes* Of course we have something planned. It's his first not-dead birthday in a while, after all!

the Big Bang and the Reverse Big Bang are sooooo interesting!
I mostly draw (I don't like writing in english that much), so it would be an awesome chance to make some interesting stuff!
seems like lots of fun~

Well, both of those are getting big responses, so there's a good chance we'll do one or both of them. I hope you'll sign up when that happens!

Haven't posted all that much around here lately, but a lot of these sound really fun. I've done something similar to the reverse big bang (only the word count was MUCH lower) and it was a blast.

To be honest, the reverse big bang is one of my favorite of the suggest activities. I've never done one, but I love the idea. And yeah, the lower word count helps, as I'm not exactly up to writing novel-length fics.

I'd like to suggest a variant on the drabble-off/flashfic idea.

Remember the glory days of the

wednesday100? Heh. You may well not, given I have no idea if you ever crossed paths with Smallville. But it was the comm that gave birth to the weekly drabble fest comms that were so common once upon a time.

In this case obviously we'd do it here, rather than on a separate comm. I'd suggest a weekly post (rather than monthly or less frequently) because part of the aim is to encourage as much creative output as possible (within reason). It doesn't cross the line into spam because it's still just one post and any/all fics are safely in the comments. And there's a twenty-four/forty-eight hour window to get your entry in.

Benefits I foresee (extrapolating on past experience):

The regularity and tight time frame encourage people to write ("Don't want to miss the boat!" but also "There'll be another along soon!")

New theme every week --> if one doesn't suit, skip it and wait for the next.

Competitive spirit means some people (try to) post every week.

New writers feel encouraged --> "I could totally do that!" (I know this is how I got my start writing in the first place, and so did a lot of other now well known writers.)

Chance to experiment/take a risk because it's only a comment after all, you didn't spam anyone.

Regular posting time --> builds sense of anticipation, people are hanging out for the prompt post.

Very simple prompts --> lots of scope for ideas/adaptation.

All it takes is a mod to make the prompt post every week at the same time. And think of the prompts too, lol, but we also used to take suggestions at the end of the previous week's challenge. If you guys were too busy for that I'd be quite happy to give it a go for a while and see how it goes.

Just a thought. :D

Right. I remember those.

The Master and Commander comm that first got me into LJ had something similar. It divided the comm into two halves (usually alphabetically), called them "Powder Monkeys" and "Cabin Boys" and rewarded virtual grog to the team that produced the most on-topic drabbles in the space of a week.

Oh! I was a member of that too. *waves*

Crikey, what was that about uphill both ways, whippersnappers? We had no clue we were creating a meme that'd go through fandom like a dose of salts, but it really did spread everywhere. We used to get hundreds of entries every week way back when. I sometimes miss being part of an all-devouring fandom.

*is currently musing on first fic for this small but charming fandom*

Well, you've convinced me. If we do the drabble activity, we'll do it weekly rather than monthly.

I was a lurker in Smallville fandom, but I wasn't familiar with

wednesday100. It sounds like it was a lot of fun.

I vote for both big bang and reverse big bang, and for the exquisite corpse, because it sounds kind of like pchat, except weirder, and I'm fascinated to see what it would produce. And also for podfic.

Discussion posts sound like a good idea as well. Didn't someone in the comments of tsukinofaerii's canon post suggest doing a "supporting characters of CA, IM, and the Avengers" series of posts similar to the female characters ones?

Me. :) We might make 'supporting characters' one of our monthly prompts? So people might have ensemble fics/pics ready, or gen fics that focus on one of the boys' relationship with a different character, or pick a character to post scans/bio/squee over, or post meta about how they choose/use supporting characters in fic, or even their favourite supporting character ships?

It's been ages since I've seen a reverse big bang -- I used to be involved in a fandom (not mentioning it out of SHAME) that did quite a few of them. One interesting thing they did there to make up for the fact that most fandoms have more writers than artists is take a panel from an older not iconic issue (i.e. in this case nothing from "Civil War: Confessions" or "Demon in a Bottle" )of the series, remove the text and submit it as a prompt. Interesting picture, no context. Or derivative covers could work too.

If you needed to cite the source you could just go by volume/issue number, artist -- if the writer wants context (which ruins the fun imo) they can find it for themselves.

The "shippy moments in canon" shots might be good source to draw from too.

I love all of these. OMG Exquisite Corpse yay! We did that in high school and it was so much fun! At least that’s what I thought but I think all of my classmates disagreed with me…
I hope that if you do the Reverse Big Bang I’ll get enough courage to enter.

I'd love to see how this plays out. I do love round robins and the big bang challenge intrigues me :3

Wow, I never even heard of half of these. I'm a big fan of big bang (was that a pun? I can't tell) fics...well, reading them. The thought of writing them short-circuits my brain. So I voted for that and the bingo card hoo-haa's.

I love Steve's circular shield, but the badge-shaped one wasn't really that bad. I'm a bit confuzzled, though. The morphing shield, it is his new shield after he gave the old one to Bucky? I know the electro-mag shield was given after he lost his circular shield in v3, but yeah. Are those the only ones he had? o_o

Heh. Yeah. I love having all those lovely long fics to read!

A Chronology of Shields:
Badge-Shaped one: Pre-WWII. This was discontinued because of copyright issues.

Round one: WWII through to present.

Tony's Modifications: Okay, which time? Tony modified Steve's shield with the magnets and such not long after he came out of the ice, but Steve didn't like them and got rid of them. Then when the government took away Steve's shield and gave it to John Walker, Tony made him a new, grey shield to go with his role as the Captain. He used that for about two issues before he gave it back to Tony because Tony betrayed him during the Armour Wars (and Tony had only given it to Steve as, essentially, a bribe). He got his original round shield back not long after that, anyway.

Electromagnetic Shield: After he dropped the round shield in the ocean at the beginning of Vol 3, Tony makes him another one, which he doesn't like, and goes back to the badge-shaped one for a while. Then Sharon gives him the electromagnetic one, and he likes that and uses it for some time, until Tony finds and repairs his round one. When he gives the round one to Bucky, he goes back to the one Sharon gave him.

Yeah. I mean, I've read multiple awesome fics from the Steve/Tony Big Bang like "In a different light" by

marinarusalka, "This time tomorrow (where were we?)" by

dorcas_gustine (I loved reading this) and "A Matter of Extremes" by

ellyr_ink_ink (so, so good...especially the descriptions of Steve's body. Mm-hmm). And then there was the whole Resurrection!verse (my favorite of the bunch) by

elspethdixon and

seanchai, and Heart of Steel. Is that closed or WIP? Because getting to the end of chapter 18 made me sad. (Ho-lee, that's a lot of html...)

Wow, that is a lot of shields. I didn't know about Tony's modifications to ol' circular, or that he got a new grey shield. Did this happen in Captain America or The Avengers? (Although I'm guessing Captain America since U.S. Agent is mentioned...)

Ah, so it's Sharon's shield he uses now. I thought it was something Tony gave to him. Good to know.

I really need to read Armor Wars. Hopefully, MDC has them.

Tony's modifications was either in early Cap or Tales of Suspense.

The grey shield was in Iron Man and Cap, but I don't think Steve was on the Avengers at the time. I know Tony wasn't.

HoS will continue as I have time. I've been buried of late.

Tales of Suspense...now there is something I haven't read.

I hope you don't take my enquiring about HoS the wrong way. I know how annoying it gets when you're doing something and people ask things like "when will it be done" or "isn't it finished yet?" or my personal favorite: "it's not like you have anything better to do!" (Not with writing, but with forum graphics). I was only asking to know if I should stop looking for an update or not.

Oh, you totally should! It has Tony's origin story, the original, and a tonne of early Steve stuff. Classic Silver Age. I don't know about digital copies, but you can get them in paper cheep as Essential Iron Man Vol 1 and Essential Captain America Vol 1. The black and white shows off the nice Kirby lines without the distracting four colour printing.

Oh, no worries. Some of my flist is outright harassing me on that point.

I checked MDC, and they have issues 39-99 (as well as 1-15) of Tales of Suspense. Going by the covert art, it seems very Tony-centric after 39.

I don't live in the US, so I would have to import if MDC didn't have it, and that's not always the easiest thing to do. o_o

*nodnod* ToS is fun. Tony and IM are introduced in #39 and not long after it becomes the Tony-and-Steve show... until they gave Tony his own mag (after an odd IM/Sub-Mariner 2-in-1) and renamed ToS to Captain America (at #100).

Um. Yeah. I just read all of these a few months ago thanks to the DVD collections. They're loads of fun. XD

and renamed ToS to Captain America (at #100).

Oh, so that's why MDC started CA at #100. I was wondering about that.

*nod* Because they cheated. XD Cap didn't even show up until #59, so... (It made it all sorts of entertaining trying to work out my reading chronology, too. lol)

Part of the reason HoS is so late is because I made her write 30k of post-apocalyptic unicorn racing.

And no, this is not my apologetic face...

But I too am looking forward to more HoS. :D

I just reread it and will write more soon.

Glee! :D

You're talking about HoS, right? If so, yaaay mixed with wooot.

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Possible community activities... and a poll!

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