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garrideb ([identity profile] garrideb.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] cap_ironman2010-06-29 09:52 pm
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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!

[identity profile] tsukinofaerii.livejournal.com 2010-06-30 03:51 am (UTC)(link)
:( 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)

[identity profile] ellianmeir.livejournal.com 2010-06-30 04:10 am (UTC)(link)
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.
muccamukk: Wanda walking away, surrounded by towering black trees, her red cloak bright. (Smile)

[personal profile] muccamukk 2010-06-30 04:31 am (UTC)(link)
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.

[identity profile] heresie-irisee.livejournal.com 2010-06-30 05:12 am (UTC)(link)
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*

[identity profile] runenklinge.livejournal.com 2010-06-30 10:55 am (UTC)(link)
Just a suggestion:
what about the 4th of July?
anything planned to celebrate Steve´s birthday?

[identity profile] lady-northstar.livejournal.com 2010-06-30 11:54 am (UTC)(link)
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~

[identity profile] m-steelgrave.livejournal.com 2010-06-30 01:21 pm (UTC)(link)
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.

[identity profile] arysteia.livejournal.com 2010-06-30 09:40 pm (UTC)(link)
I'd like to suggest a variant on the drabble-off/flashfic idea.

Remember the glory days of the [livejournal.com profile] 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

[identity profile] elspethdixon.livejournal.com 2010-06-30 10:51 pm (UTC)(link)
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?

[identity profile] mostepotente.livejournal.com 2010-07-01 06:05 am (UTC)(link)
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.

[identity profile] ferchu.livejournal.com 2010-07-01 06:25 am (UTC)(link)
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.

[identity profile] mozzarellaroses.livejournal.com 2010-07-01 07:53 am (UTC)(link)
I'd love to see how this plays out. I do love round robins and the big bang challenge intrigues me :3
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[identity profile] illuminatius.livejournal.com 2010-07-01 11:01 am (UTC)(link)
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