[MOD] New community, new rules

[acidae.livejournal.com]

Aside from the new post created for questions and reporting of friends-locked links (which you can find in both the community profile and sidebar), there will now be a new joint fanworks community for both arashi_on and a_ra_shi!

iza_now ★ iza_now ★ iza_now
From this point on, please post any and all fan-created content to the new community created for this very purpose; this includes but is not limited to icons, wallpapers, banners, fanart, fanvideos, layouts, and cellphone themes. It does not, however, include fanfiction, which should still be posted to the communities dedicated to such that are listed in arashi_on's profile.

As with requests, older fanworks will remain in this community, but the tags will no longer be used, and any post made here containing fanworks will be promptly deleted without notice. If you have any questions or concerns, you are more than free to leave a comment or PM. Thanks!

Comments

[elleipsis.livejournal.com]

Thanks for informing us on this^^

I wonder a little though, although I support the communities in whatever they do, and am grateful for all the mods hard work to maintain them, why a poll wasn't created about this?
In the NewS_Jpop comm, the question appeared about whether another fan comm should be created for graphics and such, and fan related materials, to get people to say what they thought. while at first it seemed that people would like a separate comm, it was actually voted against, and everything was kept at the mother comm.

I will add the new comm, because I like the fan related things, and I love new graphics and such like that, but I think that a poll on the whole idea would have created a wider view on what the users of the comms would like.
I don't mean any of this in a bad way, and like I said I appreciate all your hard work, on both comms, but I still do believe that the members should have been asked their opinion first.

[acidae.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I think what it ultimately boils down to is a simple difference in the way we run our communities? If you check back on the mod posts I've made, many of the rules instilled in this community were created without previous consultation with members. There were instances where I created polls to get opinions and suggestions from members if I wasn't sure about something, but they were just that-- polls to gather information, not to base all the changes upon.

I'm probably going to sound like a power-tripping dictator mod, but I really don't know how to put this in a better way... the thing is, I've seen communities were the democratic every-opinion-counts approach has completely failed and resulted in even more disorder and drama than before, and while I am and will always open to suggestions by members of this community, I think that as a maintainer the final decision lies with me at the end of the day. Yes, it would probably have been more politically correct to run a poll on the matter before we went ahead and created the new community, but that wouldn't have changed our opinions that such a community would be beneficial, nor is fandom really-- well, really something serious enough to have to be politically correct about. ^^;

[elleipsis.livejournal.com]

Thank you for replying!
Hmm, that is fair enough, because I guess in the end it is you and the other mods that do so much work to maintain the community in itself, so of course you should have the final say.
Polls can create arguing, but they can also open up different views and different ways of thinking, and they can be civilized, well sometimes ^_^"

Without the graphics, and related fan created things, what will be posted in either Arashi_on or A_ra_shi now? Will it be limited to news on the band, possibly information on subbed releases and things like that? Because what about things like a new subbed Pv, would that be placed here on in the new comm? Because that is linked to fans and their work, but I'm not sure where exactly things like that fall.
Lol, I have added it anyway, so it will still appear on my friends list and I will still think of it as the Arashi fandom, I am just curious.

Thank you for all your help with my questions.

[acidae.livejournal.com]

There are still plenty of things that people can post to both communities-- not only latest news and general questions/information, but also translations, scans and uploads as well.

Fansubs will still be allowed in the community because they don't fit under the definition of a fanwork, which I snagged off a site rather than try to blunder through explaining on my own:

Fanworks are the creative products of fannish endeavor. Worldbuilding, characters, plots, stories, still images, video clips or other elements are taken from a source text and incorporated into a new creative piece, eg.: a short story, a novel, a zine, a poem, a painting, a doll, a song, a video, or some work that combines these media.

So basically, while fansubbing is indeed done by fans, they're not altering the original source and creating something new like fanvids do. The closest example I can give would probably be translations vs. fanfiction-- they're also done by fans, but translations stick to the original text as closely as possible (or at least, I would hope so!). Fanfiction, on the other hand, often takes in real facts and incorporates them into fictional accounts about the guys.

[elleipsis.livejournal.com]

Thank you clearing it up for me. I know it was a bit obvious, but I wasn't totally sure, so I thought it would be better to check.
Thanks for the explanation ^_^

[hontowa.livejournal.com]

I think the com actually was consulted about this issue at one point. There was a post one time asking the members for things they'd like to see, and a lot of people brought up wanting a separate community for icons/wallpapers/fanvids/etc. The good thing about this decision is nobody really loses :) People that like to see fanworks can easily add the new community and the posts will appear on their f-lists just like they did in this com. But people who don't like those things can just opt not to join and aren't bombarded with posts they aren't interested in :)

[elenniel.livejournal.com]

Ah, excellent solution~ :)b
Will take note of this!

[yumenoko.livejournal.com]

A...another comm? *sigh*

[acidae.livejournal.com]

Well if you have a better solution, I'm all ears? XD

[yumenoko.livejournal.com]

I'd say let it stay as it was, but I guess the fanmade stuff was too -- hell, I don't know, unofficial? -- to be kept in the general comm? I'll go with whatever you guys decide, obviously, but it just seems like unless the name of this comm is changed (so it doesn't seem all encompassing, as it is now) it's a bit unfair to redirect all that stuff somewhere else. I just have to wonder what will be relegated to a separate comm next? Do people really have such massive flists that it kills them to just simply scroll past this stuff? I admit I'm not a big fan of fanart itself, but I also admit that every now and then some pretty cool wallies are made that I do like. Do I mind scrolling through the other stuff (it is kind of interesting to see what's out there) to find the occasional wally of interest? No, not at all, since things are pretty much kept as teasers and cuts. Sure, I can add the new comm and I probably won't notice the difference as I scroll along, I guess I'm just wondering what motivated this need to send that type of content packing. Were there lots of complaints or something?

[acidae.livejournal.com]

There hasn't been complaints directly leading up to the creation of this community, no-- but it's something I'd toyed with ages ago, something I've always wanted to do but figured wouldn't work if the other Arashi community doesn't follow suit, and several members of the community had suggested it in the past as well.

I probably won't be exaggerating when I say that fanworks posts take up half the traffic in this community every month, and when you also take the fact that much of them are also posted to the other Arashi comm into account, it makes up quite a lot of the cross-posting that goes on, which has come up again and again whenever the floor is left open for members to bring up issues with the communities.

Basically, I think it's worth it in the long run to open up a new community in order to cut down on a sizeable chunk of cross-posting, especially with both main communities collaborating together so there really will only be one set of posts on people's flists-- that is, should they decide to join the community at all, because some people probably won't since the influx of graphics/etc. posts in the communities was also one of the things people had expressed annoyance about.

[divid-chan.livejournal.com]

FINALLY!!! Thank you!!! <33333
I was soooo looking forward to this day~

[ckazu-yano.livejournal.com]

Excellent idea :D

[dreamfadesaway.livejournal.com]

very good initiative^^ I think it's a good solution.

[tecchinvie.livejournal.com]

Hai, wakarimashita...
*joins iza_now too* ^^

[aiba-alechan.livejournal.com]

soo sorry for the entry that i posted!
i wasnt informed of this!
so sorry for the problems! > >

[acidae.livejournal.com]

Yes, actually, you were-- not only did I leave a comment about it the first time you made a post, you should have read the rules beforehand, which would have told you clearly that fanworks are no longer allowed in the community. Not only that, just the fact that certain tags had (disused) in them should have given you a heads up. Even if you weren't sure why they were disused, they should have prompted you to - again - look at the rules to see if it would explain why.

[aiba-alechan.livejournal.com]

again sorry, ive read the rules and i understand now why,
im not trying to excuse myself because i know what i did was wrong
and i should've read the rules, but i wasnt sure of the meaning of the word disused, im from another country so i wasnt sure of the meaning.
But again so sorry for the problems that i caused, i wont do the same again now that im aware of the rules.

Thanks for letting me know this
and again very very very sorry!