I know everyone is busy with the ongoing atrocities, but when things get back to normal can you please post all of the exact guidelines in place right now for original works which may be allowed to be submitted to this Forum? This will help prevent further conflict, unpleasantness, and trashed feelings.
I ask this because it occurs to me that due to other things which could potentially by some random person be considered “controversial”, every single thing I would put here may be subject to deletion, and me getting into more trouble. If I know what the exact guidelines are, I can maybe post something again and thus not violate Board protocol or rules.
BTW - the question in my title was not meant to be sarcastic. It means that I searched, and could not find the guidelines. If they have already been posted, I would be grateful for a link to point me in the right direction so I could think about posting something else again.
Why would you want to post original works of fiction in the forum, or in any Straight Dope forum?
Scroll down: Anything you post here becomes the property of the Chicago Reader, which they can then re-use and pay you bupkus.
I sure as heck wouldn’t put original works of fiction here. Bad enough I’m giving the Reader all these pearls-of-wisdom posts for free. Why sweat over a piece of intellectual property (“story”) and then give it away forever?
I’d recommend providing a link to your homepage instead…folks can click over there if they like your posting style, and read whatever you want to put up.
Well, Ukelele Ike, people have many times in the past submitted original works for criticism and so forth, like my ill-starred erotica posts. I don’t know, I just like sharing things with the community is all.
It may sound silly, or crazy, but I’ve never been afraid to speak my mind, so…maybe I see it as sort of a way that someone can pay back the SDMB by trying to make it a richer place. Unless one hates the stories, and in that case I guess it detracts. Hopefully my audience love/hate ratio is greater than one.
What about Cecil Cove? Surely you would agree that that is something that really belongs on the SDMB, if it is to be allowed to continue, true? It has no commerical value that I can see, so if the Reader wants to make money off of it more power too them. Actually, I rather wish it was good enough for the Reader to make money off of, so it would help to support the Board. Surely that would be a noble thing, yes?
I was interested in posting another chapter to Cecil Cove, but am left very uncertain now. I can certainly post it on my Board, but 1) it would just feel wrong, and 2) I can’t handle the rush of bandwidth. Although not addressed specifically before that I have seen, I am getting the impression that you want to discourage people from posting works here, even if they meet all guidelines. If that is the case, I would like to know so I can focus on other things I can do to make the online community a little richer.
So, is it then your ruling that in general people should not post original works here? It seemed like this was the perfect Forum for such a thing, but I guess I must have misunderstood the intent. If so, then I really have to apologize doubly to you and Eutychus for posting my thread the other day.
We’re still figuring out just where we want to go with this forum and really don’t want to have serious codified rules, why would you want to be constricted overmuch in a creative forum?
OTOH, there are limits to everything.
So obviously it’s all stuff to be determined. This is not an invitation to be a space cadet or to try us to see what aggravates us, I think you already have an idea of how that works.
Una, I got one good nerve and you’re getting all over it.
Use a little common sense, would you? Find some, or borrow some, or something. Please.
You’re a creative person, be freaking creative already, don’t fritter away your energy by whining and picking fights.
Post original stuff, go on ahead. We’re tickled to have it. Just give a thought to your audience beforehand; who’s likely to read it, to truly appreciate it here, in the greatest number, INCLUDING BOARD MANAGEMENT? Aim for that audience.
We really don’t have any cut-and dried “guidelines” for publishing here because this forum was never really intended to be a showcase for work per se. Rather it was intended to be a place for discussion. But I think anyone who’s been on the board for a while can pretty much get a sense of what we’d allow and what we wouldn’t just going by seeing what happens around here. There are not a lot of hard and fast rules, but as you know there are things which we’ve decided we’d rather not see.
If you have any doubts about anything, perhaps you could submit it to either me or Ike before posting it and we can go from there.
TubaDiva, I would like to humbly submit that you sounded a little testy in your last post. I know that we are all on edge, and I understand how hard your job here is. I have nothing but respect for you. But…I truly don’t think Anthracite meant any offense here. On the contrary, I think she was trying to prevent CAUSING offense in the future.
Assuming that there’s not some behind the scenes “back story” here that the rest of the SDMB is not privy to, why are you being so snide and dismissive toward Anthracite? To be honest your posts are usually models of Solomon-like judiciousness and I understand you have a difficult job keeping the board running smoothly with new problems popping up like mutant wack-a-moles, however, this simmering anger toward a question of form and guidelines, which is sort of your baliwick, is kind of surprising.
If you guys are not comfortable with hard or soft core erotica being posted just say so in simple, declarative sentences. All Anthracite is apparently looking for is a little guidance.
I, too, was a little perturbed on reading this thread, TubaDiva. The tone of your posts seemed uncalled for… I guess it threw me because it doesn’t fit the image I’ve developed of you.
I’m going to close this thread because yes, there is more going on here that most of you are aware of. The question has been answered to the best of our ability. If anyone needs more sspecific guidance, please e-mail me with your questions. Case closed.