Frequently Asked Questions

[metanewsmods]

How often do you update?
Weekly-ish, aiming for a Wednesday update.

You don't always stick to that.
Nope. Sorry. We try though.

Can we submit stuff?
YES! please do! You can comment to our posts, or PM or email us. We also have a screened submissions post if you'd like to submit anonymously.

What can we submit?
Your meta, your journal, other people's meta that you found interesting, fandom newsletters, main fandom comms if it's a small fandom without a newsletter, meta comms. Interesting meta on tumblr, meta gathering blogs on tumblr. Blogs outside of LJ/DW/Tumblr fandom who talk about fandom things.

So where do you get your links?
All of the above!

I want to talk about a link, where can I do that?
You can leave a comment to the meta itself in the author's journal. But if the platform is tumblr or a blog, or if you simply prefer, then you can continue discussion in your own journal. You are welcome to submit your link to us so that we can include your discussion in the next meta post. We've decided that hosting meta discussion isn't party of our community's aims, and not something we're equipped to moderate, so we ask that you don't continue meta discussions in the comments to any metanews/metanewsfandom posts.

Why wasn't [x] meta included?
Because it's too old! Meta that's older than a week will be in last week's post. (Occasionally we include slightly old meta, but we try not to go over two weeks old).

But [x] meta wasn't in last week's post either.
- Was it the kind of meta to generate discussion? That's the big question. If it can create discussion it should be in here, if not, it won't make the cut.
- Was it very personal? Some meta can draw purely on personal experiences, we're loath to expose those to the public eye.
- Was it locked? Did the poster decline to have it linked? The poster's decision always takes priority.

We're only human. Sometimes we screw up. If we neglected to include something you thought passed all the above bars, then let us know, maybe that person will write something equally cool in the future and we can include it then!

Do you ask before linking to meta?
Yes, we have an always ask policy. If we get a positive reply, we link, if we get a negative reply, we don't link. If we don't get a reply, we don't link. So if you want your meta linked, please let us know. Silence doesn't constitute consent.

We don't always have time to check profiles or sticky posts. We will always assume lack of consent. Even if you say we can link at the top of your post, we will err on the side of asking as reposting something in a personal journal isn't necessarily the same as linking it publicly. The only times we won't ask are if you submitted your link to us yourself, or if you've given us permission in the Blanket Permissions post.

You keep asking me and I already said yes.
If you want to give us blanket permission, comment to the Blanket Permissions post!

Why do you only ask permission on journalling sites?
Because tumblr, by its nature, is a site with blanket permissions to reblog, so we don't think it's an issue. And public blogs are also, by their nature, public.

How do you ask for permission?
A comment on the post. If for whatever reason we can't comment, we will try to get in touch with you by other means (PM or email). If there is no way to contact you, your meta won't be linked.

I changed my mind, can you remove my link?
Sure, you can revoke permission at any time, just let us know what the link was and we'll remove it.

What if I don't give permission in time?/You've got some links from last week in there.
If we don't get a reply in time for the weekly update, we keep the links in a separate file for a week. Late permissions go in next week's post. If there's no reply after a week, we delete the link.

Do you warn for spoilers?
Yes, for a week. Once the next episode is out, or a week has passed, we will no longer warn.

What other warnings do you have?
Rape/non-con, child abuse, abuse, violence, suicide, trauma, adult content, not safe for work.

Why don't you warn about [y]?
We didn't think of it, do you think we should? We're happy to extend the warnings list if that's what people want.

Should we join metanews or metanewsfandom? or follow metanewsfandom?
Sure, you can join/watch/subscribe or follow. All posts are mirrored, so no need to follow more than one.

Should we friend metanewsmods or metanewsmods?
No, please don't. They're just reading/lurking journals, there will never be any posts on them. Also if you friend them there's a greater risk of us linking to locked posts accidentally which would suck!

If you have any more questions you'd like answered, or problems you'd like to raise, please let us know in comments or in the screened Contact the Mods post.

Comments

[chordatesrock]

If not on either community, where can your link lists be found? How would I subscribe to your newsletter?

[metanewsmods]

Lol. Give me a minute!

The first post will hopefully go up today. A day late, I apologise, but it's all taken a bit longer to set up than I anticipated.

Subscribe to this comm (or the LJ mirror) and updates will continue weekly(ish).

[chordatesrock]

Oh, I see. I misunderstood your FAQ.

[metanewsmods]

No worries :) Let me know if anything seems too confusing and I can rephrase.

[elynross]

There's something wonky with your cut tag, so the correct response to "Should we join [community profile] metanews or [livejournal.com profile] metanewsfandom ?" is outside the cut, while with the cut expanded, the answer below that question is a duplicate of the answer about the metanews tumblr.

[metanewsmods]

Yup. I've uncut everything because I can't seem to fix it with the cut in. Hopefully this will be okay for now.

Thanks!

[elynross]

I just wanted to say, go, you, for tackling this! I hope you find some other mods soonest!

[metanewsmods]

Thank you! And lol, me too!

[arduinna]

Hiya,

You might have some more borked code somewhere:

Should we join [community profile] metanews or [livejournal.com profile] metanewsfandom ?
That's our reading/stalking tumblr. You can follow that if you like. We don't ask permissions on tumblr, but we do reblog posts as a way of giving notification. If you follow the DW or LJ blog you will see all our links including those on tumblr. If you follow our tumblr you will only see the tumblr reblogs.

I think maybe you meant to have a question that asked if people should follow "metanewsfandom" on either LJ or DW (right now one says "metanews", the other says "metanewsfandom"), with an explanation that those are link gathering sites, and instead they should follow "metanews"?

And you're also missing the question about whether they should follow your tumblr.

[metanewsmods]

Yes, I've screwed the cut somehow. I've left everything uncut until I can work out how to fix it.

Thank you!

[(Anonymous)]

http://dharma-slut.dreamwidth.org/196222.html

This is three fucking sentences. There's no insight, no discussion, nothing actually meta. Why would you even consider linking it? This community is such a disaster.

[metanewsmods]

Thank you so much for your feedback!

You're right, the post itself is short, but the discussion that ensues in the comments is longer, and being discussion, it fits the community's guidelines for inclusion.

I'm very sorry you think this community is a disaster. I'm sure feedback like this will be instrumental in fixing said disasterousness. I hope you have a lovely day.

[aquila_black]

Would you consider putting up a post where people can talk about newsletter content that was initially posted on Tumblr? I'll understand if that's beyond the scope of this comm or incompatible with its goals, but I prefer not to start conversation on a platform that actively discourages it. And I've heard this sentiment from many other fans on DW.

[metanewsmods]

We certainly could. Maybe the discussion could happen in the comments to the links post. But that might get confused with unrelated comments. Hmm. Shall put it to the Mods.

[aquila_black]

Thanks. I really liked the article on fanfic in a capitalist context and had stuff to add, but not on Tumblr. If for now discussion is allowed in the comments, I'll put the article summary in the subject line of my comment to keep it from being needlessly confusing.

[metanewsmods]

After talking this over, we've decided that hosting meta discussion isn't party of our community's aims, and not something we're equipped to moderate. Sorry.

We ask that any discussion is held on your own journal. You are of course, welcome to submit the link to us so that we can include the discussion in the next meta post.

As for the Fanfiction and Capitalism post, don't worry about the comment you made. Leave it up and we can deal with any discussion that follows, but in future if you wouldn't mind hosting meta yourself.

[aquila_black]

Okay. I figured it would be easier for the people who wrote the post that sparked discussion to keep track of what was being said if it was being said here, but I wasn't taking moderation into account. I will do as you suggest in the future. Thanks for answering my question so promptly.

Was there something about the comment I posted that made the other mods think the comm would need heavy moderation if it allowed discussion? Proposing something and incurring a blanket "no" that everyone has to abide by isn't a mistake I'd want to repeat.

[metanewsmods]

Not at all, your meta was absolutely fine. The blanket no was just the direction we decided to go in. We hadn't considered the topic before. Thank you for raising it with us, it definitely wasn't a mistake, it's just sometimes we have to say no to things!

[aquila_black]

Ah. Got it, thanks!

content question

[caput_mortuum]

I have to say that I don't really see how blog posts about writing are fandom meta, especially when they aren't even clearly from a fannish source. Of course fans make art and write fanfic but I think this this shouldn't mean that every writing or art tutorial should be eligible for linking? I'd narrow that down to posts that somehow specifically relate to fandom content, for example 'how writing FF is different to writing OF' or 'here is commentary about writing this fic' or 'here is a link with art references for this fandom'.

Re: content question

[metanewsmods]

True, I hadn't thought about it that way before. Shall put it to the mods and see if we can get a consensus.

Re: content question

[caput_mortuum]

Thanks for taking it into consideration!

Re: content question

[metanewsmods]

We've decided to include only include writing meta that's written by a fan or meta that's directly related to fanfic or fandom. So meta like the ones included last week shouldn't turn up again.

Re: content question

[caput_mortuum]

Thank you for the update!

[(Anonymous)]

Context: http://metanews.dreamwidth.org/5800.html

Do you really want to spotlight posts like "On female characters" that brought the OP a world of harassment, which then died down, and open them up to more of the same with increased exposure?

I mean, I suppose if the answer is "yes" then that is your prerogative, but how much does it actually cost you to extend the same courtesy of asking to link to tumblr/wordpress users that you extend to people on journal platforms, especially considering that a non-insignificant number of people are only there because that is where their fandoms are, and rely to some extent on security through obscurity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_through_obscurity) to have conversations without worrying too hard about being dogpiled.

Sameanon

[(Anonymous)]

ETA: Lest anyone think otherwise, I disagree a lot with the OP and think their opinions are noxious. I do not think that means they deserve to be harassed over them.

[metanewsmods]

I see your point, but how would you suggest we get permission from the tumblr OP? They have no ask box and no contact details.

That is the main reason we have a no ask policy with tumblrs, because most of the time there's no way to get in touch. The second reason is tumblr reblogging culture. I do understand the obscurity argument, but tumblr is based around reblogs. A tumblr post is far more likely to be raised out of obscurity than any other platform simply because it's being reposted often rather than linked to once or twice.

Ultimately we don't want anyone to be harassed, and of course we don't want to be signal boosting in a negative manner. But without the OP contacting us and asking to have their links taken down, we won't know there is a problem.

As for blogs - the majority we follow are not 'personal' blogs in the manner of LJs or DWs but open fandom blogs and much more public. We decided asking in each case would be obsolete as those posts are written to be read.

Thank you for your feedback, this is something we've put thought into. Tumblr is a difficult platform, not just for this reason. We had to make a decision that would work across the board and allow us to link as much meta as we can, even if it does have flaws for the occasional individual.

Stalking = Scary; Lurking = Informative

[jesse_the_k]

I was surprised to see you describe the read-only accounts like metanewsmods as "reading/stalking" journals. Stalking defines a scary power relationship, where the stalked has no control over the stalker's behavior.

When I saw "reading/stalking journal" I had zero idea what you were talking about — and I'm a community mod who uses a read-only/mods-only journal.

Someone who reads and doesn't post has been known as a lurker for at least twenty years online. Please consider using that terminology instead.

Re: Stalking = Scary; Lurking = Informative

[metanewsmods]

Thanks, we can certainly change our terminology.