Integrating Slash with the appropriate fandoms

[DefinatelyStaying]

<Repost>
To the Board Administrator -

You indicated in your email that "we do have younger teens that come here and read, and to me, this seemed like a responsible thing to do as a board owner." To me, that exactly explains the problem. You are saying that younger teens should not view slash material (non-sexual, of course), which translates roughly to younger teens are not allowed to be gay.

By putting all slash (sexual, and non-sexual) in an adult oriented area, you are restricting it from the people that might actually need it most - the teens who are desperately trying to form their own sexual identity. By forcing them to view only heterosexual stories, you are in essence telling them that it is wrong to be gay.

I really hope that this is not your intention, but that is how your actions could be interpreted - as segregation. Homosexual stories aren't allowed in the regular forum, they have to be put in the forum closet away from the normal people.

A poll isn't going to solve that since roughly 10% of the population openly classify themselves as homosexual or bisexual. The heterosexual voters will win based on sheer statistics.

This bisexual author raised over $1,000 for Support Stacie in the last auction, but if this is going to be board policy, I'm afraid I'll have to respectfully withdraw from the current auction.

Anxiously awaiting your decision,
DefinatelyStaying
Twilight FanFic Author

[Pooh]

Okay I was going to stay out of this for my health and as I'm told I shouldn't be worrying about this but I can't help it.

First off you all should know that we have 4 admins here, only one is very very active. She started this board 10 years ago on ez-board. The rest of us are all just here, for the most part. I believe another one of us does alot of stuff but I know I've been admin here for years and have not done hardly anything. The other one does auction related stuff. Majiklmoon pretty much runs this board all by herself. She also hosts my site and a few others along with this board and pays for it all, without complaining, she gives her time, money and everything I ask. Can we give her a break please?

She meant in her e-mail that ALL NC-17 fics were at one time in their own forum, why you ask? Well because at a time when message boards were really big (before LJ and such) their were groups of moms who insisted that we do that, they didn't want their kids reading smut, of any kind. About 5 years ago a bunch of people rallied to have the Adult fics put in with the CC and AU stuff, she asked if this included slash. Most wanted Slash to stay in it's own forum, but not for reasons that you think. It was because it was easier to find amongst all the other fic, since people were not writing slash as much.

I myself, as those of you who know me, am a bigger supporter of slash. I read it and I belong to several slash comms on LJ. That is besides the point I know, bare with me. I don't know if I'm explaining this right but I'm trying.

When a poster on this board posted about the slash forum Majiklmoon said she would be more then willing to put the slash fics in with the others, it doesn't really bother her either way. She is really trying to make everyone happy. But as you all know that is just not possible, someone is always going to be unhappy. So she put up the poll. I do agree that by this it might be hard to get a good judge on what should happen. Not everyone will vote, or they might but not say they do, ect.

I'm asking for a good suggestion, when she tried to appease the others they didn't want that.


DefinatelyStaying, your approach was so much better and I totally get what your saying, would you be willing to help? I think part of the problem is that all NC-17 fics need to be labeled better, I know their are rules in place for that but since she is the only one really looking after the board it's up the the author.

I don't want anyone to be upset, or have headaches or bad feelings about this, including myself. I think we can come to a compromise that appeases everyone. It really is the nature of all this right? All these fandoms and people coming together over a certain cause?

I really do appreciate everyone and everything that is being done.

Pooh

[Ti88]

hey all. i'll make this brief. Pooh is right. (its been 10 years...oh man) there were whole forums that had no slash or nc 17 and then slah with no nc 17. i for one agree a fic needs to be better labeled as well as the parts that are nc 17. there was a time you had to explain a r fic could be subject or it could be sex. pwp and smut were 2 different things. i don;t read much slash but having gone from the buffy verse to the roswell pyrmids i know in the past and i stress past a lot of slash fic was pwp or smut or nc 17. some was r but most wasn't. back in the day people wrote a lot of canon and when things left canon it really left canon. i'm guessing that has changed and thats great. but whatever those changes are should not cause on any level board disagreements or people feeling they need to leave. i have already seen that happen on one board. and it really makes no one happy. this is one of the last really active boards around that has seen the changes of time. ezboard was the king when a lot of people on this board met up. and pooh is right traice does all the work. she's admin goddess. and a patient and kind and understanding one at that. try to remember why we all come and get envolve and write and post. becuase we love it. and if there is something you don't love then we work to find a workable solution. get more people to post slash. i myself did not read anything above r for a while. but i missed a lot of really great fics...now i do what i do when i read other books...skim through the sweaty friction and keep it moving. well all have to do what we think is best for ourselves and what we can live with. but not every battle has to be a line drawn in the sand.

ok i'm off to do some moddly work.

[Aeshna]

I can't vote in this, I'm afraid, having joined too late - I didn't even know this forum existed until I followed someone's link regarding the auction on LJ a few days ago - but wanted to make a comment here. DefinatelyStaying has absolutely hit the nail on the head - whatever the actual motivation behind having a separate all-inclusive slash section, it does send out a very uncomfortable message to readers, especially to those "young teens" who are in the throes of developing their own identities. By all means separate out the smut, of whatever flavour, but if G-rated romantic fluff is being hidden away and treated the same as full-on NC-17 porn, then something really needs looking at.

I mostly write gen, but I also write both het and slash, of all ratings (and I've written gen that was NC-17 for violence before now). Right now, most of my writing is in Torchwood, a show where the canon makes a very deliberate point of showing same-sex relationships in the exact same light as m/f and the fanfic frequently shows both, within the same story, as well. What do you do when some of the 'conventional couples' on the show are m/m or f/f?

Oh well, as I said, I can't vote here. But as a writer, while I'm certainly planning on participating in the current auction, I wouldn't choose to archive any of my stories here as things stand, simply because the current set-up does make me incredibly uncomfortable with the message - inadvertent though it might be - that it sends out.