RatCreature (
ratcreature) wrote2011-08-30 08:46 pm
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help the clueless
I was reading the
daily_snitch and saw in the community section "
fantasyverse is a new land community." My reaction then was "what is a 'land community'?" so I headed over to the comm profile, which in the about section also only says that it is a "land community" but does not explain what that is, but it apparently involves teams and challenges. I then head to the FAQs which unfortunately don't give a definition either.
At this point I assume that it must be some sort of incredibly common thing that everybody (except apparently me) in fandom is familiar with. I tried looking in Fanlore, but that wiki failed me too, because it does not have an article on this. I tried following affiliated links, but aside from ending up on a master list of land comms that showed me that there are a ton of them, I didn't easily find a link to a clear definition what they are either.
Could anyone on my flist give me an explanation what these communities are/do?
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At this point I assume that it must be some sort of incredibly common thing that everybody (except apparently me) in fandom is familiar with. I tried looking in Fanlore, but that wiki failed me too, because it does not have an article on this. I tried following affiliated links, but aside from ending up on a master list of land comms that showed me that there are a ton of them, I didn't easily find a link to a clear definition what they are either.
Could anyone on my flist give me an explanation what these communities are/do?
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As far as I know, a "land comm" divides members into teams, which compete with each other in games and contests (logic puzzles, drabbles/drawbles, etc.). Because it is meant to be "all in good fun", the flock is meant to protect members from non-members' criticism.
Stargateland members are evangelically passionate about how fun it is! and how everyone should join! and make new friends! I like to know what I'm getting into before I commit. They say it's easy to quit if it doesn't work for me. So who knows!
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LOL, that sounds like a cult! But yeah, I've been looking at the comm infos of a couple, and then still go "but what is going on exactly?" and then everything is all locked, which just isn't very inviting. I like to know what a comm is about before joining too, especially things that you have to "apply" for, rather than just joining some comm, and that are less than clear in their descriptions.
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I think members find the secrecy protective; some of the challenges might be embarrassing? (because of the time limits, fic and art produced isn't up to the public standards of the creators - unbeta'd and sketchy would be my guess; I have seen some people repost stuff they made for Stargateland, but I think that's the best efforts of the creators.)
In my experience, land comms are very much against the idea of participation by lurking....
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Anyway even with participation requirements, they didn't have to be so murky about it. I mean, there always were participation only spaces, like I remember a mailing list way back when I was in TS fandom that had posting requirements, so that is not new.
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But if you want to see what it's about you could probably just sign up, try it for a month, and drop out if it's not for you. Way I understand it it's not a big deal.
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This happened to me when suddenly everyone was talking about SeSas and for the life of me I couldn't figure out what that was. Finally, I think someone spelled out Secret Santa and I understood.
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I participate in a crafting/Harry Potter thing that's similar - you're 'sorted' to a house and craft items that fit class assignments, 15 points per project. Plus there's special challenges like Quidditch and OWLs. I have no idea how you'd transition that to a fanworks-based community though.
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