FAQ & rules
Jul. 25th, 2013 09:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinfulslasher posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
ncisficathonAs promised, here is the brand-spanking-new FAQ/rules post everyone's been waiting for! :)
What is this ficathon you speak of?
This comm is all about exchanging stories! Everyone who signs up gets a story written for them while writing a story for someone else.
How does it work?
You sign up, using the provided sign up form. In this form, you’ll let us know your general likes and dislikes as well as your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to writing. You will provide us with up to three specific and two general prompts. Once the sign up period is over, the mods will wave their magic wand and try to match up everyone. That way, you will have someone writing a story based on one of your prompts while you will write a fill for someone else’s prompts. If all goes well, everyone will receive a fic specifically written for them, and everyone’s happy! :-)
What do you mean by specific vs. general prompts?
Sometimes, specific prompts can be a little restricting and therefore difficult to fill. Or the specific prompt doesn’t inspire the person who is supposed to write a story based on it. We mods thought it would be in everyone’s best interest to also include general prompts. That way, the writer can fall back on these if the specific prompts are causing trouble.
For example, a specific prompt would be, “Gibbs/Ziva, they fight the zombie apocalypse but then realize that Tony was turned into a zombie as well and neither one wants to kill him but they have to in order to survive, so they have life-affirming sex afterwards; must be rated R or NC-17”.
A general prompt, however, would be something like, “gen team fic: holidays” or “McGee/Tony: first time”.
What is allowed?
Pretty much anything - the sky’s the limit! All characters, pairings, genres and ratings are allowed.
However, we ask that, if you ship an unusual pairing, you specify other pairings/characters that you can write or would like to have written for you. Otherwise, it might be hard to match you up with anyone.
What is not allowed?
We only accept NCIS-related prompts, which means that no NCIS:LA or crossover prompts are allowed. It just makes matching up everyone a lot easier.
We do not allow bashing of any kind - that includes but is not limited to actors or actresses, other participants (and your mods *g*)! The only exception to this rule is character bashing if it was explicitly prompted. Generally bashing a character (or pairing) in your story just because you don’t like the character (or pairing) is not allowed however.
Are there any consequences if someone breaks a rule?
Actually, yes.
You will be banned from the next round if:
* you do not leave feedback for the story that was written for you (this may sound harsh, but all it takes is a polite “thank you” to acknowledge the gift you received from someone, even if you happen to not particularly like the story - we call this common courtesy)
* you do not turn in your story on time without warning the mods beforehand (a quick PM telling us that you won’t be able to post the assigned story on time will be enough to avoid being banned, it’s really not that difficult and we promise we won’t be angry - in fact, we’ll be happy with the information because we can then find a pinch hitter in time!)
* you warn for something that is clearly not warn-worthy, and that includes most notably any mention of characters or pairings or a genre like slash or het (this information belongs in the header, but not as a warning - it is disrespectful to warn for these things and we do not condone anyone warning for the existence of a character, a particular pairing or het/slash)
You will be permanently banned if:
* you bash anyone
* you abandon the ficathon completely without letting the mods know (aka, you vanish into thin air)
Are there any rules about posting?
Yes, there are.
We ask that you do not post your story in any other comms or archives until the main round ends.
However, you can post your story to your own journal and only link to it here in the ficathon comm if you prefer to do so. There is no need to post the actual story here in the comm.
Please do use the header we will provide so that all necessary information about your story can be found.
Your story must be at least 1,000 words long. You may also write, for example, two stories of 500 words each - as long as your recipient receives at least 1,000 words, we’re happy.
Please make sure that your story is beta-read. We will post a beta request entry for anyone who needs a beta, don’t worry. :-)
And again, please only warn for warn-worthy things, e.g. character death, non-con/rape, child abuse and the like. Characters, pairings or genres like het or slash are not warn-worthy.
Will you need pinch hitters?
Very likely, yes.
If we do need a pinch hitter, we’ll post a request to the comm. All pinch hitters will have one month to write their story and will receive our undying gratitude for coming to the rescue. :) (if you need more time, we'll gladly give it to you, of course...we're just trying to have all stories posted in a timely manner, is all!)
What if I have any questions that aren’t answered here?
Please feel free to send a PM to the mods![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lukecanwaltz88 or sinfulslasher, post a comment here or send an email to ncisficathon[at]gmail[dot]com
What is this ficathon you speak of?
This comm is all about exchanging stories! Everyone who signs up gets a story written for them while writing a story for someone else.
How does it work?
You sign up, using the provided sign up form. In this form, you’ll let us know your general likes and dislikes as well as your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to writing. You will provide us with up to three specific and two general prompts. Once the sign up period is over, the mods will wave their magic wand and try to match up everyone. That way, you will have someone writing a story based on one of your prompts while you will write a fill for someone else’s prompts. If all goes well, everyone will receive a fic specifically written for them, and everyone’s happy! :-)
What do you mean by specific vs. general prompts?
Sometimes, specific prompts can be a little restricting and therefore difficult to fill. Or the specific prompt doesn’t inspire the person who is supposed to write a story based on it. We mods thought it would be in everyone’s best interest to also include general prompts. That way, the writer can fall back on these if the specific prompts are causing trouble.
For example, a specific prompt would be, “Gibbs/Ziva, they fight the zombie apocalypse but then realize that Tony was turned into a zombie as well and neither one wants to kill him but they have to in order to survive, so they have life-affirming sex afterwards; must be rated R or NC-17”.
A general prompt, however, would be something like, “gen team fic: holidays” or “McGee/Tony: first time”.
What is allowed?
Pretty much anything - the sky’s the limit! All characters, pairings, genres and ratings are allowed.
However, we ask that, if you ship an unusual pairing, you specify other pairings/characters that you can write or would like to have written for you. Otherwise, it might be hard to match you up with anyone.
What is not allowed?
We only accept NCIS-related prompts, which means that no NCIS:LA or crossover prompts are allowed. It just makes matching up everyone a lot easier.
We do not allow bashing of any kind - that includes but is not limited to actors or actresses, other participants (and your mods *g*)! The only exception to this rule is character bashing if it was explicitly prompted. Generally bashing a character (or pairing) in your story just because you don’t like the character (or pairing) is not allowed however.
Are there any consequences if someone breaks a rule?
Actually, yes.
You will be banned from the next round if:
* you do not leave feedback for the story that was written for you (this may sound harsh, but all it takes is a polite “thank you” to acknowledge the gift you received from someone, even if you happen to not particularly like the story - we call this common courtesy)
* you do not turn in your story on time without warning the mods beforehand (a quick PM telling us that you won’t be able to post the assigned story on time will be enough to avoid being banned, it’s really not that difficult and we promise we won’t be angry - in fact, we’ll be happy with the information because we can then find a pinch hitter in time!)
* you warn for something that is clearly not warn-worthy, and that includes most notably any mention of characters or pairings or a genre like slash or het (this information belongs in the header, but not as a warning - it is disrespectful to warn for these things and we do not condone anyone warning for the existence of a character, a particular pairing or het/slash)
You will be permanently banned if:
* you bash anyone
* you abandon the ficathon completely without letting the mods know (aka, you vanish into thin air)
Are there any rules about posting?
Yes, there are.
We ask that you do not post your story in any other comms or archives until the main round ends.
However, you can post your story to your own journal and only link to it here in the ficathon comm if you prefer to do so. There is no need to post the actual story here in the comm.
Please do use the header we will provide so that all necessary information about your story can be found.
Your story must be at least 1,000 words long. You may also write, for example, two stories of 500 words each - as long as your recipient receives at least 1,000 words, we’re happy.
Please make sure that your story is beta-read. We will post a beta request entry for anyone who needs a beta, don’t worry. :-)
And again, please only warn for warn-worthy things, e.g. character death, non-con/rape, child abuse and the like. Characters, pairings or genres like het or slash are not warn-worthy.
Will you need pinch hitters?
Very likely, yes.
If we do need a pinch hitter, we’ll post a request to the comm. All pinch hitters will have one month to write their story and will receive our undying gratitude for coming to the rescue. :) (if you need more time, we'll gladly give it to you, of course...we're just trying to have all stories posted in a timely manner, is all!)
What if I have any questions that aren’t answered here?
Please feel free to send a PM to the mods
lukecanwaltz88 or sinfulslasher, post a comment here or send an email to ncisficathon[at]gmail[dot]com
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-07-26 02:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-26 05:30 pm (UTC)As for the warnings, I'd say use common sense. Swearing or bad language isn't warn-worthy for the simple fact that the rating should be higher if there are a lot of swear words, for example. Basically, whenever something in the fic might be potentially triggering for a reader, it should be warned for. As mentioned in the rules, character death, rape/non-con or child abuse would be perfect examples. Excessive abuse, mental or physical torture/violence, mental illness, terminal illness, body image issues... There's no official list, really, because I'm sure we'd forget to mention something. So, all we can ask if that you use common sense. Ask yourself if someone might be triggered by something in your fic, and please use the warning in that case.
By the way, BDSM or kink in any way is a category/genre, and not warn-worthy. Something like kink must be mentioned in the header so that people may avoid the story if this kind of thing isn't their cuppa tea, but it shouldn't be warned for.
If you aren't sure whether or not you should warn for something, please feel free to PM me or
Hope that helps! :)
no subject
Date: 2013-07-27 12:14 pm (UTC)