sunshine_challenge | Sunshine 2019: Prompt One

Check out the Master List to find links to all of the 2019 challenge posts.

Prompt 1: Fannish Housekeeping

As the

sunshine_challenge begins, we invite everyone to prepare their journal spaces for new guests who may be visiting. Remember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time or go back and do any prompts you've missed!

One of the best parts about Dreamwidth and similar places is that there is no right or wrong way to keep your journal. The possibilities are nearly endless, and you can customize your space as you see fit. Some of you like to keep everything public with an open friending policy while others are more comfortable keeping personal entries behind friend filters; some of you prefer to keep everything friends only — all methods are good! There is no one way to organize your space.

That said, here are some things to consider now that your journal might see increased traffic from new visitors:

1. Transformative Works Policy
2. Friending Policy
3. Interests (in profile) + Introductory “About Me” Sticky Page
4. Master Lists (of fic or recs or meta or just squee about the different things you like)
5. Post Tags (can also help people notice your interests at a glance)
6. Current Icons (these can also help advertise your fannish interests. Does anyone not love it when someone pounces just to say, "Love your icon! I love that show!")
7. Sidebar Links (do you have an AO3 or Tumblr page that people might like to visit?)
8. Access Filters (do you have personal and fandom filters to keep your posts locked?)

And now for more details on all of these things!

1. Transformative Works Policies
A lot of folks don't know what they are and how they can affect fannish collaboration and interaction. Until recently, I was also one of these people (I had never considered how difficult it might be for someone to approach me to ask permission to create podfic or fanart of one of my pieces), so if you haven’t already considered listing your personal policies, you’re not alone!

analise010 gave us permission to link to their post discussing Transformative Policies, so if you have questions on how and where to start, that post is a good place to begin.

runpunkrun also linked Fanlore's Blanket Statement page if "Go Ahead!" happens to be your policy. Again, there is no right or wrong way to feel about other people making transformative works, but having your feelings clearly listed is a great start to more fannish interactions and collaborations.

2. Friending Policy
Have you publicly stated your circle policy anywhere? Do you automatically add people back if they’ve added you, or do you want people to comment and introduce themselves first? Are all your fannish activities public anyway and only private stuff is access-locked? Are you only comfortable interacting with people through communities? Do you welcome people commenting on any random journal entry?

It’s a lot more difficult to gauge people online and how they feel about interacting as we don’t have the visual and auditory cues we might have in face-to-face meetings. Having your friending policies clearly listed can help others feel more comfortable about adding you and/or interacting with you on your pages. Again, there is no right or wrong way to feel about friending others on DW, so set up your spaces in a way that feels best to you!

3. Interests + About Me
Do you have an “About Me" page sticked to the top of your journal or in your journal profile? This can be a great place to list your interests, fandom or otherwise. Have you updated your interests on your profile page so that people can see at a glance what interests you have in common? People can search for journals by their listed interests, so this can help new friends find your page!

Is your journal a fandom-only space, or do you also have personal posts and interests included? Having an About Me section on your profile or as a stickied post can really help new visitors decide if you both share interests in common, and can help them navigate your page and interact with you in more meaningful ways.

4. Master Lists
Some people like to use a stickied post to list links to other posts on their accounts. For example, it could be linking all of your your fanworks, meta posts, fanwork rec posts … maybe you do weekly book/tv reviews? A master list can help organize your journal and allow people to find your content more easily. I need to update my master list and will be taking this opportunity to do so, but I’ll link it here as an example of how you might consider creating one.

5. Post Tags
Do you use tags on your posts? Do you tag your fannish content only, or do you also tag your personal content? There is no right or wrong way to organize your posts, but using tags can help other people find your content in order to interact with you more easily.

As an example, here is my DW tagset. You’ll notice that I have multi-level tags enabled, which allows me to use labels such as “fandom: inuyasha” and “fandom: fullmetal alchemist” to keep all of my “fandom” tags lumped together. You can find more information about DW tags here at their FAQ page to see how you can best use tags on your journal.

6. Current Icons
Whether you have a basic free account or a paid membership with additional icon spaces, having your icons updated can be a great way to advertise your fannish interests as you interact with others on community pages. It’s a very quick way to visually advertise your interests to other users all over Dreamwidth. Dreamwidth allows you to label your icons with keywords, comments, and descriptions.

The keywords help both you and the website know at a glance which image you’d like to use when creating a post or comment on the site. PRO TIP: if you edit the keywords on your icons after using them for a while, Dreamwidth will change past entries and comments to display your default icon as the code trail will be lost, so to speak. So, if possible, keep that in mind when uploading new icons and setting their keywords.

The comments are a great place to give credit to the icon maker and/or the artist your icon image originated with. It’s not only polite, but it also gives people visiting your page an easy way to find more of the content you both enjoy!

Lastly, the icon descriptions allow you to describe what is happening in your icon visually. This is used to add a text description of the content of the icon, which shows as "alt" text for blind users and some other forms of assistive technology.

If you are an icon maker this post might also be a great place to advertise your page and meet new people who might be on the market for new icons!

7. Sidebar + Profile Links
Do you have an AO3 or Tumblr page that people might like to visit? Do you have links to those accounts sites posted where people can easily find them? Your stickied About Me or Master List posts might be some places to link your other accounts. Your profile page also allows you to connect other services and list your account names there.

You can also list links on your journal sidebar so that people visiting your journal can find your tags and links alongside your journal entries.

8. Access Filters
Have you remembered to access-lock that personal post about your family or your job that you might not want strangers seeing? Dreamwidth gives you the option to create posting filters that allow you to decide which members can read each post that you make. Perhaps you might leave your fandom posts public so that all users can read them. Perhaps you might lock your personal posts so that only users whom you’ve added to your circle can read them (Access List). Perhaps you create more specific filters so that certain posts can only be read by a selected group of users that you’ve added to a custom filter. Here is a post discussing how to set up access filters for your journal.

Once you’ve finished tidying up your fannish spaces, leave a comment to this post saying you’ve done it! Include a link to your pages if you feel comfortable doing so. Let everyone know whether you are "Ready for visitors!" or "Lurking for fandom fun". If your have questions about any tips that we’ve posted, please don’t be afraid to ask for help. We’re all here to make friends and improve fandom. Also, if you have any tips and tricks to add to this post, please do share!

Most importantly, please check through the comments and go visit new journals, comment on their shiny posts, and maybe make a new friend or two. We encourage everyone here to aim to comment on two new journals if they are able (of course, you are welcome to do more!). ♥

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From:

argentum_ls

That was a good reminder to update interests and the fic masterlist! I think I'm as updated as I can be.

From:

chase_acow

I have come to terms with the fact that updating my tags is a sisyphean task, but I continue the endeavor anyway. : )

Looking forward to the rest of the prompts!

From:

chelseagirl

Dusted off my interests list! Happy if anyone wants to drop by . . . .

(Actually, as my partner's been away, I've been doing a lot of Real Life pulling stuff out of drawers and the like . . . )

From:

fullupwithfire

I still need to get my tagging under control, but I've updated my sticky/about with all sorts of new info. Ready for visitors!

From:

actiaslunaris

Done!

From:

adrianners

This prompt was the kick I needed to re-organize my profile and expand my interests, thanks! I also wrote an intro post. It seems a bit long to sticky, but I've added the link on my sticky'd masterpost of masterposts.

Ready for visitors! I mostly post Yuri on Ice and figure skating (skate drama kept to a minimum) with a side of video games and personal posts.

From:

gracerene

Done! I already had all of that and keep it up to date. :)

gracerene

gracerene09

gracerene

From:

ilyena_sylph

I think I'm set, and people are totally welcome!

From:

cornerofmadness

You can find my feeble attempt here.

From:

ascerain

I had most of these things done already, wonders of all wonders. I'm usually less organized than that.

Nothing much is currently posted on my fanfic/original works journals, but I'm going to be fixing that this month (I say, every month).

From:

octahedrite

Done, I'm ready for visitors! Expanded my intro post considerably. Now to visit other journals!

From:

dunmurderin

https://dunmurderin.dreamwidth.org/201671.html -- I posted a welcome post and expanded my personal bio in a sticky post; looking forward to meeting folks and participating in the challenge.

From:

singedsun

My page is chock full of links every day of the week. But I'm ready for new friends.

From:

lilly_c

I've pretty much done all of those and I also wrote a small post using the checklist for the main places that I post to.

From:

pensnest

I think I was quite well housekept, but I have tidied up and added a link to my Ravelry projects. Also, while I was about it, had a change of layout. I'll give it a few days and see if it suits me!

From:

author_by_night

I didn't have much housekeeping to do, but I've posted an intro post!

https://author-by-night.dreamwidth.org/1231742.html

From:

ayebydan

I feel like I have done this but it did remind me that I need to continue sorting tags on my fic comm.

From:

turps

Done.

Thanks for such an interesting, and practical, first challenge.

From:

aka_vamp

even though visitors are scary /social-anxiety

There wasn't a *whole* lot to do, but I have added a sticky (I have a love/hate relationship with stickies), and sorted out my entire lack of friending/commenting policy.

There wasn't actually much to do as my DW is still pretty new.

From:

sewn

This is my first time doing a challenge likes this *hides face*

I updated my sticky post. It's still brief but it's now more structured and includes adding and warning policies, plus a link to a longer About Me post.

My profile is pretty bare, but it links to my sticky post, and I straightened out my interest list, which has been untouched for a decade. It had a lot of in-jokey interests from back then, when I copied it from my LJ. I also tinkered with my icons - found some new ones and finally filled in proper descriptions.

I.. should still do something with my tags, not happy with the taxonomy, but they're still usable.

From:

olivermoss

I'd just been working on some masterpost stuff for my journal. I am trying to get more organized. I was so organized over at LJ, I never realized that I didn't do a lot of set up here.

Housekeeping Post.

From:

analise010

HEY FRIENDS! PLAY WITH MEEEEEEEEEEEE! I podfic and do tarot and make a podcast. :)

From:

sunlit_stone

I made a sticky intro post! With friending not-really-a-policy and transformative works statement included, woot! Plus I edited my profile to update my interests, add a teensy bio, and link to my fic. Housekeeping accomplished! I guess that means I'm ready for some visitors :)

Edited Date: 2019-07-03 04:13 am (UTC)