pod_together | Check in #1

paraka posting in

Sorry this is late! I completely forgot to post this yesterday.

Anyway, we're at about the half way point in and there's just over 3 weeks until your stories/podfics are due on July 10th.

At this point all groups should have discussed what kind of internal deadlines they're working with and should be on track with those.

Let us know how things are going, feel free to brag about any successes or ask for help if you're having problems (comments are screened).

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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From:

somnolentblue

I've gotten to the point where I'm wondering about posting and formatting and if I want to try and find tiny section break graphics for the Princess Bride fic, so I started looking more closely at the posting sections of the FAQ.

I understand that we turn in things on the 10th and that a schedule will be determined from that. However, I was wondering about this part: The mods will post your group's story to the comm, after which you are free to link to or crosspost in your normal places.

Does that mean that the story is being posted in full by the mods, so you need text with all the formatting and coding intact and ready to go? Is mod posting to ensure that the post is made on both DW and LJ? Because mod-posting means that we won't be getting comments directly, and it's going to be impossible to edit if we find the inevitable typo that escaped until after the fact. Or are the exact mechanics all still under discussion? (Until I was looking more closely, I had actually assumed it would work like big bang posting, where we post to our own journals on a date but post announcement/header info to the comm(s).)

I understand that there are probably a few competing desires and possibly some question marks, I'm just curious! If the answer is "check back later," that's cool, too. :)

On cover art, is it okay if we go outside the direct challenge participants as long as everyone involved is happy?

Related, but not a question, I very much appreciate that you're hosting the mp3s and providing m4b files.

From:

paraka

Does that mean that the story is being posted in full by the mods, so you need text with all the formatting and coding intact and ready to go?
Formatted text is much appreciated and means that the mods won't have to format it themselves (and possibly make mistakes) and we like that option. :)

Is mod posting to ensure that the post is made on both DW and LJ?
It's not specifically so it'll be on both LJ and DW, no, that's just a bonus.

We decided to have mod posting because this is a collaboration. We want to present a united front when posting and that means a single post per group. You still have the comment problem if it's someone in the group making the post, because then the other group member(s) won't be getting notifications.

And, just in general with podfic, people sometimes miss out on some feedback. On the podfic posts there are often comments praising the fic itself that the author might not see. And often people who enjoyed the podfic will leave comments to the author rather than the podficcer, because they find it easier to praise the content than the podfic itself.

However if there's a single post for both the fic and the podfic, consumers can leave the feedback they're most comfortable leaving and it's in a centralized place for both the author and the podficcer to see.

With big bangs the focus is more on the fic, with the art being treated as a present for getting the fic done. This leaves the fic and the art on unequal footing. The whole point of

pod_together was to put podfic and fic on a more equal footing.

Because mod-posting means that we won't be getting comments directly, and it's going to be impossible to edit if we find the inevitable typo that escaped until after the fact.
If you have a paid account, you can track the comments that are posted so you'll still get an email notification.

However I recognize that not everyone has paid journal accounts. I'd be willing to discuss with my co-mod (although I don't foresee any objections) to providing links on the main post to alternate locations to leave feedback and blocking comments on the

pod_together posts at participants requests. However that does put an onus on feedbackers to leave two sets of feedback rather than one and can negatively affect the feedback the group might get as some people are too lazy to leave feedback in more than one place.

As for typos and the like, if you poke the mod that made the post, we'll be happy to edit the comm post.

Or are the exact mechanics all still under discussion?
That's how things stand at the moment. We're still poking at an other option which might leave you guys more control of the posting but that's not for sure yet. We'll definitely make an announcement if that other option happens.

Until I was looking more closely, I had actually assumed it would work like big bang posting, where we post to our own journals on a date but post announcement/header info to the comm(s).
Random side note, but of the big bangs I've participated in, either as an actual participant, or just as a consumer of the final products, more than half of them had mods posting the final results rather than participant posting them. Obviously, YMMV but mod postings aren't unheard of.

On cover art, is it okay if we go outside the direct challenge participants as long as everyone involved is happy?
Totally! We haven't actually made provisions to provide cover art in this challenge, so feel free to get cover art however you want. We might try to make sure everyone gets some, but that'll definitely depend on how many people submit assignments without cover art.

From:

somnolentblue

You still have the comment problem if it's someone in the group making the post, because then the other group member(s) won't be getting notifications. Point. My previous collaboration on a comic was a bit different, given that there were only two of us and we're in and out of each other's journals all the time and have a heavy email correspondence.

However I recognize that not everyone has paid journal accounts. Very much so. I have one on DW, but I am very unlikely to ever have a paid LJ account. On the feedback side, I'm mostly worried about comments being left in the void because there's no notification, especially after the initial month or two post-posting.

[I]f you poke the mod that made the post, we'll be happy to edit the comm post. Awesomecakes!

We're still poking at an other option which might leave you guys more control of the posting but that's not for sure yet. AO3? I know you can list multiple authors/creators there, although I'm not sure how it works once it's done in terms of notifications and edits and whatnot. I'd guess everyone listed on the fic can edit and receive notifications afterwards. I should test that. (Okay, I was trying to find the fanlore permissions page so I can linksplatter it [I found the link on my network and then lost the tab], except I couldn't find it in fanlore, so I went to your journal because I knew you had posted it [which is awesome, and omg the work and all the footnotes] and found the link, which was in the midst of all the other stuff and the pod-together bit re: AO3 caught my eye. And I'm going to stop now because that's a terrible sentence and comes across as kind of weird. Right.)

[M]ore than half of them had mods posting the final results rather than participant posting them. Huh, interesting. I've only ever encountered mods posting content when there's an anon period in the posting.

Thanks for the thorough and speedy reply. And, yes, please feel free to unscreen the questions!

From:

klb

Very much so. I have one on DW, but I am very unlikely to ever have a paid LJ account.
Jumping in to say that I have never had a paid account on my non-podfic LJ, but I have definitely always been able to track comments to specific posts, so I don't think that not having a paid account is actually a problem for that.

Thanks for bringing this point up—I'll make sure we make it really clear how to track a post's comments when we are getting ready to post, so that no authors or podficcers are left having to check their comments by hand.

From:

paraka

Huh, I've had a paid account since before tracking was an option on LJ, so I never really played around with it on a non-paid account. I know some people don't know what tracking it, and I just assumed that was because it's a paid account feature.

But you're right, it's totally not, that'll make things so much easier if the AO3 posting doesn't work out. *phew*