Inception Fic Reading Group

How was the format of this community? Would you like to keep it to one discussion a week? Or change it to something like 2 per month?

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I found one story a week doable, but I tended to forget what story was coming up. I would have benefited by regular reminders of the story of the week posted on tumblr, where I tend to hang out. I joined (but haven't participated in in) the 221b reading group and often see constantly reblogged reminders of what story they are reading for the week. It's not annoying, I find, but a good prompt to get reading and thinking ahead of the actual day

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bauble

1 discussion a week seems to be working so far. It helps create a sense of urgency in getting people to read the story and discuss it in a timely manner (I find people are reluctant to join a conversation if it seems too much time has passed since the last comment was posted). It is also good in case readers aren't interested in the story of the week--they can just wait a week for the next.

I second

kate_the_reader's suggestions of reminders about the stories coming up. I find lots of reminders useful in notifying participants in pretty much all situations. Include a reminder list of what fics are coming up in the discussion posts themselves (just tack it on at the end, 'Fic discussions coming up: x by Y, a by C, etc' You can also post reminders of the upcoming schedules to the tumblr, LJ, etc throughout the month aside from the fic discussion posts.

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This reminder thing is a good idea. I thought once a week was a good pace but it was sometimes challenging when we were reading a long fic and I didn't remember until the day the discussion went up.

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Reminders are doable! I was afraid of spamming people's dashes but yes. It's easy enough to make sure that the following week's story is in the post for the discussion post and to do another reminder of that weeks story closer to the date.

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Building on the previous question, does Wednesday work? Is it too difficult to remember? Would Friday or Saturday work better with people's schedules?

What about those who lead the discussions? Was Wednesday okay? Or was it too difficult to manage mid week?

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Wednesday is good, and doesn't get caught up in movie watch stuff. Nice highlight of the week.

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bauble

Wednesday is fine. Weekends can be difficult if people have conflicting plans. Most people are on the computer during the week, whether they're working at a job or at school.

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I liked Wednesdays.

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silverstorm666.livejournal.com

Wednesdays are hard for me during the school year, but by the time we hit the next round in May it will be summer and wednesdays are fine for me.

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With round 1 we voted on the genres listed on the profile page. With round 2 I was hoping we could hit the genres there that we didn't in the first round.

Is everyone in agreement with this?

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Good idea. Then later we can come round again to fill in gaps or read stories we have missed.

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bauble

Yes, that sounds good. Keeps the mix of fic different and interesting (and helps if readers didn't get a chance to discuss fics in their favorite genre in a previous round).

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Agreed.

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Glad to see that Wednesdays are working for people, we'll keep it there.

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Again, building on the previous, are there genres you would like to see us discuss?

Please add your ideas here.

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bauble

Not sure if any other readers would be interested in this, but possibly a Work in progress 'genre' that could cover stories that aren't complete. Could be interesting for either a story that doesn't look like it will ever be completed (abandoned) or one that is still being updated currently.

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This is a really cool idea!

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Thanks for the suggestion. We'll keep it in mind.

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What about fic length? Should we add in the fic length so people can allocate time for reading?

Should we do rounds that are fics that are under 5k, between 5 and 10k, between 10 and 50k and between 50 and 100+k?

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It would be good to have a head's up about fic length, and perhaps extra-early reminders for fics that are especially long. I love long fics though.

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bauble

I agree. I think listing wordcount in the fic discussion posts and also in the announcement of what fics will be discussed would be helpful for time allocation.

I think doing special, separate rounds based on fic length periodically might be interesting, especially if it's for fics under 5K. I'd recommend saving that for a few rounds from now, as the community is still new and finding its groove.

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okaykatie.livejournal.com

I think the "streams" already break up fics enough (somewhat arbitrarily) so I don't think there should be more splintering by word count BUT I think it would be great to have maybe one longfic running concurrently with weekly discussions so people can amble in at their own pace. So like, a bonus fic a month 50-100k with less weekly urgency?

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msbrightsidesh.livejournal.com

I love the idea of a bonus fic! I feel when we do long fics, I tend to forget half of what I want to say, because there is simply so much, so it would be amazing to be able to spread out that thought process over a month!

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bauble

Yes, I second this idea. A bonus long fic for a month-long discussion would be interesting.

In addition to kickoff questions about themes/etc, you can also create threads broken up by chapters so readers can reply as they read along. An example of this is CS Pacat's 'Kings Rising' LJ post:
http://freece.livejournal.com/73003.html

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Yes! Like this! That would be great!

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kedgeree11.livejournal.com

Great idea for long fic!

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I wonder, if we do a long fic, could we divide the discussion up into two weeks? Like, part 1 and part 2? I don't know, I was just wondering if that would help even it out.

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I love this idea of breaking up long fic's into parts. It makes it easier if you have a limited time to read.

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Would you like to help mod?

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Work has been killing me this semester for some reason but I can probably carve out some time to help out with this!

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Please fill in this form (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1K-6dYO2poUWQDi8JkmIsLrNeliG9Or6LZF0-fqKWIbI/viewform)

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Other comments, suggestions, opinions?

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I wish more people could participate. At least one person said they wondered if the discussion was academic, which began they felt they wouldn't want to join in. I didn't find it academic or intimidating and I'm not sure how we promote it so more people know this.

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Yeah, I wonder how we can get people to just drop by and squee? Hmm.

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bauble

I think more promotion of the community in general would be good, across Tumblr, LJ, etc. A general recruiting of members drive.

You may also want to create a mailing list and encourage all members to join it so you can email updates and reminders to the list (these are the fics being discussed, come nominate fics, the discussion has started, etc). Almost everyone checks their email frequently, while people are more spotty about their LJ friendslist and things on Tumblr can get buried very quickly. One of the mods/co-mods can handle this specifically if you don't personally want to handle it all yourself.

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This is a good idea! I hear that something like a TinyLetter isn't that hard to set up?

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