Cascade Library
Jun. 22nd, 2003 08:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
turpsI've just been reading the new policy that's been announced at Cascade Library, The Sentinel's gen archive. It's here, "http://www.skeeter63.org/~tslibrary/bondingpolicy.htm if you want to read.
What it says is CL is not going to archive any more stories with scenes of intense bonding. So I guess that covers all the stories like Susan Fosters GDP series and all it's spin offs.
I'm not sure how I feel about this just now. One one hand I know that some of these stories are clearly edging close to slash. In fact I think that most heavy smarm should be labelled slash and be done with it. CL *is* a gen archive, so some people may be uncomfortable reading that level of contact between Jim and Blair.
But, I also think CL goes too far sometimes in what it classes as unsuitable. A friend's story was rejected as a supporting character was gay. One story was rejected for containing rape, while another with the same subject matter gets in. I know that the archivists do a *fantastic* job, it just seems at times the line moves a little in terms of what is allowable.
I know some people have pulled their stories. Do I want to do the same? I don't know.I've never had a problem announcing a story there, but what about in the future. I hate the thought that I could have a gay supporting character and that would be enough to get my story banned. Or that I wrote a darkfic, or a sexscene. Not that I'd ever do het sex! It's just...I don't know, like the archive is becoming more and more restrictive.
I'll be honest. Comparing slash to gen and slash wins every time. I do write gen TS because SA was the group that eased me into writing. They're always friendly, will LoC mostly but outside of that list gen TS does *nothing* for me. So what I'm trying to say it would be no big deal to pull out of CL. I'll never be a loss to the gen TS fandom.
I'm going to think about this a bit more.
What it says is CL is not going to archive any more stories with scenes of intense bonding. So I guess that covers all the stories like Susan Fosters GDP series and all it's spin offs.
I'm not sure how I feel about this just now. One one hand I know that some of these stories are clearly edging close to slash. In fact I think that most heavy smarm should be labelled slash and be done with it. CL *is* a gen archive, so some people may be uncomfortable reading that level of contact between Jim and Blair.
But, I also think CL goes too far sometimes in what it classes as unsuitable. A friend's story was rejected as a supporting character was gay. One story was rejected for containing rape, while another with the same subject matter gets in. I know that the archivists do a *fantastic* job, it just seems at times the line moves a little in terms of what is allowable.
I know some people have pulled their stories. Do I want to do the same? I don't know.I've never had a problem announcing a story there, but what about in the future. I hate the thought that I could have a gay supporting character and that would be enough to get my story banned. Or that I wrote a darkfic, or a sexscene. Not that I'd ever do het sex! It's just...I don't know, like the archive is becoming more and more restrictive.
I'll be honest. Comparing slash to gen and slash wins every time. I do write gen TS because SA was the group that eased me into writing. They're always friendly, will LoC mostly but outside of that list gen TS does *nothing* for me. So what I'm trying to say it would be no big deal to pull out of CL. I'll never be a loss to the gen TS fandom.
I'm going to think about this a bit more.
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no subject
Date: 2003-06-22 01:06 pm (UTC)Interesting Idea
Date: 2003-06-23 04:26 am (UTC)Nice way to stick to the guidelines yet still have a totally OOC Jim and Blair.
no subject
Date: 2003-06-22 01:35 pm (UTC)Just my non-TS fan take on it, of course. YMMV. :-)
no subject
Date: 2003-06-23 04:30 am (UTC)I don't think that the librarians are being homophobic, at least not deliberately. The archive in question is run by volunteers and gets a *lot* of stories. It's not possible for them to read them all, therefore the guideline.
*But* these new guidelines are far too restrictive in my opinion. I'm just waiting to see if they change things now before taking any more action.
no subject
Date: 2003-06-22 01:39 pm (UTC)Thanks
Date: 2003-06-23 04:31 am (UTC)I might take you up on that.
no subject
Date: 2003-06-22 02:34 pm (UTC)The word now is that CL has always been a gen only archive, and some of the bonding fic has been edging over the line into slash from heavy smarm, and the policy was meant to define the gray area. no sexually-explicit bonding stories are permitted there.
It's not homophobic, but if you're posting m/m sex stories to a gen archive, you're just in the wrong place, and the archivist has too much to do in RL to check every sumbitted story for line by line content.
And hey, Gen TSers would so miss you!
no subject
Date: 2003-06-23 04:46 am (UTC)I hope my post didn't sound as if I was accusing CL of homophobia, I never intended it to. I know how much work that the librarians do, that they put so much time and effort into maintaining the site is awesome ( or is there just one of them now?)
I also know that there needs to be a gen archive. I know many people are bi fictional, me included, but many are not. I'd never want them to not have an archive to visit.
I agree totally with you that posting a m/m story to CL is wrong. That's what we have 852 Prospect for and personal sites. What I do have a problem with is stories like Mary Ellen's when it's banned because Stephen has a male lover. Also that in some cases stories that have similar content are archived while others are banned. However, I also know that the archivists won't have the time to read every story to check content.
As for the bonding stories. My view is a lot of heavy bonding stories should be labelled slash and be done with it. But I know that's not a view that everyone agrees with. I guess it's subjective. Jim bathes Blair, snuggles up to him etc. Some would see slash, others smarm...and no I'm not moving onto the smarm v slash debate *g*
I suppose to sum up. I think CL is a great asset to TS fandom, but they worded these last guidelines badly. They should also be more uniform in what is allowed and what's not, but until they have a hell of a lot more staff to check each story that's not going to happen.
And hey, Gen TSers would so miss you!
Glad you think so! But honestly, outside of SA I doubt anyone in gen TS would know who I am. But I'm not leaving SA anytime soon so I'll still be writing gen. Other lists would have exploded into flames talking about this. I'm impressed with SA just now.
Oh and *B. If you ever want a code for a LJ I've spare ones.
bonding policy
Date: 2003-07-03 06:18 am (UTC)It's kind of contradicting, it's obviously "too slashy" for the archivists (or more some gen-readers who may have complained about this kind of scenes) and "not slashy enough" for the slashers.
I acknowledge the hard job of the archivists but where does this leave this authors?
In the grey area between snow-white gen and night-black slash? *g*
Maybe it's time to create a "heave smarm/intense bonding"-archive? *g*
Pat
:-)
Re: bonding policy
Date: 2003-07-03 09:30 am (UTC)Well there's an archive for everything else *g*
I wonder if those kinds of stories would get into the new PG slash archive? Then again, I doubt that the genners that write the heavy bonding would want to be classed as slash, even if it's the tame stuff.
I feel sorry for the archivists too, but CL is a gen archive and the banned stories were *gen* despite what some other people see.