Reading Room - December

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Thank you to all our November reviewers, and I hope everyone enjoyed the Told through Letters/Diaries theme.

Our next theme is scheduled to be Third Party Viewpoint, but as it'll be December and a) really busy for many people and b) Christmas and all (*g*) I thought I'd canvas thoughts on what you'd like to do. I've put some suggestions into a poll, because it's nice and easy just to click, but if you've got any other ideas/suggestions/comments, please do make them!

[Poll #1798790]

Reading Room Schedule
Reading Room VIII - Third Party Viewpoint
Reading Room IX - Where the Lads are Outed
Reading Room X - Stories of the Elements (this one may be a special Reading Room series)
Reading Room XI - Fusion Stories (not crossovers, but stories inspired by other media: films, novels etc)
Reading Room XII - Crossovers
Reading Room XIII - AU Stories that haven't been covered in more specific themes!
Reading Room IVX - Younger Lads

Comments

[moonlightmead.livejournal.com]

My preference is definitely to discuss something. I may not be able to turn up on the exact day, and I expect that's the same for a lot of people, but (as said on the previous discussion), there's no reason people can't chip in days and weeks later.

Shall probably be able to introduce one story, and will try to be briefer this time!

[milomaus.livejournal.com]

Break please?!?
I´m still at the Pros BB and didn´t comment on the last six or seven reviews, which all are open as tabs, waiting to be answered.....

*running away in fascinated horror*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh no, it sounds like you're the one who needs a break... *g* Just carry on reading the stories, and give everything else up as a bad job. Jump into the next fascinating thing you see instead! *g*

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

How about everybody reads/re-reads some of the Christmas stories we've read previously (on the Reading Room or elsewhere) and then we all get to nominate up to three, maybe with one line reviews, and then have a vote on the favourite Christmas stories? A top five, or top ten, or something. Because if people like clicking... And it's nice to wallow in Christmassy things!!

[golden-bastet.livejournal.com]

This sounds like a good solution!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

People do like a poll, so it could be fun... *g* Hmmn, I'm not sure of the logistics though - realistically I think this'd work out as a single post, or rather a single thing, rather than 5-Reading-Rooms-worth... and I reckon the vast majority of people would re-read if they were going to do it anyway, but would otherwise just rec and vote from memory... What I reckon we need is something to inspire them into taking a moment out of life to do the re/reading... and more especially to read Christmas/Winter/etc stories they might not have read before. There are so many out there, but it's always the same few that pop up!

That said, we could do the poll as well as anything else... or maybe as the Thursday 22nd Dec post, when people might be even busier... cos polls are click-y fun... *g*

[golden-bastet.livejournal.com]

Something a little lighter, like an extended or minimal (e.g., one or two posts) Reading Room?

I'm waaaay overcommitted, with family birthdays and the holidays and going after every challenge that I see (well, I'm stupid like that). I don't think everyone's as silly as I've been, but it *is* a busy time of year.

I meant to comment on the Letters/Diaries, but I just couldn't get to it. :(

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh, what d'you mean by an extended Reading Room? That makes it sound like there's a time limit on the Reading Room in general, and there's really not, you know - you can take as long as you like to comment, go back five weeks later and comment if you want! *g*

I didn't get to comment on all the Letter/Diary posts either - I guess we do what we can. Pros isn't supposed to be about feeling pressured, after all, it's supposed to be what we grab happily at when we do have spare moments! I hope your overcommittment is fun, anyway!

[margaret-r.livejournal.com]

I'm happy with whatever is decided and at some stage I would like to try my hand at a review. Like everyone else though I'm to be a bit over-extended in December! Moth2fic's idea sounds good.

[moonlightmead.livejournal.com]

Yes! Do a review! It is fun!

I know mine are huge, but they don't have to be. I just think of things and can't decide which is the important point, so I include the lot and leave it to everyone else to do the work for me. On the other hand, if you want to ramble, they are a splendid excuse...

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

December's a funny month - some people have more time to spend reading and enjoying the world and Pros, and some people have so much less...

Moth's idea does sound like poll-ish fun, and we could definitely do it for one week, but it'd be nice to showcase some less well-known Christmas stories in the other weeks too... Hmmn... Must think! *g*

[moonlightmead.livejournal.com]

I like moth2fic's idea. I like any ideas, really :) See if you can find some stories that convince me that this Christmas obsession in Pros is a good thing!

The other thing, looking at golden_bastet's comment about not having had time to comment on November's theme: if there is nothing doing when they have time to read and post in December, I would encourage people to go back and comment on the letters and diaries ones - or any of them, really, I suppose! I know a couple of us do track the Reading Room posts for some time after they have rolled off the front page. (me, and I think moth2fic, and milomaus is practically promising to post already... :))

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Lol for liking any ideas - that's not helpful!

And eep for Christmas obsession in Pros too - I'm not sure it's that! I suspect it's just that Christmas is a warmly fun time for lots of people, and so is Pros in general, and so it was natural to marry the two together... and then there've been various other things happening which coincidentally set off other things, and et voila - Christmas in Pros as a special time! That said, you might have given me another idea, which could work as this week's post, so along with Moth's that's two... *g* Now we just need three more... *g*

Quite right about people going back to comment on old Reading Room posts too, and tracking them. I'm another one who tracks posts (I think tracking is only available to Paid or Plus lj accounts though, so not everyone can do it) and also if someone comments "late" to a post I've made, even months and year's late - and that's happened - then I make sure to reply. In fact I'm probably better at replying to those comments... *g* Maybe what we need is a reminder at ci5hq that comments can be made at any time, that posts don't vanish unless an lj is deleted and purged, and that people are often really pleased to hear that someone's read an old post of theirs...

Okay, just had another idea that might work for the RR... and ooh, possibly another, so that could be four... Although really the Reading Room is specifically discussion of particular fics, so really these'd just be ci5hq posts... *g*

[moonlightmead.livejournal.com]

Argh, in haste - I'm not trying to be a killjoy about Christmas, it's just really noticeable to me as a newcomer that it is a massive massive thing.

Tracking - I have a free account, and I can track up to - argh, I dunno, I can't find it in the FAQ! I have an idea that it's thirty. I've certainly got 14 or 15 going at the moment.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

That's okay, catch you when you have more time... *g* It is rather bizarre that I have most time to lj during my work hours...

it's just really noticeable to me as a newcomer that it is a massive massive thing
Ah go on, what makes you think that? I know there's discoveredinalj's Christmas challenge, and I've mentioned a Christmas Reading room here (cos we did one last year to replace Pen's Hatstand Advent Calendar, which she may or may not be doing this year), but... is there something else that makes you think Christmas is a big thing? The Pros FandomCard exchange is completely new this year...

[moonlightmead.livejournal.com]

I dunno, there just seem to be a hell of a lot of Christmas stories. Well, there are when you try to read everything at once, anyway. I suppose this could be related to the fact that there are a lot of stories, generally...

Okay, so what is the advent calendar, then? I presumed that that was the DIALJ calendar of dates, but clearly not!

*has had idea for cards exchange at last, so off to do something about it before LJ dies again*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Hmmn, I guess there are alot of Christmas stories, but I'm not sure there's that many compared with other types of stories, and taken out of thirty years of fic... although the Dialj Christmas calendar must have bumped up the proportion, having been going for 5 years already! *g* I gather O. Yardley used to write a Pros story for each Christmas, which again would add up over how-many Christmases - but I seem to remember reading a comment from her in a letterzine somewhere, saying that it'd be nice if someone would write a Pros Christmas story that she could read, so I'm guessing there weren't that many around for a long time... *g*

Pen (now Istia on dreamwidth) for several years posted an Advent Calendar to The Hatstand (http://hatstand.slashcity.net/). Every day in December she'd post a link to a Christmas-y Pros story, and a picture of the lads, and one year she added a piece of Christmas music too, and it was fab - there was something gorgeously our-lads to go and look at every day, and a story to re-read, and it was just... fab. *g* She stopped doing it a couple of years ago, which was a bit heart-breaking, and last year I had a go at mitigating that with The Christmas Reading Room (http://ci5hq.livejournal.com/2010/12/), which was good fun too. No one seemed to be up for doing that again this year, sadly, cos I do like finding a Pros-y Christmas story to read in my flist every day. At least one. *g* Hmmn, well maybe I should have a go at something myself, then... or maybe that's what we could... hmmmn... right, I'm off to go and follow up on this post at last! *g*