Admin Post: There Are Changes to Buffyverse Top 5 This Year!

[yourlibrarian]

As we discussed in January's closing post, Top 5 is going through some changes this year. We have expanded our Halloween session to a 10 day period which will run from October 24 to November 2.

As in the past, this Halloween session will be open for Classic Recs. So we hope you'll share your favorite fics, vids, graphics, anything and everything fandom has produced in all the Whedon fandoms. Content from all time periods before 2018 are eligible for posting and, as always, crossover content is A-OK.

But there's more! As this is the last year in which we'll run a separate (and abbreviated) 2018 session in January, we're going to have a new event -- FlashForward Weekend. On October 27 and 28, we'd like to encourage you to post your 2018 recs. We realize that the year won't be quite over yet but we think there should be plenty of fan creations to choose from in the first 10 months, and you can always add additional recs later in January or during 2019's session.

Do start preparing some separate lists as we'd like to see how much interest there continues to be for sharing current recs.

Spreading Out

As with last year, Classic Recs is running on both LiveJournal and Dreamwidth. Post at whichever you wish, although there's no need to duplicate your posts on both sites since they'll be joined together once our session closes.

Based on suggestions made in January, we now have a Top 5 account on Tumblr to remind everyone that we'll be going live. We are also planning a special activity there unique to the site so if you use Tumblr, add us to your feed!

Lastly for those who are trying out Pillowfort, we have opened a Top 5 community there to see how much interest there is in a recs event. If you're looking for communities to join, add us!

Do let petzipellepingo and me know here in comments if you have any questions.

Comments

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Hey! :) I'm excited! So intrigued about your special tumblr event. ^^

I have a question about this bit: "there's no need to duplicate your posts on both sites since they'll be joined together once our session closes". In what sense will they be joined together? I'm partially curious because we've been having a similar issue for Seasonal Spuffy, but mainly, I look at your January session, and I still see different posts on both sites. Is there a joining thing you're planning to do that you simply haven't done yet? Or maybe you were only talking about the upcoming session?

Here's an example: this post only exists on the Dreamwidth side, right? I don't think there's any reference to it on your LJ comm?
https://buffyversetop5.dreamwidth.org/773394.html

And this is only on LiveJournal, correct?
https://buffyversetop5.livejournal.com/445828.html

The split makes me sad because it makes your rec archive a little less awesome, since one can't find the DW recs by searching the tags on LJ -- unless I'm missing something. So I'm very interested in what you're planning to do about that.

ANYWAY, I appreciate all your work! And I'm looking forward to the fall session. I have at least three list ideas already...

[yourlibrarian]

Yay for getting lists ready! And yes, we hope people enjoy it since we'll be giving it a whirl on Tumblr for the first time.

Regarding joining the posts together, you are of course right that they'll be joined only on the Dreamwidth site when we import the LJ session. So if people prefer to post exclusively at LJ there's no problem with that as all. Plus comments should be possible here from anyone on LJ or vice versa. I know that at least one person did that last year.

However we'll be promoting the DW site as the primary archival site for two reasons. The first is because it's much easier to find content here, not just because the archive and tag searches are the same but because of the search box which brings entirely new opportunities for specific searches. The second is that when people deleted their content from LJ their posts vanished from the LJ side, including those they made at Top 5. But since we've been importing content since 2009 it should exist here even if it's gone there.

I expect to encourage people to browse items here in the closing post since it doesn't matter which site you use when it comes to looking for posts.

That said if people want to post in both places that's fine, just as it would be on Tumblr if they want to use the #buffyversetop5 tag (although I've noticed that not everything that gets tagged with something on Tumblr ends up showing up in the tag feed -- no idea why. So it would be better to submit links through an ask for reblogging).

Regarding stuff not coming over from LJ, we should be getting everything. I did another import just now in case I had missed doing so in January. The LJ post you cited is here: https://buffyversetop5.dreamwidth.org/778753.html

But please do let us know if you ever come across anything that can't be found here. That would mean there's some sort of import failure that we'd want to alert DW to.

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Oh, cool! Thank you for such a thorough explanation. <3 Yup, I definitely see the LJ posts on DW now.

"But since we've been importing content since 2009 it should exist here even if it's gone there." Good point. VERY nice...

"(although I've noticed that not everything that gets tagged with something on Tumblr ends up showing up in the tag feed -- no idea why."
Yes, that's a thing! Because tumblr staff believe it's helpful to skip some posts if there are many similar ones or something. Also maybe because users can choose to hide from search results. I know people do manage to run plenty of events on tumblr using tags, but I don't TRUST that system. :D Maybe that's just me. For Seasonal Spuffy, I asked people to @mention the blog instead. We had a total of one participant on tumblr, though, so I'm not sure how much people like that idea.

"So it would be better to submit links through an ask for reblogging)."
I hope you're aware people would have to mutilate the links. If tumblr recognizes something as a link, the ask won't go through.
There are submissions, if one enables them in the blog settings... I find them creepy for submitting whole posts, because the blog owner has complete editing access to the post and the original author isn't automatically credited iirc. But. They could work for submitting links.
Actually, I think the obvious way to send someone links on tumblr is messages.

Um. Sorry? I just started rambling at you about tumblr. I hope it's not a bother.

[yourlibrarian]

For Seasonal Spuffy, I asked people to @mention the blog instead. We had a total of one participant on tumblr, though, so I'm not sure how much people like that idea.

That's helpful though, thanks. And I also thank you for the Tumblr rambles because Petzi does not use the site at all and my use of it has been limited, so that while I do sometimes post and I view it regularly, I've hardly ever interacted through it.

There are submissions, if one enables them in the blog settings... I find them creepy for submitting whole posts, because the blog owner has complete editing access to the post and the original author isn't automatically credited iirc.

Huh. I submit links to an MCU blog regularly and did not realize that this could be an issue. Though since they're other posts I've seen, not my own, all I submitted was the address for reblogging. It looks like their form would allow you to submit text and other content as well, but I guess I never thought it would be used that way.

I also didn't realize a message was different from an ask? So you can include links in those?

[thenewbuzwuzz]

c:

"It looks like their form would allow you to submit text and other content as well, but I guess I never thought it would be used that way."
Oh, neat! I've only seen them used that way, like e.g. here: http://incorrectbuffyquotes.tumblr.com/tagged/submission
I think people typed text/quote/chat format posts into the submission box of incorrectbuffyquotes, and then by default it appeared as a normal post by incorrectbuffyquotes. The blog owner used tags to indicate that it's a submission and to credit the author. As soon as someone reblogs the post, the author credit is gone. Not Ideal.

"I also didn't realize a message was different from an ask? So you can include links in those?" Oh, yeah! :) I messaged buffyversetop5 on tumblr just now with a link. The downside is you can't get email notifications for messages... I *think*. You'd have to check tumblr in order to notice them.

[yourlibrarian]

You must be right about that re: the lack of alerts because I checked it now due to an email about your comment here and not there.

The blog owner used tags to indicate that it's a submission and to credit the author.

Yeah that was something I had to get used to when using Tumblr. I always expected tags to be fixed regardless of whether they were reblogged which is obviously untrue (and yet it would correct so many problems).

Here's what the one I was thinking of looks like. The dropdown allows for various formats including simply a link.

But it sounds like an @ or message would be the simplest solution.

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Submitting links sounds elegant.

"But it sounds like an @ or message would be the simplest solution." I think so too. Plus, an @ would be almost the same as what people usually do for events. And I think it might be the most comfortable option (apart from tags) if people feel shy about interacting with you. Con: I believe you wouldn't get a notification about an @ either, because it's not your main blog. You'd see it in the activity page for the blog. *has missed an @ and panicked the next day*

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Still so curious about your special tumblr activity ^^