FanFiction submission rules need a bit of cleanup?

Ghost-Unit · **Posted:** Wed Jul 02, 2008 5:05 pm

Here are the fanfic rules in whole:

Quote:

- Only Balto related fanfics are allowed.(wolves and dogs stories are acceptable)

- Except for poems, the fanfics must have a good length, and not look like a summary.

- Only completed / finished fanfics are accepted on the site! But you can write your fanfic in several times.

- Your fanfic will only appear on the site after having been checked.

- You must not use pictures that you do not own! Only pictures from the films or drawings you did yourself.

- Non-Balto fanfics (ex : Road Rover, GDW, ADGTH fanfics...) can only be accepted if you add a Balto fanfic in your gallery. A Balto fanfic is defined by having several Balto characters involved in a story. Also, the number of non-Balto must not be greater than the Balto ones.

- As a general rule, the fanfics which rely on violence, contain gore parts or descriptive sexual parts are not allowed on the site.

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Now I'll address my concerns with the ones that are confusing.

Quote:

Only Balto related fanfics are allowed.(wolves and dogs stories are acceptable)

If you'll notice, the very first rule on that page contradicts itself. Is it or is it not okay to submit non-Balto related content?

Quote:

- Only completed / finished fanfics are accepted on the site! But you can write your fanfic in several times.

I don't really understand the last part.

Quote:

- You must not use pictures that you do not own! Only pictures from the films or drawings you did yourself.

What about pictures drawn by others, for the fanfic? And what if permission is given by another to use a picture?

Quote:

- Non-Balto fanfics (ex : Road Rover, GDW, ADGTH fanfics...) can only be accepted if you add a Balto fanfic in your gallery. A Balto fanfic is defined by having several Balto characters involved in a story. Also, the number of non-Balto must not be greater than the Balto ones.

I'm guessing this one is saying that we must have a Balto fanfic already in our gallery before submitting any non-Balto related ones. And that the non-Balto related ones cannot outnumber the ones that are related to the Balto universe.

--

Anyways. The few mentioned above seem unclear. I myself am mostly concerned about the first one, because it contradicts itself, and because I am looking to add a non-Balto related fic. Now, I realize I posted questions, and it would be great for them to be answered, but those questions also serve as my suggestions of how to better state those rules so that it is not so confusing.

Sushi Roll · **Posted:** Thu Jul 03, 2008 8:59 am

The first and the last quote are the ones that are unclear...To me anyways.

I think the first one should be written out like this : "Only fanfictions that are somehow related to Balto will be accepted. (Meaning your fanfic must be about canines in general)"

The second one : "You cannot submit more non-balto fanfictions than Balto fanfictions. (Non-Balto fanfictions would be for example Ginga Densetsu Weed, All Dogs Go to Heaven ect..)"

Mighty · **Posted:** Fri Jul 04, 2008 7:47 am

I agree, Emily. Considering I don't send fanfics, that is a bit hard to understand. (Unless you think about it. :lol:

) It should be changed.

Lux - The Guardian · **Posted:** Fri Jul 04, 2008 8:43 am

I'll address it in the respective order.

Quote:

- Only Balto related fanfics are allowed.(wolves and dogs stories are acceptable)

- Except for poems, the fanfics must have a good length, and not look like a summary.

- Only completed / finished fanfics are accepted on the site! But you can write your fanfic in several times.

- Your fanfic will only appear on the site after having been checked.

- You must not use pictures that you do not own! Only pictures from the films or drawings you did yourself.

- Non-Balto fanfics (ex : Road Rover, GDW, ADGTH fanfics...) can only be accepted if you add a Balto fanfic in your gallery. A Balto fanfic is defined by having several Balto characters involved in a story. Also, the number of non-Balto must not be greater than the Balto ones.

- As a general rule, the fanfics which rely on violence, contain gore parts or descriptive sexual parts are not allowed on the site.

- Only Balto fanfictions will be accepted, however your fanfic may still be accepted if it is revolving around wolves or dogs in the Alaskan environment (which is where the Balto films take place)

- Fanfictions MUST be a page long to be accepted. There is no limit to the amount of pages the fanfiction can have. Poems are excluded from this rule - they should be at least two lines long, although this isn't a specific rule, but recommended.

- Only when you flag your fanfiction as "Complete" will it be checked by the moderators and put on the site if accepted. Otherwise, you are free to type in the story in parts and flag them as complete - if you compile the parts when the story itself is 100% finished into one single file on the site. You can use the website as a text editor - in other words, you can type in your story, save it, and continue working on it later.

- This one is obvious. Fanfictions must be checked by moderators before they are put on the site to ensure it is appropriate for BaltoSource.

- To use pictures that are not your own, but have been drawn by other artists for said fanfic, you will need to have express permission by the artist, and the artist him/herself - if said artist is member of BaltoSource - PM the fanfic moderators, informing us that the images are approved for use. Lying isn't smart, as we check all PM's declaring permission to use the art of other people - and I can guarantee you we will find out.

- This rule has never really been followed, but in order to have non-Balto related fanfictions on the site - and fanfic mods are acting by it - you must have at least ONE Balto fic in your gallery. If several fanfics are submitted and accepted without any being Balto-related at all, your gallery will run in risk of being closed until a Balto fanfic has been submitted. This rule is also excused from the first rule - should you have a Balto fanfic in your gallery already.

- Self-explanatory.

Lux - The Guardian · **Posted:** Fri Jul 04, 2008 10:41 am

JerseyCaptain wrote:

I have a few problems with the existing rules (or lack thereof):

A) One rule states:

- As a general rule, the fanfics which rely on violence, contain gore parts or descriptive sexual parts are not allowed on the site.

And yet, there are fan fictions on this site which still contain such material, under the premise (from what I have heard of excuses in the past) that they are not "gratuitous" or "excessive". But the rule, as written, is clearly stated, and has been ignored or violated consistently for years now. But most of us know how much of a MESS is created when someone makes a fuss about THAT issue...and how much writers who ply such material cry foul (and "censorship" or "it's only fiction", or "I'm trying to make things interesting!"). :roll:

Yes, that bothers the hell out of me. And, it seems, many others too. But nothing is done.

B) There is no rule dealing with the issue of grammar, spelling and structure. Most posted stories and poems on the site are rife with atrocious misspellings, grammatical errors (punctuation and tense being the biggest violations), and structural flaws (run-on sentences, poor paragraph construction, no chapters, or poor transitions, etc.).

Now, I fully realize that most of the contributors are kids and teens and, thus, still on the "learning curve" in terms of spelling, grammar, and structure. And I know full well that it is no easy process to run a detailed check of every single fiction submission. That is time-consuming and exasperating. But there should be some effort at that. And as far as I see it, there is none. Not that it should lay exclusively on the shoulders of the fan fiction moderators. Not by far. It is, in fact, primarily the responsibility of the writer submitting his or her work. However, if a submission is loaded with such things, a fan fiction moderator should not be accepting it for posting. In fact, he or she should be suggesting to the writer what can be done to correct the errors and improve their work in general. And directing them to the writing tips in the fan fiction board of the forum. Or a good book or website on spelling, grammar and structure for writing.

Really, it's quite shocking to see how much BAD writing is accepted for posting. Things that are often just too annoying to try and sit through and read because trying to understand them is practically impossible. I end up having to pass by many fictions because it is just too irritating to try and understand what the heck the author is trying to say, because he or she said it so freakin' badly. A rule is needed.

C) Perhaps just a bit off-topic (though I'm inclined to think that it isn't), is the problem of the "fan fiction of the week" actually being the "fan fiction of the month" or "fan fiction of the quarter". :roll:

I'm totally disinterested in excuses as to why this happens. And I know others are too. Fan writers deserve to have their material recognized on that feature. And thus, it falls to the moderators to MAKE SURE that the "fan fiction of the week" IS, in FACT, a new fan fiction every week. And we should see a more broad-spectrum selection from the pool of authors...not just any one or more fan fiction moderator's favorites. I am sure I will be told that this is not what is happening. But I am hesitant to believe it. This situation NEEDS to be fixed. Not just when someone fusses about it (like me). But for good...permanently.

I'll reply to those in order:

Fanfics that include violence, but is not made up entirely by a concept of violence and gore are acceptable - with the exclusion descriptive fanfics (i.e lots of blood, very descriptive violent scenes, excessive gore, etc. etc.). We try not to censor fanfictions, because all the fanfic moderators belive in a writer's freedom to write whatever she or she might please. However, this website has always been intended to be as kid-friendly as possible (hence the PG ratings, although it doesn't really matter as most kids would click through them anyway), and therefore we are forced to limit the writers' freedom here.

A rule for grammar, spelling and structure will never be implemented. As mentioned earlier, the freedom we moderators allow in the fanfictions is limited, and we wish not to make it impossible for an upcoming writer, or someone trying to contribute to the website, to get his or her works on the website. The fanfic moderators do have some guidelines on fanfictions that are grammatical, structural or spelling-wise rubbish, and not all works that have these flaws are accepted. However, we can't really decline fanfictions for being grammatically or structurally (spelling?) wrong, unless the flaws are too big for the fiction to be readable.

The Fanfiction of the Week section is updated by french moderators who's activity has been largely lacking. A change in this has already been looked into and is most likely being developed as I type this, and you can expect the system to be properly working again within a short matter of time.

steet · **Posted:** Mon Jul 07, 2008 1:45 pm

Quote:

Only Balto related fanfics are allowed.(wolves and dogs stories are acceptable)

If you'll notice, the very first rule on that page contradicts itself. Is it or is it not okay to submit non-Balto related content?

It is ok if it's related to Balto, and wolves/dogs stories ARE related to Balto.

Quote:

- Only completed / finished fanfics are accepted on the site! But you can write your fanfic in several times.

I meant that you can write the start of your fanfic, then save it and continue writing it later.
I never said I was very good in english...

Quote:

- You must not use pictures that you do not own! Only pictures from the films or drawings you did yourself.

What about pictures drawn by others, for the fanfic? And what if permission is given by another to use a picture?

Well you can only use pictures that you got permission to use OR that you drew yourself.

Quote:

- Non-Balto fanfics (ex : Road Rover, GDW, ADGTH fanfics...) can only be accepted if you add a Balto fanfic in your gallery. A Balto fanfic is defined by having several Balto characters involved in a story. Also, the number of non-Balto must not be greater than the Balto ones.

I'm guessing this one is saying that we must have a Balto fanfic already in our gallery before submitting any non-Balto related ones. And that the non-Balto related ones cannot outnumber the ones that are related to the Balto universe.

Yep.

Now, I'm ok with rewriting them.
I accept these two already :

Quote:

I think the first one should be written out like this : "Only fanfictions that are somehow related to Balto will be accepted. (Meaning your fanfic must be about canines in general)"

The second one : "You cannot submit more non-balto fanfictions than Balto fanfictions. (Non-Balto fanfictions would be for example Ginga Densetsu Weed, All Dogs Go to Heaven ect..)

Now, if you can suggest a rewriting for the remaining rules, no problem...

warriorcat · **Posted:** Mon Jul 07, 2008 7:51 pm

wolf and dog stories are related to balto. the way they mean it is that it shares the same types of animals in balto(most being wolves and dogs anyways)

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FanFiction submission rules need a bit of cleanup?