[Issues...?? Discussion?]

[bottleprince.livejournal.com]

Hello, I'm not posting from my primary account mainly because I don't know how sensitive the fandom is right now and do not wish to start a flame war of a sort regarding the subject I will be writing about in this entry. I just want to begin with the fact that I'm a huge Hetalia fan and I light up everytime I meet someone else who share these feelings so you and I are the same. I respect and love all of you in this community, for your entertaining contributions and for your creativity in general and for just being loyal fans with interesting things to say. The translators are doing a great job too and we've all got to respect them and appreciate them more. Without them, it wouldn't be possible for a lot of non-japanese speaking fans to follow the progress of Hetalia in the first place. I don't mean for you to kiss their feet, but just remember they're humans too.

This isn't what I wanted to talk about however, lately I've noticed other issues.



As the community is growing larger and the fandom is spreading, a lot more entries are posted everyday and this isn't primarily a bad thing, it's great that we're all supporters and that we want to show it, however. The posting willl only get more frequent in the future as we keep on growing and don't get me wrong because I appreciate that you're all taking an active interest in the fandom and it's a joy to see but sometimes I just can't drag myself over to the community to look at every single new post because there's just so much of it lately. Especially fanart entries, sometimes there are even more than one post by the same authors within tighter time frames and I find that a little strange. In the beginning I didn't mind but now that we're starting to get so many artists bundled up in one community, I'm wondering if we should have a time rule or fanart rule of a sort for posting? To avoid double posts and similar issues I mean. I know that you're all eager to show your next new work and share your (wonderful wonderful) creativity but to respect people who feel a little or the same as I do, I think it would be an idea to maybe think of what I'm about to propose as a choice?

To keep posting to a minimum, why don't all the artists, instead of making several small entries, gather up their fanarts and dump them all in one big entry for the sake of being more organized instead? I just can't seem to keep up anymore and that may be because I'm growing old and gray but I hope you can see my point... I'm not very good at english as it isn't my native language so I hope I didn't make a cultural mistake to offend anyone.


Another issue is the fact that we seem to be deriving from canon now, in this community. I love looking at all your "original fancharacters of hetalia" but that's it, they're mainly original fancharacters and as much as they have Hetalia next to their names, they're still original and not canon. It's fun to read about them and look at your designs, I respect your creativity full out so I'm not entirely sure how to adress this whole situation in the first place, I guess I don't really want to call it an issue but more than that just want to alert you guys that we're about to go somewhere else with this. It's a little bit confusing even if it's loads of fun.

Maybe we could make another community for the fancharacters? That way you can talk and discuss about them as much as you want and without confusing new hetalia fans that weren't there from the start and might get confused about the canonity if you post original characters to a fan community.

I'm always a little clumsy in my writing please bear with it, if I offend anyone, please point out what you thought was offensive and I'll try to make it clearer. I'm not a linguist, just a clumsy and silly fan who needed to vent some of their thoughts. Maybe see this as feedback and points that could be improved?



Thanks for reading and please ask me if you don't understand something I was saying.

Comments

[ekmisao.livejournal.com]

No, I understood. I'm also concerned about that first issue you raised. I mostly just scroll now, and wait for the scanlations or mod posts. Sad but true.

[bottleprince.livejournal.com]

Maybe what squeakyorm suggested would be most relevant?
I guess maybe I shouldn't have written this post without going through my thoughts with the moderator first.

[kazahayakudou.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, I think that you explained your point very well and I think that it's very nice of you wanting to help organize the comm ^^ I'm one of those who made a character to my own country but I still think that the main subject of this comm should be about the canon characters. I would love if we could create an au_hetalia comm and post about non-official characters there and post about the canon here.

About the fanarts... I don't know... it would be only possible if we created a rule like: 'the fanarts should be sent to the mod and will be posted every week in 'xxxx' day of the week'.... dunno... You can always talk to the mod or owner of this comm and see what can be done about it. I think that the issue about the fanarts is a little bit more complicated...

[bottleprince.livejournal.com]

Yes, an AU_hetalia comm would be excellent. It would give a lot more freedom to discuss the original fancharacters.

I'm not sure what should be done about the fanart issue, all I can really think of is adding some rules to regulate the fanart entries or make a fanworks community as squeakyorm suggested.

[ormery.livejournal.com]

Personally, I think it might be a good idea to have one comm just for translations and stuff, and then another one for fanworks. That way, if people don't want fanart on their flists, they can just not watch the fanworks comm.

[bottleprince.livejournal.com]

I think it might be a little sad to divide the community up in several pieces when it was mainly made for all the fans to come together to communicate and share, but as much as I wouldn't want to see that it's just like how a nation has to divided into regions as it grows larger and in USA's situation, even states. @_@

[synatri.livejournal.com]

I understand all your points, but don't you think this should have been brought up to the moderator privately, though? IMHO.

[bottleprince.livejournal.com]

I was going to at first as I know the moderator personally and I probably should have mailed her about this but in the end I decided I wanted to hear the communities voice too.

[gokunobaka.livejournal.com]

I dont think that mod would have time for ALL these fanarts XD;;;
A lot of people actually draw so yeah...
I think best would be make rules about fanarts > No less than 5 pictures per post (this definately will give some people time to gather stuff ).

It would be best to AVOID posting ONE art with DA linkage.

As for scanlations - they dont come out as often plus they are linked with top page so i dont think they would "die" so easily among other stuff.

Also i think its a good idea to create "sibling" community with those hetalia characters ^^ Altho there must be someone who might do this too. Its a good idea IMHO.

[bottleprince.livejournal.com]

And yeah, there's only one mod to add to it... XD;;

That's a good rule to ponder about actually and I agree with you about the DA linkage.

and yeah Scanlations, as long as there are tags, won't disappear among the entries, that's for sure so there aren't much problems there.

Someone should go ahead and create that sibling community and maybe then take it up with the moderator. I could probably talk to her though she's probably busy with work, we'll see. T_T I'm so sorry for the rushed answer, I really gotta go now. orzz

[need-scissors61.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree that people uploading fan-made characters should post on separate entries. Although it's nice that people are exercising their creativity, I'm not as excited about it.

Personally, I'm more worried about people making entries where I can barely read what they're typing. You know, "lol i leik seme/uke guys oWo;;; moar translators!!1" But that's because I have a short temper and hate chatspeak.

[need-scissors61.livejournal.com]

And by separate entries I mean on the same entry. Goddamn.

[alexander-rowe.livejournal.com]

I see what ya mean about the fanart and such...I only wait for the scanlations and mod notices myself. The whole idea about an au_hetalia community isn't a bad one, I'm very sure lots of ppl have ideas for countries that weren't put into the series and want to show off their designs....plus it'll make it less confusing for newbies to the fandom. I'm all for that.
I'm happy that you didn't go to the mod first; it's always best to hear what both sides have to say instead of just one.

[frappetique.livejournal.com]

I think OCs is fitting in nationslash instead of here.. but that's just me. Anyway, I can see your point, I hope the mod will take a quick action over this matter &hearts

[zephyr-design.livejournal.com]

Some of the bigger fandoms have sites only for fanworks - maybe that should be the case here? To reserve a site for discussion, scans - maybe graphics too - and other for arts and fics?

I agree with nationslash to post fan characters, though. Hetalia_au should totally be resered for a RP community XD

[frappetique.livejournal.com]

It won't be so effective with so may cross-posting IMO, I guess it is okay to post fanart / fics / etc like usual with bulletin community which will be updated each week.

[lady-gyrfalcon.livejournal.com]

In my case, I think that once I have enough fanart proper drawn, I'd probably make a post, and just throw in any AU characters I have as an afterthought; so although it'd be there, the main content is still more related to the actual characters featured in hetalia. I wouldn't even think that a single image I had drawn on its own would warrent a post; I'm just not good enough, and grouping things together makes sense.
That's just what course of action I'd take in posting at the moment, so as not to take up the comm with things almost, but not quite, related to the community.

I don't actually have anything really drawn right now; bearing what you've said in mind, it's probably more appropriate to post original fancharacters to nation_slash, instead of just tacking them on to any normal fanwork dumps I might end up posting.

[xxrosenredxx.livejournal.com]

A new community for fanworks and fancharacters seems necessary, IMO.
This community is completely taking over my F-list. We should leave this one to scans, news, and discussions.

Also, I'm guilty of nearly everything you've mentioned. I'm terribly sorry. ):

[fanfaluche.livejournal.com]

Umh, just posting my two cents here, about the Fan art rules: what about instead of limiting the number of fan arts per post, limiting of fanarts *per week*?
I mean, someone had a right point, that is there is people who post also sketches, and that's ok, but also someone who post real illustrations, colored and such. I think it would be better to make a per week post limit or something like that! O leave at discretion of the poster, that is: "if you have a fan art sketch, you can wait to collect at least 4/5 and then post them, if you have a good illustration, in wich you put effort and took you days you can post it alone."

I hope I made sense ;___;"

And don't worry, I don't think you've been rude or anything, you had some very good point :)

[kohikki.livejournal.com]

I agree with pretty much everything in your post.
There's so many posts now..I used to comment on every single post here, but now there's just so many..
And I think the fan Hetalia characters should be posted under like, one topic or something.
Because while they're fun to look at, they just seem like something that should be kept together, you know? .__.

[tsuchinoko.livejournal.com]

IAWTC. Hands down, my brother. ;D

[gabriela-gosden.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with you.

What about doing a comm like this, as for the fanarts ?
http://community.livejournal.com/hp_art_daily/

We just need mods who wouldn't mind to care daily about that.

[mumumugen.livejournal.com]

Quick post:
As the mod, I don't mind (and in fact, welcome) all those who want to discuss original characters to nationslash. The community does go a little beyond Hetalia ("Axis Powers Hetalia and beyond" is not the tagline for nothing.)

[daniela-lynx.livejournal.com]

That's very kind from you! :DDD

[daniela-lynx.livejournal.com]

As someone who has been in quite the large fandoms -total nightmares for a Friend List- your post surprises me a bit, but I understand your point.

I wouldn't mind if things stayed like until now, though I agree that fanartists should exercise their criteria when posting. Three posts by the same person showing three different random doodles can get quite tiring, and it would be better if they were grouped in a single post. It's not necessary to limit the weekly quota of the fanartists, because as we know, we have talented, productive people here who draw a lot, and might feel uncomfortable with that. I believe we all here are intelligent people. I'm sure that, if you ask the fanartists to lump their drawings together in a single daily post they'll understand how necessary it is.

As for the fancharacters, I don't see anything wrong with them as long as they're properly marked, both by tag and title. That way they won't get mixed with the original Hetalia characters.

... Actually, everything you mentioned here it's more like a matter of proper organization. I suggest adopting the following tag in the titles of the entries:

example 1- [Fanart] "Title, etc."
example 2- [Icons] "Info goes here"
example 3- [Fanfic] "Title, pairing, etc"

And so. That way people can skip what it's not interesting for them, without dividing the community.

[mumumugen.livejournal.com]

Frankly, outside of the whole 'original characters go where?' matter, I'm up for keeping the community just as it is. If it's not broke, why fix it? The more rules, divisions or complications a fandom gets, the less fun it is, and the main purpose of fandoms is fun.

So let's have fun, people. I think we've been doing well thus far, and I really, really don't want that to change. I've felt that Hetalia is one of the healthiest fandoms/communities I've found online, so let's not break it.

[rubychu.livejournal.com]

haha, i so agree with you

[jali-jali.livejournal.com]

Wait, I personally don't agree much with the separation of fanworks with this comm. Well, you know, scanlations and official news don't come out regularly, it'll make this comm feels a little lonely T_T

But, I DO agree to post fanworks with some rules, like using the form, it's not just to make posts in this comm look tidier, but it also give you a good warning of what you will see inside the post.
In my subjective view, fanworks posts with only saying; 'Hey I make fanarts, I thought I'll share with you guys' --->insert lj-cut here--->done - really not appealing for me -_-;;
and please don't link cut it to DA account, it's not so friendly with my browser right now
Oh, it also work so that 'accident' wouldn't happen (like, accidentally opening explicit bl fanart in front of your family, lmao XDD)

And I agree with yuumeichan, posting per week sounds good, and the difference minimum fanart contents in posts for sketchy fanart and for serious fanart is quite reasonable.

Wow, this is quite a long comment posting before sleeping @_@

[rubychu.livejournal.com]

yeah, a sudden out burst of the fandom, and lots of fanart

but i acutally don't see anything wrong with the fan made hetalia... i mean as long as they tell u its fanmade and crap.. but then if they start drawing the chracter with regualar hetalia characters, then that might be even more confusing...

[bobdelilah.livejournal.com]

It always seemed to me like this community would be the one to focus on Hetalia canon, while nationslash would be the place for national personifications in general, Hetalia or otherwise.

I don't really have an opinion on the fanart thing. As long as people only post a fanart dump once per day, I'm fine.

[mumumugen.livejournal.com]

Here:
http://community.livejournal.com/nationslash/14547.html
For all those who want to bring their Original Character talk to Nationslash.

Pardon me if I sound like I'm spamming, though, but I'm all against over-complicating fandoms. In fact, I was advocate to the very rules of Hetalia being simplified to the bare, acceptable minimum in the first place. Why so? Because nobody joins fandoms to be stressed (and if you do, you should really check your priorities.) People joins fandoms to have fun.

As I stated on my post, the only reason I'm promoting this is to keep the post flow from being cluttered down a single community, like all the cars deciding to drive on the same side of the street. That's all.

I personally have no desire for the Hetalia community to become something akin to deviantart, where one has to categorize submissions up to the wahoo and then filter them several dozen times to make sure they are on the right place. I'm all against limits. Having to practically file a VISA request form every time you're about to post fanart, to make sure you're posting it right, lest you get frowned upon... eeehh, nobody's idea of fun, I think.

So just let's have fun, okay guys?

[panjapanja.livejournal.com]

You spoke my exact thoughts. I appreciate everyone's activity, but I think if someone knows they are going to draw hetalia 10 times every week, they should make one post with 10 pictures instead of 10 posts with 1 picture, right?

Or for original nations and potentially off-topic things like "i saw two flags touching today and took a picture" or something, I think it's acceptable as long as if it's tucked away in a post full of genuinely hetalia contents as a bonus. That way there is something for everyone and no reason to complain? :D

[poisreverie.livejournal.com]

I feel like I can't fully participate with the fandom anymore... OTL

[eeveil.livejournal.com]

idk why it hasn't been brought up to the mods first before there'd be a discussion/Q&A post afterwards.
you know.

[fayore.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that it's at the point (well, has been, for a few months now) where I have to filter my friends page so I don't see community posts whenever I check it.

Of course, I have to admit that I rarely check the community for things like scanlations too (but there's other reasons for that) but I just... end up scrolling past most of the entries now. (Admittably, I think the last time I posted in here besides commenting on one fanart was that OMG ANIME KETTEI post. :v)

And uh. I find it strange that people should mention that larger communities function in the same way as Hetalia has been? I've never seen that. Usually there's some kind of organization in place, like how people should appropriately tag their posts or organize the info on their fanwork, and unspoken rules like don't post several times in the same week or something like that. I know one comm, yaoi_daily, actually has rules about just that (though they're obviously not going to be similar to rules governing places... not yaoi_daily, it still stands that yes, larger communities have the power to make rules like that, too).

I also used to be fairly extensively involved with an art site completely dedicated to fanart, and the issue about original characters popped up, too - so don't worry that it's you or you're making a cultural mistake, 'cause you're not. XD;; Overall, I don't really like original characters, either. (I actually find it strange that people make a lot of 'original characters' for their fandoms, no matter how big or small it is? 'cause in the end, that character has nothing to do with the series besides the attachment of the series name. )

[a-liger.livejournal.com]

Aw geez, what did I step into?

I just want folks to actually use the fanart forum that's on the comm profile and use some proper grammar. I'd love a comm for scanlations only though so I don't have to wade through so much fanart to notice if a new scanlation is out.

I'm all for the limiting your fanart posts to just one post a week to try to keep the folks who do lots of fast art more organized. Although this probably won't clean up the amount of fanart posts that do show up since there are a ton of artists on here now. Just please, for the love of all that's holy, stop fake linking to dA accounts.

Yeah, everyone else has said my other thoughts in some form or fashion elsewhere. Oi, this whole post is scary.

EDITED FOR CLARIFICATION LOL

[fayore.livejournal.com]

Just please, for the love of all that's holy, stop fake linking to dA accounts.

Unless the piece is ungodly huge and needs to be that size, I don't see why people don't just use something like photobucket to share their fanart with. :T Or post a smaller size here and tell people that if they want to see it bigger, then the link to dA?

I don't know about other people, but I frankly would be ashamed to do something like [post fakecuts to dA].