mi6_cafe | Weekly Chat!

mi6-cafe-mod.livejournal.com posting in

Yep it's that time of the week lovely people! The cafe is open for all of your chatting needs!

Don't forget that anonymous comments are now turned ON so you don't need an LJ account to join in the fun! If you are commenting using anon comments, please can you put your name/handle in the subject of your comments! It makes it easier for everyone to know who they are talking to!

WEEKLY RECS!

This week, we're going to take a slightly different approach to the weekly recs. So as well as the recs for those fanworks you've seen during the week (art/fic/podfic/memes anything goes!), there is going to be a 'Weekly Genre' where you can rec your favourite fics of all time that come under that heading!

This weeks Weekly Genre: Fluff!! Lets see how many fanworks we can rec this week under this genre - go find that one fic or piece of artwork that you think deserves a bit more love and recognition and post it in the recs!

Halloween Exchange
The Halloween Exchange is being run over on tumblr this year, and you can now go submit your prompts! Please note that the NYP Mod asks for prompts to be written in a certain way, so take that into account when you're thinking of your prompt!

Once the creating gets underway, I'll see if there is enough interest to create a specific 'fan exchange' cheerleading thread within the Weekly Chat for everyone to share their creating woes and make sure those muses get to work!

Starter questions!

To welcome the new people to the cafe I've added some introductory questions to the top of the list, which you are free to use/not use to introduce yourself!

Who goes there? Introduce yourself!
1) Name
2) Ususal internet home
3) What is it that you love about 00Q?
4) Favourite 00Q headcannon
5) Favourite 00Q fanwork (NB Put at ** next to the links if you want these fics to be included in the weekly recs too!)

Everyone is standing around drinking everything from tea to scotch! Quick, give us some ice breaker questions!

1) if Q and James had superpowers what would they be and why?
2) What is the one thing you love about the 00Q fandom community?
3) If James and Q were lost on an island with only a radio, a pair of horrendously ugly underpants, and a box of ice lollies, what do you think would happen? (Short fics or artwork using this a prompt is welcomed and very much encouraged)
4) One thing you hate about the creative process, and why
5) Anything you want to see included in the MI6 Cafe (This kind of depends on your dear mod's time allowances, but I'd love to see your ideas for the cafe and where this little comm could go!)

As ususal, you can add more questions if you wish! More chatting the merrier!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

teacass.livejournal.com

Guest of the week - I like this idea it'll certainly be better for crowdsoucing some new ideas (I know I'm going to be running dry of ideas in a few months time!). Maybe it could be like a 'question of the week' thing, where people can submit their questions to the MI6 cafe on tumblr and when the weekly chat is posted, the question of the week is posted too? Might get a bit of discussion on tumblr as well as over here, and then might get people interested in joining the fun!

Weekly challenge - Like the idea, probably raffle would be a bit of stretch (read: I haz no money) but maybe you could win like a photoshop banner/icon or something to say you won? The weekly challenge idea would be good though, although what we could do is make it more of a special 'festival' kind of thing, where everyone is in teams and you gain points for your team by commenting on fics/art, writing certain number of words/doing a certain number hours of artwork. With the amount of prep, it might take place sometime next year, but as both the Halloween Exchange and reverse bang will be finished by jan next year, it could fill up some space!

I really like the idea though, just need to hammer out some more details and probably get a few more people involved (like there could be 'team heads' who collate the amount of points their team has made that week, and feed it back to me to post on the community?).

Book Club - HELL YEH! I have no idea how to livestream movies and the like, but we could try and organise something! I'll need to have a little think about how to execute it/how often it is! Might be another one to get someone else to head it up/organise it and then it can be linked/hosted on the comm?

They're all excellent ideas though and I'll put them on the list. What will most likely happen is once I'm on summer break (two weeks) I can put the ideas to everyone and see who would a) be interested and b) be interested in helping.

From:

isthisrubble.livejournal.com

I might know some people I can ask about livestreaming, and I have DVD quality of some of the movies on my computer (also, blurays, but I can't play them on my laptop)

From: (Anonymous)

Cool! So with some help we might be able to get this up and running. :) I think it would be really neat to read/listen to Casino Royale and then watch Casino Royale, you know? Plus the other books and movies! Fandom thrives on multiple interpretations, after all. Go Team Book Club!

-Castillon

From:

teacass.livejournal.com

You are amazing! I really like this idea - maybe we could have it as a 'alternative genre' fest or something where there are some livestreams/audiobook stream events going on. Then if it picks up we can see if it's possible to do something more regular?

From: (Anonymous)

Yeah, that could work! I really like the idea of livestreaming the audiobook so we can all experience Ian Fleming's successes and possibly absurdities together. The audiobook is about 4 hours thirty, so doing half of it on one weekend, part two on another weekend, and then the movie? Maybe two "showings" for each part to accommodate different schedules. Assuming personnel and streaming logistics, which I have no clue about, allow for that.

Although TBH an entire two of hours of audiobook listening might be a bit much, IDK. If I'm not in a car, I usually manage an hour or so before I starting hungering for visual stimulation or *cough* dozing off. (Audiobook readers can sometimes have very soothing voices.) And given that the audiobook, at least, is available on Youtube, it'd probably be easier to have one weekly livestream, for people who enjoy collective listening, but also have a "we're reading up to chapter 5 by Friday" or w/e schedule posted for those who can't make it. Plus, of course, discussion questions and fanwork ideas each week following/arising from the livestream. That would make for about a month-long event (four audiobook weekend streams, plus the movie), which seems not-too-unmanageable?

Or if you have other logistical ideas, that'd be good too! There's every possibility that I'm overcomplicating things, haha.

James Bond July? Co-Canon Fest? Titles are hard.

-Castillon

From:

teacass.livejournal.com

I certainly like the idea of a fest-based structure (maybe across August? Its before the main fic exchanges start cropping up and everyone gets super busy.

As you say audiobooks are long to listen to in one sitting, maybe we could suggest a list of books (Maybe some that are free e-books + audiobooks to cover everyone's tastes) that are available for book club, and then everyone can read at their own pace.

To start with, we could just have a separate thread in the weekly chat for the 'book club' chat (like how there is a separate thread for the weekly recs right now) for people to discuss the books during the month. Then at the end of the month have like a 'book club hang out' where everyone can discuss the books they've read etc and what it's like/what bits they hated.

If they're enough interest, then it could be carried forward more as a monthly/bimonthly book club meet up rather than a one-off fest, but the likelihood is I'll see if someone is interested in actually running that as I know I wouldn't be able to do it every month (although I'm quite happy to make the fest based stuff to start it all off)

From: (Anonymous)

Glad you like the ideas! I know I kind of threw everything and the kitchen sink in your direction. ^^; I really appreciate your willingness to go out on a limb and open up this space for the 00Q community to express themselves!

I think you're right that a Bingo Card, team-type enterprise would have to wait until next year, and definitely have a few team heads involved as well! IDK why I didn't think of a photoshop banner prize before--they've such a long history in fandom fests, after all!

For the weekly guest, maybe one of the questions they get asked to answer as part of an initial post could be, "What would you like to see more of in fandom?" with the option of them offering a drabble prompt? This would be much more informal than a "weekly challenge" while still perhaps getting our (including my. I need practice!) writing muscles in shape for the Halloween Exchange and other future events. The reason I like this idea is that one of the things I've seen people talk about most recently, including in the MI6 cafe in the past few weeks, is, "There needs to be more ___!" More genderqueer characters, more sub!Bond, more sub-but-not-sexually!Bond; I think everyone has something, even if it's just "MORE H/C!" because h/c is the thing they love best, or "more deserted island crack!" because who doesn't love that? So a question/optional prompt combo like that might enable people to access their, well, not-quite-discontent, in a bit of a productive way, whether that's through conversation ("Bond would totally wear cute lingerie! But no lace; too itchy!") or through creation ("Bond pulled the white silk over his thighs and up to his hips, taking care to adjust himself within the tight confines afterward. He'd found lace to be, well, just a bit itchy and more trouble than it was worth with its tendency to catch on his scar tissue. But silk...silk was so soft and tender that he could wear it all day, especially when Q asked him to."). Plus the possibility of drabbles might be a bit of a reward for the weekly guest's participation.

Super excited about the book club!

Congrats on your upcoming summer break! I look forward to catching people's interests with MI6 Cafe's new activities and hopefully getting some help to make them happen. :D

-Castillon

From:

teacass.livejournal.com

Haha thats okay! It'll be awesome to get some sort of community structure going so when spectre starts and the fandom gets some more interest again it might take off a bit more! Not sure how it'll What Little Time I Have Free but for now I can just play it by ear :D

What do you say to an idea where instead of a bingo card (I was kind of thinking using this as a method of just a 'weekly prompt' to add into the weekly chat for people to use up to spectre - like you suggested re the guest idea), we could have a fest next year where anyone who is interested is split into say 3 teams. Then you get points for your team over the fest period (maybe a month?) for writing/arting/commenting on various fics, with different points for how much effort you put in (eg 100 words of fic = 1 point, 1000 words = 10 points, 5000 = 20 points etc) or how many comments you leave on A03/reblogs (like 1 point for a simple comment, 5 points for a 100+word comment). Then each team reports back to their team leader about how many points they've made in a week, which feeds back to some sort of overall team table. Then teams can make support for their own teams and it might be a way to encourage more people to actually comment/review fic and art. It'll be a huge enterprise, and everyone would have to be trusted with how many points they make (because no way in hell can anyone go and check everyone's points tally up, it'll be too hard), but I think it might be something fun to do when the exchange/reverse bb has died down :P

I like this weekly guest idea, I'm not sure how hard (timewise) it would be to organise the guests/get responses/make a post, so I would probably trim a few of the ideas out for now (like people suggesting prompts? Or just having a weekly prompt/bingo card thing up to spectre). Just because I know I want to be able to participate in the exchange/reverse bb this year. That being said, if someone else wanted to volunteer to run the guest post I'd be quite happy to give the relative permission on the tumblr/here so that person can manage that feature like a mod :)

Thank you! Super looking forward to it, just a balancing act between stuff I want to do both in and out of fandom (as well as write) at the moment! :) There seems to be people following the tumblr blog, and there was some initial interest when the cafe first started but people haven't been coming back. That could be due to when the weekly chat is posted (at the weekend, but it's the only time I can really do consistently at the moment) but that'll be something else to sort out over the summer! :D

Thanks for all the ideas though, it'll be really fun to get some more fests into the 00q fandom and see if something can come of this community :P

From: (Anonymous)

I super love your fest idea, especially the idea that people get points for commenting! That is just what we need in AO3's more kudos-oriented environment! I might still make some generic bingo cards available as team resources (fluff, h/c, tropes, character POVs, that kind of thing; we could make our own, or we could probably borrow from other comms if we ask nicely). I don't mind gathering them provided life isn't 100 percent crazy at the time. The reason I think they'd be a good resource is that they would just be like...a possible guideline for people who aren't sure what to write about next? Some people do really well with loads of freedom to be creative and give their plotbunnies free rein, while others benefit from a little structure; I wouldn't want the latter to feel like they're getting stuck without a handhold. As a practical consideration, I might also cap the amount of points you can get re: word count for a single fic (maybe at 15k or 20k? so you'd have a 150- or 200-point maximum?), because if someone on one team happens to churn out a 50k novel (fingers crossed, I would read the hell out of that!) then it'd be a bit hard for other teams to compete after that. Kind of like how it's almost impossible to win at Quidditch if the other team catches the snitch. And you'd have to figure out how to give points to artwork; perhaps that would be judged by amount of time it took to complete, with 10 minutes=1 point? (Would that work for cosplay too?)

Also, just while I'm thinking about it/so it doesn't get forgotten, Inceptiversary (Inception fandom's summer fest) had something like a craft day last year that was really neat; things like origami and, IDK, sewing stuff and other crafty submissions happened. We wouldn't need to make a specific day for it, but I think the inclusion of crafts might be something to explicitly mention at the time of the fest, bc I think people get caught up in "traditional" forms of fanwork like visual art and fanfic, and don't always realize that their secret yarn skills or papercraft hobby or drink-mixing or ability to stitch "BLOODY BIG SHIP" onto a pillowcase or make 00Q-themed bentos or WHATEVER are also really cool. And meta! Any kind of meta is awesome.

I AM ALREADY SO PUMPED FOR 00Q TEAM FEST 2016.

I really like the weekly guest idea, partly because we have so many awesome fanwork creators in the fandom and it would be such a pleasure to hear their ideas and opinions about things, and partly because it would, hopefully, help more people find their way to MI6 Cafe! I'm strongly considering volunteering to run it, as you say, as a kind of MI6 Cafe mod, but I'd have to give it a little more thought. (Among other considerations: Reaching out to people is hard! But at the same time, this would be great practice at reaching out to people, haha.) So I'll check back in with you next weekend, if that's all right? Or we can talk in two weeks when you're on break and have had time to think more about fandom as well as IRL stuff!

I can completely empathize with the balancing act you're describing. The weekend has been the only consistent time for me as well, though that's a bit more flexible now that it's summer break for me. And it will certainly be weekend hours in August as well when school starts up again (provided I have a job--fingers crossed for that too). Thank you again for taking what time you have to think about how to make a more active 00Q community!

P.S. I am also SO PUMPED for Spectre! Coming from Inception fandom, I'm finding it such a novelty to actually have a sequel to be excited about, haha. 22 weeks!

From:

teacass.livejournal.com

Yeh, the points system is incredibly rough at the moment but it would have a number of equivalent points for whatever people created (fic/art/crafts/cosplay etc). I'd try make it as fair as possible to ensure that whatever someone did for the fest, if you've created it for fandom then it gets points (somehow!). I certainly think points for commenting would be good (even a reblog on tumblr with some comment in the reblog as to why the fic/art is good would count) because a) it allows readers to participate and b) gets people actually verbalising what they like about a fic/art rather than just going 'THIS IS NICE' or leaving a kudos (not that it's a bad thing, but some proper comments won't go amiss amongst creator types).

The bingo cards are a good idea, it helps keep the creativity flowing (and maybe you could get bonus points for using some of the bingo card prompts?). There is LOADS of time until it would need to be organised, so I'm thinking just sketching out a rough idea at the moment (I'm considering making a 'whats coming up for the next few months at MI6cafe in a few weeks time to get some people interested) and then probably early 2016 I can see who wants to be team leaders (so the leaders can organise the teams/deal with the individual teams) and how many people would be interested in it.

TEAM FEST 2016 FTW.

Sure! If you want to volunteer that would be amazing, I know from my schedule (summer of bouncing around places + starting new job in the latter end of the year) I'm going to be busy has hell to do it justice. But I could certainly help with coming up with questions/bouncing ideas, it's just the regularity of posting/organising people I would have time trouble with (especially if I'll try and set up the team fest next year). But seriously, no pressure at all :D Everything's all very ad-hoc right now so we could start off small (maybe like a small month of 'guest posts' - one a week would only be 4 people for example) and then if there is interested start building from that onwards :)

SAME! It'll be nice to have some new interest injected in the fandom, I loved how much fic/commenting went on around Skyfall coming out :P