FAQ Alt.StarTrek.Creative, An Introduction Last Updated: May 20, 2002 Version: 5.20 This FAQ is was designed to make it easier for everyone to enjoy alt.startrek.creative. If you have any suggestions, please email stephen@trekiverse.org. These are only suggestions, but most of us would like you to follow them. This FAQ is located at : http://trekiverse.crosswinds.net/FAQs/Introduction.txt or any Trekiverse site Table of Contents ================= I Abbreviations in the FAQ II The Newsgroup A What ASC is For B Other Star Trek Fan-Fiction Groups C Other Star Trek Groups D Stories Only ASC? III Posting Format A Style B Subject lines C The Story Header D The Summary IV Some Suggestions A General Suggestions B Responding to Works V More About the Archive A What is the Archive? B Who runs this Archive? C What is this Index? D Who do I contact about Archive Business? E Are there any Archive Policies I should know? F Anything else I should know about the Archive? VI For More Information A Answers to Common Questions B Other FAQs to Check VII The Credits -------------------------------- I Abbreviations in the FAQ ================================ ASC alt.startrek.creative ASCE alt.startrek.creative.erotica ASCEM alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated AFQ alt.fan.q FAQ Frequently Asked Questions ASCA alt.startrek.creative.all-ages --------------------- II The Newsgroup ===================== A What ASC is for ----------------------- Alt.StarTrek.Creative (ASC) is for the posting of creative StarTrek Fan Fiction, poems, documentation, and other such works; discussion of those works, Star Trek Fan works in general, and issues affecting those works and the newsgroup in general. It is not here for personal conversations, nor advertisements. It is not here for Binaries (use the alt.binaries.startrek hierarchy and remember, if it doesn't say binary then don't post binaries) It is not here for the general discussion of Star Trek, There are other groups out there for that. B Other Star Trek Fan Fiction Groups ------------------------------------------ alt.startrek.creative.erotica Star Trek erotica fiction, not available in all areas All stories posted to ASCE are allowed on ASC. Defunct. alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated [Moderated] Star Trek erotica discussion. Includes stories and other topics concerning STAR TREK erotica. Moderated to reduce spam. Moderated replacement due to spam of ASCE alt.startrek.creative.all-ages [Moderated] A family friendly version of ASC. Stories limited to [PG-13]and no slash. All stories posted to ASCA are allowed on ASC alt.startrek.uss-amagosa TNG-DS9 time frame stories on the USS Amagosa or associated Universe. alt.fan.q for discussion and creative stories on Q from either Trek or Bond. C Other Star Trek Groups ------------------------------ rec.arts.startrek.current For the posting of current Star Trek news and infomation, within the last FOUR MONTHS rec.arts.startrek.tech For the discussion of the technical aspects of Star Trek rec.arts.startrek.fandom For the posting of fan related events. For Sale, conventions, and the like rec.arts.startrek.info (moderated) Star Trek Information rec.arts.startrek.reviews (moderated) Star Trek Reviews rec.arts.startrek.misc Everything not covered elsewhere alt.startrek.books Discussion of Star Trek Books, as published by Pocket Books. There are also other alt.startrek.* and alt.star-trek.* groups for specific series and races, but these will be on most servers, unlike most alt groups. D Stories Only Version of ASC ----------------------------------- Due to the requests of many newsgroup subscribers, A stories only version of ASC has been set up. This is set up through Yahoo groups, and subscription is available by e-mailing: ascl-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Or by visiting the Yahoo Groups web page at: http://groups.yahoo.com/ ---------------------- III Posting Format ====================== A Style ------------- Lines should be less than 70 characters long, which will allow people to read it easily on most newsreaders. It should be single spaced. As upper case is considered shouting, don't writing in all upper case. Reserve that for when your character is shouting. For more information regarding stories, see the Advice for Authors FAQ. B Subject Lines --------------------- The Subject Line should consist of a Post name, a short title, the Part Number, rating, the series, type and codes The Post name is a three letter field consisting of one of the following: NEW For new stories REP For Reposts REV For Revised versions of stories COR For corrected versions of stories DRA For Drafts The series is a three letter field. See the Posting Codes FAQ for explanation. The Title should be no longer than 20 characters. This does not mean one has to keep the title short, but a shortened version should be in the subject line. The full title can be listed in story header (see below). The part number should be in the part number/last part format. If the last part is not known or you are not posting all of the story in the next week, a ? mark should fill the last part field. Roman numerals are reserved for stories in series that can stand alone. The next field is the rating. We enclose the rating in [] so that parents can set a kill file for stories rated [R]. The ratings are explained in the codes section. Character Codes codes and types are generally enclosed in () so that it may be easily pulled out. The first item in the () should be if it's a parody, x-over, or poem. Next should come the character codes as listed in a later section. Some examples: NEW TNG All the King's 5/? [PG-13] (Marrissa Stories #3) REV TNG Battle For Bajor 4/8 [PG] (Marrissa Stories #2) REP TNG Captain & Doctor 1/1 [G] (P/C, Marrissa Stories) COR TOS Galaxy's End 1/53 [R] (x-over, Star Wars) DRA VOY Harry's Mad [NC-17] (parody) C The Story Header ------------------------ The Story Header offers an opportunity to correct and expand on what is given in the Standard USENET Header. This is very important to our Archivists and Awards Staff. Stories missing, or with incomplete data will be delayed during the archiving process until such data is found. An explanation on how to fill out the Story Header is in the Advice for Authors FAQ. D The Summary ------------------- The Story Index for the archive requires a short summary. Our Index Maintainer would like all authors to provide one for their new stories. Stephen would like a 3-4 line non-spoiling summary for each newly posted story. You can go longer, but please keep it under a dozen lines. Some people in order to prevent spoilage place this header in a separate post labeled SYNOPSIS, SUMMARY or the like. Some include it as part 0/? The Maintainers encourage such behavior. If you do not post such a SYNOPSIS, please make sure all the information from the story header is in the first part. Please have all of this in the first 40(20 preferred) lines it makes Ian, Katie, Cassie, and Stephen's jobs easier. ------------------------------ IV More About The Archive ============================== A What is the Archive? ---------------------------- The archive is where all the stories posted on this group end up, unless stated otherwise. Currently, it is in a state of transition. When it is finished, it will be on 3 mirrors with 4 index sites. At the present time, you can access the archive at: [Crosswinds] http://trekiverse.crosswinds.net/ [Enterprise] http://www.trekiverse.org/ [Q Continuum] http://qcontinuum.trekiverse.net/ Please rotate your usage to spread the load around. The Archive is arranged around several main directories. The biggest of these are the story, parody, and adult directories. Each of these are split by series (tos, tng, ds9, voy, ent, misc, combined, and sometimes others) Any series of stories that has more than 15 stories in it may get its own directory off one of these directories at the discretion of the archivists. There are also directories filled with poems, pic(tures), info, reviews, and tech documents, plus other info. B Who runs this Archive? ------------------------------ Constable Katie (redshoes ix.netcom.com) --- Archivist Katie handles the collection and format correction of post as well as placing them in the proper place in the archive Ian Toldman (stidev gate.net) --- Assistant Formatter Ian handles those really tough tasks of formatting that pop up. He is also a driving force behind the current archive conversion. Stephen Ratliff (stephen trekiverse.org) --- Indexer Stephen handles the Indexes in addition to his other jobs. C What is this Index? --------------------------- The index was started by Matt Steenberg and consists of an entry on each story and then the links to the sites that have that story. It is your interface to the archive. It is currently divided by directory with each section being sorted by Author and Title. A sorting by Character Pairing, and a search is now available. D Who do I contact about Archive Business? ------------------------------------------------ Due to the way the archive is run, who you contact is based on what you want done. To have a story added: post to alt.startrek.creative or e-mail to: submissions@webamused.com To have a story removed: e-mail to Katie To add or change a summary in the index, or correct a link: e-mail: summaries@trekiverse.org E Are there any Archive Policies I should know? ----------------------------------------------------- Yes: 1 Archiving..... The Archive Team archives any story posted to ASC, ASCEM, and ASCA unless one of the following line is included: Archive: Not in ASC* Archive or Archive: Do not Archive 2 Linking to the Archive ..... After discussion on the group, the following guidelines have been announced for linking to stories in the archive (linking to the archive itself, and its sub-directories remains unrestricted) a. If an author does not want to be *linked* anywhere but official index pages without permission, they must say so in the disclaimer portion. b. If an author does say no, indexers must not link their story. c. If an author requests to be removed, indexers should remove their link promptly and without being snide. d. it is polite to write authors when you are creating an index that they are on, if for no better reason than that they'd probably be interested in the subject matter of the index. (I mean, if you're a G/B writer, and someone creates a G/B index and puts you on it, odds are you'd like to look at that index because you yourself may not know all those G/B stories that the indexer found.) However, it is not required. e. The Archive Staff shall have the right to ask websites to remove links to individual stories should the Archive Staff determine that the website in question is detrimental to the operation of the archive. F Anything else I should know about the Archive? ------------------------------------------------------ The Archive is a volunteer project. None of us are being paid. So we ask that you be courteous to the Archive Staff. We all got cases of Insufficient Reluctance and are now suffering the consequences. ---------------------------- V For More Information ============================ A Questions Answered -------------------------- 1 I want to get a copy of a story Try the following steps: a Check the Archive through its web interfaces at: [Crosswinds] http://trekiverse.crosswinds.net/ [Enterprise] http://www.trekiverse.org/ [QContinuum] http://qcontinuum.trekiverse.net/ b If it's a relatively recent story, try Google groups (located at http://groups.google.com). Google Groups is a free service that compiles the postings to USENET. If you use the "power search" you can create a filter to search only alt.startrek.creative. (you can also use various other limits such as author and date). c If all else fails, contact the author. In fact, contact them with your praise anyway. 2 I have a general question about ASC. Contact: - FAQ Maintainer Stephen (stephen@trekiverse.org) 3 What is the status of my story in the Archive Queue? Contact: - Archivist Katie 4 I want to report a problem with the Archive Index. Contact: - Index Maintainer Stephen (stephen@trekiverse.org) 5 I have a question about the ASC Awards. Contact (in order): - Awards Coordinator(outgoing) Stephen (stephen@trekiverse.org) - Awards Coordinator(incoming) Seema (seemag1@yahoo.com) - Awards Assistant Coord. Djinn 6 I have a correction for one of the Status of Stories FAQs. Contact according to series: TOS: Rocky TNG: Barbara DS9: Gabrielle VOY: Seema seemag1@yahoo.com ENT: Meghan Elizabeth MIS: Meghan Elizabeth Backup: Stephen stephen@trekiverse.org B Other FAQs ------------------ For more information on ASC see the following FAQs and Mini-FAQs (All FAQs are located at the archive sites) Advice For Authors More information on posting for those who write stories Advice4Authors.txt Msting on Alt.StarTrek.Creative The guidelines for posting MSTings on ASC MST.txt The Mannerly Art of Critique How to respond and take response to your works Crit.txt The Mannerly Art of Debate How to safely debate without causing problems. Debate.txt Summary Writing: A Guide for Index Summary Writers How to write summaries for the Index to the Archive SummaryWriting.txt Advice for Summary Writing How to write summaries, Advice from Carol Thomas, former Adult Story Summarizer SummaryAdvice.txt Who's Who A Brief Guide to the Staff Members of ASC* Written by the Staff Members themselves. WhosWho.txt ------------------ VII The Credits ================== The following people have assisted in some way in the creation of this FAQ and it's predecessors. Joseph Young, my processor in the job (and a former Archivist) Susan M Stiefel, FAQ Maintainer alt.tv.x-files.creative Ruth Gifford, FAQ Maintainer ASCEM (1995-9) Alara Rogers, ASC Archivist (1995-8) Macedon, Talking Stick Author Melissa Koehn, Backup FAQ Maintainer ASC (1997) Dina Lerret, ASC Archivist (1998-2000) Constable Katie, Post Collecter/Formatter J Winter, Backup FAQ Maintainer, ASC (1998-2000) Kattz, Backup FAQ Maintainer, ASC (2000-2001) and the late George Morgan, ASCA Moderator (1997-9) ------------------------------------------------------------- Once again, these are only suggestions, but most of us would like you to follow them. Stephen Ratliff another insufficiently reluctant staff member of ASC. ============================================================= -- Stephen Ratliff ASC FAQ Maintainer http://www.trekiverse.org/FAQs