Mod Post: a gentle reminder

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Greetings and joys of the seasons, dear members & readers of ohsam!

*mod hat*

This is a gentle nudge to all of the lovely and creative folk who post here, to remind you that ohsam is a community devoted to fic centered around Sam being on the receiving end of h/c.

We are extremely laid-back about what that means. Stories can involve whump and illness of any type, we are not fussy. Heck, a lot of the stories are long on whump and short on comfort, and that is fine too! The stories do, however, have to feature Sam in some way, and the h/c should center on him. If you choose to have other hurt characters as well, that's fine, but again, Sam should be the focus of the story.

If we, the mods, deem that a story doesn't fit our guidelines, we will not hesitate to suggest to the author that the fic be removed, altered, or posted elsewhere. We will always do so politely and respectfully, but if we intervene, it's because we judged it necessary. We're pretty laissez-faire as a rule, trusting in our members' good judgment on the whole.

This is by no means a way of casting aspersions upon the talented writers of hurt!Dean or hurt!Cas or anyone else. Nor is it our cleverly-disguised way of persecuting people or telling them their writing is terrible. This is strictly a subject matter issue, because our community has a limited scope when it comes to story content. There are other communities, like our sister-in-spirit hoodie_time, as well as angel_whump and spn_hurtcomfort, among others, which can cater to more specific needs if necessary.

If you have remaining doubts, start by perusing the community info on our profile, and by checking out the FAQ. Feel free to ask the mods, either in the FAQ post or by PM, or in the comments to this entry, if you have any questions at all.

Thank you for your time, and may you receive lots of hurt!Sammy as presents in this festive season!

Comments

[captainlon.livejournal.com]

Is it okay to post stories where the hurt doesn't come before later? I have a new fic up, but the hurt Sam itself doesn't come before chapter 3. But it's there?

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Yes, multi-chapters are more than welcome even if the hurt comes a bit later, though I would encourage a note somewhere in the story header to that effect, supposing it's not a massive spoiler for your story. :)

If it's a WIP and you're not 100% sure that the hurt will even happen, then you should use your best judgment about whether to post it right away, or maybe wait until you're a few chapters in and see where it's headed, for instance.

[phx69.livejournal.com]

I am glad to see the reminder because whenever I see a story posted in the community, I've always assumed I would love it because it would feature Sam but I've seen some that, well, it started making me think the community was changing. So I am glad to see this post.

Thanks!

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

My pleasure. It seems there was a little confusion about what content to post, so I thought a reminder was in order. The comm is definitely not changing, but since the mods can't always read every story that gets posted, some may slip through the cracks that don't necessarily fall under the content guidelines. We are trying to be vigilant. :)

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

That's just fine. What we're hoping to avoid is a fic about, say, Sam taking care of Dean or Bobby or Cas who's gone blind, for instance. Even if there's no h/c per se, it's a disability that Sam has to deal with personally, and that falls within the parameters of the comm. :)

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

No problem. Always happy to answer questions. :D

[justmmy.livejournal.com]

The fact that you used the term 'laissez-faire' makes me love this comm that much more X3

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

LOL

Thank you.

[dangomango.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this post :-)

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

My pleasure!

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Exactly. We generally trust our members to use their good judgment, and it works out for the most part. I'm a fan of the different-focused comms myself for that very reason. :)

[harrigan.livejournal.com]

This is a good opportunity for me to send you a great big Merci! for all you do for this community!

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

It's absolutely my pleasure! I love this comm to death. :)

[roque-clasique.livejournal.com]

BUT WHAT ABOUT IF IT'S ABOUT AN APPLE

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

THEN YOU SHOULD POST IT AT bruised_apples, OKAY?

[roque-clasique.livejournal.com]

lol wow

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

I didn't even realize it was a real comm until I posted the comment. Alas, it's not apple-centered h/c, which is a shame. ;)

[roque-clasique.livejournal.com]

OMG YOUR ICON

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Neil Gaiman, FTW! Can't claim credit for the icon either, alas. ;)

[lavinialavender.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think now is a good time to ask - I am very, very shortly going to start posting an extremely lengthy fic which is all about Sam hurt/comfort. (It's an AU where he grows up in a monster concentration camp. :D) However, the varieties of hurt we inflict on him (and I'm pretty sure just about every tag in the tag list will apply at some point) change from chapter to chapter - should I only use the ones relevant for that chapter as I post? And while it will eventually be Sam/Dean, that's a long long way away - should I mark it as gen for Part One and Sam/Dean for P2? (There are still undertones of Sam/Dean-leanings in Part One.) Any guidance would be appreciated! (Omg, cannot wait to start posting this!)

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Hi!

Sorry I am late on this, what with the holidays and all.

Uh, okay.

1- I would recommend linking back to all chapters as you post. That way people who've maybe missed earlier chapters can go back without having to rummage around too much.

2- Sure, tag according to the hurt per chapter if you think the tag list will be too unwieldy otherwise, but I don't think you need to worry too much about that. Use your best judgment, no one will come after you with a wet noodle for tagging your fic "wrong."

3- Is Part I entirely self-contained? If Part II is a sequel, then you can post the first as gen and the second as Sam/Dean. If Part I necessarily leads into Part II, then I would mark them both as Sam/Dean, so readers who don't read slash and/or wincest won't start and then have to abandon the story halfway through.

Have fun! I can't wait to see what you've come up with. :)

[lavinialavender.livejournal.com]

That's okay! I knew you were probably busy with RL. :) Sorry I got impatient and went ahead and posted, but I figured I could edit the tags and anything else afterward.

1) Ah, thanks - do you think a link to the masterlist would suffice?

2) Good, I figured specific tags for the major hurts in each chapter would work best, and there'll be the overreaching ones (like "psychological trauma" and "ptsd") that we'll use every time.

3) ...Part 1 may look self-contained, but it's not. And it's kinda pre-slash too, I think. Dean is certainly having Feelings. And it ends with a kiss, shhhh.

So, given this, I guess I'd better keep it as slash rather than gen. But I did put a note in the header about "eventual" Sam/Dean.

Thanks for all your help! Sorry to be a bother with nitpicky details.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Hi again!

1- Yes, a link to the master post is just fine.

2- Hurray!

3- Yes, put it as Sam/Dean or "eventual" Sam/Dean, with maybe a content rating (say PG or PG13). :)