FAQs?

[rainbowmods]

Hello there, Lounge. As you may have guessed from the subject line, we're in the process of putting together an FAQ. The thing is, since we made the comm, we know what we mean by everything and so don't have the best idea of what constitutes frequently asked questions!

This is where you guys come in. Can you think of anything you might ask? Is there anything that's even slightly unclear to you? Should we expand on anything at all? Absolutely anything along those lines, we'd like to know. Just leave a comment with any questions at all, and we'll add them to the FAQ. Repeat questions, or ones phrased differently, are completely cool with us.

Comments

[clare_dragonfly]

I think starting it off with a "how does this work?" question would be great. When I first joined I wasn't really sure what to do. A brief overview somewhere easy to find would be really useful.

[subluxate]

We'll have that be the first one, most likely. Thanks!

[ar]

To complete a colour, do you have to do a prompt from that colour or all the prompts? Same question as regards palettes. Are there limits to the number of prompts you can incorporate into a given piece? Can you receive credit if you'd prefer not to post your story, or must it be posted to count?

Very basic questions that make clear how challenges work, as clare_dragonfly put it, are probably the best place to start.

I would also go over some of the information that's already included within the rules, because it's helpful to have stuff like "you can have up to five colours claimed at a time" contextualized within how the comm works. Someone completely new to the shebang needs to know what that means in addition to the fact that it's a rule. So, you know--yes, it's on the honour system. No, you can't use unlimited colours at a time. Yes, you should post on the comm. Et cetera, et cetera.

Speaking of the rules, I would recommend only linking the name "rainbowfic" (rainbowfic) once. After the first time, it just makes the opening paragraph more difficult to read.

[subluxate]

We'll do all those; they're great to know we should elaborate upon.

I'll also go ahead and take a look at the rules again now, probably edit them too. Thanks!

[ar]

I'm glad I could help! ♥ It took me about twenty minutes of poking around to really get the sense of how this place works, and by the end of it, I felt a little silly, because I think I ought to have picked it up a bit faster. Ah, well--in my defense, it was a long day, lol. In any case, I think a FAQ is a great idea and will be very helpful in the future.

They're good rules on the whole, but they might be a little wordy in places. And it could just be me as regards linked comm names--they just sort of distract me, idk.

[subluxate]

I changed the rules; would you mind taking a look and seeing if it's easier on your eyes?

[ar]

Much better! It looks very nice.

[subluxate]

Awesome, thank you! It's great to know it's easier on you.

[justice_turtle]

I could give y'all a summary of the questions I asked Kat when I was considering joining, if that would help.

[subluxate]

That'd be awesome. We're still working on it, so any and all questions you had or still have would be very welcome.

[justice_turtle]

Okay, questions I asked Kat (rephrased a bit for clarity):

* "Do I understand correctly that you have to write something for every prompt on one of your five lists, if you had five already going, before you could pick up a prompt off a sixth list?" (Kat's answer, paraphrased: "Yes, but you can interpret the prompts in very loose / strange ways. *examples*")

* "Could you please add attributions to the quote!prompts? They're confusing." (Kat's answer, paraphrased: "we'll work on it!")

* "Are they fic-only prompts? The comm name sounds like they are. Or do you do art and things to them too?" (Kat's answer: "They CAN be fic-only prompts, but we also accept art, comics, performance art, anything you want. The Styles page [link] talks about the kind of things you can write. Or draw. Or record. So if you drew something and posted it on the community, you would tag it as an illustration, and you'd get credit for that.")

* "I do not follow what goes on with the Supplies lists and the other stuff besides the main color-prompt lists. Can you give an example?" (Kat's answer: "Styles are structural things you can do to your story. So if you happen to write a story that's under 100 words, you can label that a miniature and get credit for that. The supplies work a little differently. Like, suppose your story starts when [your main characters] are in college - if you wrote a story about [one of them] when he was five, you would count that as a Canvas. If you wrote a scene from an AU, that would be an Eraser. The other supplies are daily or weekly supplies mostly, meaning that they change regularly.")

* "So what's the minimum number of different prompts / sorts of prompts a fill has to have?" (Kat's answer, paraphrased: "All stories have to have a color prompt that is vaguely relevant if you tilt your head and squint. They don't have to fit any Supplies or Styles.")

* "Can you count a story for more than one color prompt from the same list?" (Kat's answer, paraphrased: "Not unless you write individual sections for all the colors on the list. That's called a Saturation and we absolutely encourage those."

* "Is there a masterpost that links to the supplies and styles posts and all that, or do they have special tags - how do you find them?" (Kat's answer, paraphrased: "There's a links list on the right-hand side of the recent entries page.")

* "I get the impression from reading the intro post that most people try to keep up with and comment on each other's stories. I'm guessing that isn't required because so many of the members also mention having varying levels of spoons, but how strongly encouraged is it?" (Kat's answer: "Well, we're a community. We encourage reading and commenting very strongly. However, you don't at all have to do it all the time. One of our mods stops reading/commenting for months at a time because they has no spoons. The important part is that they participates when they does have the spoons. And of course, if you don't like a story or don't enjoy reading it, you don't at all have to continue with it. It's meant to be a relaxed happyfuntimes writing community, for mutual support and entertainment. ... Most of the folks on the comm have fairly spotty participation.")

* "You can lock posts to comm-members-only, right?" (Kat: "Yes you can!")

And a question I still have:

* What is the proceeding for making up / submitting a color list of your own? I thought I saw a post about it somewhere but I can't find it now.

[subluxate]

Ah, I missed the last one!

You can absolutely make and submit a list of your own. It must be ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, or thirty prompts, and it must have a theme; we try to avoid "odds and ends" types of lists. The theme is up to you. Please try to pick a color to go with it; you can see a complete list of the colors used here. Any color we haven't used is fair game. If you can, a hex code that approximates the color would be immensely helpful. If you can't, an approximation of what it looks like would be helpful if it's something like octarine or Sedona dusk--something we can't easily image search or know off the tops of our heads.

As to submitting, you can IM a mod (contact info here) or leave it as a comment on the Dial-a-Mod post. Since you know Kat, that's not a problem for you. We're also going to get a post up where people can comment with colors they've made; we just need to figure out where that's going to be. I have to talk to the other mods about that.

[finch]

Is there someplace where it spells out exactly what the requirements are for, say, a palette, or what a paint-by-numbers is? I feel like there's either a really clear explanation I can't find or like I'm late to the party. :)

[subluxate]

That's actually something we're working on! I'll give you the quickie explanation, though.

A Palette is when you complete the colors it calls for. For instance, for Primary Colors, you do the Red, Blue, and Yellow lists. You don't have to do them all at once or in a row or anything, just on your own schedule. Once you're done, you leave a comment at the completion post, and you get a banner at the next round of banner making.

A Paint-by-Numbers is when someone else takes a prompt list of their choosing (it can be any length) and gives you prompts that go along with them and relate to your story in some way. For example, here's the one I did for Kat. The person making it doesn't have to know your story terribly well, though that may help them with making prompts more specific; it could be as simple as, "X and the zoo," or somesuch.

Does that help?

[finch]

Oops, I didn't mean Palette, I meant Saturation. XD Palette was actually pretty easy to figure out - the ones that are on the various pages in rainbowlists were fairly clear, but I wondered if there were any word minimums or requirements for a Palette. Like, does it have to be a group of interconnected story pieces? Or is it any story where you use all the prompts? But the explanation for Paint-by-Numbers does help, thanks.

Sorry for all the questions. :)

[subluxate]

I'm leaving this open to reply tomorrow; I'm super-tired, so everything I type about Saturations isn't quite clear. I just want you to know I'm not ignoring you. =)

[subluxate]

A Saturation has no minimum (or maximum!) word count; it could even be both a Saturation and a Pointillism (series of one-sentence scenes or perspectives of a scene).

There should at least be a theme to your Saturation; for instance, Geena did one themed "wanting". It can also be interconnected story pieces, or it can be one continuous story in which each scene uses one prompt. The biggest thing, though, is that it uses all the prompts in one piece.