kurofai | 2017 KuroFai Olympics: Moderator Team!

Current Mood: bouncy

Entry tags:

2017 KuroFai Olympics: Moderator Team!

Guys, gals and nonbinary pals, please put your hands together for the 2017 KuroFai Olympics Moderator Team:

flowerspeaks ,

animangod ,

blue_phoenix_tears ,

aquarius_galuxy , and

mikkeneko !

Now, these lovely folks have volunteered to be our team of friendly moderators and get this fantastic fic event off and running. I'm going to sign off and leave you all in the capable hands of our brave mods here, so please direct any enquiries towards them - either by leaving a comment on this post with your question, or sending them a message - and I am sure they'll get back to you as soon as possible!

Just please keep in mind it may take a little while for our mods to get themselves organised; they need time to plan before the event can get started, and I'm sure we all know that patience is a virtue.

Mods, if you would be so kind to do a quick little intro about yourselves in the comments down below, I'm sure that would be really appreciated!

Thanks everyone who volunteered, and thank you all for being so excited about the 2017 KuroFai Olympics!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I can write most of the public facing posts. Honestly at this point I can probably do most of them from memory.

The immediate things we need to decide are dates, team themes and prompt themeing.

My recommendation for the dates remains late July-through August. I am ambivalent so far on team themes. None of the suggestions made in the previous thread especially jump out at me. We want to be careful to avoid over-specialization.

As for chatting: we can do it here, or my next recommendation would be to set up a Discord channel, that being all the rage these days.

Thank you!

I feel like dates could be a mod- and writer- dependent thing, like... will any mod be unavailable for a specific time? (I'm traveling 6-22nd oct)

Late jul-aug works for me.

I feel like with themes, we'd have to go wayyyy vague (but I also haven't been keeping up with the suggestions)... maybe Hot VS Cold, or Good VS Evil, or Red VS Blue (White VS Black), Open VS Close, Wrong VS Right.. (repubs vs democrats HA)

ETA more suggestions: pen VS sword, fire VS ice, human VS beast ... uhh.

discussions on DW might be the best option for now

Edited 2017-07-01 06:18 (UTC)

Just reading the prompts suggested, there seemed to be a bit of (more than one) interest in things like Kurogane vs Fai, Dragons vs Phoenix, Nature vs Machine and Sky vs Sea.

The first two are also similar to the Red vs. Blue, Fire vs. Ice or others like Water vs Air, Sky vs Sea etc. Fai and Kurogane have so many mirrored themes so my question is wouldn't it be a good idea to use them for a theme? It would ony be a matter or finding the most vague theme out of these so the writers will have as much room for interpretation as possible, but also one that that doesn't pigeon-hole the writers to write about one character's POV.
Like, suppposing we use the Red vs Blue theme, the writers of the Red team can focus on Kurogane in third person omniscient, or from Kurogane's POV (second person, third person limited, first person) or Fai focusing on Kurogane. And that's just for the perspectives of these two. It could be from anyone's perspective, (Kuro-mama for exaple or Ashura-oh).

I hope I'm conveying what I mean properly (I'm not 100% confident in my knowledge and use of technical terms) but my point is that it looks like the Fai vs. Kurogane theme has been shot down before because it was assumed that it would be from their POV exclusively, which really narrows down the interpretation room. But it doesn't have to be. If you take the above wiggle room (which is just my own thoughts, I'm sure many more ideas could be added to it) and also assign good vague prompts there's quite a lot of room for interpretation. What do you think?

Like not FROM the character's POV and not even just ABOUT THE character, but about all the themes ASSOCIATED with the characters, (which is why I think the Red vs Blue is the best) I hope this makes sense! :)

i think this is a great interpretation! I like it!

In summary: Theme must be able to span multiple genres, like contemporary AUs, fantasy AUs, canon. It must also be able to span both Kurogane and Fai's POVs (so that a writer can include both characters if they want). As well as a large time period, if possible.

this is so we can have participants who want to write about end-of-the-world pirate fic, as well as participants who want to write about modern-day childcare schmooop, etc etc.

The theme will have to be broad. The prompts can go into more specific categories, like apocalypse stuff, or mythical beasts, or scifi, or whatever. But the theme itself needs to cover all these categories.

All right, so here's a new suggestion: how about Virtues and Vices? Team Vice vs. Team Virtue? With the daily prompts being the seven deadly sins. >.>

if everyone agrees on this, it would make life so much easier (crying-laughing face)

I'd be good with this... And thanks to a character development document I already have all seven vices and virtues at my disposal

I... had no idea there were 7 virtues as well XD;;;

They are considered the opposite spectrum of the vices so the virtues are chastity, abstinence, liberality, diligence, patience, kindness, and humility while the vices are lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride.

Sounds great!! So if the theme and prompts are decided what else do we need, additional ideas for each prompt to give the writers? Theme wise I mean not about the dates etc.

Also is the mod team going to be just us, because I think maybe it hasn't been confirmed about one person who volunteered whether they can help out in the end.

so... prompt expansion/elaboration... (I assume we're having 14 participants this year then, if we stick to 7 sins)

how much elaboration do we give each prompt? Like.. 2-3 ideas? quotes? eg.

1. lust (bloodlust, fashion shows, my lips on your throat)
2. gluttony ("Gluttony is an emotional escape, a sign something is eating us.")
3. greed (bank robberies, evil corporations, Scrooge McDuck)
4. sloth
5. wrath
6. envy
7. pride

... and so on? Ideas? Suggestions? etc etc??? ...... ok I just realized that all these lend to angst and not as much fluff......

CONCERN: are these good enough for team virtue to work with? should there be a set of opposite prompts for Virtue? (humility, kindness, chasity, etc etc) Or can team virtue write about wrath as a virtue? Or whatever?

p.s. so sorry for the comment updates

Edited 2017-07-02 16:39 (UTC)

I think that hough the themes are distinct maybe they are a bit TOO distinct (The following thoughts are about using the 7 vices for both team prompts or just for team Vice while team Virtue has their own prompts.)

It will possibly read to pigeonholing writers, for one the vices and sins have more specific connotations (sloth is BAD, lust is BAD), which even if a writer decides to reject in their fic, still cuts down the wiggle room) Take anger or example, if the prompt was simply Anger there would be more interpretation room but as a Vice? extreme anger? a sin? a very negative thing? Not as much.

Also it may one of the things one will associate with Kurogane but what about Fai? He's nothing like Kurogane in that regard and that would be OOC for Fai, so the writer is again pigeonholed.

Same thing with lust, it's mostly a conservative notion so I think many of those will force the writers to try and subvert/reject these notions without giving them many other choices. Dark is a broad enough theme but specific Vices are not imo. Also greed mm they aren't really greedy? Not everything is a broad enough prompt to apply to both characters, and so on.

UNLESS the prompts are Humility vs Pride etc.! So writers can choose either of them to focus on/reject! The vice team writers can choose either humility or pride to be the Vice! Or to be what is considered a Vice but really is not etc.

Thoughts?

Or they can choose both! Things aren't always black and white (as 7 vices and virtues claim) so team Virtue writers can pick both as a virtue! Righteous anger/indignation is just as important as Patience/Forgiveness!

So not Wrath vs. Forgiveness necessarily but Wrath AND Forgiveness! (pick any or both and extrapolate so to speak^^)

I think adding the virtue to the vice will give more options/freedom to the writers. I think if we did it this way it would work.

I came up with a list of ways team virtue can possibly read these 7 prompts - see below comment.

Fai is..... complex. I believe it would be a treat to see Fai angry, for once. :)

Have you participated in the olympics/popped in to the previous olympics to see how they were done? :)

I wanted to see where team virtue could go with these prompts. just for kicks, here's what I came up with (and people more creative than me can do way better, I'm sure)

1. lust - just married, spies on a mission, a vampire trying NOT to drink blood (yeh I just wrote that book lol), a charity fashion show gala, the lack of lust (ace/demi)

2. gluttony - Mokona's storage system and all the chaos involved. food banks. a chef working in a buffet kitchen. hand-feeding lovers

3. greed - (Mokona what did you do with the booze I bought for the mage DAMN YOU), stamp/etc collectors, working against greedy corporations (eg. robin hood), telemarketers, petty theft, why did you cut a sample of my prized houseplant

4. sloth - (IT is the easy way out of everything! Send an e-card to your lover today!), lazy days in bed (esp after hard work), also a massage, recovery from injuries/downtime, a jaded person learning to take an active role, a good work ethic, geniuses
("Lazy people, the truly lazy people live on information, strategies, ideas, plans and many other criticals, simply to spend one hour of hard work and make the rest feel like a breeze")

5. wrath - righteous fury (+ politics/oppression), letting go of hate, someone working to help angry people/ customers, nature's wrath

6. envy - envy leads to constantly improving (teacher and student?), also jealousy with regard to lovers... competing rivals/dragon riders
("Success makes so many people hate you. I wish it wasn't that way. It would be wonderful to enjoy success without seeing envy in the eyes of those around you")
("Envy is the art of counting the other fellow's blessings instead of your own.")
("Birds have wings; they're free; they can fly where they want when they want. They have the kind of mobility many people envy.")

7. pride - out and proud, swallowing pride to work through issues, a phoenix and its feathers, a dragon and its scales, learning to be proud of oneself (self-esteem)

......... now that I'm looking at these through Virtue's lens, that was actually a lot of fun lol
granted, I also really loved the quote prompts from last year, so...

Edited 2017-07-02 21:28 (UTC)

I do like that idea. There's also the possibility of having the corresponding virtues (lust/chastity, gluttony/temperance, pride/humility etc) rather than asking a Virtue team member to try to come up with a positive spin on, say, 'envy.'

I think it might help to emphasize that neither team necessarily HAS to be bad or good; a Vice writer could easily put a positive spin on Lust, for instance, or a Virtue writer could write something that really looks into the negative, self-abnegating nature of Humility.

I don't think pigeonholing is all that great of a danger; people can freely choose which team to sign up for, and can freely choose which prompt of the seven to go for.

hmm I don't think virtue vs vices will create distinct enough teams. I think it is important that the theme should clearly inspire distinct teams that they are writing opposite to each other.

I hope I am making sense!

One that jumps out to me from the other post was "love at first sight vs slow burn" i feel like that would create 2 distinct competing teams. Or "Adventure vs Domestic" which was what I was trying to say when I suggested 'Adventure vs Slice of Life' in the last post.

But also AG's Human vs Beast sounds great! That could create great teams!

heya flower! the themes (to me) are distinct, in the sense that vices can be interpreted in a bunch of ways, as can virtues (think of teams light and dark the previous round). My main concern is pigeonholing due to themes (as a writer I HATE being pigeonholed).

things like love at first sight implies a certain point of a relationship (and a certain type of story) which... might not be the best idea? it could be a prompt though!

Team themeing is always a challenge because you have to walk a line between too general (no guidance) and too specific (no flexibility.) It has to be a dichotomy that is distinct and easily understood, yet it also can't be too specific or else your writers are hampered.

In the past we've had some not so good results with themes that ended up being too specific; Comedy vs Tragedy, for example, ran into the problem that comedic writing is an extremely distinct skill and not one that all writers have.

Something like "sky vs sea" I admit I don't see how that could provide guidance to the team members at all; whereas something like "human vs beast" is too confining.

As for dates, the only dates I know Absolutely about is Sept 1-3, which is NDK. But I can always do mod stuff when I come home. And while there's the Renaissance one weekend before August 31, and two trips (one to NM and one with an out of state friend) that have yet to be planned and given calendar dates, and again, I'll do mod checking in when I can those days anyway. So my schedule shouldn't be a problem.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

2017 KuroFai Olympics: Moderator Team!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Being unavailable