What are the rules for Fanfic-Recs?

After reading Comartemis's posts in the "Edit-Banned..." thread, I've got a question:

What exactly are the rules for Fanfic-Recs? I know the very basic rules, but it appears to me that there are other rules for that place that aren't made as clear as the others.

Thanks.

While I'm not a regular in that area of the wiki, I'm pretty sure these are the basic guidelines:

• Anyone can recommend any fic, with two exceptions:
  • Self-recommendation (i.e. recommending fics you wrote) is not permitted.
  • X-rated/NC-17/explicit fics are not permitted. I think R/non-explict "mature" fics are allowed as long as the recommendation indicates that they're NSFW.
• The description on the main page is to be kept as neutral as possible. All opinions, reviews, thoughts on the quality, etc. is to be put in the reviews.
• All recs should contain the title of the fic, a link to the fic, the author, the recommender's handle, the status of the fic (WIP, complete, abandoned, on hiatus) if known, pairings (if it's a shipping fic), content tags, and a brief summary.

The full explanation is on Fan Fic Recommendations along with a template of how to do them. It includes the caveat that opinions go on reviews as has been the standard for over a year now. These rules were created by members of the Fan Fic Rec community in the TRS in order to stop flaming and edit wars.

The only thing Eddie helped with was coding the review link button to help them out.

edited 12th Jan '12 9:28:38 AM by shimaspawn

I noticed that our informal 'no self-recs' rule is not mentioned on that page.

Should it be added?

From what I gathered, self-recs are okay.

Actually, they're pretty much 'delete on sight' in my experience.

Fan Fic Recommendations is a tool for readers, not an ad service for writers.

Funny, I could have sworn that self-recs were okay done properly. Said explicitly so. Maybe my old age is kicking in....

You can make a page for your fic yourself, as a work's page, but you need to wait for someone else to rec it on the recommendations pages.

So, about self-recomendations, I believe there is no official policy for this, but I'm in support for ending self-recommendations, because the point of the Fanfic Rec page is to enforce Sturgeon's Law, given how big the number of bad fics is. If everyone starts to recommend their own fanfic, it will pointless to have a Fanfic Rec page.

We never allowed self-recs.

So, can we officially add this rule to the Fanfic Recommendations page?

If it's not there already, I'd say it should be.

It's there now, although some sort of reason should be added...I was drawing a blank.

EDIT: I took RN 452's comment and used it to add a reason; how's it look?

edited 3rd May '12 10:46:16 AM by Willbyr

It works, though I might suggest "No recommending your own fics. This section is a tool for readers, not an advertising service for authors." instead.

I like the second part of that; it's swapped in.

I've zapped some self-promoted fics that I found (using the affluents to Shameless Self-Promotion), there is only one in superRobotWars page that is backed up by another review, that I don't know what to do.

But it clearly says on at least one page (Discworld)

Feel free to add a fanfic of your own to the list, but remember to use the template found here.

The previous poster (Meta Skipper) who thought they'd seen a rule or guidleline allowing you to reccomend your own stuff, who put it down to old age, was not wrong - it is quite clearly stated that you can reccomend your own stuff.

There is evidently a degree of self-contradiction here, in that case?

edited 25th Jul '12 11:15:36 AM by AgProv

Many individual pages are out of date, e.g. having the note about converting comments to reviews. The official version is on the Fanfic Recommendations index, and states self-recs are not allowed. If you see a subpage which says they are allowed, then please change that bit and move any self-recs to the discussion page or delete them.

thank you for clarifying! Now it's straight, i'll get on with this.

Just spotted those cool auto-generated little lines at the top of the "compose" screen. The first one said "Oh good, Ag Prov is about to setle this thing" and the current one reads "Keep it down! Ag Prov is composing a post". really neat!

In addition to being against Fan Fic Recs policy, is it considered very arrogant if someone actually decides to self-rec their fic(s)? I'm certain it does, but I need confirmation.

Arrogant? Only if you do it in deliberate defiance of the rule against it. Narcissistic? Definitely.

What about mentioning your story on a page of a specific trope. For example, your story utilizes a form of Chekov's Gun, and you want to write it on the trope's page.

That's called crosswicking, and it is in fact mandatory. Just make sure the trope fits.