| BloMo22: lore and Snupin, part II.... |
[Nov. 22nd, 2009|06:51 am] |
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| |  satisfied | ] |
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| | Lobstermen! | ] |
As I ended yesterday, I was preparing for my Epic Campaign to encourage more Snape/Lupin.
By Epic Campaign, I really mean that I decided to comment on every Snape/Lupin I came across, and that anytime I saw anyone offering drabbles or art, I would ask for Snape/Lupin. Now, you have to understand, the RPG was my first attempt at interacting with fandom. I don't think I had even commented on many journals then. So, when I say I started commenting and asking for drabbles/art, this was a big deal for me.
I made myself one ground rule: Don't say anything to anyone that I wouldn't want to hear myself as a creator. That meant not asking when the next chapter of a Work in Progress might be out or asking for a sequel, or commenting to someone else without actually commenting on the fic or art itself. Two years of lurking will at least teach you what not to do. There were times when I worried that some regular Snape/Lupin writers (*cough* McKay, Arion *cough*), were going to think I was a stalker, but I toughed it out in the name of more Snape/Lupin. ^_^
I'd like to think that my enthusiastic squee and encouragement helped inspire more Snape/Lupin in some small way, but I suspect Arion and McKay's April Showers challenge had more to do with it. Actually, what happened during that same month is that I had been thinking of asking to help out at ![[info - community]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png) lupin_snape for quite a while, too shy and under-confident to act. But the renewed interest in the community and the mods' busy real lives made several other Snape/Lupin fans muse "aloud" in their journals about asking to mod at the community.
And yes, my ego has come far enough along now to admit that I thought I was the best person for the job at the time and that I'd better get on the stick before the others went from musing to asking. I was wrapping up the RPG, and I'd gained some experience managing a group of people with varying desires and needs from the game. I'd made plenty of mistakes, which helped to an extent, although I feel I've made plenty of mistakes at lupin_snape, too. I guess I learned that I could make mistakes and only hold on to them quietly, rather than actively beating myself up over them. ~_^
But I had ideas, too, and, again, those two years of lurking showed me which communities thrived and which died out after the initial excitement waned. For just about 5 years, the ship has been running strong, mainly because there are mods obviously on-duty there. People want to know that other people are paying attention. What kind of a "community" runs steadily without a sense of togetherness?
My modding philosophy has been simple: It's Our community, not my community. A community is nothing without its members, and I've tried to run lupin_snape as openly and all-inclusive as possible while maintaining that final "say" only because sometimes someone has to make the decision. I can't think of any time I've actually put my foot down, other than to protect the community from spammers, and to this day, I've never banned anyone except known "problem" accounts from back in the Russian Invasion LJ days. Anyone who tells you that they're not welcome at lupin_snape is imposing her/his own exile.
I remember one of the people who wanted to mod (long gone from fandom now), talking about how she wanted to take over and then she could demand Marauders-era fic because that was her favourite era, which scared me to the bone. Snarry, even back then, had more than one "basic" community, and I knew the Snape/Lupin ship wasn't big enough to survive with a lot of splinter communities, which is what would have happened if LS (Lupin_Snape from now on) had become Marauders-focused. Eventually, someone unhappy with that focus would have gone and started Snape_Lupin_Adults or something, and the fans would have been scattered. The ship might have never grown.
Hum. I've meandered away from the question. It's because I love LS and its members so very much; I could go on about it all day. So, after being frightened into action, I consulted with a few friends for some final hand-holding and wrote the mods, offering to be the active mod. I was completely surprised when both women responded within the week with easy Yes'es, and my account was given mod status. Surprised, only because I thought it would be harder to convince anyone to take me on. ~_^
My first month was kind of rocky because I'd barely introduced myself when there was a major death in the family. But you know, in case anyone has the wrong impression, the original LS mod, ![[info - personal]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) makishef, has always been interested in the community and pairing, she just didn't have time to maintain a hands-on approach to the community. That month, she stepped right up and made sure the monthly challenge was issued and on-track while I was away. The other mod that was on board when I came on has since moved on, but she was always friendly and supportive as well. They're great gals, and I hope no one thinks anything but the best of them. We wouldn't have LS without them.
I was back by June with a new monthly challenge and there's been something new every month or two since then. I think people cross-posting their challenge-inspired works to their journals and other communities helped let people know that LS was an active, interesting place to be, as well as a treasure-trove of great Snape/Lupin content if they were interested in finding more. I think we hit 750 members by the end of the year and 1000 members a little over a year after the April Showers challenge. Somewhere along the line, "Snupin" became the preferred moniker for the pairing, and I stopped trying not to use it about a year after that. ~_^ I still use Snape/Lupin, though, when I go outside the community, if only because now that fandom is waning, new people coming in don't always get the squished nickname phenomenon.
So, that's it. That's how I came to be mod at LS. And while I answered why I shipped Snape and Lupin together before, in my normal fandoming I always point people here when they ask me why I ship Snupin. It's short and to the point, and I couldn't have said it better myself.
love, lore |
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