Posting guidelines for the BSH.

[cailenbraern.livejournal.com]

This post is primarily aimed at our newer members, though I strongly urge all members to read this as it contains details of a few changes to the way the haven is run.

First of all, welcome to the Boosh Slash Haven. We have always regarded ourselves as one of the friendliest slash fandoms around and with your help, we will always remain so. This post is intended to outline the posting guidelines in the kingdom of gheydom, and tell you all you need to know about writing fanfiction for the BSH.

Betas.

Firstly, while we cannot force you to do so, it is strongly advised that you have your stories read by a beta before submitting your post. A list of available betas can be found here here. This advice applies to all members, whether old or new, first timers or prolific posters. Having a friend read over your story is not 100% safe, as there will always be some degree of bias. A beta will ensure that any grammar, spelling or characterisation errors are ironed out, and that your story is the best it can be.

Lj-cuts

Those of you who are new to Livejournal, please check out this FAQ to using LJ-cuts here. All fanfiction must be placed behind a cut, even drabbles. It just makes the place look tidier, and a tidy home equals a happy home.

Heading up your fanfiction

Details about your fanfic can be placed in front of a cut, and must use this form.

Title: (self-explanatory. Please indicate if it is RPS, OT, etc. see guide above)
Pairing or Characters: (self-explanatory)
Summary: (a brief outline of your plot)
Word Count: (self-explanatory)
Rating: (see guidance on ratings)
Warnings: (Use this to make clear warnings if your theme contains any of the sensitive themes mentioned later in this post)
Challenge: (if written for a fic challenge):
Disclaimer: (this is basically where you beg the creator of the characters not to sue you by stating that you don’t own them and you make no profit from your story)
Author’s Notes: (anything else you want to add such as betas, thankyou’s, source references, inspirations, etc.)
Then insert your story below your heading, using a LJ cut.

Ratings

Please ensure that your rating is correct, or your post may be rejected with a note to correct it. Here is a guide to ratings, devised by accio_arse

G: A twelve year old could read this story and not be offended in any way. They might not understand it, but they wouldn't be offended. No violence. No bad language. No sexual activity, either explicit or implied, although people hugging and caring for each other are okay. Very few BSH fics would ever be G, because by nature of the comm, they tend to be relationship based. Perhaps a pre-slash fluff or a comedy set in an established relationship?
PG: Swearing. Mild violence. Some mild sexual activity, e.g. a bit of snogging, or where there's sex happening but it's not explicitly described - it's in the background or tastefully faded out. Most Boosh fluff would be PG.
PG-13: Medium levels of violence. Sexwise: Heavy snogging, groping, fumbling, rubbing, and stimulation. The kind of stuff you'd start to feel a bit uncomfortable with if you were sat next to your granny and it suddenly came onto the telly, unless you and your granny made a habit of getting out some gay soft porn every Sunday and having a nice family afternoon of it.
R: Really heavy scenes of violence that probably should also be warned for separately - bloody fight scenes, torture, gore, that kind of stuff. Or pretty strong sex scenes that just stop short of actual full-on porn.
NC-17: As far as I'm aware, only explict sex scenes can get this rating. Which is wierd, because most people find violence much more shocking than sex, don't you think? But there you go. This is for fics with very explicitly described sex in them. Pr0n!

Warnings

Warnings: Where applicable, please give your readers a warning about the content of your story. Themes such as violence, blood/gore, femslash, sado-masochism, self-harm and bestiality, as well as previously banned themes such as incest, rape and Mpreg are not banned from the Haven but they are not everybody’s choice of reading matter, so please be exact in your content warning and make sure your story is placed under a cut.

Moderated posting

The majority of posts here are moderated. This means there may be a slight delay before a moderator is able to approve your post, so please be patient. Eventually, once we see that your posts are consistent and satisfactory, we will place you on the approved poster list. Those of you who are on this list must not abuse this position. Your posts will be deleted and you may be banned.

Grammar

This section details our policy on approving or rejecting posts. It is not the job of a moderator to reject a post if there are a couple of grammatical flaws or spelling errors. This is why it is advisable to have your work sent to a beta. However, if we find a submitted post to be abundant with mistakes or difficult to read, we will return it to you and point you in the direction of our beta list.

Characterisation

The same applies to characterisation. Unfortunately, none of us here are Julian Barratt or Noel Fielding. If we were, then Party would have a very different ending. We realise that nobody is going to get these characters 100% right, especially in RPS. We will rarely reject submissions based on characterisation, unless we feel that the characters in question are practically AU. Again, we will point you in the direction of the beta list to seek advice on your characters.

Giving and receiving concrit

If you submit a post to the Haven, you must be prepared to accept constructive criticism. It can be a bit daunting when you’re first posting, but everyone here is here to help you be the best you can be. Concrit is not intended as a personal attack, but rather as friendly advice. Please accept it graciously. Likewise, all members are reminded to be courteous and polite when offering constructive criticism, and reminded to take into account the poster’s feelings.

Revision to our banned themes policy

The list of banned themes here at the BSH includes: stories about MPREG (male pregnancy), non-consensual sex (e.g. rape or sexual abuse), incest and implied or actual sexual activity between adults and minors (children). We are lifting the ban on these with a few conditions. Any fanfic containing these themes MUST be posted via an external link, for example a link to ff.net or to your personal journal. Any post submitted to the Haven with these themes contained in the main body of your post will be rejected. Any fanfic containing these themes MUST display a clear warning before the link. No vague ‘this might contain a small amount of such and such’ but a clear warning so readers know what they’re letting theirselves in for. Also posts linking to fanfic containing these themes MUST be locked so that only members of this community can read them.

Not a writer? Not a problem!

Posts do not have to contain fanfiction. We also accept icon posts, fanart, fanvids, and any other multimedia providing that it involves Boosh Slash. All images must be placed behind a cut, and with a maximum of three thumbnail images in front of a cut. Embedded video links must also be placed behind a cut, with the video details in front.

Tags

Please, please, please tag your posts. Our list of tags can be found here. This makes it easier for other members to find your fanfic, and also saves a lot of the moderators time tagging your posts for you.

Third post hurts the most.

Members are limited to two posts a day. There are over a 1000 members here, and understandably the community gets besieged with posts from time to time. Imposing this limit enables everybody to have time to read all the posts, and not miss anything. Posting more than twice a day may be considered as trolling, and may result in you being banned.

Your post must contain slash.

As this is a community dedicated to Boosh Slash, posts must contain some reference to Boosh slash, or slash involving Noel and Julian. Booshslash includes: Slash fic/vids/fanart of the characters from the radio series, the tv shows and the live tour, and Noel and Julian. Other actors/comedians/musicians RPS has to be directly related to Booshslash.
Neon/Ultra and Dee/Sue (RPS) are fine, as they are part of the Booshiverse. Rich/Dave is ok, as they are both members of the Boosh, or if you're being pedantic, at least Dave is (as photographer, choreographer, and as various characters).
Fiction about other comedy shows is classed as Off Topic if it includes neither or only one of the Boosh Boys, Noel and Julian.
i.e. Snuff Box, The IT Crowd and Asylum are all OT but acceptable.
Nathan Barley and Unnatural Acts are not Off Topic, as long as the characters written about are played by Noel and Julian.

-Posts advertising other communities will be rejected.
-Posts requesting a fanfic to be written will be rejected.
-Posts requesting prompts will be rejected.
-Posts asking for help tracking a fanfic down will be rejected.
-And any off-topic post that does not involve slash at all will be rejected.

There is a community dedicated to finding fanfic here. If somebody sets up a request community, we will gladly advertise it here, but that is the only exception to the rule.

Have any problems or concerns? I'm not the only mod.

In future, if any of you have concerns, please contact a mod. I have noticed in the past, a few of you have only contacted me. I am the creator of this community, and I have a responsibility towards it, but I cannot be around all of the time. Please make sure you contact at least two of the mods, stating in your message who you have contacted so we can communicate between us. Posts made by members expressing their views on the running of this community will not be allowed, but a mod will make a public post if the concern is serious, and invite all opinions to be made.

I believe that this covers everything. If anything is unclear, please let me know. And if you have any other suggestions, please comment here. Normal service will resume shortly. We will have a challenge up soon, keep your eyes peeled!

Comments

[wildebrian.livejournal.com]

This clears a lot of stuff up wonderfully. Good job, mods!

I'm looking forward to the fic challenge.

[gracefulstalker.livejournal.com]

I'm being pedantic but...

Neon/Ultra and Dee/Susan (RPS) are fine, as they are part of the Booshiverse.

It's Sue, or Suzanne at a push.

Much much appreciated, I have faith that this will help new members, and those of us who have been around for a while but have only started posting recently.

Just out of interest, if there were any more problems arising, who are the bets mods to get in contact with? Are they all active?

[gracefulstalker.livejournal.com]

*best

fail.

[sandracarol.livejournal.com]

Excellent post
(bookmarks)

A challenge eh.............

*strokes imaginary beard

[crowson75.livejournal.com]

Excellent. Thank you.

[trickseybird.livejournal.com]

oh la, citin'. New times!

[im-deba.livejournal.com]

Thanks you guys!
And damn, you guys were so efficiently quick too. excellent work!

[im-deba.livejournal.com]

Um, the link to the warnings list is missing... :-/

[splatterdick.livejournal.com]

As a reader, thank you for this :D

[mspotamus.livejournal.com]

Looks great! I'm excited about the possibility of getting back into the Boosh fandom again! Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedules to address these issues! :D

[fecklesslyfine.livejournal.com]

Wow, you gals are fabulous. We appreciate all your hard work, truly <3

I do have to toss my two cents in and say that I too am a bit skeptical on the issue monooccularcat raised. Not so much that I have an issue with the themes, per se, but am just concerned, what with the recent rulings from the Australian (Supreme?) Court on cartoon porn featuring Maggie and Bart Simpson being illegal. And then what happened to the HP community on LJ, with people like Ponderosa getting their journals deleted for drawing/writing things like Harry/Snape (if I recall correct?)

Not to be a rabble-rouser, but we do have blue_boosh for a reason, no? I just don't want anything to happen to BSH, haha.

[colour-me-troll.livejournal.com]

You guys are the best. Don't have much more to say than that, really.

[sparklyglampire.livejournal.com]

Ooh, brilliant! This makes everything nice and clear for anyone new who joins us in our little kingdom of gheydom :D

Also, I have to agree with what fecklesslyfine said.. we have blue_boosh for all the incest/non-con stuff. Is there much point 'unbanning' that kind of thing if it has to be f'locked and posted on another journal anyway? Just a thought.

Anyway, thank you, mods!

[justwolf.livejournal.com]

I'd just like to state that I completely support cailenbraern's decision to remove the ban on certain topics. I feel that the previous ban felt unjustified as many very kinky topics were allowed, and in fact have been posted on, the Boosh Slash Haven, such as bestiality or watersports. It always seemed strange to me that certain kinks not allowed when the BSH has always been such an open-minded and non-judgemental place in all other respects. I feel that this move is a very positive step for the community.

I created blue_boosh not as haven for non-con or incest per se, but as a place where people could feel safe to post whatever kind of fic they wished without fear of judgement. Its existence, I feel, does not change the inherent unfairness of some kinks considered
unacceptable while others are allowed here on the BSH.

[mychosenwords.livejournal.com]

This really does clear things up nicely. Thank you for putting in all the effort it must have taken to put it together so logically and concisely.

[ibkod.livejournal.com]

Good stuff!

Well done mods!

[thieving-gypsy.livejournal.com]

HOORAY! ♥

One question:

As this is a community dedicated to Boosh Slash, posts must contain some reference to Boosh slash, or slash involving Noel and Julian.

Say someone was writing a silly adventure story that had Howard and Vince and silly adventures, like the telly show... but no bumming. Not even a cuddle. That's okay, right? There's so little gen it'd seem mad creating a whole new comm just for it. (I'm not actually writing it, just plotting something out, and I wanted to check before I go stomping over the lovely shiny new rules.)

[cailenbraern.livejournal.com]

As this is a Boosh Slash Haven, it would be expected to be slash fiction posted. I know there's a lot of gen posted on ff.net. You are a writer of exceptional standard so if you wanted to post it here I wouldn't object. It must be marked off topic or OT in your subject title though.

If we are suddenly besieged by gen posts from others, then it will be curtailed.

[thieving-gypsy.livejournal.com]

OH ALSO: I agree with what people have said about the really filthy stuff. I think everybody in blue_boosh is a member of BSH, but not everybody in BSH is in BB, so I assume people who want to read/write about Noel starving himself to death and getting underage!Mike pregnant are sorted already? It'd save on friendspages a little bit, at least. People don't have to crosspost to both. :)

[smaych.livejournal.com]

Hey thieving_gypsy, I'm just replying to your comment on this because it's the last of a few of them and I'm lazy :P

Noel starving himself to death - this was never banned in the first place, and neither were such extreme kinks as bestiality, for example, or necrophilia. It seems weird to say some people's kinks are too kinky, and some are not. It feels judgemental. If it's under a cut with warnings, what's the problem? If people don't like it, they simply don't read it.

Also, surely a simple "no cross-posting" rule would work to stop cross posting? I kind of thought that blue_boosh was for specifically kinky stuff and kink requests, anonymous or not? Kind of a haven (an actual haven, as opposed to a Boosh haven lol) for kinky folks who feel uncomfortable posting on the BSH or elsewhere. Maybe I got that wrong.

Edited for clarification.

[leonleif.livejournal.com]

Thank you for that.
It's a post that's definitely worth keeping for future reference.
Keep up the good work!

[halfpintmonkey.livejournal.com]

Excellent work, mods! Thank you.

Now, if a similar thing can be done with Julian and Noel's alarmingly declining standard of writing as well... :P

[fecklesslyfine.livejournal.com]

Haha, win.

[tattva2121.livejournal.com]

That's brilliant - thanks!!

At the risk of exposing myself as a right simpleton, might it be worth adding another section where the abbreviations are explained. When I was new to the BSH I didn't really get too many of them, and when I asked older members, they didn't either! It might help newer members out and stop any accidental rule breaks? Y'know, just stuff like dub-con, non-con, OCC etc etc etc.
I know it's all painfully obvious for the seasoned pros, but not so much for newbies :)

Thanks x

[im-deba.livejournal.com]

That's a good idea, actually!
Took me ages to figure out what AU meant... months after I posted one. :-[

[el-gardner.livejournal.com]

This is brilliant, thanks for taking the time to clarify all that for us; it's much appreciated.

I have to say I agree with lifting the ban on mpreg etc., personally, as long as everything is clearly labelled I don't see any problem with it; what's too much for one person might not be for another and I think it's fairer this way. Also, limiting posting to two a day per author will hopefully help a lot.

<3

[stevrick.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for posting this, it means a lot to all of us! I think that you guys handled this very well.

[tabithaarbella.livejournal.com]

Hi,
I wanted to try and join this group I wasn't going 2 post anything I'm not brave enough lol...I just wanted to join so that I could post comments and stuff about the stories. But I've been refused. Why? Do u just not like me or something...lol...I don't smell...lol...and the flea thing has totally cleared up: D

[tabithaarbella.livejournal.com]

Thanks lovely mod: D

[cali-se.livejournal.com]

Hi. I've just got around to reading these updated guidelines. I have a question re: the rejection of posts advertising other comms. Does this include posting something that was written for a challenge at another com and mentioning that com in the a/n? I am trying to complete a Noelian table at drabble123 and have been sharing the drabbles here too. Possibly a silly question, but I want to be sure I'm not breaking any rules unwittingly.

[cailenbraern.livejournal.com]

Hello.

We do not mind cross-posting provided it has a slash content in fiction form or other media. Although we're still currently trying to sort out a policy concerning drabbles to prevent multiple postings of single drabble entries. This hasn't been ironed out yet.

[accio-arse.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU for limiting posting to twice a day per member. THANK YOU!

I pretty much stopped watching the comm quite a while ago (a year perhaps?) because of a burst of this. There are certain pairings and subjects that I'm not that keen on (we all have our preferences). Seeing these spammed in multiple clots over my flist for weeks at a time by just one or two members actually made me feel physically sick.

At that point I stopped posting to BSH and filtered it off my flist. I was so sad, because I do love the haven.

I have no idea if I've been the only one to do this. I felt hesitant to say anything. After all, they're just my personal fic preferences. And loads of other people seemed to like the fics. I didn't want to spoil their fun.

Just, they were posted quite frequently...

[fire-at-wi11.livejournal.com]

Hey, I don't know if this will help or not but my friend mmmherpesflavor tried to join this comm and you rejected her. I know she probably looks like a troll because she doesn't have a lot of comments or anything but I just introduced her to The Mighty Boosh and she's just a lurker on LJ and just wants to read fanfiction so I was wondering if she could join anyway if I vouched that she wouldn't start trouble or anything. Thanks for your time and we'll both understand if you still reject her.