Here are a few notes regarding policy on the Slipstream BBS and the addition of a new moderator. Please read through them carefully:

* (Not) posting story ideas

As you may have noticed, we're very lucky to have several of the Andromeda writers posting here at the Slipstream BBS. In order for them to still be able to visit here, we've had to introduce a new rule that no story ideas will be posted, pitched or discussed in any forums besides the Fan Fiction forum. The reason for this is that the writers are not legally able to read any story ideas, and so can't run the risk of seeing any of these in the forums.

So, in order to make sure the writers can continue posting here, please restrict the posting of story ideas to the Fan Fiction forum. If you do post a story idea in one of the other forums, the moderators will immediately transfer the thread to the Fan Fiction forum, and if you do persist in this, it could lead to you being banned from the BBS. It's great that the writers of the show are already interacting with their fans, so please follow this rule so this can go on.

* Linking to Pictures

In addition to the above rule, a guideline we're introducing has to do with the posting of images here at the BBS. We'd like to ask you that, if you post any pictures, you either upload them to your own webspace, or have the permission of the person whose site the picture is on. The reason for this is that bandwidth isn't free, and if you put up pictures which are stored on another person's site, that person might get in trouble with his/her web host.

Related to this, you're free to link to/post any pictures which appear here at SlipstreamWeb

* New Moderator

And finally, a warm welcome to Kosh as moderator of the Miscellaneous forum! Kosh is currently the top poster here at the BBS, and I'm sure he'll do a great job as moderator!

quote:

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Originally posted by Christian:
In order for them to still be able to visit here, we've had to introduce a new rule that no story ideas will be posted, pitched or discussed in any forums besides the Fan Fiction forum. The reason for this is that the writers are not legally able to read any story ideas, and so can't run the risk of seeing any of these in the forums.

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What about when plot points and story ideas are brought up during a "constructive" discussion of a particular episode?

What if during the exchange someone says that perhaps Dylan should have done this instead of that when faced with a problem, and in a future episode it would be cool to see him handle things differently because it will allow his character to grow in a particular way which wasn't handled quite right the first time around?

Discussions of that nature will inadvertently lead to basic story ideas. Does that violate the rule? And if it does, won't that limit the scope of the episode discussions to simple criticism? Possibly negative ones?

Sorry if this sounds like I'm testing the rule, because it wasn't the intent. But since I had never participated in any fandom activities whatsoever prior to Andromeda, I'm admitting that I'm somewhat ignorant about the protocols when it comes to stuff like this on the board.

Laters...

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m31@andromedatvfans.com http://www.andromedatvfans.com/

[This message has been edited by M31 (edited August 17, 2000).]

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http://www.firflyfans.net/

What you're outlining in terms of story criticism, i.e. "I think Dylan should have shot the guy instead of punching him, I'd like to see an episode in which he's actually forced to shoot someone to save the life of a crewmember", should be okay, because it's fairly generic.

What we're trying to avoid is people posting "I want to see an episode where the crew of the Andromeda goes to the planet of the pinky purple bleeper people and they all roast marshmallows and play ping-pong." Then six months later they watch an episode where Rommie and Harper play some mean one-on-one table tennis, and cry "Look, the writers obviously saw my idea on Slipstream.bbs and ripped off my genius! I'm suing!" They'd lose, of course, but it'd still be a nuisance for everyone involved, and one that could be easily avoided by people exercising basic common sense.

That way, everyone's happy. The writers get to hang out in this fun place with the likes of y'all, and the fans get to mingle with the show's writers (and others--we're not the only Andromeda pros in here). And Christian gets to say "neener neener neener" to all the fan websites that don't have the writers of the show participating.

Zack

quote:

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What about when plot points and story ideas are brought up during a "constructive" discussion of a particular episode?

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Ya know, I was just waiting for this issue to arise. Unlike M31, I've been on boards like this for a couple years now, and a large percentage of posts are "story ideas" of one form or another, tho usually not of the "I wanna see this" variety.

The DS9 fans here who migrated over from PsiPhi spend a lot of time bantering around story ideas, so of course we'll cause much more trouble than the Dylanites !

Common types of story idea posts include:

1. The aforementioned "Dylan should have done this" or "this would have been a better plot twist" kinda posts. This seems innocuous.

2. Posts that speculate on future developments based on a certain post twist or the direction of the series in general, eg, "I bet I know where they're going with this."

These types of posts are real common; look at the VOY board, it's filled with "here's how they should (or how I bet they will) end the series." The problem here is that it's not clear whether these ideas are guesses or suggestions; there's no clear demarcation between the two.

I suspect that this is going to be an evolving issue. Rampant speculation and idea-spinning really doesn't belong in Fan Fiction, because these ideas are not meant to become fanfics. Sometimes, like M31 said, they evolve out of a critique discussion or are used as part of someone's argument. Sometimes people start talking about spoilers and begin "filling in the blanks." Story idea discussions are often simply part of a bigger overall thread and therefore difficult to segregate.

But I'm sure we'll figure it out as we go along.

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Vote Weyoun/Keevan for President! Why settle for the lesser evil?
(Political announcement paid for by the VRC.)

[This message has been edited by StarSimple (edited August 18, 2000).]

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Favor the Bold..

DEAverification :P

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[b]DEA[/b]verification


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I also followed JMS's progress when he was talking about B5.

It seems to be the Detail of the speculation, and whether it evolves naturally based on what's going on now.

In other words, anything based on known information that doesn't go into too much detail for future situations should be fine.
Don't be too paranoid. Use your judgement, err on the side of caution if you're not sure. The writers and moderators have the final say.

"I want to see an episode where the crew of the Andromeda goes to the planet of the pinky purple bleeper people and they all roast marshmallows and play ping-pong."

This is phrased as a story idea. Yes, I know, it can be phrased differently but most story ideas sound like that in structure. Now if a certain character has talked about roasting marshmellows and another has had a dream about ping-pong, and...pinky purple bleeper people? then it'd be fine. The show Andromeda has already brought it up and you can discuss it, so long as speculation or alternate universe "What if?s" DO NOT go into telling detail.

As for newbies being reminded of not posting story ideas, this wasn't really a problem once it was in ALL CAPS in the Welcome message, and perhaps Christian can note it at the top of the board or something.

[This message has been edited by Dalendax (edited August 18, 2000).]

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BUNTY
The chances of us getting out of here are a million to one.
(beat)
GINGER
Then there's still a chance.
CHICKEN RUN, with 55 positive reviews, zero negative collected at rottentomatoes.com

OKAY
<<Any chance on seeing more baseball on DS9?>>
<<Any chance we'll see Spock's reunification thread picked up (or at least mentioned) on DS9 or maybe a future movie?>>
<< I understand that [the Jem'Hadar] are genetically engineered, and that they do not reproduce, or procreate in our human fashion. Do the Founders or Vorta handle this task? Is there a certain race of humanoid that is
preferred, or are different races used as a template for each Jem'Hadar? Or are the embryos cloned?>>

NOT OKAY
On Ron Moore's board, he only said "I'm sorry I have to stop reading here" at the point in a post where it said "My friend had a story idea. I have it below..." (Unfortunately, I can't find this one when I need it.)

<<Since you don't accept story ideas outside of the pitch room, and then mirror universe eps are out of the question, what if I were to suggest a cool TITLE for the next mirror ep? Is that out of the question, as well?>>

Sorry to be hard-nosed about it, but I really can't accept suggestions for ANYTHING over the net.

THIS IS OKAY, BUT RON WARNS...
<<Felicia Bell's character pretty well stated rather emphatically (in the last Crossover ep) that she had never had a child with her Ben which is why she was so taken with our Jake. So I don't see how Mirror Jake could exist?>>

This is something I've been puzzling out a bit myself, but I personally would like to find a rationalization for a Mirror Jake existing because I think he could be a cool character. It's just something to think about. NO SUGGESTIONS PLEASE -- this is the kind of thing we have to work out on our
own.

THE BOTTOM LINE
<< how do you tread the line between letting casual comments and conversation subconsciously feed your imagination, and the concern that you might be "stealing" someone else's idea?>>
First, I make it a policy not to accept any story ideas or pitches on these boards. Second, I rely on my own conscience to stay on this side of the
line.
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<<I'm curious to know if you would prefer us to keep to a strict question format, or if it IS helpful for you to read people who are responding to one another's posts.>>
I have no complaints about the folder. You're free to post what you want and I'll depend on everyone else to let you know when the posts have travelled too far afield -- and people WILL let you know!
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Don't hold your fire on my account. This folder is for you, the fans, to ask
questions and voice your opinions to me and I don't mind hearing criticism -- I just don't have to agree with it.
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Dalendax's thought
Writers, and Christian the webmaster, just a suggestion: Since there are multiple folders here, would you (the writers) want a separate folder primarily as a Q&A folder? You would answer the questions that you wanted to and could, in your schedule, just as you are now. And there'd still be discussion as well as Q&A: Anyone can answer. But people would be more in a discussion/Q&A mood there. You can still surf the other folders (except fanfic) at your leisure, but the Q&A folder would be 'your' folder.
My idea is patterned after Ron Moore's folder, and there were others, like "Dukat's women" or "top 10" that he visited from time-to-time but not regularly.

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BUNTY
The chances of us getting out of here are a million to one.
(beat)
GINGER
Then there's still a chance.
CHICKEN RUN, with 55 positive reviews, zero negative collected at rottentomatoes.com

What I'm also thinking of (though I'll first have to run it past TPTB) is to add something to the registration screen that basically says "if you post any story ideas in a forum besides the Fan Fiction forum, you automatically grant a non-revokable license to Tribune Entertainment to use this story idea in Andromeda" or something like that. That way, if there is a story idea posted in one of the other forums and the moderators haven't yet transfered it to the Fan Fic forum, or if we're speculating on what we would like to see happen, there wouldn't be any legal trouble if the writers also think of something we're speculating on. A similar thing is used, for instance, on the bulletin boards of Simon & Schuster, the publisher of the Star Trek books, which allows the editors and writers of those books to still visit the S&S bulletin board.

Are TPTB the Andromeda writers and staff themselves who visit this board?

If you can do that, GREAT.
JMS had to use USENET moderation after someone suggested "What if Joe wrote a story in which a "memory-challenged" person DISCOVERED records of who he or she was?" He later said the more detailed the story idea, the more litigious it is.
I think Ron Moore (and Robert Hewitt Wolfe for a few months) just did it manually.

>If you come across good ideas in these discussions do you have to
>avoid using them?

"Yep. Unless they're something we've already considered or heard pitched from someone else, or are so vague as to be meaningless."
Robert Wolfe, 2/97

And thanks for the registration & welcome message thing.

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BUNTY
The chances of us getting out of here are a million to one.
(beat)
GINGER
Then there's still a chance.
CHICKEN RUN, with 55 positive reviews, zero negative collected at rottentomatoes.com

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BUNTY
The chances of us getting out of here are a million to one.
(beat)
GINGER
Then there's still a chance.

CHICKEN RUN, with 55 positive reviews, zero negative collected at rottentomatoes.com

--------------------
BUNTY
The chances of us getting out of here are a million to one.
(beat)
GINGER
Then there's still a chance.
CHICKEN RUN, with 55 positive reviews, zero negative collected at rottentomatoes.com

quote:

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Originally posted by Zack Stentz:
They'd lose, of course,

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Even if we have the OJ Simpson dream team of lawyers?

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Where's the bathroom on this ship?

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Kitty says die

quote:

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What we're trying to avoid is people posting "I want to see an episode where the crew of the Andromeda goes to the planet of the pinky purple bleeper people and they all roast marshmallows and play ping-pong." Then six months later they watch an episode where Rommie and Harper play some mean one-on-one table tennis, and cry "Look, the writers obviously saw my idea on Slipstream.bbs and ripped off my genius! I'm suing!" They'd lose, of course, but it'd still be a nuisance for everyone involved, and one that could be easily avoided by people exercising basic common sense.

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There goes my latest retirement iDEA. Guess I'll have to go back to digging through peoples couches for change.

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Sailing the Slipstream

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Outside of a dog, a book is a mans best friend. Inside a dog, it's to dark to read.
Groucho Marx

quote:

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What I'm also thinking of (though I'll first have to run it past TPTB) is to add something to the registration screen that basically says "if you post any story ideas in a forum besides the Fan Fiction forum, you automatically grant a non-revokable license to Tribune Entertainment to use this story idea in Andromeda" or something like that.

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So Christian, how goes the run-past?

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I'm not the guy that plays Harper, my name is just Gordon Michael.