ASCE FAQ 1/2
Ruth Gifford
THE ALT.STARTREK.CREATIVE.EROTICA FAQ: (FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS) LIST:
This FAQ was originally written by Christine Faltz. It was revised in
September of 1996 by the current FAQ Maintainer Ruth Gifford (me). This
explains why it seems to suffer from split personality. I had help and moral
support from Atara Stein (my sweetie, and proof reader, greater love hath no
woman . . .), Christine Faltz (my predecessor, who gave me a great place to
start), Stephen Ratliff (my counter-part at alt.startrek.creative, who
allowed me to use portions of his FAQ), Alara Rogers (The Archivist, we
genuflect in her general direction) and Taffy (who runs the asce mailing
list), and I thank each and everyone of you.
This FAQ will be posted on a biweekly basis, with once a month crosspostings
to alt.startrek.creative and the old alt.sex.fetish.startrek.
The asce FAQ Maintainer is Ruth Gifford (eres...@cyberg8t.com).
The asce Archivist is Alara Rogers (al...@netcom.com)
Intro 1.- Intro 3.
INTRODUCTORY NOTES AND COMMENTS: **IMPORTANT**!
Q1. What is alt.startrek.creative.erotica?
Q2. Why alt.startrek.creative.erotica?
Q3. What kind of stuff is posted here?
Q4. What else can I post here?
Q5. What are the conventions for posting a story?
Q6. Do I have to be a good writer?
Q7. Can I post sexy pictures here of ST stars?
Q8. Is there an FTP site for this group?
Q9. I don't have FTP access. Is there another way to get stories?
Q10. What is the alt.startrek.creative.erotica mailing list and how do I get
on it?
Q11. I have a request for a story. What should I do?
Q12. What is Patrick Stewart's (Brent Spiner's, Michael Dorn's) e-mail
address?
Q13. Are there any related newsgroups?
Q14. Are we there yet? And if so, where are the credits?
INTRODUCTORY NOTES AND COMMENTS: **IMPORTANT**!
Intro 1. Our Past
This group used to be called alt.sex.fetish.startrek. asfs still exists, but
it seems to be mostly binaries and spam. Most if not all of the writers who
used to post on asfs, now post here on asce. The move was made to discourage
the spamming newsgroups in the alt.sex hierarchy fall prey to.
Intro 2. Words about the asce Community (note from Ruth: this may not apply
to asce at the moment, but I'm leaving it in--albeit abbreviated--in case
asce takes a turn in this direction. It was fun and a lot of us miss it.)
There is a close-knit group of regulars here. In addition to sharing our
fantasies about all things Trek, we often joke/flirt with one another and
share personal tidbits about ourselves: who's pregnant, who's doing
another asce resident, etc. While such posts are not the majority of the
fodder here, they are frequent enough and we do not appreciate angry newbie
queries such as: "Why does this group sometimes read like alt.fan.so-and-so
when it's supposed to have Trek porn?"
Asce is by no means a space for a small handful of individuals, and we defy
anyone who claims that we are a clique of elitists that wants to keep others
out. We merely ask that you *read* and get a feel for the group before
hurling accusations and flames or making requests that you would not make if
you were polite enough to read the FAQ and/or paid attention to what has
already been posted to the group. Tiresome subjects such as, "Is Brent
Spiner gay?" will receive the answers they deserve: For this example, only
Brent knows his sexual preferences, and unless he makes it our business, no
one can answer the question with certainty, and speculation either way is
pointless -- and besides, it wouldn't change the way
Data is treated by any given person anyway, so who cares?
Should you decide that we're all a bunch of sex addicts or sex-deprived
lunatics in need of help, keep the opinion to yourself. Don't waste our time
-- and yours -- telling us how demented we are. The Net is a big place full
of many people with many interests; find your own niche somewhere and leave
ours to us.
Should you ignore this request, you may find yourself being buffeted about by
those infamous regulars mentioned earlier. We like our playground to be fun
and friendly, and we will go all out to crush would-be trolls. If you treat
us well, you will be treated accordingly. If not, you will be ignored or
flamed to a
crispy flake. Please be nice; it makes the whole experience better for
everyone.
As long as you are a legal adult, you may read or contribute to asce. You
may simply wish to lurk and enjoy the fun, or you can join us in commenting
upon stories or writing some stories yourself. Again, though, please get a
feel for the group before you jump in; you may be avoiding unnecessary
embarrassment and/or annoyance. This is a good rule of thumb when you're
making yourself known for the first few times in nearly all groups. We do
not ask you to follow these suggestions to make you feel
uncomfortable or to scare you away -- we simply wish to keep the tenor of
this group on an easygoing, largely untroubled note. Skirmishes will arise,
of course, and that's fine. When you must disagree, please try to remain on
topic and do not hurl ad hominem adjectives and invective at your opponent
unless s/he clearly deserves it. (And in that case, you will likely find
yourself with reinforcements from the rest of us).
Intro 3. Legalities, Fan Fiction and Distribution
Some authors here relinquish all rights to their stories once posted, and
have stated that they write for the audience and don't care what is done with
their stories. However, a vast majority of authors here make time to write
simply because they enjoy writing. Always remember that in either case, *IT
IS ILLEGAL TO SELL ANY OF THESE STORIES FOR PROFIT, EVEN IF YOU HAVE THE
AUTHOR'S
PERMISSION.* Both you and the author would be violating Paramount's rights
as first holder to the copyrighted and trademarked ST characters and the ST
universe. If you wish to put together a not-for-profit fanzine, please ask
the author's permission first. Some authors have had stories published in
fanzines already and have agreed not to have those stories published in any
other fanzines. Some authors simply desire that any private downloading and
printing be used for personal use only, to be distributed narrowly. Most
importantly, while fan fic copyright with respect to the author lies in one
of those funny
gray areas of the law, you would be wise *not* to remove disclaimers from
anyone's work, or alter the material (remove the author's name and
appropriate the story as your own, or change the content of the story in
other ways). Please let common courtesy prevail.
FAQ FAQ FAQ FAQ FAQ FAQ FAQ (Oh you get the picture . . .)
Frequently Asked Questions (and Their Answers)
Q1. What is alt.startrek.creative.erotica?
A1. Asce is a group specifically dedicated to the lustful devotion to any
and all Star Trek characters, the people who play those characters,
technology (oh, those forward thrusters!), and ideas (what is the *real*
scoop behind Bajoran nose ridges?). More specifically it's devoted to
erotic/pornographic/smutty/romantic Star Trek fan fiction (ranging from the
mild to the XXX, with a little of everything in between). Obviously, we let
our imaginations roam free--we can get really graphic here, so if you're a
kid who isn't supposed to be indulging in such stuff, please don't, because
we don't want your parents or legal guardians coming after us with
handcuffs--or maybe we do. Just tell them to wear a Starfleet uniform--and
it'll be good for us.
Q2. Why alt.startrek.creative.erotica?
A2. Why not? Who needs a reason to have sex, real or imagined? <grin>.
Seriously (sort of), although there is plenty of Star Trek porn out there, we
feel our special fetishes and fantasies deserve a space all their own--and
why not? Why should you have to hunt through piles of smut when all you
require for your--pleasure--is a healthy erotica fantasy involving Captain
Picard, or a hot holodeck story involving Dr. Crusher and Counselor Troi?
Q3. What kind of stuff is posted here?
A3. Asce welcomes any erotica you would like to share with us, as long as it
has to do with Star Trek -- The Original Series (TOS); The Next Generation
(TNG); Deep Space 9 (DS9); Voyager -- the movies, the comics, -- whatever.
Just be aware that we don't discriminate here. This is not a group for
heterosexual, vanilla ST erotica -- we get downright bizarre and disgusting
here sometimes, so if you're very sensitive or a homo/biphobe and easily
offended, please be prepared to leave us alone or get used to hitting your
"N" key. You can, of course, always resort to the Kill file if you must --
but we're not interested in what makes you unhappy here, only in what makes
you happy -- among other -- things.
Q4. What else can I post here?
A4. With the exception of binaries, just about anything naughty you can think
of -- as long as you work Star Trek in somehow. Perhaps you want to know
which ST faves have appeared nude or semi-nude in magazines or movies.
Perhaps you just want to share your throbbing need for Captain Picard (and
why not--hmmm?). Perhaps you want to indulge in speculation about sex with
Q, Odo or Data. Go right ahead -- that's what we're here for!
In addition to being a social space, a place for ST smut and a group where we
don't mince words where sex is concerned, asce has been at times and could
again be a place for lively discussions of social significance: feminism,
censorship, human rights, etc., provided the majority are interested in these
subjects. Any postings about Star Trek that don't have to do with sex, or
the stories posted (examples would include technical discussions of Trek
hardware, updates on forthcoming episodes or movies, or posts comparing one
captain to another--unless your talking dirty) should be posted to one of the
appropriate newsgroups (see list below at A13).
Q5. What are the conventions for posting a story?
A5. This is a tricky one. In writing this section I (Ruth) have borrowed
(with Stephen Ratliff's permission) quite heavily from the
alt.startrek.creative FAQ and an asc mini creative FAQ. The reason I'm doing
so is to bring both newsgroups closer together. They are both archived by
the same person, and at the same site. This way if you venture from one
group to the other you'll know what to look for.
Q5a. How do I format the story so that it can be read?
A5a Lines should be less than 78 characters, which will allow people to
read it easily on most newsreaders. It should be single spaced and if you
use indentation, rather than a double spacing to mark your paragraphs, make
sure that your tab is set fairly deep, as often a newsreader's word wrap will
tend to mangle things. As upper case is considered shouting, don't write in
all upper case. Reserve that for when your character is shouting. All posts
should be place unencoded ASCII. Avoid "smartquotes" (quotes that change
direction based on what they enclose). And forget about characters that you
have to press [alt] (PCs) or [Option] (Macs).
Q5b. What should my subject line look like?
A5b. When you post, your subject header should include what the post is,
the title of the story, the part number if there is more than one part, the
series, and the content/romance codes (listed in A5e below.). It should look
like this if it's a new story:
NEW: My Fair Jeanne 1/7 (TNG, P/Q, m/m, f/f, m/f, d/s)
It should look like this if it's a repost:
REPOST: Dom-Space Communications 2/2 (TNG, P/f, bdsm)
Q5c. What should I include in my header/introduction?
A5c. The beginning of the article of with your story in it should include
the series in belongs to, the title, your name or pseudonym, an email address
for replies. You should include any instructions regarding distribution of
the story (see A5f, A8, and A9). It is also suggested that you include what
type of feedback you want. You should include romance and content codes.
Those codes are listed at A5e below. You also need to have a disclaimer.
This should acknowledge Paramount, and credit yourself, and if you want to be
more detailed about it, your disclaimer can list the type of sex in the story
(and should if the sex is graphic or unusual--see my notes with the codes at
A5e ). This is also the space for dedications, thank-yous and anything else
you want people to know before they read the story. Feel free to be funny
or serious, but always acknowledge Paramount. In my own modest way I'll use
my own stories as examples. Please remember that you do not have to be as
chatty as I am, but include a bare bones of this information. Some people
don't like P/Q (although why they don't escapes me ;-) ) or bondage
stories, and detailed intros save them the trouble.
Example (for example's sake I'll assume I don't want this on the mailing
list):
My Fair Jeanne
by Ruth Gifford (eres...@cyberg8t.com)
(c) 1995
TNG, P/Q (m/m, f/f, m/f, mild d/s)
Paramount owns the rights to all things Star Trek, but since they seem to
have a blind spot when it comes to this sort of story, I feel free to write
the things that I do. If they don't like it, they can fill the need
themselves; I'd pay *big* money to see even an R version of this filmed (I'd
love to see who would get cast as Jeanne). ;-)
Standard warning: this contains sexual situations, homosexuality and
gender-confusion (of course it does, we're talking Q here).
If you have praise, thoughtful criticism (I ignore comments like "this
sucks!") please either post them, or e-mail them to me. Thank you!
To the Archivist: Please do not distribute to the asce mailing list.
Thanks!
If your story is part of a series include a little more information as a
service to your readers. Also it helps to tell them where to get earlier
stories in the series. Once again I use one of my own stories.
Example:
Dom-Space Communications
A Sara McNeil story (#3 of 5 so far)
by Ruth Gifford (eres...@cyberg8t.com)
(c) 1995
TNG (P/f, bdsm)
After my disclaimers and such I included this about the series:
When I wrote "Later That Same Leave . . ." I thought I'd done enough with
Jean-Luc Picard and Sara McNeil and the games they play. Well I thought
wrong, and so here we are again, on Y Dara Colony, toward the end of the
second year of Picard's command of the Enterprise. It's the morning of the
second day of a three day leave and the roles have switched again. I have
tried to keep things so that you don't have to have read "The Captain's
Saddle" or "Later That Same Leave . . ." to enjoy this one, although I've
reposted them and they're archived at the FTP site.
Why all this information? It's a service to the readers, and the archivist.
Your readers will know at a glance if it's not their cup-of-smut. The
archivist will include the codes and such in the index. This helps anyone
who hits the archive looking for P/C or bdsm stories for example (BTW anyone
who wants to take a stab at writing a P/C bdsm story is welcome to. Think of
it as a challenge). <grin>
Q5d. Over on asc they ask for summaries. Do I have to do that?
A5d. The archivist and/or index maintainer like summaries because they can
include them in the index. But a summary can ruin the plot, so you can send
the summary separately to the archivist, post it separately to asce, be
vague, or not include it. It's a courtesy to our archivist/index maintainer
(who have thankless jobs) and they'll like you for it. My example is from
the current index, I did not write it (although it's just right for the
story).
My Fair Jeanne
Jean-Luc Picard wakes up one morning to find himself female. Q must be behind
it, but why?
And does he have designs on Jeanne's lovely new body?
Q5e. What are the Romance and Content Codes?
A. They are an alphabet soup used by the archivist and the index maintainer
to indicate who's doin' whom and how they're being done. They also indicate
which series, and how strong the story is. I grabbed most of this from the
asc FAQ (thanks again Stephen!).
Series
TOS The Original Series
TNG The Next Generation
DS9 Deep Space Nine
VOY Voyager
A/U This indicates an alternate universe and should be used with the
series code. In your story header/intro you should mention if this is a
series established A/U. Examples being the A/U from TOS' "Mirror, Mirror,"
the A/U from DS9's "Crossover" or TNG's A/U from Diane Duane's book "Dark
Mirror." The DS9 and TNG A/Us I list both descended from "Mirror, Mirror, so
remember that it can get confusing and you might have to clue your readers
in. If you made the A/U up, let your readers know what the breaking off
point is. An example would be a story I wrote with Atara Stein called "His
Beloved Pet." In it the action picks up right after TNG final episode "All
Good Things. . ." and carries on for two years into the future. The events
of "Generations" do not occur and we made sure that people understood this
from the get go. Technically HBP and it's sequel in progress are A/U
stories. Of course you can just jump in and let people be confused as Peter
David did with "Q-Squared." It's your call.
Romance codes
some of the more popular pairings have established codes. These include:
G/B Garak/Bashir
J/C Janeway/Chakotay
K/S Kirk/Spock
P/C Picard/Doctor Crusher
P/Q Picard/Q
B Bashir, DS9; B'Elanna Torres, VOY
C Doctor Crusher, TNG; Chakotay, VOY
D Dax
G Garak
J Janeway
K Kirk, TOS; Kira, DS9; Kes or Kim, VOY
O Odo
P Picard, TNG; Paris, VOY
Q Q (more specifically, the Q played by John deLancie)
S Spock
T Tuvok, VOY; Troi, TNG
W Wesley Crusher
Since we have a conflict with Ks in Voyager and both names are short, do
whatever works for you.
?/f would indicate a certain character with a made up or non character
female (i.e. O/f would be Odo and a made up female character)
?/m same as above only an made up or non character male
For known guest characters, use the ?/f or ?/m in your subject header and the
name of the character in your story header/intro. Example: TNG P/f in the
subject line and then P/Vash in the header.
In general Romance combinations are in order of age, or if not known, by rank
and position. To avoid confusion, please indicate the series you are writing
in. For example TNG P/C would be Picard/Doctor Crusher, whereas VOY C/P
would be Chakotay/Paris (big difference, right?). In addition, please note
that the index lists a Jadzia Dax/Julian Bashir story as D/B not J/J. They
do this to keep the letter consistency for the characters.
Ratings
I include these because you can use them to indicate how graphic the sex is.
If you post a PG-13, the rating should be for sex; if it's for language,
think about posting it to asc. If it's a G, post it to asc.
[G] General Audiences
[PG] not for children
[PG-13] not for pre-teens
[R] restricted to adults
[NC-17] of Adult Nature
Content (or types of sex) Codes:
f/f female/female
m/m male/male
(note, f/f and m/m are preferred over "homo," or "gay." They're more
specific)
m/f male/female (het is sometimes used, but m/f fits in with the other
codes better)
D/S dominance and submission
B/D bondage and discipline
S/M sadism and masochism
BDSM (sometimes SMBD) because the above three are hard to tell apart and the
meanings are not even agreed on by people who are involved in "the scene,"
this has become a catch all code that includes elements of all three. The
only thing that I feel is important is that if there is actually consensual
pain being inflicted in an erotic fashion, use S/M or BDSM. A lot of people
can deal with a little bondage, but have no interest in reading about someone
getting flogged. In your intro, you can go into more detail if you think
it's necessary. Remember that these codes are for the reader's convenience
(and that of the archivist and index maintainer).
h/c hurt/comfort This is a fine fan fic tradition, in which one character
is non-consensually hurt (physically or physiologically) and is given comfort
that usually leads to sex. If you're going to be graphic about the
non-consensual pain, mention it in your intro. This is *very* important if
your story involves rape.
Anything that can't be condensed into a code or requires more explanation
should be mentioned in your header/intro. An example would be (again) "His
Beloved Pet." Although both Atara and I had written stories before that
involved various aspects of BDSM, we wanted to make it clear that HBP was
going to have very rough stuff in it, and so we were careful to include
warnings in our intro.
Q5g. How can I control the distribution of my story?
A5g. The sad, blunt truth is that if you want *total* control of your fan
fiction, don't post it. Once something goes out on to the net, it's there
for the taking. People will, regardless of your wishes, grab it and move it
around. A good example of this is that my story "My Fair Jeanne" has been
posted more than once on alt.sex.stories.tg (transgender), and it is archived
on at least one web site, all without my permission ever being sought. All
you can do is put something in your header requesting that the story not be
downloaded except for personal use, or that should anyone wish to archive it
that they ask you first (examples follow). All stories posted to asce will
automatically be archived into the official ftp site (see A8 for the address)
*unless* you ask that it not be archived. All stories not crossposted to
alt.startrek.creative will also be automatically forwarded to the asce
mailing list *unless* you ask that they not be forwarded (more on the mailing
list at A9). These requests *must* be on the first page so that the
Archivist can see it when she first sees the story.
Examples of distribution instructions:
This story may not be printed except for personal use. Please print it in
its entirety, including the header and the copyright information. If you
wish to post it to a newsgroup other than asce, archive on your personal FTP
site, or web site, or distribute it to a mailing list, please contact me (the
author--give your e-mail address).
If the author didn't want it to go to the mailing list all s/he would have to
do was add the line:
Please do not distribute to the asce mailing list.
Our Archivist will heed these instructions, as will the mailing list owner.
If you find that your stories are being passed around elsewhere, you can try
to ask the people responsible to stop, but don't be too surprised if they
don't. As of now, you have no legal recourse; all you can do is hope that
karma catches up with them. If you have anything that you think you might
sell (examples: a story that has very little sex in it could be re-written
for publication by Pocket Books, or a mostly sex f/f story could have the
Trek universe removed, another one put in and be sold to Circlet Press [a
lesbian sci-fi imprint] ) *do not* post it on the net.
I'll add a personal note here. One of the beauties of the net is the free
distribution of information. To an author, this can be a double edged sword.
True your stories may be passed around without your permission, but then
again, they are getting passed around; people are *reading* them. Once upon
a time, fan fic was limited to fanzines which were usually only available at
conventions. Now there's a large and hungry audience out there, waiting to
read the stories *you* write. Again, it's your call.
Q5g. Help! The posting part of this FAQ seems rather complicated. Do I
really have to do *all* of that?
A5f. No, but you should try to do some of it. Really, it's not as
complicated as it looks. Think of asce as a bookstore (and a rather odd one
at that). The subject line of your post is the spine of the book, and the
intro is the back cover and dedication page. Your readers will want to know
from the get go which series and which characters are involved, and how
graphic the story is. A reader of warm romance novels might not be
interested in graphic m/m smut that involves a lot of whips and chains; and
so why should fan of a romantic Janeway/Chakotay stories waste their precious
'net time downloading hot and heavy Garak/Bashir slash? But the codes might
also pique someone's interest. They might read (VOY, B/Kim/P, b/d) and
think, "well that's something I never thought of, maybe I'll give it a try"
(and so they should, there are some good Kim, Paris, B'Elanna stories out
there). And, I'll say this "one mooore time . . ." the information makes it
easier for the archivist and/or the index maintainer to do their jobs.
To be continued in Part 2/2
--
************************************************
* Ruth | FAQ Maintainer for *
* Gifford | alt.startrek.creative.erotica *
*----------------------------------------------*
* Better living thru TrekSmut--ask me how! *
************************************************
"Which is the pillow what fights off crime?"
Bradley Stein 5-year-old and concerned citizen