Silmarillion Writers' Guild

Public Comment Wanted: Proposed Change to Registration Policy to Better Manage Bots

2025-11-08T21:24:54Z

On a recent review of new account registrations, the moderators discovered about 20% of them have never logged into their account after it was approved. This is typically not a problem; it's not a drain on our data or resources, and most of us have registered for a website before, with best intentions of using it, and then just didn't get around to it. It is an expected part of running a website like ours.

However, there have been a few recent instances where mods have had to contact new members regarding their account, and despite multiple attempts, do not receive a response. This is often paired with suspicious activity that led the mods to initiate contact in the first place. (Double registrations within minutes of each other from the same IP are a common example.) These accounts appear legitimate in every other way: the field where we ask people to share something about their interest in Tolkien (there to weed out bots) includes something legit-sounding about Tolkien or fanfic or both, and the username or email are Tolkien-related or -adjacent.

We deal with bot registrations regularly and have for the life of this site. Typically, bots go for quantity rather than quality and are therefore easy to spot and simply delete. However, the rising capability of AI tools means we are likely to see bot registrations that are harder to detect.

As a moderator team, we are absolutely okay with people registering and then never using their accounts. But we are not okay with harboring bot registrations, especially AI-assisted bot registrations. The SWG opposes the use of AI that harms fans and creators, and once approved, these accounts do have access to site features like leaving comments, sending messages to other members, and posting their own works, which makes them a risk to our members who are real people and using the site appropriately.

Given this, the mods propose the following change to our Site Etiquette and Terms of Service:

If six months pass and a new account is never logged into, we will contact that person using the email registered on the site to allow them to keep their account.
If we receive a reply, we will keep the account open. There is no obligation for the member to log into the account or use it or maintain any minimum level of activity.
If we don't hear a reply within two weeks, we will delete the account.
Note that this applies only to new accounts that have never been logged into. Once a person logs into their account, they can keep it forever and use it as much or as little as they like.

The moderators are looking for thoughts, concerns, and alternate ideas for how to manage this situation. Please feel free to comment here, use our Discord #town-hall channel, or email us at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org. We will leave the public comment period open until at least November 17.

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Artists Needed to Create 2025 Challenge Stamps

2024-12-01T14:47:03Z

Posted by: dawn_felagund

It's that time of the year where we ask for help from any artists who want to make challenge stamps for the coming year! How it works: On Monday evening (Eastern Time), I'll share a sign-up document with anyone who is interested in helping with this. The document will contain a bare bones description of any challenges for which we need stamps. (So if you want to remain completely unspoiled as to upcoming challenges, this one is not for you!)

You'll sign up for the challenge you want, and if we have open challenges after everyone has signed up, we'll open additional sign-ups.

Specifics about what we are looking for can be found here. Please check this out if you think you might be interested in making stamps.

To be added to the sign-up document, DM me, email me/the mods, comment on the post above, comment here, send a Tumblr ask, post in the appropriate Discord channel, send an Eagle ... all the usual contacts work!

Important note that anyone is welcome to volunteer for this. You do not need to be an expert artist! We are grateful for all contributions.

And a thank you again to last year's stamp artists: cuarthol, Independence1776, Zdenka, and Grundy!

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Call for Artists: 2024 Challenge Stamps

2023-12-02T17:51:35Z

Posted by: daughterofshadows

One of our traditions where challenges are concerned are our stamps. Create a fanwork for a challenge or comment on one and you will receive a "postage stamp" in your own customized collection. (If you've participated in our challenges in the past seven years, you can view your collections on your profile.)

Despite the prominent Writers in our name, we are also pleased to be able to archive a wide variety of fanworks, including art. One of the ways we hope to spotlight our artists is by featuring their work as part of our stamp collections. If you make traditional or digital art and would be interested in making stamps for one of our challenges this year, read on to learn how!

Comment here (or otherwise contact the mods) and we will grant access to a bare-bones list of the 2023 challenges, the number of stamps needed, and the due date. Please note that if you want to remain absolutely unspoiled as to upcoming challenges, then this is probably not for you! We will send additional details on the challenge and specific stamps needed once you choose the challenge you want to work on.
Create your set of stamps. You have a lot of creative free rein here. Stamps must meet site specifications, thematically match the challenge that month, and be appropriate for all audiences: no violence, blood/gore, nudity, or sexual content. You must use only art and images that you have permission to use, which means that you must own the copyright or have permission from the copyright holder to use the image for this project, or the image is in the public domain. We will send additional details to artists who sign up. If you have questions (or want those specifications now!), comment here or email the site moderators.
Generally three or four stamps are needed each month. Some months have optional stamps, and artists also have the choice to design that month's banner if they want to.
Email your completed stamps to the mods before the due date! We will send you a reminder about a month before your stamps are due.

Please note that while we can (and will) credit you as an artist on the challenge page and any announcements about the challenge, we cannot include credit on the stamps themselves or with every appearance of the stamps on our site.

All stamp creators will receive the creator stamp for that month's challenge in their collection.

In participating in this project, you are granting the SWG the right to use your stamps and banner, including any art or photography that they contain, on our website and social media, in accordance with the terms described here. This includes minor modifications, such as resizing graphics to work with the layout of our site.

If you are interested in learning more or gaining access to the sign-up page, please comment here or contact us. The last day to sign up is 31 December 2023.

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Welcome to Shadow ...

2023-11-05T21:49:12Z

Posted by: dawn_felagund

... our new Social Media Manager!

If you follow the SWG on social media, you may have noticed that the announcements there no longer come from Dawn. This is because Shadow (daughterofshadows) has graciously offered to serve as our Social Media Manager!

The SWG is a lot of little parts and pieces, and many different people help keep them moving. Shadow's role is super important for getting information out to our members and followers and freeing up the site admins to focus on fixing and expanding the features the site has to offer. Thank you, Shadow!

If you want to help support the SWG by volunteering, open volunteer roles can be found here.

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We Are Looking for Volunteers!

2023-10-14T20:24:49Z

Posted by: dawn_felagund

If you enjoy the SWG and want to help keep the site alive and thriving, we are looking for volunteers to help with a few minor but important roles running the site. You can always find open volunteer positions on our volunteer page with complete up-to-date details on each role. The following new roles have been added:

Social media manager: works with the moderator team to ensure that announcements posted to the site make it onto our social media accounts on Discord, Tumblr, and Dreamwidth.

Around the World and Web editor: ensures that that section of the site is updated at least weekly.

Both roles require about 30 minutes to an hour of time commitment per week. SWG moderators and volunteers always work together to ensure that we cover time off for each other when needed.

We are also sunsetting our Character of the Month column for the simple reason that most of the major characters have now been covered! We have a few characters we want to make absolutely sure we include: Elendil, Gothmog, Yavanna, Eönwë, Manwë, Hador, Nienor, Melkor, Curufin, Marach, and Olwë. If you'd like to take on one of these characters, writers of all ability levels are welcome, and we are happy to provide support to writers new to nonfiction and research writing.

Interested in helping us out? Contact the mods with questions or if you'd like to volunteer!

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AI Policy Posted, Plus Two New FAQs

2023-05-29T18:06:05Z

Posted by: dawn_felagund

Our AI policy is finalized and available on our site. Many, many thanks to all of you who were willing to discuss the policy and offer feedback and suggestions.

We've also added two new FAQs to the site.

I want to make artwork, record a podfic, or create something based on another fan's fanwork. Am I allowed to do that? We realized recently that we never actually address this on our site, so now we do. The tl;dr: absolutely, if you have permission from the other creator(s).

My challenge response was created for another fandom event. Is it still eligible? In short, yes! In fact, if you cannot post with us before the stamp deadline due to the other event's schedule and rules, we will extend the stamp deadline for you.

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Draft AI Policy Open for Comment

2023-05-13T18:37:14Z

Posted by: dawn_felagund

As artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly evolving, we wanted to be sure the position of our group on AI is clearly expressed. The SWG moderators have put together a draft AI policy, which we are opening for comment through 26 May 2023.

Share any comments, questions, or concerns about the draft AI policy on the #town-hall channel on the SWG Discord (comment if you'd like an invite) or by emailing the moderators.

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Year of History Work Is Beginning Soon

2023-04-16T19:38:15Z

Posted by: dawn_felagund

This year is to be our Year of History, which can be summed up as "a designation intended to force me to move over content from the old site (much of it historical at this point) rather than building new stuff." This also comes from wanting this group's history to be documented and not just a crapshoot on whether it has been archived on the Wayback Machine.

I am on spring break, so one of the goals I'd like to accomplish is moving forward with the Year of History.

Within the next week, we will begin discussions on the #town-hall channel on the SWG's Discord server around how to best archive the historical materials we decide to begin with. If you'd like to be a part of this discussion, please join our Discord server. You can comment here, or you can email us at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org for an invite.

Currently, we are voting on which materials we will archive first (in #town-hall). We're also looking for volunteers who will help archive this material on the site. This is primarily a data-entry role. If you'd like to volunteer, you can let me know here or at the email above; you do not need to be a member of the Discord server to volunteer.

In the weeks to come, we'll open discussions on what and how to archive various materials to make them easily accessible and useful to our community. This history belongs to everyone who has been a part of the SWG across its 18 years of existence, and I want everyone to have an opportunity to be a part of deciding how that history is preserved and made available.

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Feedback Wanted on Member-Run Events

2023-01-07T19:41:37Z

Posted by: dawn_felagund

We are hoping, during the next year or so, to build the ability for members to host events on the SWG site and archive. This will be a pretty ambitious project, so it will be taken slowly, but in preparation to begin, we are looking for feedback on what would be wanted/needed from such an endeavor.

Absolutely anyone can participate in the survey: whether you run an event, are thinking about it, or just interested in sharing an opinion.

If you do run an event (and especially if you think you'd want to run an event with us), we'd love to hear from you personally over email or any of our socials to talk about what you'd want to see.

Finally, there is more on the site about this idea and where it originated.

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We Are Seeking Stamp Creators

2022-12-08T00:33:50Z

Posted by: dawn_felagund

Every month for our challenges, participants (both creators and commenters) receive at least one collectible stamp on their profile. For the past six years, the site mods have made these stamps. Now that the SWG also accepts artwork (as well as many other types of fanwork), we'd love to diversify our offerings and showcase the work of our artists.

We are looking for creators who would like to help make stamps for our 2023 challenges. This post has complete details about what we're looking for from our stamp creators.

If you're interested in contributing, comment here or email us at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org, and we'll send along a link to the sign-up document.

Sign-ups will remain open through 31 December 2022.

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SWG Archive Update

2022-10-02T19:14:33Z

Posted by: dawn_felagund

Two weeks ago, we installed a major and necessary software update to the SWG archive. Unfortunately (and to make a long story short) changes in the directory structure between the two software versions of the software meant that we had to set up redirects in order to make existing links work and keep URLs short, tidy, and in the format we have used since reopening the site in March 2021.

This proved to be a much trickier task than we anticipated. Today, Russandol and I put some fixes in place that we hope will fix 95% of the issues.

There should be no redirection errors, and you should not appear logged out when accessing older links.
Older links should work.
Links should like they always did: silmarillionwritersguild.org/something without a whole bunch of extra junk in the URL.

The only exception to this is links from between September 19 and October 2 that contain /silmarillionwritersguild/web as part of the URL. These links will not work. Take out the /silmarillionwritersguild/web bit and they'll work fine.

Please report anything on the site that isn't working for you and any redirection errors you receive. Send us an ask or email us at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org to report problems. There are a couple of known lingering issues to do with theming and notifications; all known site issues can be found here.

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SWG Site Is Back Up!

2022-09-19T21:58:26Z

Posted by: dawn_felagund

The site is back up and live! As is probably evident from the fact that this took FOUR DAYS (I'm not sure the site was down that long when we moved from eFiction to Drupal!), this was a labor-intensive upgrade for us. We updated our software from Drupal 8 to 9, which was itself an important change. However, in doing so, the directory structure changed, which meant that all old links would not work. We were not okay with that. So we attempted to redirect the old links to the new, which to be blunt about it, turned out to be a massive pain in the ass. At multiple points, we discussed restoring the D8 site and going back to the drawing board with redirects (which is now a four-letter word to Russa and me).

I think we are, at last, there. I will be fixing broken links and images in the days to come. If you run into a broken link or image (or anything else that is weird), please let me know in the comments here. (If you are on our Discord, I am keeping a running list in #town-hall.) If you get an error about "redirects to external URLs are not allowed," please clear your cache.

To make this whole situation even more interesting, our host has been promising for months that we are due a major upgrade, which they have decided to do tonight. So the site will go down again, briefly, sometime in the next day, and we may see even more odd behavior.

Of course, we want you to go back to using the site right away. But we also know we're going to run into problems in the days to come, so now might not be the best time to spend four hours archiving your epic novel with us. Just in case!

Finally, so much gratitude to Russandol, who has been researching and planning this upgrade for weeks and gave up most of her weekend to struggling through it. Again, please reach out to me with any questions and please report any issues in the comments.

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Site Downtime, 16-18 September 2022

2022-09-12T00:48:37Z

Posted by: dawn_felagund

This coming weekend, 16-18 September 2022, we will be doing some important upgrades to the SWG site software. This will require us to put the site into read-only mode for the weekend, and there may be times when we need to take the site offline entirely. We regret any inconvenience this may cause.

ETA: One more day, friends! We'll also be read-only/offline on September 19. We're close, we hope!

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Introducing the "Beyond the Silmarillion" Section

2022-08-21T21:16:15Z

Posted by: dawn_felagund

We are very excited to announce the official opening of the Beyond the Silmarillion section of our archive! Here, creators who are already posting with us can archive their non-Silmarillion fanworks based on Tolkien's books and adaptations, and absolutely anyone can read and view those fanworks.

Who is eligible and how does one obtain permissions?

The Beyond the Silmarillion section is open to creators who have committed to posting their work with us, which we define as five fanworks or 10,000 words of fanworks. When you reach one of these milestones, a moderator will grant "Beyond" permissions to your account, and you will be able to post in the new section.

Permissions are monitored and assigned manually, by a human (i.e., not automatically, by a computer script). If you meet the requirements above, please allow us at least twenty-four hours to assign your permissions. After that point, feel free to query.

More than 200 of you met the requirements for the new section right away and can begin posting to the new section now!

If you think you should have permissions and do not, please contact us.

How do I know if I have permissions? How do I post to the new section?

You can check if you have permissions by opening any of the Add New Fanwork forms under the My Account menu. If you see a checkbox for "Beyond the Silmarillion Fanwork" under the Title field, you have posting access for the new section.

To post to the new section, simply check off this box and complete the form as usual. All types of fanwork (art, audio, link collections, multimedia fanworks, playlists, series, videos, and all types of written fanwork) are allowed in the Beyond the Silmarillion section. More detail instructions, with illustrations, can be found in the Beyond the Silmarillion FAQ.

While we have populated the Character tagset with the major characters from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, if you need a character or relationship that's not currently on the list, use the Moderator Request form as usual. Likewise, if you need a source that is not in the Source Text tagset, you can use this field to request it.

How will the new section impact reading on the site?

Beyond the Silmarillion is truly a separate section. We are still a Silmarillion fanworks archive; however, as more and more small Tolkien-specific archives close their doors, we know many of our members would like a place to archive all of their Tolkien fanworks outside of the large multifandom archives. In the recent past, we could point to a half-dozen generalist Tolkien archives where our members' work was welcome that didn't fit on our site's requirements. We can no longer do that and so feel it is an important need to meet for our creator base.

You can find the Beyond the Silmarillion section under the Fanworks menu. If you want all the fanworks, check out the Truly All Fanworks page (you can find a link on the All Fanworks page).

If you follow a creator or tag, and a Beyond fanwork is posted by that person or to that tag, you will receive a notification.

We will also include a section for Beyond the Silmarillion fanworks in our weekly newsletter.

We hope our readers/viewers and creators enjoy the new section of the site!

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The New Site Section Has a Name and a State-of-the-Site Update

2022-07-21T16:33:35Z

Posted by: dawn_felagund

I'm excited to announce that the new section of the Silmarillion Writers' Guild site for non-Silmarillion Tolkien fanworks will be called Beyond the Silmarillion!

It was a close race and I want to thank everyone who voted and especially those of you who suggested names. Since we didn't collect names when gathering suggestions, if you are the person who suggested "Beyond the Silmarillion" and want to let me know so I can credit you for your winning name, send me an ask or email! (If you prefer to remain anonymous, that is of course fine too.)

If you're thinking right now, "New site section? What??" you can find out more about our new Beyond the Silmarillion section here.

I've also been busy this summer working on adding new features to the site. To find out more about what's in the works for the remainder of the year, check below the jump.

( State of the Site Update )

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Vote to Name the New Section of Our Site!

2022-07-14T01:16:54Z

Posted by: dawn_felagund

We are in the process of opening a new section of our site for members who post Silmarillion fanworks with us. In this new section, active creators will be able to archive their non-Silmarillion Tolkien fanworks. You can learn more about this new section of the site here.

But our new section of the site needs a name! We have received a number of suggestions over the past week and voting is now open to choose what the new name will be.

Voting is only open to members who are registered on the SWG site so that we can make sure that we receive only one vote per person. If you're not a member but want to vote, you're welcome to register!

Voting will close on when the clock strikes midnight, UTC, at the end of Wednesday, July 20, so make sure you vote before then! We will announce the new section's name on July 21.

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Name Our New Site Section

2022-07-06T20:49:58Z

Posted by: dawn_felagund

Back in December, we asked SWG members to choose a gift for the coming year: What features did they hope to see us add to the site? A popular choice was to allow SWG members who archive on our site the option of posting non-Silmarillion Tolkien fanworks with us as well, and we are preparing to begin work on this new section of our site!

However, we need a name. And this is where we need your help. We are looking for suggestions of names for the new section of our site. Anyone can make a suggestion (or more!) here.

When the clock strikes midnight at the end of July 13, 2022 (UTC time), we will stop accepting new suggestions, and SWG members will be able to begin voting on the new name the next day. (Note that while anyone can suggest names, only members will be able to vote to ensure we only receive one vote per person.)

I've also answered some basic questions about the new section here. If there's something you want to know that I haven't answered, the comments are open below or email our mod team at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org.

Note also that the SWG mods reserve the right to not include suggestions that do not fit the culture and mission of our site and community.

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We Can Now Archive Link Collections and Playlists!

2022-06-11T17:42:56Z

Posted by: dawn_felagund

When we built the new site, one of our reasons and goals was to eventually be able to host just about every type of fanwork that could be created. Although we are the Silmarillion Writers' Guild, we've long recognized and sought to honor the fact that our members create much more than just written fanworks, and we wanted to build an archive where they could host all of their Silmarillion-based fanworks.

Today, we are pleased to take two steps closer to that goal. The SWG archive can now host link collections and playlists. Link collections allow you to compile lists of links both within and outside the SWG and are ideal for rec lists or resource collections. Playlists let you collect songs and other audio around a fannish theme and can be used to share fan-made soundtracks, podcast collections, and other audio compilations. If you'd like to learn more about these fanwork types, we have an FAQ on link collections and an FAQ on playlists. Ready to start sharing your work? You can add a link collection or add a playlist here.

As always, if you have questions about link collections, playlists, or anything at all, contact our mod team.

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Anyone Can Now Sign Up for the SWG Newsletter!

2022-03-14T20:35:05Z

Posted by: dawn_felagund

When we reintroduced our newsletter a little over a week ago, we unfortunately hadn't gotten subscriptions up and running yet for nonmembers. We're excited to announce that absolutely anyone can now subscribe to the SWG newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here or use the subscription box at the bottom of the sidebar on our website.

What wonderful and fabulous things can you expect with your subscription? Every Saturday, you will have the latest news and updates from the SWG and other fandom groups and events delivered right to your email inbox. You will receive a list of all of the fanworks added or update that week on our archive. And you will be the first to get to read that week's article or column!

Remember, too, that we are looking for contributors to our newsletter. Whether you want to write a column, an article, or collaborate with our newsletter team, check out our contributors' page for more information.

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Two Announcements: LiveJournal and Site Etiquette

2022-03-06T19:03:13Z

Posted by: dawn_felagund

LiveJournal
The SWG's LiveJournal is no longer being considered an official social media platform for purposes of sharing announcements about the SWG. The LJ community is not closing, and we welcome LJ users to continue posting Silmarillion-related fanworks, discussions, and announcements there. However, LJ users should not rely on the silwritersguild LJ community for news about the SWG. There is more about our LiveJournal here.

Site Etiquette and Terms of Service
We have updated our Site Etiquette and Terms of Service to reflect that the only use of our site and social media should be for not-for-profit purposes. Here is the addition:

For legal reasons, the SWG must remain strictly not-for-profit. Do not use the SWG or its social media to request or offer commissions for money. If a fanwork was commissioned, do not mention that commission. Links in your profile, the fanworks you share, or on posts to SWG social media should not point to sites where you will make a profit, such as Kofi, Patreon, GoFundMe, Venmo, and similar sites. Violations of the above will be immediately taken down.

The entire Site Etiquette and ToS can be found here.

As always, if you have any questions, you can contact the moderators or comment on this post, and one of us will get back to you.

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SWG Art Section Now Open!

2022-02-15T01:52:38Z

Posted by: dawn_felagund

We are so excited to announce that Silmarillion-based artwork and other visual fanworks can now be posted on the SWG! If you are an artist, we welcome you to archive your Silmarillion art with us. The SWG enjoys almost seventeen years of history as a supportive and welcoming space for writers of Tolkien-based fanfiction, and we look forward in the year to come to welcoming more creators of all types of fanwork into our community.

The News section on our site has full details on the new art section.

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Update on New Site Features and Art Section

2021-12-31T19:09:57Z

Posted by: dawn_felagund

A belated thank you to everyone who took our survey to help us determine our priorities for adding new features to the archive next year! The chart shows the results; you can see that there was interest in everything we offered but that art was the runaway favorite.

This means that we'll eventually be working on everything on the list, but we've started with adding the ability to post art to the archive. We've begun and gotten quite a bit of work done on this in the past few days.

Over the past few days, we've been discussing tagging options for art. I want to share here the list that we've come up with so far for types of art. Please let us know if anything is missing or other suggestions you may have for the tags proposed so far:

* Abstract/Pattern 
* Calligraphy 
* Character/Portrait 
* Clothing 
* Comic/Cartoon 
* Cosplay 
* Craft 
* Decorative 
* Drawble/Finished Sketch 
* Drawing/Painting 
* Fiber/Textile Art 
* Food Art 
* Graphic/Banner/Icon 
* Pastiche 
* Jewelry/Accessories 
* Landscape 
* Manip/Photomontage 
* Mixed Media 
* Moodboard/Collage 
* Photography 
* Scene 
* Illustration 
* Sculpture/3D Artwork 
* Still-life/Objects 
* Word Art

Finally, the newsletter will be back in the new year, though slightly different than before. You will now be able to sign up to receive weekly email updates with SWG news, new fanworks from the past week, and hopefully* announcements of events and news from outside the SWG as well. We've also started preliminary work to have more articles (like the character biography) published on the site. We've got everything working on the test site and just need the holidays to settle enough to get the necessary modules installed on the live site to get everything set up there.

* "Hopefully" because we still haven't had any volunteers to help with posting announcements from signal-boosts onto the site, so this will be contingent on my own availability to do so.

Happy New Year!

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A Few Small Updates and Fixes

2021-12-02T01:54:20Z

Posted by: dawn_felagund

I have a few small site updates and fixes:

- We received multiple requests to define the warning tags we use on the site, and we've finally done it! You can find them here. Thanks to the inclusivity committee for their input here.

- I've written an FAQ on notifications for comments and comment replies.

- The broken links in the Comments column on the My Fanworks page is finally fixed! I thought it'd be easy! It was not ... but at last I got it figured out.

A few reminders:

- We're still looking for volunteers to help with several areas of managing the site and producing content for the site.

- If you are a creator on our archive and want to receive comment notifications, please check your comment settings under My Account, then click the Edit tab. (There's a handy FAQ on how to do this!) A recent bug in one of our modules may have caused your notifications to switch off. If you want to check to see if you've missed comments, you can find all of your comments on the My Comments page.

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We Are Looking for Volunteers!

2021-10-31T22:28:50Z

Posted by: dawn_felagund

We are currently looking to fill two volunteer positions on our site. If you'd like to get more involved with the SWG, read on!

Art Editor

The art editor will work with contributors to our newsletter and Reference Library to find artwork for their articles and essays.

( Learn more ... )

Scouts

Around the World and Web is a long-running section of our site that aims to signal-boost events, resources, and content of interest to visitors to our site. Scouts are volunteers who find content that might be of interest to SWG members and guests and post it to our site.

( Learn more ... )

Interested or have questions? Email us at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org or send a PM to dawn_felagund.

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"Ratings & Warnings" Document Updated

2021-09-02T22:48:36Z

Posted by: dawn_felagund

I have updated our Rating & Warning policy on the site, in accordance with discussion among SWG members and specific work undertaken by our inclusivity committee. You can find the new "Ratings and Warnings" document here.

Nothing has changed in terms of rating and warning policy. We have softened the language in hopes of communicating that in the vast number of cases, mistakes in ratings and warnings are not something we respond to punitively. We have also added clarity around the purpose of ratings and warnings, "retrospective" tagging, and how we respond to mistagged fanworks.

We've also added several new tagging options:

Domestic and Partner Violence
In-Universe Intolerance
- In-Universe Classism
- In-Universe Queerphobia/LGBTQIA+ Intolerance
- In-Universe Racism/Ethnocentrism
- In-Universe Sexism/Misogyny

The specific tags were based on a use-case exercise undertaken by several volunteers that showed that these were the tags most often needed. We also want to recognize that while the racism/ethnocentrism and classism tags reflected need during the use-case exercise, we also included them because we recognize that BIPOC fans and working-class fans are less present in our fandom due, at least in part, to marginalization they experience within the fandom. Making our site a safer and more welcoming space to fans who have historically felt unsafe and unwelcome in the Tolkien fandom is a priority for us.

Our work is not done here; we've received multiple requests to include a brief definition/description of each tag, so we'll be tackling that next.

As always, questions are welcome as a comment here or at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org. Finally, many, many thanks to all who worked on this project, especially the many of you who shared perspectives and ideas so thoughtfully throughout.

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