Why is everyone in this bar so fucking amazing and how can I be more like them?

Join the insanity and just keep it up and keep it going and basically what bob5fic said!

DAMMIT WOMAN, YOU STOLE MY FUCKING QUESTION.

And here I was trying to be just like you... *grins*

Currently sitting here quietly squealing to myself going; 'This is exactly what I needed, these people are MAGICAL.'

So, yeah. Erm, I have questions.

First off, etiquette. Because manners are important, especially if you're British.

What's the deal on here? As in with posting and things, what's the polite way to go about it all... I don't want to muscle in on other people's territory or anything - So is there a mutually understood number of comments/interaction for noobs like me to make (or anyone, for that matter)?

Next up, posting fics and the like -- this one's sorta been answered for me already, but I thought a more accessible place might be helpful too.

When posting a fic, would you recommend doing it as a comment/reply to the prompt, or whatever inspired it, or by submitting the post to the community (whereby I assume it would get it's own little box on the thread of entries, correct me if I'm wrong)

Also, I noticed that most people link their work to their journal. How the heck do you do that? (It's probably blatantly obvious, but I'm new and pathetic. Please take pity)

I hope these are actually understandable questions, by the way. If you need me to attempt to clarify say so :)

Alright. That's enough for now. I'll probably have more questions so I apologise in advance. In order to make up for my horrific lack of knowledge about anything, I promise to be a good pupil, and to try and write good fic.

And you are all wonderful and deserve all the good things for being who you are, okay? Thanks. :D

Links are super easy. For the first couple of years, I posted a little card next to my screen with the code because I did it all the time but couldn't remember!

First, I'm going to demonstrate using regular parenthesis but you use the pointy ones (< & >) instead of the rounded ones.

(a href="URL")WORDS YOU WANT PEOPLE TO SEE(/a)

And it looks like this:
<a href="URL">WORDS YOU WANT PEOPLE TO SEE</a>

And the end result:
The Bar of Awesomeness (http://be-compromised.livejournal.com/)

Edited 2012-09-16 12:49 am (UTC)

Noobs get three replies per post.

No, seriously.

There isn't a polite number of times you can reply to something. REPLY TO EVERYTHING! The secret to the success of this place is that EVERYONE was new once and EVERYONE is responsible for making this place great. Reply to what makes you happy with the fact that it makes you happy.

This bar is what you make of it. You can be as involved as you would like to be. Don't ever be worried that you're doing it wrong. Partially because, if you are, someone will probably tell you. *grins* In a nice way, of course. We are nothing if not polite here.

A header is always super helpful for the reader to figure out if they want to read your story. This is important for many reasons: how much time is this fic going to take to read (word count), who is in the fic (characters), is it work safe (rating), does it have any triggers or spoilers (warnings), what is it about (summary).

In most places that I frequent, this is the form that is used but it changes and can be changed to fit your needs:

Title
Author/Artist:
Characters: (I put my pairings here as well but you can make it a different section - it is ALWAYS a good idea to put the pairings because some people will not read certain pairings and will get very angry if they don't know about them going into it)
Word Count:
Rating:
Warnings:
Author's Note:
Summary:

The coding is here:

<b>Title</b> <b>Author/Artist:</b> <b>Characters:</b> <b>Word Count:</b> <b>Rating:</b> <b>Warnings:</b> <b>Author's Note:</b> <b>Summary:</b>

You should make your own post when you're posting fic, so more people see it. When you go to make a new post, you'll see a pull down next to where it says "POST TO:" and you just choose the comm from that and put your entry there. It's also goo manners to use an lj cut (http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=75) if you decide to post a fic directly to the comm. (That is: if it's just the header/link, you're all good. If you want to post your 453 words of The One Time Clint and Natasha Gazed Soulfully At Each Other But Didn't Kiss, which we've all done, use a cut. Yah?)

Hellooooooo!! :)
I'm Ridiculous, as Bee mentioned, we appear to have a fandom trajectory in common. It is lovely to meet you :)

Can I just say, these are truly excellent questions. I have been around for a few months now, and still have no idea what I'm doing really, so thankyou for this!

Ultimately, I think we're basically lucky that we've essentially signed up to the nicest, friendliest, most welcoming bar in history. Everyone, I think, has moments of 'should I comment? I don't want to overstay my welcome...' but my experience so far is generally COMMENT ON ALL THE THINGS. And as the ladies say above, comment crashing is strictly encouraged! So, welcome!!

also, feel free to bomb a thread or READ ALL THE COMMENTS (a personal rule that this comm has allowed me to break) cos they're pretty epic and totally serve as commentary/meta for a lot of the brilliance these writery people churn out. plus, it perpetuates the cycle of enablement more readily and that's just how we like it! so bring it. what they said... also, WELCOME TO THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON THE INTERNETS!

Edited 2012-09-16 10:00 am (UTC)

1) Find a gif.

Oh look! I have found a gif!
(http://s106.beta.photobucket.com/user/countess_rain/library/GIFs)

2) Right click on image/gif/wonderfulness. Select Save Image As..., pick a name to call it and a destination.

3) Open up Photobucket. As far as I know, it's the best place for this. If you don't have an photobucket account, cave right now and get one because you're going to need it. I'll wait while you get it set up.

4) Might as well start this off right and make an album called GIFs. Download the image from your computer to the album.

5) I'm using the new photobucket but in the old photobucket, if you clicked on the gif, it would take you to a screen where you could get all the different types of links. In the new photobucket (which I find that I'm enjoying even if it is a tad bit streamlined for my taste), click on the little cog in the right upper corner of the image. Click GET MEDIA LINKS and then click on the HTML. It's going to automatically copy it for you.

6) Go back to the place you want to share the gif. Right click and select PASTE.

(http://s106.beta.photobucket.com/user/countess_rain/library/GIFs)

There's your gif!

BUT say that you want to post a banner or picture that is going to take you back to a specific journal if it is clicked, and not photobucket.

Do everything above but don't click POST COMMENT just yet.

Okay, here is a picture:
(http://s106.beta.photobucket.com/user/countess_rain/library/)

Here is the code:
<a href="http://s106.beta.photobucket.com/user/countess_rain/library/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m243/countess_rain/wrongpassword.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"/></a>

See the first time that it has the URL for photobucket? That is what you want to switch. I'm going to take the URL for the bar and replace that so that it looks like:

<a href="http://be-compromised.livejournal.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m243/countess_rain/wrongpassword.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"/></a>

Now, if you click on the image, it will take you to the bar. Try it! You know you want to!

(http://be-compromised.livejournal.com/)

Edited 2012-09-16 02:02 am (UTC)

Thanks Lar! This could actually prove incredibly helpful - gifs have been something completely beyond me. I shall bookmark this :D

You deserve an award.

Can we get an award for larlaughs up in here?

Although I have nothing to ask immediately, I am quite new to LJ and have so far many times found myself swearing and flouncing away from my computer because I cannot make it work, so this will be very helpful to me.

Heyyyy, I didn't know you're in Avengers, too! *fistbump*

Okay, this is one related to fandom kind of.

I'm a strange one that is- I've never drank before or smoked (I'm well over 25 hence the strange comment)

Natasha or Clint in most fics I read are doing one or the other. I have no idea the difference between vodka and say rum besides colour.

So I'm hoping for a little knowledge of the whole russian vodka references in fic things, if someone drinks beer what do you imagine them going for?

I drink both vodka and beer (a little more than I should of both, I suppose)...but if you're asking what kind of vodka someone who drinks beer would go for, there's really no way to say, they're such vastly different things. Natasha, I think, would definitely drink Russian vodka when she could get it in the US (which is hard) because Russians will swear Russian vodka is more pure (FWIW I'm an American living in Russia, so have tried both). Really, I don't see Clint as a vodka drinker at all- I'd see him going for whiskey.

I think it's hard to say which kind of beer someone would go for, because it depends on personal taste. For example, I don't like beer much. Given the choice between beer and any other kind of alcoholic beverage I would most likely choose the latter - unless it's Irish beer. I can't even explain why - even though I don't like most beers - I like Guinness and Kilkenny.
My brother on the other hand thinks Guinness is disgusting. He prefers German beers and while he says that there's a huge difference between different bands of German beers I personally feel that they all taste the same. But maybe that's simply because I don't like either of them

As for Clint being American, I'm assuming he would go for one of the beers which are popular in America like Samuel Adams or Budweiser. But that's my personal head!canon and not some kind of unwritten law. ;)
And as for Natasha... I have absolutely no clue. Probably whatever Clint drinks. ;)

Edited 2012-09-16 11:29 am (UTC)

Here's a really good breakdown of different alcoholic beverages: alcohol (http://chezamanda.tumblr.com/post/23566366528/evil-nipple-wagon-alcoholic-beverage-breakdown).

I think the alcohol choices people tend to make for them in fic come about as much because there are strong cultural associations with certain types of alcohol (Russian Vodka, for instance is obviously associated with Russia, while whiskey is associated with both Ireland and Midwest/Southern USA - Bourbon has stronger Southeastern USA associations). A lot of those associations come from where the particular drink originated or is commonly produced.

It's the same with beer - German beer vs. Irish beer vs. American beer and whatall. :)

De-lurking here. :)

Hi from Russia! :) Just to point out a couple of things.

Um, to me, personally, Natasha doesn't seem like a Vodka person. It may be my personal prejudice and I know that it's a drink most commonly associated with Russia but it really has some rather ambiguous connotations. For a long time it's been the cheapest and the most available strong drink so drinking vodka is a bit... low-class, maybe? Not necessarily, of course, I'm not even sure most of my friends would agree with me but there's this nuance to consider. Sorry, my English seems to really get away from me today

Also, I don't know if this thing is common knowledge outside of former USSR but... If Natasha wanted to really impress someone with her drinking skills or to get drunk really fast on something really strong she might drink... pure alcohol, I suppose, it is in English? The alcohol that is used for medical purposes? It's not really pure, it is usually diluted with water but it's stronger than Vodka, it's tasteless and it hits really hard. It also may have this funny effect when a person drinking it seems totally lucid but can't stand up or walk because the legs won't hold them.

Sorry.

I was wondering about the whole beta-ing process and how that works? How do you go about securing a wonderful person to do so, and vice-versa, volunteering yourself to possibly be somebody elses?

I imagine there's trust exercises involved, am I right? Close your eyes and fall back, I'll catch you and also make sure you make a bit of sense in your writing type things...

I'm going to give you my answer... and someone else's might be completely different... so no one take this as law.

I've always fallen back on my friends list for beta help. While I do have a RL friend who helps me, her life is not always as open as I might need it to be (golly, what's with people having a life?) so I might need someone to look over something she can't get to. Also, there are fandoms that I write for that she's not familiar with.

In those instances, I post something on my personal journal. This can be hit or miss as far as getting help although I've been super lucky since coming to this fandom and this community specifically. There's been talk here and there about setting something up here at the bar but I don't know how that would work.

I always try to offer up my beta services if I have the time. I didn't do either of the big bangs that have come up recently so I tried to keep my schedule pretty clear in case anyone needed another set of eyes.

And yes, it's all about trust. It's always wise to tell your beta what you want from them up front - just grammar check? canon check? voice? comma cop? And when I offer up my beta services, I always try to make sure of what they want from me so I'm not treading on any toes.

Does anyone else do it a different way?

…Takes her drink from the corner booth where she’s been people watching all this time… downs drink and slowly approaches the group…

Hi everyone *waves*
I have a few lj related questions, if you don’t mind me asking? I was wondering about proper icon etiquette. How do I go about getting icons, how do I properly credit the lovely people I’m taking them from, when is it ok to take icons, etc. (Pretty sure I’ve had the same icon since I created this… 7 years ago). Thank you for explaining lj-cuts and gifs! Those were other questions I had. How does it work if you just want to post a gif by itself though, and not necessarily have it be a link to somewhere else? (and is gif taking etiquette the same as it is for icons?) Oh, and how do you view comments in nest vs flat view? (Or whatever it is called where the comments show up in the order that they were posted, and not in response to another comment.) ahh so many questions!!

I haven’t posted anything before because I’m not a fic writer (and feel like I have nothing to contribute). I’ve been known to have crazy mad grammar skills though, and can proofread like no one’s business! (and I totally read this post 50 times over just to be safe ;) But fic writing? Not so much. I am trying to get back in the habit of commenting/leaving a review/wildly flailing on every fic I read, so this is step number one… ;)

I have been getting back in touch with my artistic side (nothing noteworthy/shareable yet) and have a question for my fellow artists… I want to try my hand at graphic design/art but… have no idea where to start… if that is too broad a topic/will take too long to explain, then no worries! Just thought I would put it out there ;)

This bar has been my home since waaaaay back when I saw the movie (the first time) and had to find an outlet for all those darn feels! (Like many of us here I was unprepared for the Clint/Natasha feels that attacked me!! I came for the RDJ, stayed for the C/N ;) So thank you so much for providing this yacht/bar/TARDIS/whatever this glorious place is ;) All of you are so friendly and awesome and talented and just… its been so much fun, even for a lurker :) *busts out a plate of freshly baked cookies for everyone*

Oh, one more question… My friends and I are thinking of dressing as the Avengers for Halloween, and so far I’m going to attempt to be a female version of Hawkeye (I have a nerf bow and arrow and everything!) I need some ideas for the shirt... other than buying an XXL kids costume and hoping it fits, how can I best replicate the awesome black and purple body armor?? Thanks! *brings ice cream to go along with the cookies*

Also, what did come first? The chicken or the egg?! :/

long comment is long, sorry about that everyone >_>

Actually, one of the example questions is something I have wondered about- how old is Natasha? And how old is Clint, for that matter? I'm new to the fandom and my introduction came via the movies, so I feel like I am missing years worth of comic book canon. I was assuming Natasha was Scarlett's age (late 20's) but then I read somewhere that in the comics she's like the USSR's version of a super-soldier and doesn't age. I am considering embarking on a fic writing adventure, and this would be helpful to know...

Ah yes, this question. It's very confusing! The simple answer is that for the movie verse, there is no set age for either character. Natasha not aging was retconned into the comics timeline so there could be a romance with Winter Soldier, so it's up to you whether you want to go incorporate the not-aging into the movie verse.

Scarlett Johannson said that Natasha has no powers in the movies, so my personal headcanon is that Natasha is no older than she appears to be. For my fics I base Clint and Natasha's ages around the ages of the actors, so Natasha is mid 20s and Clint mid to late 30s.

TL/DR: there are no definite ages in canon, go with what suits you best. :)