are you ready to answer the big questions?

[krickets]

I saw a fandom secret the other day in which the person said that they would be more into the BSG fandom if it wasn't so homologous. And it really is true. Far too often, almost every fic compiled over at the_wireless is either Adama/Roslin or Kara/Lee. And I have to admit, that's one thing that makes me sad about this fandom as well.

I think if more people were writing more rare pairings, it would generate interest from other people and then it would just be this big snowball effect. (If only in hopeful theory.) I myself have been attacked by lack of muse and excess of little hater over much of the summer and so I very much feel that I'm not doing my part on that end. Not that it's all up to little ole me, but there's still the guilt in complaining about something I myself haven't done anything about.

My question for the bsg fen on my flist is this:
Is there a "rare pairing" bsg comm? If not do you think the fandom would benefit from something like that? What pairings would you exclude? Adama/Roslin and Kara/Lee only since they comprise about 85% of fanfic in this fandom? Or would you include other canon pairings as well like Helo/Sharon?

Another, somewhat related, question: Didn't there used to be a bsg fic finders or bsg fic recs community? Where is it? What happened to it?

Switching gears for a moment. Another thing I wanted to bring up, related to LOST, is something that slybrunette mentioned to me, and something I'd actually been thinking about.

[Poll #1254987]

The other vote is me. I just wanna see the results without having to click. I'm lazy alright!

Comments

[smercy.livejournal.com]

well, I know that the bsg recs community has stopped being a recs comm and is now just requests for specific types of fics by noobs.
and I would be all over a rare pairings comm.

[sionnain.livejournal.com]

I thought I saw one, a rare-pair comm, but it might have been just for non-canon ships. As they included Kara/Leoben in that, I had to pass on joining, even though I was uncertain about Sam/Leoben/Kara :)

I would of course join your comm--we could be affiliates with lovebindsall! :D

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

I only see thearchive2, getyourtoaster, hot_toaster, and bsg_femslash, so I've kept myself away from the plethera of Lee/Kara and Roslin/Adama. I'd be into a rare pairing comm. I have no idea how the exclusion should work though. The term rare pairings in and of itself would exclude Adama/Roslin and Kara/Lee, but not Helo/Sharon because I can't remember more than one fic for Helo/Sharon.

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Where is that comm?

I may just have to start one up if there is none!

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Oh, do you remember where you saw it? I'd like to take a look at it.

Oh yay! Affiliates!

[crickets.livejournal.com]

I also know of bsg_slash and my comm bsg_slashathon.

And yeah I tend to agree with you about including Sharon/Helo and pretty much all other pairings but those two. I'm halfway contemplating tallying up the listings at the wireless to see just how much of an overwhelming majority of Adama/Roslin, Kara/Lee fic there is.

[smercy.livejournal.com]

bsgficrecs

if you did start one, I'd help out with some recs.

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Okay I am a dummy because I was sure I was a member of a bsg fic rec community that disappeared. This was it apparently. *scratches head* How did I lose it? LOL.

I think that one is great. I personally don't mind the "fic finders" aspect coupled with recs. It's nice to have a place for that to exist, even if it's coexisting.

If I can't find one though I think I may definitely have to start up a rare pairing comm.

[smercy.livejournal.com]

well, it's just that there is already a fic finders community, and it's clearly stated on the userinfo page that it is not a ficfinders comm and that there is a separate one that purpose.
and people still do it.
drives me NUTS.

go with your bad self!

[oregonblondie.livejournal.com]

bsg_rare <3, but there isn't a whole lot of activity there. I have some stuff I've been meaning to post there though.

[gigglemonster.livejournal.com]

Jawyercita! YES! Double, wait..triple yes ;)

And I'm all for a rare-pairings community. Definitely.

[daybreak777.livejournal.com]

Yes, the above commenter mentioned bsg_rare. I write rare pairings! A lot of my fic is AU, too. It's just what I'm inspired by. I've written Kara/Felix, Kendra/Lee, Dee/Sam, Gaeta/D'Anna. I even vidded Gaeta/Baltar recently for a friend. I write canon pairings too. Whatever strikes muse. But there are people writing rare BSG pairings out there. Just hard to find them.

Oh and there is: bsgficfinders and bsgficrecs. Nothing happened to them, I think.

I know I write the fics mostly for me. Some people have told me they just can't suspend disbelief and read outside of canon. I dunno, I guess for some it's hard.

And dude, you wrote awesome Jawyercita this summer! No hating allowed! We will fight the little haters!

ETA: Okay, maybe you wrote that in May. But I remember it so well, it feels like you just posted it last month. :-)

[viridian.livejournal.com]

I have NO IDEA why there aren't more rare pairings in BSG. I ship some what I'd consider fairly normal ones -- Gaius/Six (any of them!) and Gaius/Six/Three are the two explicitly canon ones I ship, and they aren't IMPOSSIBLE to find, but they're not rampant either. And of course my pet pairing is Kara/Leoben and sometimes Kara/Sam/Leoben, and my super-top-secret-whyamitheonlyonetowritethispairing is Kara/Kendra.

So YES. We need that comm.

[greycoupon.livejournal.com]

You're no dummy. Long story short, the fic finders and fic recs comm were both deleted and brought back a few days later.

I have no idea why there aren't more rare pairings around. :(

[anno-superstar.livejournal.com]

There's one for Helo/Chief. and I'm not sure but I think there's one for Lee/Anders. Actually, so many people still ship K/L, A/R that pretty much any other shipping is rare. I ship anyone/Crashdown and anyone/Racetrack and those are pretty rare since people who WATCH BSG hardly even know who Crash & Maggie are.. And I don't know, I think Kara/Anders are still pretty rare. Maybe I'm just not finding the love, but even if it's more common than I know, they're def the least shipped out of Kara's three guys (1. Lee 2. Leoben 3. Anders).

Humm. In gaeta_squee, there's a lot of Gaeta/lots of people.

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Thank you! How come no one else knew abou this? I guess it does exist after all.

However, the list of pairings it omits is very very long. All canon pairings more or less. Which in a sense I agree with. But if you look at "rare" as in "amount of fic posted" only Adama/Roslin, Lee/Kara and possibly Sam/Kara would fit. And I don't even think that last one has that much.

[crickets.livejournal.com]

bsg_rare. It omits pretty much all canon pairings though, so it's not rare in the same sense as I was thinking.

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Ah! Thank you! Mystery solved. I was starting to think I had imagined all that.

[crickets.livejournal.com]

I have the same problem with most canon pairings.

As for those two comms. greycoupon explained above that both of them were actually deleted for a few days and then put back up. Mystery solved.

But I remember it so well, it feels like you just posted it last month. → Hahaha, aw. Well thank you. ;)

[crickets.livejournal.com]

It's incredibly strange to me that those two pairings dominate the fic in this fandom. I mean, sure I guess I would understand if there was an abundance of others to choose from, but there's really not. V.v. strange.

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah! I knew about those. I should have mentioned that. Someone mentioned bsg_rare which I had no idea about so there actually is a comm out there. But they actually omit almost all canon pairings and so those "rarely written, yet still canon" pairings don't fit there.

I know that at first I remember seeing more Kara/Anders fic, but you're right the balance does seem to have shifted in Leoben's favor.

[sionnain.livejournal.com]

I think it's called Flesh and Bone? flesh_and_bone, maybe>

[sionnain.livejournal.com]

Okay, omg, no, that was not it.

Here it is:

http://community.livejournal.com/flesh_and__bone/

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, I'm pretty sure that you can post any ship there right? *checks* Yeah there is no limitation except that the fic be a shippy one. Which is actually kind of funny because there's hardly any gen written in this fandom anyway.

Also? I think that person stopped posting because they died... of starvation! Sheesh!

[sionnain.livejournal.com]

Man, that must not be the one I am thinking of! I know I saw one that restricted canon pairings but I cannot for the life of me think of what it is (though I squeed at Kara/Leoben being canon, hee).

If you make one, I will happily inundate it with K/L and Sam/Kara/Leoben fic. And we can affiliate!

And yes, seriously, WTF!!!

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Oh, hah. I'm a dummy, I should have mentioned this. It's bsg_rare. Someone mentioned it below. But it excludes all canon pairings for the most part. Even if nobody ever writes them.

[sionnain.livejournal.com]

YES. That was the one, and that was the list I was like "...." over. We need one for rarely-written pairings, maybe? Which would be, IMHO, anything not Kara/Lee or Adama/Roslin.

[alliecat8.livejournal.com]

I say go for it! I kinda have a secret thing for Conmama. :) My only concern...well, two concerns...is that if it's Jack/Claire/Sawyer, do you want to include incest fics? Some people (not me, but some) are squicked by that. And, this is just a personal pet peeve of mine -- purely my own neurosis! -- but I *wish* there was some other term for Jack/Sawyer instead of Jawyer! There just isn't a good one though, is there?

*shuts up now*

[slybrunette.livejournal.com]

See, there are people who said yes. I TOLD YOU.

[beerbad.livejournal.com]

bsg_femslash 4LIFE!!!! :P

[crickets.livejournal.com]

See your Conmama secret shouldn't be secret at all! Hahaha. Go Conmama!

The short answer to that question is yes. ;(

I mean Jawyercita as I (and others) have written it definitely includes the element of incest. So yes, that would be allowed at the comm.

Haha honestly the only ship name I have ever really gotten behind is Jawyercita. Which was totally made up by my friend Trey. I don't even like Jawyer. I am just content to say Jack/Sawyer or Sawyer/Jack, lol.

Don't worry, I won't be too sad if you don't join. I was just trying to gauge the level of interest.

[crickets.livejournal.com]

You did indeed.

Wanna mod it with me? LOL.

[crickets.livejournal.com]

*cheers*

Even though I don't read or write femmeslash, I am always proud to see bsg_femslash and getyourtoaster representing the rare ships out there. It's very inspirational!

[alliecat8.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'd be interested, all right! I have to confess that I haven't read any Jack/Claire incest -- I didn't even know it was out there. That would sure show a different side of Claire, though, wouldn't it? And of Jack, too; not the proper play-by-the-rules good boy he's tried (and failed) to be. It opens up some interesting possibilities!

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Ah, I didn't see the part where you said "not me." Duh. Hahaha.

There's definitely some of it around, not a lot, but some! I know that slybrunette, lenina20 and myself have all written Jack/Claire fics.

[slybrunette.livejournal.com]

If you need me I'm there. Might as well.

[lizardbeth-j.livejournal.com]

re: the rarepair comm. While a ficathon type thing might get more people to write, I'm dubious a comm does very much, unless someone is actively cheerleading for it. There are already so many splinter comms and most of them are deader than a doornail. We have the main all-pairing comm in bsg2003fic, which is hardly overburdened with fic as it is. And while I'd certainly join a rarepair comm, so it's not like I'm AGAINST it or anything, I think the problem isn't that there's no place to put it -- There are just not a lot of fic-writers, and most of them write the two big ships. Hell, I could probably count the fic writers for Sam/Kara on the fingers of one hand, including myself, and that's a popular canon ship.

In an ideal world what I would like is a non-LJ Rarepair ARCHIVE. That way people not on lj could find the fic and the fic writers, and support it that way. One of the things which is going to hurt BSG after the canon closes is having so much of its fic here and virtually impossible to find for fans who come after.

So, um, don't take this the wrong way - I think it's a good thought and if you do it, I'll be there, but I have the feeling it's probably about two years too late...

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Yeah you know I was thinking a ficathon might be even better. And you're right it may be too late. But the truth is I only got into this fandom a year ago myself. Rats! A day late and a dollar short!

I will think about the ficathon thing.

I am just so curious how some fandoms are rampant with non-canon and rare pairings and some just aren't. I've had a lot of theories about this, especially when I was trying to figure out why the hell there wasn't more m/m slash in this fandom, but none of them seem to hold together very well.

*ponders that some more*

Thank you for your advice!

[anjali-organna.livejournal.com]

(via galacticanews)

I'm reccing BSG this month on crack_van and I am struggling to find anything that isn't L/K or A/R...As much as I like those characters, I feel like the point of crack_van is to showcase stories that are good, yes, or crack-y, but also not "same old same old." Obviously there are L/K and A/R stories that are well written and fresh, but I get tired of reading about the same characters when BSG is technically an ensemble show. I also am trying to find other sites/communities that might have other pairings but am struggling there too. My point is, yes! to a rare-pairing site!