Updates

This is a update of for the General category.

Since merging the friendship, family, and romantic relationships categories over a year ago, we have accepted two kinds of relationship fanlistings: platonic/romantic, and antagonistic. Fanlistings for platonic/romantic relationships have been approved under the three Relationships categories (book/movie, TV, and real life) and are required to be “neutral” (meaning they must not say “you must be a fan of the romantic relationship”, and likewise with use of the word “platonic”) while fanlistings for antagonistic relationships have been approved under the Rivalries category.

We have come to realise that by giving the title of “rivalry” to an antagonistic relationship, and using the term “relationship” to describe only a positive relationship, we have distorted the meaning of the term “relationship”, which is: “A particular type of connection existing between people related to or having dealings with each other.” A rivalry is indeed a relationship, just one with a negative aspect to it.

We have therefore decided (after much discussion between us, and with the rest of the staff) to merge the existing Rivalries category into the existing three Relationships categories, and to dissolve the Rivalries category entirely. All pending forms in the Rivalries category will be transferred to the appropriate staff members.

Fanlistings in the Relationships categories are already required to be neutral, so this shouldn’t pose any problems for those of you who own relationship fanlistings at present. Your fanlistings will still be fanlistings for “the relationship between X and X”, just as they were before. You will not be required to make any changes to your layouts, codes, or rules, unless they are already in violation of our existing rules regarding relationship fanlistings (ie. the “must stay neutral” rule).

Fanlistings that are currently listed in the Rivalries category will be moved into the appropriate Relationships categories. This will obviously result in some duplicates, therefore fanlistings will be labelled as follows:

Spike and Buffy Summers
Spike and Buffy Summers (rivalry)

The existing fanlistings will not be required to change anything at all as a result of these changes, as they were approved before this change came into effect. The only time you might be asked to change something is if your fanlisting currently violates one of the existing rules, as stated above.

If a fanlisting for a rivalry exists where there is no fanlisting for the same pairing/group in one of the Relationships categories, the owner will have the option to choose whether to keep the fanlisting as it is and allow the possibility of someone else applying for the fanlisting for the main relationship, or to cover all aspects and become the only fanlisting for the pairing/group. If the owner chooses the latter option, no rivalry fanlisting will be approved at a later date. Owners will have one week to ask for their rivalry fanlisting to cover the entire relationship before other applications for the main relationship will be approved. They may still request the main relationship after a week has passed if it is still available.

The offer of staying as only a rivalry fanlisting is retroactive, meaning that it doesn’t work the other way around – it only applies to current rivalry fanlistings, and no further rivalry fanlistings will be approved. If a rivalry-only fanlisting is removed, it will not be open for applications.

Similarly, if a main relationship fanlisting is removed where a fanlisting for the rivalry-only aspect exists, the owner of the rivalry-only fanlisting may apply to cover all aspects of the relationship. This is, however, entirely the responsibility of the fanlisting owner, as with our cross-listing policy. If the owner of the rivalry-only fanlisting fails to apply for the main relationship, another fanlisting for it may be approved.

The changes have not yet been implemented, but we are going to start changing things over immediately after posting this thread. Everyone who owns a fanlisting in the Rivalries category should receive an email informing them of the changes once their fanlistings have been moved into the Relationships categories.

This will not only affect the existing Rivalries category and the three Relationships categories, but it will also affect any other categories which include fanlistings for types of relationships. These categories include Animation and Games, among others. The Anime/Manga categories will not be affected by these changes as these categories will soon be moving away from the network.

We hope that you will all adjust to these new changes. We invite you to discuss the new rules in the General Network Discussion forum, or if you have any questions for the Senior Staff, please post in the Questions for the Senior Staff forum.

Thanks for reading! :)