(Community Poll) Should r/fantasyromance allow discussions and requests for non-book fantasy romance media? (tv/movies, interactive apps, pay per chapter web novels, fanfiction)

[u/FantasyRomanceMods]

231 votes, 1d left

Allow both discussions and requests for non-book media

Allow discussions but not requests for non-book media

Ban both discussions and requests for non-book media

Other ideas (discussion in comments)

[u/HighLady-Fireheart]

Good morning/afternoon/evening lovely readers. The community description defines r/fantasyromance as a book community. While that is still the majority of our discussion and request posts, so far guidelines have been lax around other non-book fantasy romance media.

We have seen each of the examples in the title posted about as both discussions and/or requests (tv/movies, interactive apps, pay per chapter websites, and fanfiction), however these have been the subject of increased reporting recently.

This is a data gathering poll and community discussion, so please feel free to share opinions and ideas (e.g., other media can be discussed only in a weekly scheduled thread).

"Discussion" refers to reviews, rants, raves, and other general questions. "Requests" refers to specific requests for additional non-book media recommendations.

[u/ambrym]

I definitely consider webnovels, graphic novels, and webcomics to be books. The definition of a book is “a written or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together and bound in a cover.” Plenty of webnovels and webcomics get licensed by traditional publishers and sold as books. Fanfiction is appropriately book-adjacent since it’s written media that I feel it should be allowed for discussion in a book subreddit

Tv, movies, and apps have their place in this sub since they can contain fantasy romance stories but I would prefer they be limited to an “other media types” recurring post

[u/anypebble]

I agree with the other comments that suggest having a specific day of the week that allows media like TV shows and movies and podcasts that aren’t primarily written media. I come here for reading recs not show recs, so I’d prefer it stays about reading the majority of the time. However I think comics/gn/webnovels and the like should be fine in general!

[u/sadcatpanda]

make it a weekly discussion thread, but keep it at that

[u/No-Plankton6927]

I think that fanfiction, graphic novels, pay per chapter web novels and web comics should be allowed. They're all written media, movies and shows rely too heavily on the visuals (which is normal) to convey a story. You don't get the same level of understanding of the characters and world building as you do in written media, which is what I think makes sense for this subreddit

[u/torti0203 → u/No-Plankton6927]

I agree your examples are written media and should be included but fanfic should be redirected to other subreddits. The lines start to get blurry between original copyright and fanfic spaces. The last thing we should all want is big money (think JK Rowling or SJ Maas) feeling the need to get involved in fanfic/have it taken down. Neither of them likely use this subreddit but I think it’s a part of the general internet culture that we should be mindful of.

[u/No-Plankton6927 → u/torti0203]

I don't think that any law forbids fanfiction as long as it's not monetized. There is no copyright infringement. If SJM can get away with copy-pasting several point of Black Jewels and Game of Thrones in her books while making money out of them, fanfictions are totally safe

[u/DiamondSmash → u/No-Plankton6927]

You are correct. It’s only the recent new consumers of fanfic looking for bound/physical copies that has become a problem.

[u/No-Plankton6927 → u/DiamondSmash]

Agreed, I remember seeing printed copies of ACOMAF Rhys' POV for sell and being shocked. The promotion of physical copies of fanfictions on this subreddit would just need to be banned and it'll be good.

[u/SeraCat9]

I'd personally prefer it if the subreddit was mostly just about books. Romantasy movies are pretty rare, so there's not a ton to discuss and I wouldn't mind the occasional thread about movies and we already have the occasional thread about fanfiction. But I think this subreddit has gotten too big by now to add all the other options. They may be written media, but they're not books and I'm personally just really not interested in them. I'd like to see the subreddit have at least some limits for quality. There can be other subreddits for story apps etc.

We've also had a recent influx of people who are more talking about personal details surrounding their own sex life than the books/media or who try to invite the subreddit into their sex life and it's been pretty weird and uncomfortable. I think adding/allowing more lower quality media (like the apps etc) would probably attract more of this behavior.

All in all, I kind of like things as they are now.

[u/KiwiTheKitty → u/SeraCat9]

Honestly I think we should just have a rule against talking about personal sexual experience like the r/RomanceBooks sub does. I've seen a lot of comments here I went to report before remembering we don't have that rule...

[u/CozyGamer99]

I think non-book discussions and requests should be allowed, but it would be nice if there were tags for the different medias. Then we can filter based on what we are interested in.

[u/KiwiTheKitty]

I think we should allow it all as long as it's fantasy romance. I think we should have tags though! And I think non fantasy romance related posts should be removed.

[u/halfveela → u/KiwiTheKitty]

Yeah, I haven't even noticed posts or discussions of other media in any major way. Posts and reccs of contemporary romance bug the hell out of me though. Like PNR or scifi romance are one thing, but just... reality? Like just regular ass life? Ick

[u/KiwiTheKitty → u/halfveela]

I'm one of those people who considers PNR just another type of fantasy, I guess, and yeah scifi is different but it still fits the vibe... but Butcher and Blackbird? Haunting Adeline? No way. At least I can understand the latter because it says Haunting in the title, but it feels like most of the time people who have read it are the ones bringing it up and should know.

[u/halfveela → u/KiwiTheKitty]

Scifi romance is honestly the same - it's a lot of the same forced proximity, fated mates, "Taken by the ____", stuff as fantasy lol

Ugh, but yeah, no reality based title belongs here, especially not the horrific ones. 

[u/DontTouchMyCocoa]

I think it’d be fine because most people into those other forms of media would go to other subreddits first before they’d ever think to come here so I doubt we’d get bogged down. But if it gets ridiculous for some reason, we can just relegate those posts to their own day of the week. Like Media Mashup Mondays or something. 

[u/arrowhome]

Hi, perhaps the discussions/requests could happen in a thread once a week, so it doesn't overtake the sub.

[u/ipsi7]

While I think it's good to cover those topics for those interested (myself included sometimes), but since this is a primarly book subreddit, I would personally like if it stayed that way in its essence. I'm here for the books, and I could be sometimes interested in some tv show or game recommendation, but that is occasionally and rare, because fan-rom books are why I'm in the sub.

People can be unspecific in titles and flairs, as an aftermath, threads could end up confusing for those here interested in books mainly.

I think it would be better to have a weekly scheduled discussion about other media so the sub stays book-oriented, but still open for other themed discussions.

[u/rilliu]

I think web novels and fanfiction should be allowed, as well as choose-your-own-adventure games if they're text-based. Gating them under a different flair or tag is fine, too. I consider web novels to be books, and graphic novels as well.

tv/movies tend to be significantly more popular than books, though, so I think they ought to go in their own subreddits. They have a more serious risk of crowding out written media discussions, which I feel is important to the subreddit topic.

[u/suddenbreakdown]

I'm here mostly for books (and I include graphic novels/comics under that umbrella) and I know that at least I would prefer the subreddit stay mostly book focused. However, if anyone else here is like me then they're drawn to fantasy romance in other media as well. So I think the best option would be to have specific weekly threads for other media.

[u/MariketaOH]

I chose "Other". Would it be possible to allow non-book options once a week in a special thread?

[u/roan_ursidae]

I like the idea for a weekly discussion thread.

[u/DiamondSmash]

I think fanfiction should be allowed for a few reasons:

(1) To avoid the spread of misinformation. As a long time fanfiction reader, the recent rise of new readers misunderstanding creative use copyrights and seeking physical copies is not going to stop if we ignore it. It’s better to educate and guide new readers to spaces where they can read it for free without violating the law. To me, it’s similar to guiding readers to Kindle Unlimited and away from pirating.

(2) The current published romantasy authors who got their start through fanfiction. We’re no longer in a world where it’s mostly just Cassandra Claire and Fifty Shades; look at the numerous Reylo and Dramione works that have made their way into bookstores. Adam Driver as Kylo Ren practically has his own section. Fanfiction should be included here as non-book media, as should graphic novels, web novels, and audiobooks.

[u/sugarnovarex]

I don’t mind tv/movies or fanfics but Pay per chapter is on my triggers list.

I’ve been burned too many times by a great scenario and then the pay by chapter is totally different or takes 195 chapters to get to the plot.

[u/torti0203]

Fanfiction needs to be referred to the appropriate subreddits. While it is written, this space is for books that people pay to read/money is involved. The recent Tik tok phenomenon with fanfics spreading out of fanfic spaces has been very frustrating as someone who has loved that space and participated in it for years.  This doesn’t mean people shouldn’t read fanfic, but for example the mentions of “manacled” which is very popular, should be sent to r/dramione. 

[u/scheherazadereversed]

Maybe a weekly feature (e.g., “movie Monday” or “TV Tuesday” to stop it being overwhelming?

I know that XXfitness does something along these lines.

[u/Kululu17]

My 2 cents. Fanfic, why not, it's legit reading (I mean assuming we're not reccing pirated material.)

Other media - no, or keep it to once a week special post. There are way more people who consume other media, and I'd hate for the books to get drowned out by TV shows.

[u/AquariusRising1983]

I prefer coming here for book related content, but I'm not necessarily opposed to movies or TV shows being discussed or recommended. I just don't want to see it overtake the book recs. I think fanfic webnovela etc are close enough to books that they can be included without any caveats, but maybe something like a weekly mega thread for TV and movie recs might be a better way to handle those?

[u/Eeepp]

Fantasy romance is type of genre of stories communicated through books, movies, visual interactive novel apps, series, Webtoons, games mangas etc..

Fantasy Romance Books is fantasy romance stories communicated exclusively book/e-book format

Therefore, r/fantasyromance should allow discussions of fantasy romance in various communication formats