general rules of conduct for the forum

1. be open minded. We are here to share opinions, not pass judgements.
2. keep your posts consise and relevant. unless you're using the chat forum.
3. Flaming is not appreciated. is it ever?
4. Obey the rules of copyright. when in doubt, look up the usa guidelines.
5. swear sparingly. it's more effective that way anyway.

guidelines for suggesting new works:

new works are added as follows

A person, Jane, is interested in the project and looks at the table of contents for the current version of the Rebel Reader (v1.0). She notices that Emily Dickenson is missing from the collection and decides that she’d like to suggest the addition of a work by that author. She chooses a poem, or series of poems, that represent Dickenson as a ground-breaking poet and posts them to the forum with her suggestion to add them to the collection. (If Jane had selected a novelist, essayist, or dramatist she would need to select an excerpt in the form of a chapter, scene, or short story.) From here, people in the forums would get to discuss the change and it would be either added or dismissed. (We’ll give Ms. Dickenson the benefit of the doubt and say that she made it.) An email would be sent to the project manager (rrp at spitfirepress.com), and Emily Dickenson would become part of the collection in for her innovative work in poetry.

and the rules on that:

1. The selection you're submitting should be a poem, short story, essay, chapter of a book or selection from any longer work, including memoirs, autobiographies, speeches, drama, etc.

2. If excerpting, you should choose your excerpt carefully. it should clearly represent the author and the rest of the work without being too long.

3. You MUST give reasons why this work should be included in the collection when you post it. give the group the opportunity to agree or disagree with you. however, sometimes, simply liking a work is enough to get the ball rolling on a new addition.

4. Do NOT post works that are not in the public domain. this is extremely important. please see the "Where to find works in the public domain" section of these guidelines.

5. If you wish, you may post your suggestion to the forum, but please do so as a NEW POST. This will make it easier for people to read, and then they can reply to your post without scrolling down for a hundred years. You may also link externally if you have webspace of your own. in fact. linking externally may be the best thing if you have a particularly long piece or one that requires a lot or formatting.

6. once a work is added to the collection, it must be re-edited according to the style sheet.

One you post a work, it's a good idea to see it all the way through. Decisions should be made after the work is batted around for a little bit in the forums. If you choose, these forums have a "poll" function. You may want to use that. I will try to keep tabs, but please notify me [rrp@spitfirepress.com] if a work you've submitted is added to the collection so that I can see about adding it to the PDF version of the RRp and to the plain text "source" version.

where to find works in the public domain

There are many different online sources for literature that's become public domain in the USa due to expired copyright. Now copyright laws change quickly and are not the same in every country, so if you're not in the USa, please note that you should abide by USa copyright standards.

That being said, the BEST place for public domain literature is Project Gutenberg. It's a fantastic project that aims to make literature free for everyone. Most off the texts from RRv1.0 came from them.
http://promo.net/pg/

Even there, however, you must obey copyright. Read their info about copyright. please be certain you're not breaking any laws. It would be detrimental to the project. There are many other sources online. I encourage you to seek them out and email me so I can add them to the links page.

guidelines for suggesting a deletion or change

1. Deletions are welcome.

2. If the work you want to delete was added by the group via group discussion and vote, please read the previous discussions before suggesting a deletion. It would be a waste to rehash the same discussions.

3. You MUST give reasons why this work should not be included in the collection when you post. Unlike additions, simply disliking a work is not usually enough to get the ball rolling.

4. you may also suggest a change in a selection. perhaps you have a better excerpt or a better work by an author that's already been featured. If suggesting a change, please make sure you note the differences between the currently held version and your suggested one.

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