Beta offering - planning post

[teaotter]

I thought it would be awesome to have a post here at the comm of people who'd be willing to beta other people's Guardian fanworks, and the mods have kindly agreed to let me put one together.

Before I do, I want to know -- what kind of information should I get from people willing to beta? I can put together a form for people to fill out for the sake of consistency.

So far, I've thought of:

User name
Preferred contact information (email, chat, whatever you want to use for beta, etc.)
Source(s) (drama/novel/RPF)
Crossovers or AUs? (yes/no/maybe, under X circumstances, contact me first, etc.)
Types of work you're willing to beta (art, fic, podfic, etc.)
Language(s)
Feedback you're specifically good at (encouragement, color, structure, spelling and grammar, sex scenes, etc.)
Do you feel comfortable giving feedback on Chinese language/culture?
Limitations (nothing incomplete, nothing over X words or minutes, no explicit sex or violence, nothing focused on Y character, etc.)
General likes

Any other suggestions?

Comments

[china_shop]

\o/

You might want to include RPF as one of the sources, too? :-)

[mekare]

Oh what a great idea! I think the categories are fine.

[020104isme]

Brilliant idea.

Only other thing I can think of is there is a fair proportion of multilingual people in the community. If they are willing to beta stuff in another language as well, that might be handy?

[trobadora]

Oooh, yes, or if they can help with Chinese culture or references!

[teaotter]

Good idea!

[teaotter]

I'll add that!

[bonibaru]

yes yes "culture check" or sensitivity reading is a big one for me as an American with minimal C-drama experience constantly wondering if what I'm writing is going to make everyone either confused or ticked off, lol. Sensitivity reading is good for all sorts of areas, not just cultural.

links

[bonibaru]

These may be helpful if you're compiling a resource list:

What should we look for in a beta reader

What is a beta reader

Three tips for being a better beta reader

Re: links

[bonibaru]

^^^ thinking about the above because I know there are some people who would love to beta read but are never sure if they are doing it "right", even though there is no right or wrong, but some guidelines and ideas might make them more comfortable. Sometimes authors need the reminder too - what it is fair to ask your betas to do, and what is maybe a little over the top, or not in scope. When some people ask for a beta all they really want is a spelling check, others want you to help them fix a point where they got stuck, and so on. I love beta reading and I cherish concrit and suggestions from others so I am stoked to see a post like this go up in the resources.