The Ball is Round

So we have it: the Netherlands will meet Spain in the final on 12th July, while Uruguay and Germany will play for third place on 11th July. I've refrained from speaking my team preference in the World Cup, but let me just say that I have more of an emotional stake in the third place play-off. :P

Apologies that I've taken so long to get around to it (the lack of sleep doesn't help), but I've updated the welcome post with a fiction policy that includes RPF. I've stated my reasoning in the post, but if it's still unclear, please comment or PM me with questions.

I created this community upon realising that there's no active, general football/soccer community on Dreamwidth. I'm not going to pull out the "fan for blah blah years" maneuver, but suffice to say that there'd be a big yawning gap in my DW life if the non-existence of such a community continued to persist. ;)

This community welcomes the participation of all fans, regardless of backgrounds, identities and how long they've been fans of the beautiful game. Want to squee over how well your team's doing? Post it here. Want to commiserate on a team's bad run? You're welcome to. Have an interesting article or blog post you'd like to share? Please do! Icons, music, discussion posts -- all are loved.

Spoiler policy: given that match results are reported widely by the media minutes after the final whistle, as well as the preponderance of live text commentaries online (e.g. the BBC and the Guardian), you do not have to use a cut or warn for spoilers. If you do not want to know the results until you have a chance to watch the match, I would suggest that you temporarily unsubscribe or use a subscription filter so that you don't have to use the default read view.

I want to emphasise very strongly that maintaining a safe space for participation and discussion is paramount: nobody gets a free pass for misogynistic, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist and bigoted language and/or behaviour. Mainstream football media and culture may be most or all these things, but we don't have to and should not replicate them in this community.

Friendly rivalry is okay (especially when it's funny), but please don't take it over the line into name-calling and flamewars. If things get heated, I trust that you -- yes, YOU -- are mature enough to step back and cool off. If not, please send me a private message. Thanks!

Fiction policy

This community accepts the posting of football-related fiction: original stories, fanfic and RPF. However, RPF must be posted under a members-only lock. A poll on this issue indicated that a majority of members/subscribers are willing to see RPF posted to the community, however I recognise concerns with regards to trackbacks via links to other blogs or news sites and thus, possible implications for journals associated with RL identities. Asking posters to anonymise all links is impractical, therefore I've taken a leaf out of the practice of tennis communities on LJ.

When posting fiction, please indicate in the subject line whether it's an original story, RPF, etc. Fiction must be posted with headers that include warnings for common triggers (e.g. graphic violence and sexual assault, violent misogynistic and/or racist language) and a note on adult content where necessary.

What's considered adult content: explicit sexual scenes, strong language and content that may also necessitate a trigger warning (see above).

What's not considered adult content: LGBT characters and people. I can't believe I have to make this point explicit, but I've seen it in various warnings around fandom, so better safe than sorry.

I stress that fiction also falls under the general community policy with regards to safe spaces and expressions of bigotry: there's a difference between (for example) contextualised misogynistic and racist language or behaviour written with thought and, say, depictions with unquestioned and unthinking racism and misogyny. Please remember that what you write isn't "just a story".