The Cutting Board

The Cutting Board was a Livejournal community for readers to discuss Stargate Atlantis fanfiction. Three years after "The Cutting Board" closed, a new community called The Comfy Chair was started. All of the content from "The Cutting Board" was moved there. There were two entries for fic fandom at "The Comfy Chair" before it ceased.
The comm was active during the fandom's heyday, but only 24 posts regarding fanworks were made, most in 2005-2006. 
A few very popular and/or controversial SGA stories were discussed here, generating further discussion elsewhere on Livejournal and raising the profile of the community. 
The discussions at "The Cutting Board" touched upon many aspects of fannish concrit of fanworks, hurt feelings, posting etiquette, the visibility of fic, differing motivations of readers and writers, privileging readers over writers and vice versa, motivation, and the minefields of fannish personal interaction.
==Purpose==
==Opening Post and Description==
==Wank==
==="Hindsight"===
The first substantive post on thecuttingboard was a discussion of Hindsight by Rageprufrock on 16 August 2005. A few days later, Rageprufrock wrote a (now locked) post expressing hurt about having her story cut to pieces and misinterpreted. It was excerpted on Metafandom: " Breaking the seal--fandom style. There's absolutely no mature way to put this, so I'm going to table this in terms that appealed to me between the ages of three and forever: Ow! Ow! I'm breaking my silence. // Nothing inspires a childish fit of rage faster than seeing something crafted over the period of weeks get torn to tiny, uninspired pieces, taken out of context, mauled by readers, and picked at--and have to gloss it over with a shiny, mature veneer. Outside, I'm holding my chin up high, smiling, and glowing in the Southern sun, and inside my head is a fucking ACDC concert: I'm busting eardrums and breaking expensive machinery." August 23 The August 23 Metafandom roundup contains evidence of the fallout from her post. Most of these meta posts are now locked or deleted, but appear to address concrit, hurt feelings, the difference between feedback and discussion, and whether discussing other people's stories without permission is okay. 
The comm's mod wrote a post clarifying the purpose of the community.Admin: A little clarification, posted by carolyn_claire on 2005.08.23. narcissam posted the Fandom Wank report the next day.
* Fan fiction and public critique (aka, deja vu) by destina
* by elishavah 
==="Take Clothes Off As Directed"===
At least one other post from thecuttingboard generated wank that made Fandom Wank: 
*dkwilliams wrote a post called Ruminations on good manners about politeness following a review of Take Clothes Off As Directed. 
*The F_W post was "Why can't fandom *strike*get along*/strike* be polite?" "Oh? What do you mean by polite?", 2006-11-20.
==="The Cutting Board's" Admin Discussions===
The Cutting Board moderator discussed guidelines and wank in several posts:
* (April 17, 2005)
* (April 24, 2005)
* (March 14, 2006)
See "The Cutting Board's" Admin Discussions for comments.
==The Fic Discussed==
* always should be someone you really love by thingswithwings, Straight as a Circle by toomuchplor, You're Pretty Good Looking for a Girl by trinityofone (83 comments) 
* Do-Over by Carolyn Claire (2 comments)
* Take Clothes Off As Directed by helenish (153 comments)
* Moved to Distraction by kellifer fic (4 comments)
* The Pegasus Society by Sabine (76 comments)
* Freedom's Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose by synecdochic (85 comments)
* Legion the Things I Would Give to Oblivion by auburnnothenna (10 comments)
* A Beautiful Lifetime Event by astolat (41 comments)
* Hindsight by Rageprufrock (85 comments)
* When in Haldoria by Speranza (17 comments)
* The Silent Art of Watching by Tafkar (13 comments)
* Something More by Jenn (8 comments)
* Chasing Sheppard by scrunchy, Teamwork by magus minor and methaya (14 comments)
==Similar Sites==
* XF Book Club on LiveJournal (created in 2007)
==References==
Category:Stargate Atlantis Communities‎
Category:2000s
Category:2018 Fannish History Friday
Category:Social Media Feature