Camelot fleet

Camelot_fleet (The Fleet, C_f) is a multi-ship Merlin community on Dreamwidth. It was established on May 24, 2009 and remained active through the Series 4-5 hiatus.
==Purpose==
The community was created to provide a multi-shipper environment where any ship, regardless of the size of its following, is welcome. It also accepts all mediums, genres, and ratings.Camelot_fleet, accessed Mar 27, 2010.
As of March 27, 2010, it remained the only completely multi-ship community in Merlin fandom, though Merlin_rarepair on Livejournal accepted everything but Merlin/Arthur when it opened.Merlin_rarepair's Profile, accessed Mar 27, 2010.
==Origins==
Camelot_fleet was created by Heathershaped and Briar_pipe to provide a home for multi-shippers like themselves. At the time of its creation, there was no single community that allowed all pairings/moresomes and gen in all mediums.
Heathershaped used Pierrefonds castle in the header and community icon so that the comm would appear completely neutral with respect to characters and ships. Though the mods did discuss using the imagery of an actual fleet of ships in these images, they scrapped that idea in favor of a more Merlin-centric appearance.
For the first three months, the community was fairly quiet. After the mods began to throw regular weekend "parties", activity and membership picked up dramatically.She's in Parties "Why Are You Doing This?", accessed Mar 27, 2010. As of March 27, 2010, the community had over 200 members, 178 posts, and over 14,000 comments. By November 21, 2012, it has 392 members, 532 posts, and over 22,000 comments.
==Activities==
Camelot_fleet hosted both parties and challenges in 2009-2010, including the Fleet Finishathon, the February Free-for-all Prompt Fest, the Merlin Artword, and an Art workshop. These were all suggested by the community members and run by them.Ahoy there, sailors! and Join the quest to find the Fleet's next purpose in life!, both accessed Mar 27, 2010.
===Parties===
The greatest amount of activity on the community occurs at its semi-regular parties. These are weekend discussions not dissimilar to those at Camelot_love, but more structured. Party posts often continue to be active for 2 or even 3 days after posting.
These parties are open to everyone and are unlocked. Often, art, fanfiction, podfic, and meta are created there during the weekend. An after-party recap usually follows, linking to the creative works and to the main threads of discussion. For parties taking place on a weekend when a new episode airs, there are two separate party posts, one where spoilers for the latest episode are allowed and one where they are not.
===Workshops===
There were 5 workshops planned at Camelot_fleet in 2010; 4 took place. Each workshop was based around a medium: Fanart, Fanvids, Podfic, and Fanfic (Fangraphics did not take place as a separate workshop).Fan-run Workshops at the Fleet, accessed Mar 27, 2010.
==== Fanart Workshop ====
The first workshop focused on Fanart and ran on January 30-31, 2010. The moderator was Yue_ix, and the panel was made up of Xenakis, Lunatique (Littlewolfstar), and Phoq (Thisisnotphoq). They discussed various elements of fanart, both technical and aesthetic, as well as the mental process behind creating art. Their goal was to encourage those with an interest in Fanart but little experience to step out and try the medium.Workshop: Merlin Fanarts (drawings!), accessed Mar 27, 2010. Many attendees were nervous about starting or restarting to work as fanartists; the panel worked hard to dispell these fears and provide encouragement.
==== Podfic Workshop ====
The second workshop focused on podfic and was conducted on April 3-4, 2010. The moderator was Winkingstar, and Eos_rose and Pennyplainknits were on the panel. They discussed how they got started in podfic and how new readers could do so, offering tips on software, mics, accents, character voices, editing, and techniques like sound level matching.Workshop: Podfic! Accessed Nov. 21, 2012. Several people used this as an opportunity to produce their first podficsPODFIC AND FANART WORKSHOP FOLLOWUP Accessed Nov. 21, 2012., including Sophinisba, who later went on to become a prolific podficcer.
====Fanvid Workshop====
The third workshop focused on fanvids and ran on May 15-16, 2010. The moderator was Such_heights; the guest panel included Giandujakiss, Hollywoodgrrl, Kaydeefalls, La_esmeralda, and Obsessive24. The workshop covered topics such as software, resources, music choice, how to translate from head to screen, and vidding styles. It provided both feedback and cheerleading for aspiring vidders and included a "meet the vidder" thread for each member of the panel.Vidding Workshop! Accessed Nov. 21, 2012.
The workshop proved popular (over 30 participants who were not part of the panel) and was attended by fans who were not even involved in Merlin fandom.
==== Writer's Round Table ====
The fourth and final workshop focused on fanfic and ran between August 14 and August 21, 2010. This workshop was structured differently from the others in that most of the participants had experience writing. Instead of a panel, the workshop ran as a week-long round table discussion on a number of topics; additional topics were added as the week progressed. Topics included getting started, planning, style, dialogue, setting, action, finishing works in progress, genres, titles and summaries, drawing in readers, and many more.Writers' Round Table Accessed Nov. 21, 2012. This workshop became the most prolific, with 400 comments.
===Fleet Finishathon===
	
The Fleet Finishathon was run by Itachitachi, Glinda, and Significantowl. It ran from January 10, 2010 to February 14, 2010. Its purpose was to cheer participants on and help them finish large projects they had set as goals for themselves.Fleet Finishathon Signups!, accessed Mar 27, 2010.
	
One of the tools the Finishathon used was to have participants list their options and then provide a poll for each participant. Other participants were asked to fill out the poll with their favorites. This would hopefully help each participant decide which work(s) to concentrate on.Fleet Finishathon Polls, accessed Mar 27, 2010.
6 participants met their goals, though several more made significant progress.Fleet Finishathon Masterlist, accessed Mar 27, 2010.
===Finishathon 2011===
A second Finishathon was run in early 2011 by Themadlurker and Briar_pipe. It included frequent polls and structured work sessions, often run by participants. It resulted in 2 complete vids, 9 complete works of art, and 8 complete fics.Finishathon Masterlist Accessed Nov. 21, 2012.
===February Free-for-all Prompt Fest===
The February Free-for-all Prompt Fest was run by Hpsauce, Glass_icarus, Zephre, and Sophinisba. It ran from February 8, 2010, to March 1, 2010, and its purpose was to create a kind of party in slow motion, where there would be less pressure to create responses within a brief window.February Free-for-all Prompt Fest, accessed Mar 27, 2010.
The Fest included 318 promptsFebruary Free-for-all - the Monster Prompt List, accessed Mar 27, 2010. and garnered 23 completed fanworksFebruary Free-For-All - Masterlist, accessed Mar 27, 2010.. The fest remains open to further posting indefinitely.
===Merlin Artword===
The Artword challenge ran in March and April, 2010. The mods were Yue_ix, Xenakis, Kaizoku, and Briar_pipe. The challenge resulted in 7 complete pairs of works by 14 creators:Artword Masterlist Accessed Nov. 21, 2012.
*The Family Business (Merlin fanwork) by Whynot and Gwen (Arthur, Morgana. AU fusion with season 1 of Supernatural. (story and graphic art))
*Destinies Intertwined by Wickednotevil and Nenime (Merlin and Arthur (song and drawn art))
*Imminent Domain by Kaizoku and Valika (Arthur, Morgana, implied Arthur/Gwen (vid and podfic))
*By Design by Calliglad and Followthehorse (Merlin, Morgana (story and graphic art))
*Elemental (Water, Fire, Air, Earth) by Zephre and Sophinisba (OT4-ish. Morgana, Gwen, Arthur, Merlin. (drabbles and drawn art, wordart))
*Beginning's End by Cat_77 and Lolryne (Merlin-centric, Arthur, Gwen, Morgana - hint of OT4 (story, podfic, graphic art/vid))
*the syntax of things by Glass_icarus and Artemis (Morgana, Gwen, pre-Morgana/Gwen-ish (fic and anime-style art))
==References==
Category:Merlin Communities