Harry Potter Old Lady Smut Brigade

The Harry Potter Old Lady Smut Brigade (hp_oldladysb) is a LiveJournal community focusing on adult female Harry Potter characters.
Despite the name "Smut Brigade", it is open to all ratings of fanworks. It is best known for its femslash content, but it also permits het and gen.
The community was last updated in November 2014. It is still online as of 2016, with 569 entries and 2,316 comments received.hp_oldladysb - Profile, accessed 27 March 2016. As of February 2012, the community had 186 members and 160 watchers.hp_oldladysb - Community Profile, archived by the Wayback Machine 06 February 2012.
The community was started before the introduction of tags on LiveJournal, so the community's memories were the primary means of finding and sorting entries—though most memories are from 2004 only, and they do not appear that they have been updated since 2006. Memories are categorized primarily by character, with Minerva McGonagall being the most popular with 60 entries.
== Community Description ==
== History & Community Guidelines ==
The hp_oldladysb community was created on March 29, 2004 by minerva_fan. minerva_fan announced the community's opening on hms_kittyhawk and hp_girlslash.Pimpage: The Harry Potter Old Lady Smut Brigade at hp_girlslash and xposted to hp_girlslash and my LJ at hms_kittyhawk. Posted 29 March 2004 by minerva_fan. (Accessed 30 April 2016.)
In the community welcome post, minerva_fan wrote:
The community was advertised as "centering on the non-student females in the Harry Potter universe." minerva_fan later reported that the community's "only rule is that the primary focus must be on the Over-30 women,"minerva_fan. Community Idea, posted to doctorwho 07 January 2008 and cross-posted to sarahjane_fic. (Accessed 30 April 2016.) which would exclude characters such as Nymphadora Tonks and female characters who had recently left school, such as Fleur Delacour and Penelope Clearwater. Tonks was included on the initial List of HP Adult (Non-Student) Female Characters posted to the community, though characters who were students at any point in the books were not. Regardless of whether "over-30" was ever an explicit rule, in practice, fanworks in the community only featured these younger female characters when paired with older women.
minerva_fan announced in April 2004 that she had decided not to moderate membership to make the community adults-only, but would instead enforce a "ratings policy" requiring all fanworks posted to the community to include a header outside the lj-cut that included the rating as well as the title, author, and summary. The community profile also lists as a requirement "unambiguous spoiler warnings if a story posted or linked includes any references to potentially upsetting pairings, such as underage, incest, or non-con." It also bans flames, including "incendiary posts" and ship bashing.hp_oldladysb - Profile at LiveJournal, accessed 30 April 2016.
In November 2005, hilarita was made co-moderator of the community after minerva_fan announced that she was looking for one.minerva_fan at hp_oldladysb. Looking for a Co-Mod and New Co-Mod, both posted 07 November 2005. (Accessed 20 June 2016.)
Posting access is currently moderated. It is unclear whether submitted posts are being actively approved by community mods; community members reported in October 2012 that they were having trouble posting to the community, with some posts having been in the queue for months before being approved.kelly_chambliss at Dreamwidth, Good Things and Rum Things posted 20 October 2012, and reply by woldy posted 21 October 2012. (Accessed 30 April 2016.)
==Fests & Challenges==
* Petunia Fuh-Q Fest (April-May 2004)
* Hooch Fuh-Q Fest (May-June 2004)
* McGonagall Fuh-Q Fest (July-August 2004)
Other proposed challenges:
* Open Mic (March 2004)
* Back-to-School Fic Challenge (August 2004)
* The Naked Lady Story Challenge (December 2004)
* Not Da Trio Summer of Love Ficathon (June-July 2005)
* The Shag 'Em Before They Die Challenge (June 2005)
* The Betrayal Challenge (July 2005)
* Poetry Flash (July 2005)
* Fifty Plot Bunnies Challenge (October 2005)
There were also other challenges advertised at the community but hosted elsewhere (e.g. the Rita Skeeter Fuh-Q-Fest).
== Community Graphics ==
* Old Lady Smut Brigade icons by raina_w and pippinshire (2004)minerva_fan at hp_oldladysb. Iconage, 13 April 2004. (Accessed 22 March 2016.)
* Old Lady Smut Brigade icons by minerva_fan (2006)
* The Harry Potter Old Lady Smut Brigade Wallpaper by Raina W (elemental_fey), designed for the fabulous_fi Fiona Shaw communityWallpapers and Fan Art from our Members at the Fabulous Fiona! fansite.
* OLSB colorbar by phieryphoenix (2004, now offline) & "isLove" colorbar by minerva_fan (2004)
== Sister Communities ==
* The Any Fandom Old Lady Smut Brigade (af_oldladysb)minerva_fan at hp_oldladysb. Pimpage, posted 26 July 2004. (Accessed 20 June 2016.)
* OLSB Recipe Repository (olsb_recipies)
== References ==
Category:Harry Potter Journal Communities Category:Femslash Journal Communities
Category:2004 Category:2000s Category:2010s