Fandom Question!

HEY, FANDOM!!!!! I HAVE A QUESTION FOR YOU!!!

Two, really.

I've seen these phrases bounced around at fic fests and archives and in author notes and I do not know what they mean.

Alpha and Cheerleader.

I mean, I know what a Beta is. I use one for fic. I've even got two sort of. One is my longstanding Beta (Hi, rewil) that I've had since I first entered the HP fandom with the first chapter of my long gone Snape/OC fic. Beta!Beck was a professional copy editor type person for years and she's super smart and she knows grammar and punctuation like whoa. Also, she doesn't get upset when I randomly call/ping her in the middle of the day (or night if we're both awake) to ask her to help me remember a word that I may or may not remember a vague definition for and possibly some letters in it.

The other person I let read my non-polished and published bits is a friend I made early in my fandom career (SEVEN YEARS! It's been SEVEN YEARS, devsgma!) and I trust her to be totally honest if something is a piece of crap or doesn't make sense or if I've got Snape crawling out of a tub when I've already established he only has a shower (example has not actually happened).

I consider them both Betas to me.


Is that wrong?


And if they're both Betas, then what the heck is an Alpha, and what is it used for?


AND AND what is a Cheerleader? Do they see the piece before it's posted? Do they just tell you how fabulous you are and how wonderous your fic/art is?


So confused.

Fandom Question!

HEY, FANDOM!!!!! I HAVE A QUESTION FOR YOU!!!

Two, really.

I've seen these phrases bounced around at fic fests and archives and in author notes and I do not know what they mean.

Alpha and Cheerleader.

I mean, I know what a Beta is. I use one for fic. I've even got two sort of. One is my longstanding Beta (Hi, rewil) that I've had since I first entered the HP fandom with the first chapter of my long gone Snape/OC fic. Beta!Beck was a professional copy editor type person for years and she's super smart and she knows grammar and punctuation like whoa. Also, she doesn't get upset when I randomly call/ping her in the middle of the day (or night if we're both awake) to ask her to help me remember a word that I may or may not remember a vague definition for and possibly some letters in it.

The other person I let read my non-polished and published bits is a friend I made early in my fandom career (SEVEN YEARS! It's been SEVEN YEARS, devsgma!) and I trust her to be totally honest if something is a piece of crap or doesn't make sense or if I've got Snape crawling out of a tub when I've already established he only has a shower (example has not actually happened).

I consider them both Betas to me.


Is that wrong?


And if they're both Betas, then what the heck is an Alpha, and what is it used for?


AND AND what is a Cheerleader? Do they see the piece before it's posted? Do they just tell you how fabulous you are and how wonderous your fic/art is?


So confused.