unless, oh, that's what "closed" means? Not in terms of date but in terms of invitees?

Honestly, dunno. Although I tend to assume a challenge isn't open to everyone unless there's a public announcement.

How it usually happens is a bunch of people are in a chat room together, somebody gets a bright idea, and everybody goes off to write a story. Not deliberately "exclusive", if you know what I mean.

I'm sure this article from the front page of today's Washington Post would be of interest.

Well, that was... surprisingly inoffensive and non-condescending, really.

Because I have severe I-don't-invite-myself-to-the-party issues

Yes, like this.

The Post article wisely quotes an article on the intellectual property rights of fanfic writers which is both supportive and interesting.

yes, but since she doesn't announce it even on her LJ I suggest we not out her.

She didn't name the name, RL. And while I understand that someone is fully free to discuss the conjunction of their online persona with their real life, I don't feel comfortable doing it for them.

I've known that those two people were the same person for years, just as I know other identities of people I know online. That doesn't mean I make those announcements publicly. I figure if they want people to know, they won't use a pseud.

Okay. I had assumed that since she identified herself as being in the article, in a public LJ post, and identified what she had talked about in the article, that she was fine with people drawing the connection between names. That's why I thought it was okay to say that-- I wouldn't casually out anyone I happened to know unless I thought I had clear indication they were comfortable under both names (as I use both "Rebecca Lizard" and "Lauren Rile Smith", but just feel more natural under "Rebecca", & anyone in fandom is welcome to know what my real-life name is, if they happen to care).

But I will certainly bow to yr superior sense of fan etiquette; and then I'll shut up typing, because all I've done here over the last couple days has gotten me into trouble. (I'd forgotten what the taste of posting-board arguments was like.)

I don't know about superior senses of fan etiquette. What I know is that I like to respect people's choices. If someone was interviewed in a magazine about fandom and the article said, "Mary Sue McCartney, who writes Harry Potter fanfic as SillyQ..." -- well, that would be different because Mary Sue would have admitted to it publicly.

But the article in question didn't, and just because I have access to someone's LJ doesn't mean I feel comfortable saying publicly, "SillyQ the ficcer is also Mary Sue McCartney the novelist", because I figured it out from her LJ. If Mary Sue wanted that known, she wouldn't write as SillyQ.

Everyone in fandom has different levels of comfort with regards to their identity. And when I'm uncertain, I go with the individual's own choices. That's all. YlevelofcomfortMV, and clearly does.