As someone who used to run fandom zines/anthologies and was there at the height of voltron zines these are my red flags if a zine may not work out:
1) they're asking for mods.
[Asking strangers on the internet is a risk and is what usually leads to projects unfinished when one ghosts the others]
2) mods themselves are inexperienced
[Especially if they're handling money, a lot of times that money disappears or it doesn't get to that stage because running a zine is overwhelming]
3) mods have several projects all ongoing [had one mod tried to insert themselves into my zine, they had 7 other projects they were modding and none finished with one cancelled due to another mod stealing]
4] their vetting process somehow involves a test of purity culture to the mod's discretion/bias
[Writers and artists have been rejected for projects over things they made 5+ years ago for ships a mod deems immoral yet unrelated to the current project. I understand vetting to ensure those you accept aren't harassing ppl, but being told they're harmful over sheith or hannigram art? Thats dumb and will cause heartache]
And 5 and this is in light of a zine on twitter] do not join a zine that requires you to be fully outed as trans and have to prove yourself trans enough to join. That's just...vile. you want a trans inclusive zine? Ask your trans friends to join. Do not subject yourself to a stranger's discretion to prove you are trans enough. You ARE trans enough if you say you are trans.
