oh, I'm injured. Really...

[lyssie]

So, a Dino has come out of the woodwork (OMG I feel like I'm on OTL AGAIN, and the Slash Warning Debate is going on!) and said, I miss the days when we had authors who wrote for the craft, the pride of putting out a good story, put their heart and soul into it. They were posting story after story each day, they didn't demand praise, they got it because they deserved it. They put out a good product they could be proud to put their name on. etc, including listing some of the Good Old Days Authors, and the few of them that are still around....

She then rambles for a while, claiming only a small part of us are clamoring to get rid of all labels and warnings and ratings, and that anarchy is our banner song (yes, I'm putting provocative words in her mouth, shut up).

And closes with, What's wrong with letting people have an idea what's going on in the story
with a short summary, a category, and a rating? .... You'll get the audience you're looking for rather than pissing people off for dragging them into a story they're not interested in.

So. She misses the good old days, when authors didn't clamor for feedback (I must be missing all of the OMG FEEDBACK ME posts), but says that if we label, we will get more readers, which will (I'm using logic here) inevitably lead to more feedback.

...

Uh-huh.

I'm going to go sulk in a corner for being called whiny and uncaring of my craft (do I have a craft?). I think I'm going to start putting "plz rvw" on my fics now.

Actually, what's really sad is that this makes me want to dig up the OTL Slash Needs Warnings! debate from 1999...

Comments

[alkam.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't complain about it, but I will not read a fic without at least SOME form of summary, or at least telling me what or who it's about. Even if it's just two words. "Jubes cries".

THIS tells me that it's a story about Jubilee, and I could not give a FUCK less about her, so I can happily pass this story over instead of having to glance over half the damn thing before I realize what it's even ABOUT, or who the fuck's in it.

However, it also helps to narrow down my search. If the fic says simply "A Zatanna fic", I will read it.

Basically, there's a lot of BAD fic out there these days. In the past four years, finding any sort of quality has been HARD. And that includes the good fics that are still going since '98. When I see "Whatever It's Called Part 56"... yeah. Passing it over. Giving me even a two word summary helps me narrow (or widen) my search.

And as for rating and content-- I like that, too, but I don't complain about it, either. I even sometimes read stories without them. However, it's helpful to me to have them. Lemme tell ya how disappointing it is to start reading a fic, and suddenly realize it's about twincest or some stupid shit like that. Or get into it and totally not be in the mood to read what is at the core a good story, but also involves rape or something, and I'm totally in the wrong mood to read something like that. Later, because of my first impression of being turned off to it at the time, I may never finish reading it.

[nique.livejournal.com]

Heh. Well, those ratings are usually a good thing, yes (though I'm apparently really bad about using them. Woops.) The thing that's been driving Lyss (and thus me by association) crazy are people demanding to be told if you're putting a surprise ending on the fic.

WTF?

[alkam.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that makes no sense to me.