It's too hot to do homework.

[nendil]

I guess it is rather amazing how, when I flip back and forth through my progressive drawings, how much I was able to improve upon the characters' appearances and how (relatively) terrible the previous pic looked, even though at the time it was taken I thought it was the best I could do and even though I thought I haven't done much work at all between "snapshots." ::breeeaaathe::


So here's a thought. What if FF.net was split into two sections/categories?

One for the serious authors who are looking to hone/improve their craft. Only constructive, intelligent reviews here. There's no restriction to the quality of the stories posted here, but you MUST be willing to listen to others' advice, or else get tossed.

One for the fangirlz who just wanna have fun. They can post any inane sugar-rush brainspew they want, and the only feedback they can get are the gushing netspeak raves. No quoteunquote "flames" allowed, nothing that'll hurt their widdle feelings, and they can beg each other for their precious "r/r plz" all they want.

The two policies are not allowed to mingle. If you're a teenybopping author who wants to venture into serious ficdom, no problem, but your story posted in the serious section will be held to the serious rules, and vice-versa of course.

So now, anyone want to let me know how this won't work in reality?

Comments

[nendil.livejournal.com]

Oops, missed one.

who would want to host the fluff, and who would want to read it?

Well, since the fangirls deemed their crap writing post-worthy, surely they'll also find it read-worthy. If not... well, all the more reason to actually try to improve, ne?

[lisa-s.livejournal.com]

That, and take a look at the review counts. Fluff fic on FFN tends to get far more reviews than non-fluff fic, so obviously there are a lot of people out there who want to read it.

I think it's a good idea. If something like that system were implemented, I might start bothering to leave reviews again. As it stands now, I don't quite see the point of reviewing, since a good 75% of the writers on FFN profess to write fanfic "just for fun" and don't want to hear any real criticism.

[ctrl-a.livejournal.com]

And at least 75% of the fics on FFnet are not worth reading. I'm not saying the two coincide, but there must be a considerable overlap.

I say again, the system is fine, it just doesn't exist on the scale of FFnet. And I'm sure there are logistical reasons for that. Many things in life are that way. It's why chemical engineers exist (to make small-scale laboratory reactions feasible on a large-scale). It's why cafeteria food is gross even though when they try the dish in the food committee it might taste fine. And so on.

Especially since it's fanfiction, it's not illogical to have lists dedicated to fics about specific fandoms, and those tend to be of higher quality and more serious authors, or at least lists like that tend to exist. But there are no large repositories, probably because no one wants to do the work.

[lisa-s.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'd say the overlap is more than considerable. My point was that there is a sizeable audience for crap, is all. Badfic tends to be self-propagating--badfic writers praise other badfic writers so they'll get more reviews for their badfics, which encourages them to write more badfics, and on and on and on.

You're right; I don't think a "I don't want criticism"/"I want criticism" split wouldn't work on an archive as big as FFN, especially considering that it's an autoarchive (which is the source of many of the things some of us whine about). But if it were feasible, it would be nice. The ficcers who're in it just for fun wouldn't have to put up with scathing criticism, and the ficcers who're in it for honest critique would be more likely to get some. Everybody wins. In the meantime, I'll stick to private archives and rec lists of authors I respect. (I'm lucky--I was devouring fanfic years before FFN existed, so I've always known where to go for the good stuff. It's the folks in smaller, decentralized fandoms who have trouble.)