To those that think that there has been too much written in the past two days, 
tough!  The simple fact of the matter (and this really is the simple fact of 
the matter) is that there are actually two very relevant fanfic issues brought 
up during the discussions.

We've seen these issues before on the Mailing List, and undoubtably will 
again, simply because there are always new readers and writers subscribing.  
They will not have the knowledge of fanfic netiquette necessary to prevent 
these issues, so I suggest that we get used to these things every so often 
since there's no such thing as an objective writer's guide that everyone gets.

The first issue, in this case as exemplified by the "gay-incest-dark" fanfic 
thread in the original post, is that there are varying standards of acceptance 
for certain actions or attitudes.  It is not simply enough to say "If you 
don't like it, don't read it.", though that probably is the ultimate solution.

Probably, the tag "Lemon" or "Darkfic" (or whatever) would be enough to give a 
general sense of what the reader is getting into.  But that assumes that 
fanfics are adequately labelled - and there have been many times where they 
have not been.  Or perhaps a small introduction that gives a warning that some 
may object to the story - such as "this story deals with...".  But these are 
just possible suggestions.

The second issue is the americanization of stories.  There is a decided 
"american" or "western" slant to the stories, since most fanfic writers do not 
have direct contact with japanese society (and before the flames come on this 
one, I do not have direct contact with "Japan-japanese" society either 
except through friends), having been raised in the west.  This was the essence 
of Hitomi's post regarding the differing attitudes between japan and the west, 
in this case as embodied by the attitude to homo/bisexuality.

The argument is how important it is to get the "feel" that these stories are 
actually taking place in Japan, rather than an american's uneducated view of 
Japan (I say that only because the only time anyone would notice is when an 
author is "wrong" and the reader knows it).  Part of it is research; how much 
effort a writer is willing and able (due to available resources) to make sure 
his work corresponds to the real world Japan, since for the most part we are 
claiming that these stories take place there.

Some writers would say that its not important; that there isn't a need to make 
sure anything is as it would be in real life, since it is a western audience 
that these fanfics are written for.  Some would say that it is of utmost 
importance, since these characters and situations are rooted in the japanese 
culture, and to ignore those facets would be to bastardize the characters so 
that they are no longer even imitations of the japanese people.

In part, it could be an extension of the In/Out-of-Character argument; in that 
it is the same question of why claim to be consistent with something if it 
actually isn't.  In these cases, there is the assumption on the part of the 
reader that it is consistent with both the source material (complete) and the 
japanese culture [[unless it is stated that it isn't!!]].

I think that each author has to come up with an acceptable compromise within 
themselves, since there is no way that's its going to be totally consistent 
with japanese culture, but neither is that a call to ignore its influence or 
not make the effort at research.  The way I tend to look at it is would I be 
satisfied with the same level of research that a corresponding japanese 
fanfic/anime/manga writer has of american (or australian, or canadian, or 
etc.) culture and facts.

JK