This message is written to concur with Gary's post,excerpted below.
Since joining the list, I have written a grand total of 10 pages of
fanfics. Before joining the list, I was writing 3-5 pages most nights of
the week. Also, I c&c only about once a week (you may have noticed the
3-4 story chunks), and sometimes spend so much time pushing the delete
button that I forget what I have saved to disk intending to c&c in the
first place. 

I enjoy what social interaction the list provides, but it does seem that
spending an hour or two a day pushing "delete" is kind of sapping
creative energy. Even the threads I have spammed on myself tend to pall
for me long before they end.

One cause of this may be that not everyone reads daily, so that by the
time those who originally started "feeling a little hentai" (or
whatever) are tired of it, a new group of readers who weren't there
originally are seeing it for the first time. I don't know any way that
this possible cause of overlong spam threads can be addressed.

One might say in general:  take all spam to private email. But of
course, though arguments should certainly be handled that way, not all
spam writers want to be private, because spam thrives when more people
contribute, and of course, we want to reach as many people as possible
with our cleverness, else why be writers at all?

The only thing we can do is collectively try to concentrate on fics and
C&C instead of spamming. I myself will try to do this by deleting ALL
spam unread (so, not that you care if it reaches me, but it won't).
Also, I will not start any spam threads, and if for some reason I feel
compelled to comment, I will do it in private email.

I encourage anyone to whom this makes sense to follow suit. Others,
carry on as you will. This is your list, too.

DRM

Gary Kleppe wrote:

Is there anyone who'll deny that the ratio of C&C to Spam is way, WAY
too low here?

People, please take SOME of the time and energy you are using to
generate Spam and put it to work writing fics, or helping other people
by giving them C&C on their fics. Don't get me wrong, I have NOTHING
against Spam being on the list **as long as it is balanced by C&C and
discussion of fics.**

Think about it, won't you?

Gary Kleppe