At 06:47 PM 7/18/97 -0400, Tybalt wrote:

And for the last damn time, DO NOT POST FIC REQUESTS TO THE LIST! DO. NOT.
I don't care if you don't know the author. I don't care if you just spent
five days looking for it. I don't care if the fate of the world rests on
you finding it. DO NOT POST REQUESTS TO THE LIST. You will be yelled at,
and if I'm truly annoyed I'll do worse. If you're truly that desparate to
find the damn thing, mail me about it; I can either find it or direct you
to someone else who can. The fanfic synopses lists help as well.

OK, Mr. Moderator, I would like a clarification, and perhaps the FAQ Writers
would add the response to the FAQ.

Is it allowable to ask this list about writing fanfics if anyone knows who
wrote a certain fanfic?  Please remember, this is NOT a fic request.  It is
a request for information about a fic.  Quite a different thing.

It all comes down to information sharing.  I find it inconceivable that a
request for information (which is a different thing from a fic request)
would be a banned activity.  However, from your late reply the other day to
the thread between myself and Gary Kleppe about how to find out who an
author is, you seem to consider this question as being the same as a fic
request.

Before you respond, please consider a couple things.  Unless it becomes a
requirement that everyone post all fics (not just FFML fics, but ALL fics)
to the various synopses lists, they are NOT a complete source of
information.  I, for one, have never listed anything with any of them
(without looking at the RAAC archive [a place I'd expect someone to look
first if they know the name of the story, btw] or my web page, can you or
one of the synopsis list people tell me what I've written? Can you tell me
what Saffie has written?)  

Also, no one individual can possibly know about all fics ever written. (Can
you tell me who is writing "Arms and the Maiden"? I know, do you?).  If I,
as you say above, have spent 5 days looking for it, I doubt you could find
it if I couldn't.

Unless you restrict all discussion on this list to stories posted to this
list, it is also possible that someone may ask about a story that wasn't
ever posted here because they see this list as the information resource it
is.  And because it was never posted here, there is NO chance that one of
the synopsis lists would carry info about it. But someone else here might know.

Finally, a person can't always ask the question under discussion via private
methods either, because you don't necessarily always know who *does*, or
even *might* know.  I haven't a clue about who to ask about Sailor Moon
fics. I don't have the slightest idea about who to ask about YYH fics.  But
I bet someone on this list does.


Jeanne Hedge

OLD address:  jhedge@waterw.com
NEW address:  jhedge@wwa.com