There comes a time when something isn't working, and something needs to
be done about it.  Attention needs to be brought to the matter, in the
hope that someone, somewhere, will notice and work on correcting it.
Such a time has come, I think, to rec.arts.anime.creative.

On June 5, 1997, I sent a story to raac entitled "No Longer Than Thy
Love".

For those of you unfamiliar with the process, here's how it works:
fanfic authors are assigned a moderator.  Moderation software intercepts
posts to raac and checks the return address against its database.  If
the author is listed in the database, the fanfic is forwarded to the
assigned moderator.  If the return address is not in the database, then
a moderator is assigned, I believe by random although I'm not sure.

Once the fanfic gets passed to the moderator, he or she checks it out to
make sure the formatting is correct and that the fanfic falls within the
guidelines specified by raac.  If all is well, the moderator posts the
fanfic on the newsgroup for the world to read.  Also, the moderator is
responsible for placing the fanfic into the archives.

The moderator I was assigned (who shall not be named in this post) was a
good one.  He worked with me on getting my fanfics posted, and offered
good suggestions on how my stories got posted.  We had a good
relationship which I valued.

At first, fanfics I sent to raac appeared the same day.  That meant that
my moderator looked over my fanfic right away, decided it was okay, and
posted it.  This was something I appreciated very much.

Later, there began to be delays.  A few days, a week, two weeks.  I
never complained, realizing that real life has a way of intruding on the
best-laid plans, etc.

When the delays reached a month, I began to prod.  Where's my fanfic?
My moderator responded to the prods, and posted my fanfics.

Once he didn't respond to my prods.  I sent an email to the raac
coordinator, Brian Edmonds.  After that email, my moderator posted my
fanfic with an apology for waiting so long.

After I sent "No Longer Than Thy Love" to raac on June 5, I kept an eye
on it.  A week, two weeks, nothing.     On June 21, I sent an email to
my moderator, apologizing for disturbing him but asking if he'd received
my fanfic and if it might be posted.  I got no response to that email.

On June 26, I sent an email to the raac coordinator, Brian Edmonds.  He
responded immediately, saying that it appeared that my moderator had a
backlog.  He suggested waiting until after Anime Expo.  If my fanfic
hadn't appeared by then, I should let him know.

On July 8, I sent another email to Brian, stating that my fanfic had not
appeared and asking if I could have my fanfic posted and if I could be
assigned another moderator.  I got no response to that email.  Ditto the
one sent July 13.

On July 19, I sent this email to Brian:

  I sent a story to raac six weeks ago.  It was entitled
  "No Longer Than Thy Love."  It has yet to appear on raac.

  I wrote an email to my moderator, <deleted>.  I have yet 
  to get a response to that email.

  Is it possible to have my fanfic posted?  Also, may I
  be assigned another moderator?

  I see other fanfics being posted, and I am jealous.
  They have moderators who pass their stories on to the
  newsgroup.  They are getting read.  I am not.  This
  saddens me.

  Please, I would appreciate the courtesy of a response.

  Thanks very much for your help.


This letter is very similar in tone to the other messages that I've
sent, in that it's polite, respectful, and not full of antagonism.  I do
not believe in flames.

I did not receive a response.

I am not alone.  I have collected stories from other people, all having
problems with the same moderator I have.  One sent a story in June that
has yet to appear.  One sent a story in April that has yet to be posted
to the archives.  When I have mentioned my posting problems in the past,
I inevitably get responses saying, "Is your moderator X?", where X is
the name of my moderator.

Something has broken down in the process.  One moderator has stopped
performing his duties, and nothing is being done to fill his absence,
leaving those authors assigned to him in the lurch.  They are unable to
get their fanfics posted as the moderation software, unaware that the
moderator is no longer performing his duties, continues to send fanfics
to him.

Please understand, this is not meant to be a criticism of moderators.
They have a time-intensive, relatively thankless job.  I deeply respect
their commitment.  It speaks very well for them that they are willing to
perform this service.  Truly, they love anime and fanfics and give of
themselves to show it.  My deepest admiration for them.

However, when one person makes a commitment, then finds themselves
unable to live up to that commitment, common courtesy requires that they
let people know that will no longer be able to carry out their volunteer
work, and ask that such work be reassigned.  I would not think less of a
person who makes such a request:  they have a real life, after all, and
posting fanfics is far, far down on the "bettering life for the human
race" list.  If a person wishes to back off of such a commitment, I
would thank them for the work they had done and wish them well.

What is impolite is to stop doing the work and not tell anyone.  It is
impolite not to respond to inquiries into the matter.  Volunteering for
work and then refusing to do it is unfair to those people who expected
you to live up to your commitments.

What I am hoping is that people will see this and respond to it.  Have
you had similar experiences?  Fanfics that are not being posted, fanfics
that are not being sent to the archive?  I'd like you to publicly tell
your story.  If enough such stories are posted, perhaps the moderator,
Brian Edmonds, will realize that the process has broken down and needs
to be fixed.

Again, let me emphasize that this is not a world-class emergency, and
that not having my fanfic posted to raac is not something I could sue
anyone over.  This is all volunteer work, and I tremendously appreciate
the work that is being done to propagate fanfics all over the world.  I
just ask that *all* fanfics sent to raac get propagated.  That is, I
believe, only fair.

Please, let me know, publicly, what you think.  Thank you for your
attention.

-Richard Lawson
sterman@sprynet.com