Now then, there have been a number of posts, both by and about this fellow.
And I felt it worthwhile to speak out about it.
Now then, in his deffense:
1. He is a very active comentator, which is more than I can say for many
people on this group. With some 8 or 9 hundred subscribers, I can name less
than 30 by name, even though I am fiarly recent addition to this happy family.
And I can bet that, outside of T-sama and the Admin-kama, nobody could name
over 100. It is refreshing to see that someone is willing to stand up and
speak out on his oppinions. As for the people that are critisizing him for
not having any fics: I don't know if does or does not. It dosen't matter.
I'd rather have one vocal comentator with no no fics than an author that never
C&Cs and never responds to any C&C of his own work.
2. He is trying to make the fics better. He is working, in his own way, to
improve the quality of writings on the ML. He is offering critisisms that he
feels would benifit the authors, and thereby make the fics better to earn a
higher readership. One should not always judge the motive by the method.
And for the Prosectution:
1. He tends to be a bit vauge, and he tends toward blanket statements. This
is not such so terribly bad, as an occational thing, but when most of you
comments are this way it can lead to problems with other authors. His
critisisms, in some cases, are useful, or would be to me. However he tends to
find fault without fully explaining his postion. If someone just says "So-
and-so is OOC", while it may be clear to the them what's wrong, if you don't
explain it to the author how can they correct it. After all, if the author
knew what was making the character OOC in the first place, they might not have
done it that way :). Also, he's getting much better at this. His critiques
are becoming much more detailed, and including more of the information his
opinions are based off of. As long as he keeps this up and continues growing
as a writer, he'll become a better commentator.
2. He dosen't use a lot of tact. I know that flowery language can often cloud
the point you want to get across. Guy is certainly not suffering from this
problem, but from it's extreem opposite. His statements convey the message
clearly, but are lacking in a certain... gentleness that makes makes
critisisms easier to swallow. Sort of the medicine without the spoon of
sugar. I think that he could benifit from typing his letters, and letting
them sit for ten or fifteen minutes, then re-reading it. Many times I have
too hastilly sent a letter that I regretted later by sending right after I
wrote it. Perhaps with a little gentle cusioning and some more detailed
information his critiques could become something more of a boon to the entire
ML.
3. And the only thing I can really fault him for, is that he is rather close-
minded about fics that aren't perfect cannon. Now I can understand him
wanting to read things that stick to cannon, but there is no reason not to
extend the benifit of the doubt to fics that don't chase the creators vision
exactly. As a writer, though not a terribly prolific one, I know how tough it
is to keep the characters IC for long periods of time without adding a small
part to thier character, or taking away something in a character we don't
like. Too, there is a reason for Dark, SI's and Alternate Universe fics.
Take Ranma, for instance. What plot devices weren't used and abused by
Takahashi-sama herself, or the OAV and movie writers, have been used up by
fanfic writers already. There are very few origonal plot ideas still to be
found and used that don't make the fic violate cannon in some way. I would
much read a "Ranma get's dunked in spring of Drowned [insert noun here] rather
than drowned girl his first time at Jusenkyo", before another "Akane is
kidnapped, and Ranma & Co. rush to the rescue" simply on the principal of
reading something with a new twist. SI's, Alties, and Darkfics, just like
songfics, are a breath of freash air into what can easily become a very stale
universe. There is only so much you can do that hasn't been done before,
somewhere. I'm reminded of a line from 'Pump up the Voulme': "All the best
themes have been used up, and turned into Themeparks." A little leeway is
needed for the characters, situations, and authors as we try to scramble to
find new things to write about.
Well, that's all I have to say on the matter. This little discussion it
beginging to fall to the level of flamewar. I think it would be best to refer
most of this sort of thing to Private Email and start writing again. The ML
could always use more fics and less spam. ^_-
Ja ne!
Wakko Warner, Ani-Maniac
Look at my little Pothole in the Information Superhighway at:
http://members.aol.com/AniManiacW/AMIhome.html