On Mon, 24 Aug 1998, Andy Skuse wrote:

The poster also told me how pre-readers can be beneficial. I can't argue
that point. ANY constructive input given is a good thing. But if it's
private, how can any of the rest of us help you? Think of the number of
people on this list that you aren't reaching because you are witholding a

But how many of them will actually provide you any useful comments?  There
may be 900 people on this list, but I rarely get more than 2 replies to
anything I post here.  And how many people post stories and get no replies
at all?  The biggest advantage of having your own pre-reader list is that
you know someone WILL comment on your work, because they volunteered
specificially to read your stories.  

to r.a.a.c. Well hey, there's a well read story all right! But you are
denying yourself the kind of C&C that this list was made for. The kind that

But which it rarely provides.  Unless there's a LOT of privately sent C&C
going on, a lot of stories seem to get no comments at all, or maybe one
lone comment.  Part of this is simply the sheer volume of stories that
comes through, but a vast majority of the people on this list never
comment on anything, as far as I can tell. 

One factor, I suspect in the growth of private pre-reader lists is that
the FFML is to a large extent a final audience as well as a source of
polishing; a fair number of people on it will never see your product
beyond its status here, unless they're patient enough to read multiple
drafts.  

works by sending your rough draft to *this* list first where it can be
commented on publicly (or privately if you so request), AND other people
can view those comments and make comments of their own. At this point you
have a potential pre-reader list of (last I heard) 900+, not just a select
few! :)

A potential one.  But in practice, the average author will be lucky to get
comments from 1% of the lists membership.

your dishes before putting them in a dishwasher to me. But hey, *this*

With a lot of dishwashers, you have to do that, because the average
dishwasher can't get really badly stuck stuff off :)


John Walter Biles :  MA-History, Ph.D Wannabe at U. Kansas         
ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu       
rhea@tass.org              http://www.tass.org/~rhea/falcon.html
rhea@maison-otaku.net      http://www.maison-otaku.net/~rhea/

"Life's like a movie; write your own ending"--Kermit the Frog, 'The Muppet
Movie'