On Sat, 10 Oct 1998, Nightman wrote:
<snip the review>
HOWEVER, I am very irritated that you put those comments in MST form. I
don't like MSTing; I believe it is an infringement on my original
writing and I have the Mystery Usenet FAQ to back me up. Add that I've
been on this soapbox on the FFML before not once but twice, I feel I
have to make a stink about this immediately or be seen as backing down
from my position. Please do not MST anything of mine without explicit
permission from me. Criticize line-by-line if you like but do not frame
it as a MST.
Okay.
Now, granted, I am not a big fanfic reader. I don't read 99% of
the stuff that the FFML puts in my Inbox and I probably never will. Not
because it's bad fiction or because it's badly written, but just because
it generally falls into a genre that isn't my particular taste. Likewise,
I'm not an FFML veteran. I don't know the rules by heart and as such
cannot recite them verbatim. I probably can't even paraphrase a lot of
them. But that's not the point.
My question is...and I pose this to ANYONE who's ever complained
about the format of a review being against their particular wishes but
having not specified it in the body of the fic they have reviewed. (As the
editor by nature smacks himself for run-on sentence. :P)...that...do you
think we're psychic?
Honestly. I don't mind C&Cing fics. No one usually ever gives a
flying Furinkan at the moon about my opinion, but I don't mind giving it
if asked. Or if not asked, most of the time. But...if you don't want
something reviewed in a particular way, I think it behooves you to SAY SO
IN THE MAIL WITH THE FIC TO THE LIST, because frankly if you don't I'm not
going to know and go right on trampling your wishes as if I didn't know
what they were: BECAUSE I DON'T. I'm sorry if the fact that the review was
in MST format bothered you. I didn't intend it to. But I had no idea you
didn't like MSTs. The fic certainly didn't say so. None of the non-fic
text in the mail said so either. I had no idea who you WERE before I read
this teaser fic at ALL, Nightman. I am not a psychic. And I certainly
choose not to get into the issue of MSTing infringing on your original
writing or whatever, since that's simply not the issue at the moment.
What relevance does this annoying rant-spam have to the FFML, you
ask? In the future, I think it would be pleasant if all of us fic writers
who DON'T like certain types of C&C to place those types of C&C in the
body of the mail, followed by a phrase such as "I hate these!" or "Please
don't use these" or whatever. Typing out said sentence would take all of
15 seconds and would save us all the trouble of this nonsense.
At any rate, have a nice day. See you in the manga papers.
>Lina/Todd
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"Wherever monsters rampage, I'll be there to take them down...wherever
treasure glitters, I'm there to claim it...whenever an opponent rises to
face me, victory shall be mine!" -Lina Inverse, Slayers TV Op.
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Todd Harper: lina@wwa.com, lina@maison-otaku.net
University of Wisconsin@Madtown and overall violent yet friendly guy =)
http://www.maison-otaku.net/~lina
The O-Files!: http://www.maison-otaku.net/~lina/ofiles
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