At 08:41 PM 3/7/99 -0600, The Eternal Lost Lurker wrote:

There was a golden age, when authors wrote stories, and discussed in-depth
with their readers ways to make the stories better. Then the readers would
become writers, the writers would become readers, and the discussions would
ensue once again. 

Yep.  The sun used to shine all the live-long day and children joined hands
and sang in the spirit of joy, harmony and peace.

Bullshit.  The FFML, like pretty much every other mailing list that rises
above the usual "can you please remove me from this list" discussion level.
I have lurked or associated with other lurkers of the FFML since 1995 in
some form or another.  I've been posting since late 1996, and the only thing
I can say is that it was NEVER like that.  Hell, the only thing that comes
close to this psycodelic wondertrap was rec.arts.anime.stories (now
.creative); you didn't even have the benefit of C&C there.  As far as I can
remember, the FFML has always been a seething cauldron of hateful posts,
self-righteous posturing, apologies, protests, counter-protests, fanfics and
C&C.  I'm just waiting for the controversy of the month to pop up to see
what Holy Reverend John Doe will lead a slew of sycophants on a self-imposed
exodus from the list.  Of course, most of those who do impose upon
themselves a temporary ban of two weeks usually read and post with about the
same frequency.

Nevertheless, anyone with the brains enough to use their mailer's filters
and organization cues can easily find out why the FFML is still a valuable
resource for readers and writers alike.  Take a look at the statistics I
posted recently. All right, there's a lot of spam, but there's still enough
fanfics out that you can't go wrong.

My advice...well, unlike a number of folks here, I have none.  Step on a few
toes and do what you feel like.

-The Reverend Prez

*  *  *

+-----------------+-<The Badass Reverend of Funk Prez>---+
|    Presley H.   | Political Science / Computer Science |
|    Cannady II   | and Electrical Engineering Undergrad |
|<revprez@mit.edu>| at the Mass. Institute of Technology |
+-----------------+-<Anime Manga Development Group>------+
+-------<http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/1731/index.html>-+
|_|"The art of war is of vital importance to the state"|_|