If you're not writing the story for anybody except yourself, don't give it
to anybody except yourself.  This will keep writers and readers from being
disappointed.

But, if you are writing for an audience, respect them.  If you don't
respect their expectations at all (showing respect for them is as simple
as explaining why something is wildly different, even with something as
short as an Alt Unvierse tag), they are under no obligation to respect
you.  After all, they were the ones disrespected first.

And I don't care if the disrespected number 1 or 1,000.  They still have a
right to complain.  So let them.  Anything they say is an opinion (whether
they think so or not), and if it isn't taken as such, that too is the
writer's fault.

--Matt 
(If you strike me down, I shall grow more powerful than you could possibly
imagine.) 


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   "When I was in school, I cheated on my metaphysics exam: I looked
    into the soul of the boy sitting next to me."    -- Woody Allen
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 The Cafe Pierrot:  Quality Original and Series-Based Anime Fanfiction
                http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~matt2518/ 
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