----- Original Message ----- 
From: "The Eternal Lost Lurker" <lurkerdrome@sbcglobal.net>
To: "Dave Wong" <darksoar@yahoo.com>; <ffml@anifics.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 13, 2006 4:58 PM
Subject: [FFML] About all these fic requests/searches...

I'd just like to take a moment to remind everyone of a few key passages 
from
the FFML FAQ:

<snip>

Seriously, folks--especially those of you who should know better--knock it
the hell off with the fic requests.

I may be earning myself a temp ban with this, but I'm going to have to file 
a dissenting opinion. The main reason given against the "discouraging of 
spam", such as fic requests, is that there are thousands of subscribers and 
if everyone started posting this stuff, the legitimate traffic would be 
overrun. Frankly, I see little enough evidence of there being any legitimate 
traffic these days - I haven't counted properly, but I'd be very surprised 
if there are more than forty recurring posters to the list, defined as 
having posted more than twice in a 90 day period. That's not a lot of 
traffic. Allowing "spam", at least on topic stuff such as fic requests, 
raises the interest in posting to the list - including fics...

The second reason for allowing the posting of fic requests, at least of the 
more specific kind, is that they are a great way for people to discover fics 
and authors they haven't read before. If no one ever asks about a fic with 
such-and-such premise which I might find interesting if I had ever imagined 
it existed, I'll never know, never read it, and never provide feedback for 
that fic.

I've been on this list for several years now, and I've seen the claims of 
massive membership several times. For some reason, though, the *active* part 
of the membership keeps dwindling - it's the same names over and over, with 
people dropping off every so often because they've gotten fed up with the 
sometimes blatantly biased moderation going on. I don't see Kenko posting 
here anymore. Nor Don Granberry, nor Togashi Gaijin - all of whom left 
rather dramatically for that exact reason.

Any new authors that pop up usually aren't - they're very old hands who've 
been out of touch for a few years and finally show up with an update, not 
genuine fresh blood.

I remember this list two years ago, when I had to filter the posts into 
their own folder to keep up. I remember four years ago, when I could expect 
at least a couple of different, often long, chapters posted every day. 
Considering that the fandom has grown exponentially in that time, why is 
this list fading like it is?

Temp-ban me as you please, mods - I have no further interest in posting here 
anyway.

SP 



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