On Wed, 14 Jun 2006, Sebastian Palm wrote:

SNIP

"I can see where this is going and I'm not interested" quite clearly
addresses a
fanfic. It may not be particularly helpful or necessary, mind you, but
neverthelsss it's within the bounds of free speech as defined above.
On the other hand, Don Granberry's comments (the ones that got him
tempbanned) were not about a fanfic, but rather about a personal beef
he had with DB. He could've disagreed with DB's comments as strongly
as he liked, but it's not okay to translate that into personal abuse
against the commenter, just as personal abuse against an author is not
okay.

IIRC, the blowup started with DB Sommers making a remark to the tune of
Kenko being incapable as a writer for only writng Ranma/Akane fics - which,
in mine and a lot of other people's books was an insult to his skill, albeit
a mild one. DB had made similar pronouncements previously, and since he's an
admin people were hesitant to disagree in public. Don Granberry had had
enough, and wrote a scathing of-list reply to DB, which bounced due to
profanity filters (it wasn't that bad, actually), which he mistook for
having been personally blocked - so he blew his stack and posted the thing
to the FFML. *That* of course was a blatant personal attack, and ban worthy.

The fact that Don made a mistaken assumption regarding the mail bounce does
not excuse DB's insulting remarks about Kenko, though.

*sigh.

Could we not bring this up again?  Or how about one of us posts a link to
the relevant thread, and let people decide for themselves how bad
everyone's behaviour was or just how not so bad the relvant email was?  I
have my own ideas upon whom the fault lies for the Granberry incident, but
I'm not going to discuss it publically.

Kenko himself stated that he was upset about the backlash the fic had
caused.  Not DB's supposed insults, merely the fact that people were using
his fic as a staging ground to attack the admins and each other.  Why
don't we refrain from doing the same?

Ultimately, we all get out of FFML what we all put into it. The list
thrived years ago primarily because many of us put in the work to make
that happen. My suggestion to anyone concerned about the lack of
quality traffic on the list is the same as it's always been: Pick a
story that's been on the list, and offer feedback on it. You don't
need any special insight. You certainly don't need to be an expert on
spelling and grammar -- this is just one of many aspects of a fanfic
that you can comment on. If you can just share your own reaction to
what you read, that'd be great, and you may find as you go that you
have a lot more to say than you thought you'd had.

I'll try to post some more C&C myself - it's just that most of the stuff
being posted right now are chapters to series I never got into when they
started, or that I dropped because they meandered too long. But I'll try.

Hmm...just as a brainstorming idea, what about honest to god drafts?
Since I joined, the fics that have been released on here are mostly in the
minds of their writers, and merely need some finishing touches.  What if
we made an active effort to solicit things that have big missing scenes,
etc.  Something with a [insert snappy dialouge here] placeholder in the
middle of it might not make for cozy reading, but it might get more
interactivity in the way of reader suggestions.



-Natsume Ranma Ranma
-------
The sardines weren't worth the trouble.  A few more shots, then
Ryoga-san would overheat and explode.  Ducking around a corner,
I managed to lose him as I entered the ramshackle residence of
my Anime supplier.

One look at his face and I knew that I had been betrayed.  "Tell me,"
I insisted.  He refused, so I slammed him against the wall.
"Last chance.  Where can Ranma-Ranma find good fanfics?"
"Try Jason Liao," he whispered, before he slumped to the floor.
I heard the sounds of a door splintering as I left through the
window, one step ahead of Tendo Heavy Industries...

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