Coming out of Uberlurk after 20 hours of watching this thread. Gasp! Not 
that I'm anybody to anybody here ::laughs::

Rann Aridorn wrote:

Angus MacSpon wrote:

 

Additionally, when I do C&C, what I have to say often tends to be purely
technical -- grammar, spelling, punctuation.  That makes very boring
reading for anyone but the author, I think, so I tend to send it
privately.
   

Heh, in all honesty, it can be a little boring for the author, too. 
While I would never go so far as to say "I don't care about those 
errors", it is a little disheartening when someone obviously takes that 
amount of time to peruse your fic, and winds up giving something that's 
less C&C and more proofreading.
 

Hey! Three cheers for proofreading! I am all for it! But, let's not 
confuse it with genuine, intelligent, thought provoking feedback, which 
is what we are all hoping for when we bite our lips and post our work 
here. I am immensely gratefor for those of you who do catch and comment 
on the little things like spelling, grammar, sentence construction, and 
punctuation, because it's been a few years since I was studying English 
on a daily basis. Don't stop! But, as has been said, do please--if you 
are going to spend that much time--offer a bit of feedback, even of the 
"liked this", "I don't get it", "Ahhh! If only my eyes could spit!" variety.

Maybe a "proofreading" tag and emphasis could be implemented so that 
individuals who feel that is the best they can contribute can make that 
clear--or so authors can specifically request that kind of help. I know 
I could use it. No matter how careful I am, I always miss a dozen 
technical glitches because my brain fills in the gaps and keeps me from 
seeing them until I've submitted a peice.

It also occurs to me that a lot of people are not offering C&C because 
they either do not know how to give effective feedback, or they have 
very little free time and prefer to use it reading fics rather than 
analyzing them. This is a resource management issue. A How To on giving 
constructive criticism might be a good idea, for those who need to have 
the proccess broken down and explained in order to grok it. Cascading 
feedback would also be a good idea, to cut down on the duplication of 
effort. If you see a C&C pop up on a story you think you'd like to read, 
grab it with the story and add your remarks to the first reviewer's... I 
can explain that further if no one gets what I am talking about. The 
basic idea is to give each fic a shadow, the collected feedback of 
whoever contributes.

Most importantly, we've got to let authors know that they are being 
read! Aside from the whole McBurger thing, the other reason FF.net is 
sucking the blood out of the FFML is because that community is doing 
that one thing. The 'ease of use' factor does play a big part, but the 
feedback mechanisim is what keeps that babbling, drooling, idiot of a 
site going.

Honestly, if I could do anything useful with HTML/XML, JAVA, CSS and or 
whatever else has become the rage in web coding, I would have put all my 
work on a dedicated site. I post to FF.net to make updates immediately 
available, to ensure that they are archived on the web, and to get a 
general feel for the average reader's reaction. I post here to get 
detailed, intelligent feedback, additional proofreading, and honest 
criticism before starting a final draft. The FFML, even the way it is, 
fills a unique niche. Should the FFML broaden it's horizons?

What I want to know is, how did the FFML become so narrow minded in the 
first place. I'm pretty sure that the FF stands for Fan Fiction. Sure, 
traditionally this is a community that devoted itself to the most 
popular Japanese A/M... but THAT is not in the name, now is it? The FFML 
is a big house and we're all standing in one closet in the basement 
complaining about how cramped it is. It's time to think of what are 
strengths and weaknesses are, and figure out a way to revitalize the 
former without crumbling under the latter.

There are many, many things that can be done, here. The question is, is 
this a community or is it a private club? Not saying either one is bad, 
but which does it feel like to you? The FFML isn't really in it's death 
throes, it's just having an identity crisis. Resolve that, and you'll 
know what to do to make it work.

ttfn

AVmorgan

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