Option two: Open the list to other fandoms besides those out of
Japan. That's always been the hole in this whole affair. We're the
FanFiction Mailing List, but we're restricted to  Anime, Manga and
Japanese Live Action. God knows I'd like to get some crit on some
Marvel, DC, and WB Animation ideas, not to mention Harry Potter.
Knowing I can't post those here and get serious feedback kinda takes
the wind out of the sails, you know?

I have to chime in with a certain amount of agreement here.  My own
big work, "Drunkard's Walk" (http://www.eclipse.net/~rms/dwmain.html
for those who want to check it out) is composed of several discrete
stories, and not all of them are anime-based.  I've just resigned
myself to simply not promoting the non-anime parts of the Walk here
when I get to them because despite the fact that the Walk is about
66% anime, those particular parts won't have any anime content at
all and thus will be "inappropriate" for the list.  It would be
really nice to share them here, but I'll have to trust to my own
forums, my website and word of mouth to carry those stories when the
time comes.

As to the greater issues of biased moderation and the list as a whole
dying, well...  I've had my own experience with what in my opinion
was excessive and inappropriate moderation, complete with admin
hypocrisy behind the scenes.  I have *vast* problems with the fact
that there is simply no appeal process of any value, and that even
if there were, there's no way to recompense someone unfairly banned
or tempbanned.  This and the occasionally draconian rules have
combined to virtually eliminate all "community" aspects of the FFML.

I've been on this list for *ten* *freaking* *years* -- I remember when
it was alive and vibrant, when I could post a question about a detail
of canon and get good answers without being shot down by a mod for
"spamming".  I remember when this list *looked* like it had hundreds
of members.  Yeah, I also remember when the list server would spasm
and collapse, but the rules emplaced to prevent that are no longer
relevant -- not enough people even *care* to post here any more to
make it even a moderate risk.

At one point a long time ago, someone once described the list as a
"small nervous chihuahua" that would bark and bark and bark
until it fell over with a seizure.  Well, I hate to tell folks this,
but the chihuahua is comatose.  It doesn't have seizures any more,
but it doesn't bark, either.

I'd rather have the barking.

The FFML used to be a place to come to be with reasonably erudite
people of like interests.  But there's no "here" here any more.
It's not a community any more -- communities are lively and messy
and noisy, but the moderators have quite efficiently stamped out
all the lively, messy and noisy things that used to flourish here.

All that's left is a distribution channel.

And that's why The Pit of Voles is flourishing, at least for the
moment.  Because it doesn't (yet) discourage a sense of community.

-- Bob

===========================================================================
Bob Schroeck          http://www.eclipse.net/~rms           rms@eclipse.net
===========================================================================
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
===========================================================================

             .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
             | Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
             | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
             |     Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject     |
             `---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'