[FFML] [One-shot][Hogan's Heroes] Final Goodbye

[Angus MacSpon]

On 2/03/2009, at 17:06, The Eternal Lost Lurker wrote:

> Thing is, if we say "we can make one exception", that tends to lead  
> to a
> flood of CKK-quality Hannah Montana and Drake & Josh "fanfics" that  
> will
> choke the FFML like a sword swallower trying to give a dolphin a  
> blowjob.


The evidence rather suggests the reverse.  A few years ago, when the  
FFML was opened up to allow a much wider range of fandoms, there was  
an initial, very minor surge of stories -- largely Harry Potter, IIRC  
-- but within a week or two it had settled down, and posting levels  
quickly dropped to about what they'd been before.  In other words,  
there was no real lasting effect.

If the list were to be thrown wide-open, I suspect that the result  
would be the same.  The simple fact is, few writers are interested in  
mailing lists any more.  They'd rather post their stories on  
fanfic.net so that a hundred teenagers can jism all over them and  
gasp "omg u r so great, next chapter pls" when they're done.

Which is a damn shame, because the FFML is the absolutely the second- 
best forum for actual MEANINGFUL commentary that I've ever found.   
Web lists like ff.net are handy repositories for stories (at least  
when they don't go arbitrarily changing what authors post, without  
notification, the way ff.net does) but the very nature of the medium  
doesn't suit in-depth analysis of stories.

... Ahem.  Which I'm sure most readers here already know.  Apologies  
for preaching to the converted.

In any case, to repeat: I suspect that throwing the FFML wide-open  
would have little long-term effect.  The days when posting levels  
could choke a donkey are over, and -- barring a major paradigm shift  
in the way fan fiction is viewed -- they ain't coming back.  Which, I  
repeat, is a damn shame.

Angus

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Angus MacSpon                                  Email: macspon at ihug.co.nz
ICQ: 65719513                          http://shell.ihug.co.nz/~macspon/