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Today's Kerfluffle...
Jun. 13th, 2006 10:17 pm...happened on the FFML, the Fan Fiction Mailing List, which despite its generic name is dedicated only to anime/manga related fan fiction.
How it started: Two "fic search/requests" by the same person in a row. A fic search/request is something like, "Does anyone know where to find that fic where Ranma's grandmother turns out to be Godzilla, and has a knock-down, drag-out fight with Ken from Fist Of The North Star?" Note: I am making this particular fic request up... but the actual requests you see are often just as goofy. As one Administrator said, "My usual response to these is WHY do you want to find this story at all?"
Anyway, once upon a time the FFML was a high-traffic mailing list and fic requests have always been banned by the FAQ/rules, but tolerated if it's an actual last resort. Which it almost never is, of course... it's usually a request from someone too lazy or clueless to do any actual web research.
This prompted a response from one of the Administrators reminding everyone why most fic requests aren't tolerated on the list. To which someone replied, hey, the list is almost dead, we don't get the kind of traffic we once did, is it really such a big problem? Maybe we should ENCOURAGE more off-topic chatter, at least that means the list will actually have some traffic.
And this resulted in the most messages I've gotten from the list in a single day in years. Big discussion -- why is the list dying? Why can't we expand to allow ALL kinds of fan fiction, as the name of the list would seem to indicate? Are the moderators killing the list? Isn't it really that the list is hard to find and hard to sign up for? Isn't it that the commentary is too extreme, and writers don't like that? Isn't it really that FanFiction.net is killing off the FFML, because after all young writers these days want the instant gratification you get on FanFiction.net, where even godawful work gets positive reviews? Maybe we should move to a web based vehicle. Maybe we should move to Yahoo Groups/insert your destination of choice here.
Etc. Etc. Etc. Although I think so far the points that have been brought up that have some kind of consensus behind them are:
A) It's not that FanFiction.net is killing the FFML per se, it's that mailing lists of all kinds are going away in favor of message boards and other ways of posting stories and whatever. Some people don't even know what a mailing list is or how it works. Newsgroups are dying out too -- things evolve, the internet is always evolving.
B) It really is hard to find out about the FFML and takes effort to sign up for it.
C) The list is a much better place for detailed critiques than a place like FanFiction.net, so it still has a reason to exist.
D) Moving to a web based/message board environment would just make us a FanFiction.net junior. We certainly can't compete with them on their own turf.
E) To survive, the list really ought to expand to include more kinds of fan fiction, or all types of fan fiction.
Anyway I'm not involved in the conversation, but it was interesting to read. I'm probably one of those who is on the wrong side of the debate, because unlike a lot of the old guard of the FFML who really look down on FanFiction.net, I use FanFiction.net and have even been posting stuff there without posting it to the FFML. Some of the old-guard FFML people say that they only want serious critiques and aren't at all interested in posting their work for a wider audience to read. To each his or her own, but I write stories both to please me and to see if they please others as well. ^_^
( In other news... Miko pursues obscure cd! Film at Eleven! )
How it started: Two "fic search/requests" by the same person in a row. A fic search/request is something like, "Does anyone know where to find that fic where Ranma's grandmother turns out to be Godzilla, and has a knock-down, drag-out fight with Ken from Fist Of The North Star?" Note: I am making this particular fic request up... but the actual requests you see are often just as goofy. As one Administrator said, "My usual response to these is WHY do you want to find this story at all?"
Anyway, once upon a time the FFML was a high-traffic mailing list and fic requests have always been banned by the FAQ/rules, but tolerated if it's an actual last resort. Which it almost never is, of course... it's usually a request from someone too lazy or clueless to do any actual web research.
This prompted a response from one of the Administrators reminding everyone why most fic requests aren't tolerated on the list. To which someone replied, hey, the list is almost dead, we don't get the kind of traffic we once did, is it really such a big problem? Maybe we should ENCOURAGE more off-topic chatter, at least that means the list will actually have some traffic.
And this resulted in the most messages I've gotten from the list in a single day in years. Big discussion -- why is the list dying? Why can't we expand to allow ALL kinds of fan fiction, as the name of the list would seem to indicate? Are the moderators killing the list? Isn't it really that the list is hard to find and hard to sign up for? Isn't it that the commentary is too extreme, and writers don't like that? Isn't it really that FanFiction.net is killing off the FFML, because after all young writers these days want the instant gratification you get on FanFiction.net, where even godawful work gets positive reviews? Maybe we should move to a web based vehicle. Maybe we should move to Yahoo Groups/insert your destination of choice here.
Etc. Etc. Etc. Although I think so far the points that have been brought up that have some kind of consensus behind them are:
A) It's not that FanFiction.net is killing the FFML per se, it's that mailing lists of all kinds are going away in favor of message boards and other ways of posting stories and whatever. Some people don't even know what a mailing list is or how it works. Newsgroups are dying out too -- things evolve, the internet is always evolving.
B) It really is hard to find out about the FFML and takes effort to sign up for it.
C) The list is a much better place for detailed critiques than a place like FanFiction.net, so it still has a reason to exist.
D) Moving to a web based/message board environment would just make us a FanFiction.net junior. We certainly can't compete with them on their own turf.
E) To survive, the list really ought to expand to include more kinds of fan fiction, or all types of fan fiction.
Anyway I'm not involved in the conversation, but it was interesting to read. I'm probably one of those who is on the wrong side of the debate, because unlike a lot of the old guard of the FFML who really look down on FanFiction.net, I use FanFiction.net and have even been posting stuff there without posting it to the FFML. Some of the old-guard FFML people say that they only want serious critiques and aren't at all interested in posting their work for a wider audience to read. To each his or her own, but I write stories both to please me and to see if they please others as well. ^_^
( In other news... Miko pursues obscure cd! Film at Eleven! )
