Over on
heartofoshun's journal, Oshun,
pandemonium_213, and I have been talking about the experience that is posting to Fanfiction.net. I haven't posted there in years. Once upon a time, the ability to reach a very broad audience (who might not be inclined to read on a Silm-only archive like the SWG or even a Tolkien-only archive like MPTT or HASA) appealed to me. I quickly
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Perhaps for this reason (lack of alternatives), there are some brilliant and well-admired fics in the anime archives at ff.net. Lots of dross, too, I hasten to add, but my point is that the well-liked authors in any fandom are archiving their stories there. The majority of feedback you get is along the lines of 'awesome! please update!' (even if you just did post that chapter 5 min. previously), but I have gotten into more involved discussions with readers...and been the reader who has left a lengthy review that began a conversation. In other words...I feel that the anime archives at ff.net lend themselves to building the types of communities you find at other single-fandom archives. I'm lj friends with some of the authors, artwork and requests for translation happen (and then linked in the author's profile), etc. Typical fan community stuff.
*shrugs*
Depends what you are looking for, I guess. With SWG in existence, I'm not sure I'd see the need to use the Silmarillion archive on ff.net. I haven't yet, anyway.
As for concrit, I'm the type of person who will offer it unsolicited (in all aspects of life, not just fanfic - I'm the person who will jump into your conversation while you're waiting in the checkout line), but I generally try not to assume the author is interested in hearing about it...unless she specifically requested feedback in that area. I mean, if I know someone just posted something, and I catch a typo, I don't see any harm pointing it out (some people would want to know). And if a character does something ridiculously out of character, I might say that, you know, this just didn't sit right with me for these reasons...but it's always up to the author to decide what to do with whatever I give them. Sometimes I'm probably obnoxious or annoying about it, but I try to always be polite.
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The Tolkien fandom is a large and steady one: We have a long history, lots of people involved, and aren't going anywhere anytime soon. From reading on groups like metafandom, I get the impression that the loyalty (and multiple archives!) of the Tolkien fandom is rather the exception than the norm.
As for concrit, I'm the type of person who will offer it unsolicited (in all aspects of life, not just fanfic - I'm the person who will jump into your conversation while you're waiting in the checkout line), but I generally try not to assume the author is interested in hearing about it
As a writer, I definitely believe that readers are not only allowed to have but also to share whatever thoughts they have on my story! :) I certainly get my share of concrit here on LJ, when I post a story. The tone of it on ff.net tends to be different, however, in my experience. Readers tend to assume something they don't understand is my mistake rather than asking, and the assumption often seems to be that any publicly posted story is undergoing constant and endless revision, so I'm willing to do major rewrites on a character seven years after publishing the story, simply because one reader disagreed with me. I can't say, of course, whether that is universal on the site itself or just the Tolkien sections.
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