Recommending Recommenders (thefourthvine)
After ds_recs is over, what do you do?
Cry, obviously. But eventually we've got to get past the sackcloth and ashes phase. Which means that we've got to make sure we still have due South recs. So for my day, I'm recommending recommenders. (Yes, it's all very recursive and deep. I have a mind like a small-print quarterly journal of postmodern literary analysis. Fear me.)
But, okay, first I have to babble a bit. (And everyone who knows me is right now muttering, "Yes. We're all so surprised." I can't help it, folks; I gotta be me.) So, see, I know most of the readers of this journal are whatever the opposite of newbies are, and no, I'm not even saying oldbies; I have too much respect for (for which read "fear of") dS fans to say that. Instead, let me just say that most readers of this journal are persons of taste, refinement, wide-ranging experience, and extensive knowledge. Including, of course, you.
But I'm not really writing this entry for you. I'm writing for - see, next month, someone is going to read some fantastic dS crossover or superhot porn, and she's going to think, Huh. I like cops, and I've got nothing against Mounties. Maybe I should find out more about this fandom. So she'll start looking around for dS recs to get her started. This post is for her, to make sure she does get started. You're welcome to use it, though; there's a good chance that you haven't seen all the sites I've listed.
Compiling this was interesting. When I got into dS, I used a handful of recs sources, but I quickly got to the point where I'd read what was recommended, and fortunately dS is one of those fandoms where you can read in archives and random LJs without wanting to blind yourself and wander in the wilderness for several decades. (See also: fanfiction.net.) So I was almost as clueless as any newbie when I started writing this post. I had no idea where the discerning dS reader goes for recs these days. (I still don't, in fact. I'm hoping some of you tasteful, refined, etc. people will provide links in the comments.) So I started with my favorite multi-fandom sites, and then I did some searching, some browsing, some clicking, some scanning, some dancing, some singing. In the end, I had this list.
Using the List: Some Notes for Obsessively Detail Oriented Persons Such As Myself
Size: I did a rough count of the number of recs, and I'm ranking that from 5 (I counted up to 50 and I still hadn't reached the midpoint of the page) to 1 (I didn't even need to count to know how many stories there were). In this case, more is better, so I kept it to 3, 4, and 5.
Speranza Factor: One of the problems with recs is the frequency with which certain stories are recommended. I mean, I totally agree that everyone in the world needs to read "Chicago's Most Wanted," but even that story can't hold you forever. Eventually, you need something else to read. So when I was assembling this, I estimated what percentage of the recs were those stories everyone recs. A page with a Speranza factor 5 would have links to just the collected works of Speranza, Resonant, Kat Allison, Aristide, Bone, Kass, Aukestrel, Crysothemis, etc. A page with a Speranza factor of 1 would have no links to any of those authors. In my opinion, scores of 2, 3, and 4 are best - enough of the greatest hits of dS for you to know the recommender has taste, but enough other stuff so there's a chance you'll find something new to read. So that's where I kept my focus.
The rest of this should be fairly self-explanatory, and even I can't dither on anymore.
Recommenders: The Safer Ones
These are single recommender sites (for the most part), so they have consistent quality. I'm not saying you'll love everything you get from these, but if you do love the first four links, there's a pretty good chance you'll love the fifth, too.
Cimorene's dS Recs, by cimorene111. Cimorene is one of the indispensable multi-fandom recommenders who is never allowed to stop reccing. When I get into a new fandom, I always hope she's there, too.
You Get: Title, author, pairing, rating, and reaction or quote. Cim's fairly unusual in that she indicates what she didn't like as well as what she did. That makes her site a good place to start.
Size: 5
Speranza Factor: 2
Status: Updated irregularly but often, and you can see what's new at the front page of the recs section. However, I'm not sure how often she's updating the dS part of her page.
Polyamorous Recs, by nestra and shrift. (Here is a direct link to the dS section, in case the dropdown menu doesn't work for you - it doesn't for me.) Polyamorous Recs is what other recs pages hope to be when they grow up. Shrift and Nestra run it, and they have been doing it (recommending, I mean - minds out of the gutter, please) for, like, 18 fandom generations. (And they need to do it for 180 more.) Which means these pages have breadth and depth. Even better? Nestra and Shrift have taste. Excellent taste. This is one of those sites where it's almost impossible to go wrong.
You Get: Title, author, and quote or reaction from either Shrift or Nestra. The stories are divided by genre - gen/het, het/slash, and plain old slash.
Size: 5
Speranza Factor: 2
Status: Updated irregularly and not all that often, in huge batches; you can see what's new since your last visit on the What's New? page.
Makesmewannadie's dS recs, by (surprise!) makesmewannadie. MMWD is my fannish OTP, so I may be biased, but it doesn't matter; her recs are certified wonderful by a panel of experts.
You Get: Title, author, pairing, rating, and reaction. MMWD posts her dS recs in themes (het, writing, going undercover, etc.), so you also get a general idea of what the story contains. And she often mentions what she didn't like about the story, as well as what she did.
Size: 4
Speranza Factor: 2
Status: Updated irregularly but fairly often, in sets of 5+.
Beth H.'s dS recs, by bethbethbeth. Beth wrote some great stuff in this fandom, and she's bookmarked for our reading pleasure a lot of great stuff, so a visit to her website is your basic win-win proposition for the burgeoning dS fan.
You Get: Title and author, plus sometimes reaction. Recs are divided into Fraser/Kowalski and everything else.
Size: 4
Speranza Factor: 3
Status: Updated irregularly but fairly often.
SA's dS Recs, by sathinks in sareads. The memories of this community are extensive; SA does one story per post and organizes them fearsomely and impressively, using memories and, more recently, tags.
You Get: Title, author, pairing, mini-reaction.
Size: 4
Speranza Factor: 3
Status: Updated very irregularly, but she's in an updating phase right now. When she does update, she tends to do it in large batches.
Rec 'n' Roll - dS and recnroll, by jerakeen. This is, I think, a newer multi-fandom site, with a fairly extensive back catalog. You can vote for fandoms to be updated. The website is a recs database, while the LJ is more informal.
You Get: Title, author, genre, pairing, rating, and size. The recommender also ranks the stories on a heart scale - 1 - 6 hearts, it looks like.
Size: 3
Speranza Factor: 3
Status: Updated irregularly but often, it looks like.
dS Recs on ceanshinythings, by kenovay. Another massively multifandom recommender, here, with a small but thoughtful collection of dS stories on offer; these are good, and some of them aren't often found on recs sites.
You Get: Title, author, pairing, and reaction and/or quote.
Size: 3
Speranza Factor: 2
Status: Updated irregularly, and it's anyone's guess when the next dS rec will appear.
dS Recs in the Rec Room, by cupidsbow (and occasional guests). Cathy recs in many fandoms; dS is one of her smaller ones. You'll find mostly newer authors and stories here.
You Get: Title, author, pairing, rating, and reaction.
Size: 3
Speranza Factor: 3
Status: Updated regularly, but I don't know if the recommender is still reading dS.
Te's dS Recs, Page One and Page Two, by thete1. These are recs from Te's website, which is no longer updated, but which is a total goldmine of glorious recs for older fandoms. This is one of the sites that I used when I first got into dS, and I love it still.
You Get: Title, author, extensive reaction, and sometimes a quote. (Sometimes you get other stuff, too. Te is idiosyncratic. This is why we love her.)
Size: 4
Speranza Factor: 4 (Biased somewhat by the fact that I used this recs page, rather extensively in fact, so of course I'm going to recognize everyone on it.)
Status: Dead.
Madrigal's dS recs. I stumbled upon this one for the first time while I was composing this entry, and I know nothing about it except that it's there. The maintainer doesn't seem to have a LJ, or at least doesn't link to one. The recommender will email you copies of the stories if you can't find a working link for them, which is a rare and interesting feature.
You Get: Title, author, pairing, size, quote, summary, reaction, and favorites.
Size: 3
Speranza Factor: 3
Status: Dead.
JR's dS Recs. Another one I found for the first time as I was researching this post. She recommends writers as well as specific stories, which is a nice feature.
You Get: Title, author, genre, and reaction.
Size: 3
Speranza Factor: 2
Status: Dead.
Recommenders: The Wilder Ones
These are multiple recommender communities. The quality varies (wildly, and I do mean wildly) from recommender to recommender, and a link from one of these sites is, well - think of it as an adventure. But you'll also find stories in these places that you won't find anywhere else, and these tend to have more recs than single recommender sites do.
ds_flashback. For one year, almost daily, various people recommended "flashbacks" - older or classic stories in the fandom. This is no longer updated, but obviously it's still a fabulous resource, and because of the focus on older stuff, you'll see a lot here that you won't see anywhere else.
You Get: Title, author, genre, pairing, and, usually, a reaction or quote.
Size: 5
Speranza Factor: 2
Status: Dead.
dS on Crack Van. crack_van is a multi-fandom recs community; people sign up to rec the featured fandoms for a month. The quality is intensely variable, of course, but you may find stories here you wouldn't find anywhere else.
You Get: Title, author, pairing, and reaction and/or quote. The reaction is often very extensive, and that can help you figure out if you actually want to read a given recommender's recs.
Size: 5
Speranza Factor: 3
Status: Each month, a new person recommends 4+ stories.
dS at Whispered Words. This is a slash recommendations database; anyone can submit a rec (or a bunch of them).
You Get: Title, author, pairing, and reaction.
Size: 3
Speranza Factor: 4
Status: It's impossible to tell.
Recommenders: The Other One
My dS Recs, by thefourthvine. My recs journal is, well, not all that easily categorized. I do multi-fandom themed recs sets of four (or so) stories. I tag each entry with all of the fandoms it contains; this is a link to my dS tag, where you'll find all the entries that contain at least one dS rec. But there are many other fandoms in there, too.
You Get: Title, author, pairing, reaction, and a bucketload of babble, some of it only tangentially related to the story.
Size: 4
Speranza Factor: 4
Status: Updated irregularly, and you can't count on there being a dS rec in any given set these days, but I still rec a dS story every now and then, because this fandom is wonderful.
And that's it for me. I'm hoping the comments will include more sites. So tell me, ds_recs readers: what are your favorite sources of dS recs?
Cry, obviously. But eventually we've got to get past the sackcloth and ashes phase. Which means that we've got to make sure we still have due South recs. So for my day, I'm recommending recommenders. (Yes, it's all very recursive and deep. I have a mind like a small-print quarterly journal of postmodern literary analysis. Fear me.)
But, okay, first I have to babble a bit. (And everyone who knows me is right now muttering, "Yes. We're all so surprised." I can't help it, folks; I gotta be me.) So, see, I know most of the readers of this journal are whatever the opposite of newbies are, and no, I'm not even saying oldbies; I have too much respect for (for which read "fear of") dS fans to say that. Instead, let me just say that most readers of this journal are persons of taste, refinement, wide-ranging experience, and extensive knowledge. Including, of course, you.
But I'm not really writing this entry for you. I'm writing for - see, next month, someone is going to read some fantastic dS crossover or superhot porn, and she's going to think, Huh. I like cops, and I've got nothing against Mounties. Maybe I should find out more about this fandom. So she'll start looking around for dS recs to get her started. This post is for her, to make sure she does get started. You're welcome to use it, though; there's a good chance that you haven't seen all the sites I've listed.
Compiling this was interesting. When I got into dS, I used a handful of recs sources, but I quickly got to the point where I'd read what was recommended, and fortunately dS is one of those fandoms where you can read in archives and random LJs without wanting to blind yourself and wander in the wilderness for several decades. (See also: fanfiction.net.) So I was almost as clueless as any newbie when I started writing this post. I had no idea where the discerning dS reader goes for recs these days. (I still don't, in fact. I'm hoping some of you tasteful, refined, etc. people will provide links in the comments.) So I started with my favorite multi-fandom sites, and then I did some searching, some browsing, some clicking, some scanning, some dancing, some singing. In the end, I had this list.
Using the List: Some Notes for Obsessively Detail Oriented Persons Such As Myself
Size: I did a rough count of the number of recs, and I'm ranking that from 5 (I counted up to 50 and I still hadn't reached the midpoint of the page) to 1 (I didn't even need to count to know how many stories there were). In this case, more is better, so I kept it to 3, 4, and 5.
Speranza Factor: One of the problems with recs is the frequency with which certain stories are recommended. I mean, I totally agree that everyone in the world needs to read "Chicago's Most Wanted," but even that story can't hold you forever. Eventually, you need something else to read. So when I was assembling this, I estimated what percentage of the recs were those stories everyone recs. A page with a Speranza factor 5 would have links to just the collected works of Speranza, Resonant, Kat Allison, Aristide, Bone, Kass, Aukestrel, Crysothemis, etc. A page with a Speranza factor of 1 would have no links to any of those authors. In my opinion, scores of 2, 3, and 4 are best - enough of the greatest hits of dS for you to know the recommender has taste, but enough other stuff so there's a chance you'll find something new to read. So that's where I kept my focus.
The rest of this should be fairly self-explanatory, and even I can't dither on anymore.
Recommenders: The Safer Ones
These are single recommender sites (for the most part), so they have consistent quality. I'm not saying you'll love everything you get from these, but if you do love the first four links, there's a pretty good chance you'll love the fifth, too.
Cimorene's dS Recs, by cimorene111. Cimorene is one of the indispensable multi-fandom recommenders who is never allowed to stop reccing. When I get into a new fandom, I always hope she's there, too.
You Get: Title, author, pairing, rating, and reaction or quote. Cim's fairly unusual in that she indicates what she didn't like as well as what she did. That makes her site a good place to start.
Size: 5
Speranza Factor: 2
Status: Updated irregularly but often, and you can see what's new at the front page of the recs section. However, I'm not sure how often she's updating the dS part of her page.
Polyamorous Recs, by nestra and shrift. (Here is a direct link to the dS section, in case the dropdown menu doesn't work for you - it doesn't for me.) Polyamorous Recs is what other recs pages hope to be when they grow up. Shrift and Nestra run it, and they have been doing it (recommending, I mean - minds out of the gutter, please) for, like, 18 fandom generations. (And they need to do it for 180 more.) Which means these pages have breadth and depth. Even better? Nestra and Shrift have taste. Excellent taste. This is one of those sites where it's almost impossible to go wrong.
You Get: Title, author, and quote or reaction from either Shrift or Nestra. The stories are divided by genre - gen/het, het/slash, and plain old slash.
Size: 5
Speranza Factor: 2
Status: Updated irregularly and not all that often, in huge batches; you can see what's new since your last visit on the What's New? page.
Makesmewannadie's dS recs, by (surprise!) makesmewannadie. MMWD is my fannish OTP, so I may be biased, but it doesn't matter; her recs are certified wonderful by a panel of experts.
You Get: Title, author, pairing, rating, and reaction. MMWD posts her dS recs in themes (het, writing, going undercover, etc.), so you also get a general idea of what the story contains. And she often mentions what she didn't like about the story, as well as what she did.
Size: 4
Speranza Factor: 2
Status: Updated irregularly but fairly often, in sets of 5+.
Beth H.'s dS recs, by bethbethbeth. Beth wrote some great stuff in this fandom, and she's bookmarked for our reading pleasure a lot of great stuff, so a visit to her website is your basic win-win proposition for the burgeoning dS fan.
You Get: Title and author, plus sometimes reaction. Recs are divided into Fraser/Kowalski and everything else.
Size: 4
Speranza Factor: 3
Status: Updated irregularly but fairly often.
SA's dS Recs, by sathinks in sareads. The memories of this community are extensive; SA does one story per post and organizes them fearsomely and impressively, using memories and, more recently, tags.
You Get: Title, author, pairing, mini-reaction.
Size: 4
Speranza Factor: 3
Status: Updated very irregularly, but she's in an updating phase right now. When she does update, she tends to do it in large batches.
Rec 'n' Roll - dS and recnroll, by jerakeen. This is, I think, a newer multi-fandom site, with a fairly extensive back catalog. You can vote for fandoms to be updated. The website is a recs database, while the LJ is more informal.
You Get: Title, author, genre, pairing, rating, and size. The recommender also ranks the stories on a heart scale - 1 - 6 hearts, it looks like.
Size: 3
Speranza Factor: 3
Status: Updated irregularly but often, it looks like.
dS Recs on ceanshinythings, by kenovay. Another massively multifandom recommender, here, with a small but thoughtful collection of dS stories on offer; these are good, and some of them aren't often found on recs sites.
You Get: Title, author, pairing, and reaction and/or quote.
Size: 3
Speranza Factor: 2
Status: Updated irregularly, and it's anyone's guess when the next dS rec will appear.
dS Recs in the Rec Room, by cupidsbow (and occasional guests). Cathy recs in many fandoms; dS is one of her smaller ones. You'll find mostly newer authors and stories here.
You Get: Title, author, pairing, rating, and reaction.
Size: 3
Speranza Factor: 3
Status: Updated regularly, but I don't know if the recommender is still reading dS.
Te's dS Recs, Page One and Page Two, by thete1. These are recs from Te's website, which is no longer updated, but which is a total goldmine of glorious recs for older fandoms. This is one of the sites that I used when I first got into dS, and I love it still.
You Get: Title, author, extensive reaction, and sometimes a quote. (Sometimes you get other stuff, too. Te is idiosyncratic. This is why we love her.)
Size: 4
Speranza Factor: 4 (Biased somewhat by the fact that I used this recs page, rather extensively in fact, so of course I'm going to recognize everyone on it.)
Status: Dead.
Madrigal's dS recs. I stumbled upon this one for the first time while I was composing this entry, and I know nothing about it except that it's there. The maintainer doesn't seem to have a LJ, or at least doesn't link to one. The recommender will email you copies of the stories if you can't find a working link for them, which is a rare and interesting feature.
You Get: Title, author, pairing, size, quote, summary, reaction, and favorites.
Size: 3
Speranza Factor: 3
Status: Dead.
JR's dS Recs. Another one I found for the first time as I was researching this post. She recommends writers as well as specific stories, which is a nice feature.
You Get: Title, author, genre, and reaction.
Size: 3
Speranza Factor: 2
Status: Dead.
Recommenders: The Wilder Ones
These are multiple recommender communities. The quality varies (wildly, and I do mean wildly) from recommender to recommender, and a link from one of these sites is, well - think of it as an adventure. But you'll also find stories in these places that you won't find anywhere else, and these tend to have more recs than single recommender sites do.
ds_flashback. For one year, almost daily, various people recommended "flashbacks" - older or classic stories in the fandom. This is no longer updated, but obviously it's still a fabulous resource, and because of the focus on older stuff, you'll see a lot here that you won't see anywhere else.
You Get: Title, author, genre, pairing, and, usually, a reaction or quote.
Size: 5
Speranza Factor: 2
Status: Dead.
dS on Crack Van. crack_van is a multi-fandom recs community; people sign up to rec the featured fandoms for a month. The quality is intensely variable, of course, but you may find stories here you wouldn't find anywhere else.
You Get: Title, author, pairing, and reaction and/or quote. The reaction is often very extensive, and that can help you figure out if you actually want to read a given recommender's recs.
Size: 5
Speranza Factor: 3
Status: Each month, a new person recommends 4+ stories.
dS at Whispered Words. This is a slash recommendations database; anyone can submit a rec (or a bunch of them).
You Get: Title, author, pairing, and reaction.
Size: 3
Speranza Factor: 4
Status: It's impossible to tell.
Recommenders: The Other One
My dS Recs, by thefourthvine. My recs journal is, well, not all that easily categorized. I do multi-fandom themed recs sets of four (or so) stories. I tag each entry with all of the fandoms it contains; this is a link to my dS tag, where you'll find all the entries that contain at least one dS rec. But there are many other fandoms in there, too.
You Get: Title, author, pairing, reaction, and a bucketload of babble, some of it only tangentially related to the story.
Size: 4
Speranza Factor: 4
Status: Updated irregularly, and you can't count on there being a dS rec in any given set these days, but I still rec a dS story every now and then, because this fandom is wonderful.
And that's it for me. I'm hoping the comments will include more sites. So tell me, ds_recs readers: what are your favorite sources of dS recs?