I'm a fan of delicious for storing recs and I tend to do a post of my faves to LJ with a link back to delicious. It means I can pull out themed rec lists really easily when I want them.
You can import bookmarks direct to delicious so don't be scared of the hard work. It has an Easy Import: Automatically import your old bookmarks function - or you can mess about with the custom settings.
If you want to get fancy you can use delicous glue to post your delicious recs to your LJ as a daily digest. Or use the RSS feed to point to an LJ instead.
I like your summary and notes, it gives a useful mix of information.
I'm really particular about having length tags on recs, even if they're just 'short, medium, long' - I won't click through to a delicious that doesn't have some kind of length tag, for example. I doubt other people are quite so obsessive ^.^' but it's a useful thing to have, imo.
*nods* Good point. I should probably double-check what I've already posted for length statements. I've had to go to using word counts because switching between fandoms has done crazy things to my sense of what a small/medium/long length fic is-- I mean, I once spent a week maybe reading a three-generational Harry Potter fic, and even if that's unreasonably long there's still all the 7th year fics, so that used to be my baseline for 'long' fic. But these days I consider a fic in SGA 'long' if it's ~30K words. So even internally I can't agree on qualitative lengths, let alone have any idea of what people reading my recs will be using as their baseline.
I know what you mean. Word counts are just simpler in the long run. I'm not sure how to handle them when I rec whole series, maybe count a couple of chapters. Any thoughts?
Hmmm. If it's a completed series I'd go for stating the number of chapters/stories in it and giving a total word count.If the series is a WIP, same thing but I'd also mention how far along in the series it is at the time of reccing (because people do browse through old recs. Or at least I do!)
If the series has one 'main' story and then some 'associated' stories to go with it, then I might give the word counts of the main story seperate from the combined 'associated' stories.
When I rec I'm trying to persuade someone to read something that I enjoyed, so I'm giving them the information that I think they'd need to see if they might like it-- so if I'm trying to sell them on the entire series, I'll give the stats for that. If I'm trying to hook them into, say, the first story of a series, then I'll give stats for that and then say 'and there's more to the series, the link to that is here' and perhaps give a sense of how much more to the series there is.
Here from metafandom, and I'm assuming since your post was linked from there that you don't only want the opinions of your f-list, so here goes...
Delicious is useful for its tags. It means you can add a fic and instantly have it on numerous lists (fandom, character, pairing, theme, etc). However, the disadvantage is that you can't have as much text to say everything you need to, and I also find reading rec lists on LJ to be easier on the eyes. So it's basically up to you which you find easier to use, they both have their good points.
Thematic lists - yes, yes, yes: I love them. BTW, I always think that with themed lists you should include a note as to why they fit the theme. E.g. if you're writing a list of HP timetravel fics: who timetravels, and to what era
( ... )
BTW, I always think that with themed lists you should include a note as to why they fit the theme. *blinks at self* That honestly hadn't occurred to me and I don't know why! But it makes so much sense! *writes note to self*
E.g. if you're writing a list of HP timetravel fics: who timetravels, and to what era?
Do you know of anybody who has a list of HP (or any other fandom) time travel fics? I've realized recently that time travel seems to be a very nearly bulletproof plot kink for me.
Ah, you've come to the queen of "knowing where to find fic lists" ;) I run a directory of the things so I can generally point to half a dozen lists on any one topic/fandom/pairing/character.
(BTW, I started out with separate directories for Harry Potter and Stargate lists before I made the multi-fandom one. I'm currently considering whether or not to add all the lists from those to the big one.)
A lot depends on what you want to do. Will you be rec'ing in one or two fandoms or in dozens? How much time do you have for the project? (I haven't updated my recs site in about a year because I haven't had time or energy.) Are you rec'ing mostly for people who know you and your tastes or for anyone who happens by? What aspects of stories appeal to you
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I'm a big fan of both storing my recs on delicious and finding recs that way. I like having the ability to tag recs with as many things as I'd like and the many ways to sort them by tags. If I'm looking for a specific type of fic in a specific fandom (let's say genderswap in bandom) I know I just need to click the 'bandom' tag and the 'genderswap' tag and there's a list of all the fic I've rec'd that falls under both categories. It also makes creating themed lists that much easier since you've already done most of the work
( ... )
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You can import bookmarks direct to delicious so don't be scared of the hard work. It has an Easy Import: Automatically import your old bookmarks function - or you can mess about with the custom settings.
If you want to get fancy you can use delicous glue to post your delicious recs to your LJ as a daily digest. Or use the RSS feed to point to an LJ instead.
I like your summary and notes, it gives a useful mix of information.
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And thanks for the feedback on summaries and notes, it's great to hear that they're actually useful to someone other than myself.
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Hmmm. If it's a completed series I'd go for stating the number of chapters/stories in it and giving a total word count.If the series is a WIP, same thing but I'd also mention how far along in the series it is at the time of reccing (because people do browse through old recs. Or at least I do!)
If the series has one 'main' story and then some 'associated' stories to go with it, then I might give the word counts of the main story seperate from the combined 'associated' stories.
When I rec I'm trying to persuade someone to read something that I enjoyed, so I'm giving them the information that I think they'd need to see if they might like it-- so if I'm trying to sell them on the entire series, I'll give the stats for that. If I'm trying to hook them into, say, the first story of a series, then I'll give stats for that and then say 'and there's more to the series, the link to that is here' and perhaps give a sense of how much more to the series there is.
Am I making any sense?
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Here from metafandom, and I'm assuming since your post was linked from there that you don't only want the opinions of your f-list, so here goes...
Delicious is useful for its tags. It means you can add a fic and instantly have it on numerous lists (fandom, character, pairing, theme, etc). However, the disadvantage is that you can't have as much text to say everything you need to, and I also find reading rec lists on LJ to be easier on the eyes. So it's basically up to you which you find easier to use, they both have their good points.
Thematic lists - yes, yes, yes: I love them. BTW, I always think that with themed lists you should include a note as to why they fit the theme. E.g. if you're writing a list of HP timetravel fics: who timetravels, and to what era ( ... )
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Thank you very much for your detailed response!
BTW, I always think that with themed lists you should include a note as to why they fit the theme.
*blinks at self* That honestly hadn't occurred to me and I don't know why! But it makes so much sense! *writes note to self*
Reply
Do you know of anybody who has a list of HP (or any other fandom) time travel fics? I've realized recently that time travel seems to be a very nearly bulletproof plot kink for me.
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Ah, you've come to the queen of "knowing where to find fic lists" ;) I run a directory of the things so I can generally point to half a dozen lists on any one topic/fandom/pairing/character.
For time travel we have:
My own timetravel recs list
painless_j's list of Harry Potter timetravel fics
Rhynny's list of Torchwood: Ianto timetravel fics
Blazingfirewolf's list of Buffy & Angel timetravel fics
And finally a list of all the Star Wars timetravel fics at theforce.net
(BTW, I started out with separate directories for Harry Potter and Stargate lists before I made the multi-fandom one. I'm currently considering whether or not to add all the lists from those to the big one.)
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A lot depends on what you want to do. Will you be rec'ing in one or two fandoms or in dozens? How much time do you have for the project? (I haven't updated my recs site in about a year because I haven't had time or energy.) Are you rec'ing mostly for people who know you and your tastes or for anyone who happens by? What aspects of stories appeal to you ( ... )
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I'm a big fan of both storing my recs on delicious and finding recs that way. I like having the ability to tag recs with as many things as I'd like and the many ways to sort them by tags. If I'm looking for a specific type of fic in a specific fandom (let's say genderswap in bandom) I know I just need to click the 'bandom' tag and the 'genderswap' tag and there's a list of all the fic I've rec'd that falls under both categories. It also makes creating themed lists that much easier since you've already done most of the work ( ... )
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