My two cents on Fanlib as a fanfic reader
Now that its days later and I've missed all the drama, I figured I'd put in a word.
Fanlib.com, to me, isn't a good idea. I can see everyone's points about their plan to make money off of other's writing and breaking into a female dominanted past time with a male run company and such ad nauseum. All valid points, its just... I'm not predominately a fanfic writer, I'm a fanfic reader.
From that perspective, what does fanlib have to offer me? A 'centralized' location for all my fanfic needs? ...not really. My fanfic needs aren't a simple thing to meet. If all I was looking for was a place to find writing in any fandom I'd be a fervent reader of ff.net.
The main problem with such mass run sites is that there is no way to determine what is good writing and what isn't. A search on the site isn't going to help me figure that out and their rating system isn't either. Rating systems have been around nearly as long as their have been archives. All it takes is a handful of friends of the author or people with taste that I don't agree with giving it 5 stars and high praise to get that rating.
There are a number of sources for finding good fanfic that don't involve any kind of archive. There are rec journals all over livejournal, del.icio.us tags, individual recs, websites, fic searches, communities, trusted fanfic writers and readers - all sources I'd go to in the search for new fic before I'd ever consider going to a mass archive. Certainly I'd read it if that's where a recommendation led me, but I wouldn't ever consider using it as the first and last source for my fanfic reading needs.
In fact, if someone links me to a rec on ff.net, fictionalley, wraithbait, or any similar archives I take the time to find it on an individual website or livejournal before I read it. Not only because I can easily leave feedback if it's on livejournal, but because I then trust the writer more. ff.net and similar archives are largely the haunts of new writers and poor ones. While there is occasionally a diamond in the rough who uses it as their sole source of posting, generally being hosted on such a site alone means you aren't very good. Fanfic reading veterans know that venturing into such archives unguided is risky and only to be done under extreme circumstances. I can't imagine fanlib will be any different.
Furthermore, it's not just good fic that's important to me as a reader. I am a fervent lover of not only slash to the extent that it is 98% of my fandom reading, but as my del.icio.us testifies, I like all sorts of weird things in my fic. I am a big fan of AUs and like everything from genderswap and wingfic to fluff and smut. You can't tell me that of the hundreds of tags I have fic categorized on there that fanlib is going to willing host all of it. Everyone has a line and while it may not be something I enjoy reading that crosses it, it will be something. Where does the cut off for "all fanfiction" lay?
Fanlib.com, to me, isn't a good idea. I can see everyone's points about their plan to make money off of other's writing and breaking into a female dominanted past time with a male run company and such ad nauseum. All valid points, its just... I'm not predominately a fanfic writer, I'm a fanfic reader.
From that perspective, what does fanlib have to offer me? A 'centralized' location for all my fanfic needs? ...not really. My fanfic needs aren't a simple thing to meet. If all I was looking for was a place to find writing in any fandom I'd be a fervent reader of ff.net.
The main problem with such mass run sites is that there is no way to determine what is good writing and what isn't. A search on the site isn't going to help me figure that out and their rating system isn't either. Rating systems have been around nearly as long as their have been archives. All it takes is a handful of friends of the author or people with taste that I don't agree with giving it 5 stars and high praise to get that rating.
There are a number of sources for finding good fanfic that don't involve any kind of archive. There are rec journals all over livejournal, del.icio.us tags, individual recs, websites, fic searches, communities, trusted fanfic writers and readers - all sources I'd go to in the search for new fic before I'd ever consider going to a mass archive. Certainly I'd read it if that's where a recommendation led me, but I wouldn't ever consider using it as the first and last source for my fanfic reading needs.
In fact, if someone links me to a rec on ff.net, fictionalley, wraithbait, or any similar archives I take the time to find it on an individual website or livejournal before I read it. Not only because I can easily leave feedback if it's on livejournal, but because I then trust the writer more. ff.net and similar archives are largely the haunts of new writers and poor ones. While there is occasionally a diamond in the rough who uses it as their sole source of posting, generally being hosted on such a site alone means you aren't very good. Fanfic reading veterans know that venturing into such archives unguided is risky and only to be done under extreme circumstances. I can't imagine fanlib will be any different.
Furthermore, it's not just good fic that's important to me as a reader. I am a fervent lover of not only slash to the extent that it is 98% of my fandom reading, but as my del.icio.us testifies, I like all sorts of weird things in my fic. I am a big fan of AUs and like everything from genderswap and wingfic to fluff and smut. You can't tell me that of the hundreds of tags I have fic categorized on there that fanlib is going to willing host all of it. Everyone has a line and while it may not be something I enjoy reading that crosses it, it will be something. Where does the cut off for "all fanfiction" lay?