Non-Rare Pairings: An Update
Before I lose you all in the length of this post, I'd like to remind you that TODAY IS THE LAST DAY YOU CAN POST A WISHLIST FOR THE SUMMER WISHLIST EVENT. YOU CANNOT POST A WISHLIST AFTER TODAY. SO IF YOU HAVE NOT POSTED ONE YET, HOP TO IT IMMEDIATELY!
* * *
Now to the real purpose of this post. Thank you all for your votes and thoughts! 45 people responded, and here are the results:
- Albus/Gellert and Albus/Minerva are considered by a majority of people to be RARE.
- Draco/Pansy, Ginny/Hermione, Ginny/Luna, Ginny/Neville, Harry/Ginny, Harry/Luna, Harry/Ron, James/Lily, Lucius/Narcissa, Neville/Luna, Severus/Lily are considered by a majority of people to be NOT RARE.
peskywhistpaw and I considered all this and discussed the issues brought up between ourselves. We have made the following changes to our non-rare pairing list:
- Albus/Gellert and Albus/Minerva have been REMOVED.
- Hermione/Fleur, Hermione/Pansy, and Severus/Draco have been ADDED.
We realize that there are a lot of pairings in fandom that could be considered either rare or non-rare, and a few of these pairings are on our list. However, it really shouldn't matter whether the middle-of-the-road pairings are on our list or not, since almost everyone at this community claims pairings that are pretty rare anyway. There are loads of pairings on our claimed list that I'd never even heard of before.
So for those of you who were worried about this community "being taken over by the middle-of-the-road pairings", I don't think that's going to happen any time soon, given the trends in what people claim here. ;)
Also, we considered each category of ships (het/slash/femmeslash) separately when determining rarity. While Hermione/Fleur may have accumulated fewer fics than, say, Harry/Ginny, we feel it would be unfair to put Hermione/Fleur side-by-side with Ginny/Viktor and call them both rare.
Many of you asked, what is a rare pairing? Obviously this is a very complicated issue, and I'm not entirely sure that an exact definition is what we need to keep the community running smoothly. rarepair_shorts is here to challenge you to write outside of your comfort zone and to provide a relaxed environment where you can all read and enjoy fics about pairings you wouldn't normally see or read about. We really want you all just to have fun with the prompts and challenges. :)
I'd like to stop discussion on what pairings are/aren't rare for the time being - I think we're all a little tired of it at the moment. ;) But if you do have an issue with the list as it stands, come back in a week and address that issue here. Please be sure to follow the instructions on that post if you'd like to remove/add a pairing from the list.
Thank you all again for your input. If you have any more thoughts you'd like to share, feel free to do so. Remember to be courteous in your discussions. :)
* * *
Now to the real purpose of this post. Thank you all for your votes and thoughts! 45 people responded, and here are the results:
- Albus/Gellert and Albus/Minerva are considered by a majority of people to be RARE.
- Draco/Pansy, Ginny/Hermione, Ginny/Luna, Ginny/Neville, Harry/Ginny, Harry/Luna, Harry/Ron, James/Lily, Lucius/Narcissa, Neville/Luna, Severus/Lily are considered by a majority of people to be NOT RARE.
peskywhistpaw and I considered all this and discussed the issues brought up between ourselves. We have made the following changes to our non-rare pairing list:
- Albus/Gellert and Albus/Minerva have been REMOVED.
- Hermione/Fleur, Hermione/Pansy, and Severus/Draco have been ADDED.
We realize that there are a lot of pairings in fandom that could be considered either rare or non-rare, and a few of these pairings are on our list. However, it really shouldn't matter whether the middle-of-the-road pairings are on our list or not, since almost everyone at this community claims pairings that are pretty rare anyway. There are loads of pairings on our claimed list that I'd never even heard of before.
So for those of you who were worried about this community "being taken over by the middle-of-the-road pairings", I don't think that's going to happen any time soon, given the trends in what people claim here. ;)
Also, we considered each category of ships (het/slash/femmeslash) separately when determining rarity. While Hermione/Fleur may have accumulated fewer fics than, say, Harry/Ginny, we feel it would be unfair to put Hermione/Fleur side-by-side with Ginny/Viktor and call them both rare.
Many of you asked, what is a rare pairing? Obviously this is a very complicated issue, and I'm not entirely sure that an exact definition is what we need to keep the community running smoothly. rarepair_shorts is here to challenge you to write outside of your comfort zone and to provide a relaxed environment where you can all read and enjoy fics about pairings you wouldn't normally see or read about. We really want you all just to have fun with the prompts and challenges. :)
I'd like to stop discussion on what pairings are/aren't rare for the time being - I think we're all a little tired of it at the moment. ;) But if you do have an issue with the list as it stands, come back in a week and address that issue here. Please be sure to follow the instructions on that post if you'd like to remove/add a pairing from the list.
Thank you all again for your input. If you have any more thoughts you'd like to share, feel free to do so. Remember to be courteous in your discussions. :)