Rant o' the week
Why F-locking your fic entries is stupid (And why I'll never do it)
Lately, there's been a lot of wank regarding a certain community stealing translation work off other comms. Because of this, a certain other community in which I'm fairly active has started requesting that fanworks of all types be f-locked to that community.
I'm not going to be doing so.
I'll be honest; I write fic mostly for myself and the enjoyment of my friends. But I also write it so that people who are fans of the same series/pairing/etc can read it, because I'm a total sucker for feedback and I make a lot of friends that way. Flocking my work goes totally opposite of that. When I post fic to a community, I don't post fic directly; instead, I link to whatever one of my fic comms is appropriate (starsdgmfic , starstwewyfic , or the KH one I SWEAR I will make eventually). Those will not be flocked, because people (myself included) think joining a person's personal comm to read their fic is kind of a pain in the ass. Additionally, I link off-LJ friends to those entries, and it would be kind of hard for them to read if they were flocked, ne? If I posted it to a public community, it would be the same way. I would want to be able to link other people to my work without them having to join the community, and thus, I would flock nothing.
In addition, I think it's a stupid strategy as a community. You don't get people to join a comm because it's all flocked - personally, that just pisses me off when I DO notice. Usually, however, flocked comms just look blank - and thus, inactive. If you're trying to entice people to join the comm (which the one I've speaking of here is; it's a small community for one specific pairing that is not particularly well received by the fandom), then the image you want to present is one of an active community that people can participate in.
LJ is the only creative medium, in fact, that does have a flocking feature - DeviantArt and Fanfiction.net/Fictionpress (.org? I forget) do not. Why? Because they're creativity sharing sites. If you don't want anyone to read your work ever, then by all means lock it away. But if you're here for sharing, if you're here for feedback or even just to make someone smile for a little while, then don't hide your work away. If you're gonna be sharing, share. If someone wants to steal your work that badly, a little flock feature isn't going to stop them anyway.
So I won't be flocking anything, except a few bits of personal business on this journal that I'd already been flocking anyway. Deal.
PS I am thankful for my ability to write argumentative essays. :D
Lately, there's been a lot of wank regarding a certain community stealing translation work off other comms. Because of this, a certain other community in which I'm fairly active has started requesting that fanworks of all types be f-locked to that community.
I'm not going to be doing so.
I'll be honest; I write fic mostly for myself and the enjoyment of my friends. But I also write it so that people who are fans of the same series/pairing/etc can read it, because I'm a total sucker for feedback and I make a lot of friends that way. Flocking my work goes totally opposite of that. When I post fic to a community, I don't post fic directly; instead, I link to whatever one of my fic comms is appropriate (starsdgmfic , starstwewyfic , or the KH one I SWEAR I will make eventually). Those will not be flocked, because people (myself included) think joining a person's personal comm to read their fic is kind of a pain in the ass. Additionally, I link off-LJ friends to those entries, and it would be kind of hard for them to read if they were flocked, ne? If I posted it to a public community, it would be the same way. I would want to be able to link other people to my work without them having to join the community, and thus, I would flock nothing.
In addition, I think it's a stupid strategy as a community. You don't get people to join a comm because it's all flocked - personally, that just pisses me off when I DO notice. Usually, however, flocked comms just look blank - and thus, inactive. If you're trying to entice people to join the comm (which the one I've speaking of here is; it's a small community for one specific pairing that is not particularly well received by the fandom), then the image you want to present is one of an active community that people can participate in.
LJ is the only creative medium, in fact, that does have a flocking feature - DeviantArt and Fanfiction.net/Fictionpress (.org? I forget) do not. Why? Because they're creativity sharing sites. If you don't want anyone to read your work ever, then by all means lock it away. But if you're here for sharing, if you're here for feedback or even just to make someone smile for a little while, then don't hide your work away. If you're gonna be sharing, share. If someone wants to steal your work that badly, a little flock feature isn't going to stop them anyway.
So I won't be flocking anything, except a few bits of personal business on this journal that I'd already been flocking anyway. Deal.
PS I am thankful for my ability to write argumentative essays. :D