in which I get bitchy about The State Of Fandom

[alianne]

Bitching about the suckiness of real life events is exhausting, so let me get angry about fandom stuff for a moment, okay? I'll be back to good-moody blogging in a little while, I promise, so bear with me, please

Comments

[_makeachange]

Pretty much this exactly. It's always made up of the fic that everyone's already read and fanart that everyone's already seen or stuff from FFN that is really, really, really bad.

[alianne]

Yes. The way I see it, recommendations are meant to help people discover new things. When I ask someone if they know a good restaurant, I don't want to hear "go to that super popular place at which I've seen you eating before," I want to hear about that cute little place I didn't know even existed. Otherwise, what's the point of it all? That doesn't mean the place I'm eating at all the time isn't truly fantastic and doesn't deserve all the praise. In that moment, it's just not what I've been asking for.

Um, so, yes, basically agreeing with you. And thanks for getting it. :)

[_makeachange]

Pretty much exactly this. In fact, this is the perfect comparison because I am actually living in another city for the next six weeks for work and I've often asked my coworkers here where a good place to go to eat is. Their responses are always, "I don't know...IHOP is pretty good. And the Olive Garden. Red Lobster. McDonald's. Sonic." You get the picture. And my answer is always, "But we have those where I'm from. I know that I like them, so if I want to eat there, then I'll go, but I want to find somewhere new that I'll enjoy. A new favorite."

[_makeachange]

Maybe if someone makes another weekly rec post (maybe on Tumblr? or just a message board or something?) and there are requirements for the recs...like it can't have been rec'd in more than 5-10 other places things like that? To make sure that it's something that everyone doesn't already know about?

[kayoko]

The rec post is for people like me in the fringes of fandom. I read based on the rec post since I avoid tumblr and not part of k_b community. Every fandom is a popularity content to some extent. The quality of the story is irrelevant to the number of comments/reviews/reblogs/notes and usually has to do with which BNF has "endorsed" the fic.

Please do post the list of fics you enjoyed! I'm always looking for more things to read, especially from people who aren't as well known.

Like I said, fanfic writing is a popularity contest. Write fluffy romantic fics with a heavy dose of porn, write lots of it and people will read it. That stuff generally gets picked up well. Just keep in mind that the majority of the Glee fandom is very young and they probably can't appreciate too deep.

I wrote a short fic a while ago that got rec'd on the rec post. It didn't do anything for me. I didn't get more comments which doesn't tell me if more people read it. Nothing changed. It's really not all that it seems.

[alianne]

Yes, I know. And I get that it's a good place for people on the fringes to learn about the stuff that's been posted all week, it's just that 1) the stuff being recommended there is a fraction of the amazing things posted that week and 2) it feels more like a "let's come together and collect all the love we've been giving out all week anyway in one bog post" kind of thing. It's the randomness of what's considered "recommendable" and what isn't that makes me sad. And it's not that the things on there don't deserve the recs, it's just that they're there EVERY WEEK and others are left out. But seriously, the rec post changes very little from week to week

[alianne]

Sure, you can post this on tumblr and there's no need to make it anon. Link people to this post or whatever. I honestly believe this to be true and I don't care who knows it.

I'm glad you agree with me. I've seen people get discouraged and doubt themselves and I just hate it, because most of them are excellent writers.

[fictocriticism]

Yes, this!

I go through phases where I read absolutely everything ever in the Glee world and then nothing for a couple of weeks at a time... coming back after being away in another fandom is often really difficult because the same fics get recced/reblgoged and I can't find the ones that I'm sure I've missed that are a little under the radar but undoubtedly awesome. Sigh. It's weird watching the way tumblr seems to be taking over from LJ as well - means 'likes' and 'notes' rather than comments, which is a bit of a shame. Hard to get constructive feedback that way.

And just quietly, sending some more amazing, heartfelt WATO love your way because omg that story. Just. YES.

[alianne]

Yes, exactly. And I just never understand the number of comments/reblogs on fics. So many great things go unnoticed while other stuff gets recommended again and again... Sometimes when I see like the fiftieth reblog of some fic cross my dash on tumblr it's just like "okay, I get it, you liked this, GET A LIFE ALREADY or at least rec something else for a change." Okay, all of that sounds a little harsh. It just seems so completely random to me what gets to be popular and what doesn't. But I guess kayoko was right in her comment above with saying that fandom is basically a popularity contest. It just makes me sad that it is, especially in a fandom that should be so very well aware of WHY that kind of behaviour sucks.

And thanks, honey! I already kind of regretted the fact that I mentioned WATO in my post at all, but I still really appreciate the love. <3

[alianne]

Aw, no, I didn't want to make you (or anyone else) feel bad about that. I know it doesn't really matter whether a story gets recced there or not, it doesn't change anything about the number of reviews it gets and I have to admit that I've stayed away from the post too for a while and haven't really recommended any of the stories that would have deserved it