[meta] reccing, reviewing, & the difference between the two
it's almost four in the morning, and i am feeling thinky. so. repost time! antihysteric asked:
serious business question of the day: how does it make you feel if someone recs something w/caveat(s)? do you say, "oh, man, [name redacted], thank you SO MUCH for telling me that Jim kicks a puppy/Spock cries/McCoy is a preachy teetotaler in X, because I can't read that even if the rest of it is really good!" or do you say, "wow, [name redacted], YOU'RE A BITCH. either rec it or don't; none of this wishy-washy namby-pamby nonsense!" inquiring minds want to know.
and i said, hmmm. that is an interesting question! i think what the inclusion of caveats really does is preserve the reccer's reputation: basically, you're saying "i did notice the problems with this, you guys, i swear! you can still trust me." and that's not worthless.
on the other hand, i think i agree that if you include them, you're reviewing a fic rather than reccing it. a rec, i feel, is inherently an insta-click; while someone reading your review may still ultimately click through to read the fic, it's not automatic in the same way.
so i guess you have to ask yourself (a) whether you want to squee or analyze, (b) whether you're ready to 100% endorse the fic in question, and (c) whether you feel it's acceptable to publicly utter anything but praise. my position on (c), at least, is yes, but then again i'm not a BNF: my opinions aren't likely to make their way to an author, or lose a fic many readers. and i would qualify that "yes" just a little bit, by saying that i think when you're talking fanfic rather than profic, if you're reviewing-as-opposed-to-reccing,¹ you ought to leave the author a comment, or message her, or something. i mean, if you have the time for analysis, surely you have another thirty seconds to copy/paste or link it somewhere?
and now, back to your regularly scheduled faffing about. :D
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¹ in a proper post of your own, at least: i'm leaving descriptions on delicious aside for now, because i haven't really reached a conclusion there. if any of you guys have, though, i'd love to engage you in conversation!
serious business question of the day: how does it make you feel if someone recs something w/caveat(s)? do you say, "oh, man, [name redacted], thank you SO MUCH for telling me that Jim kicks a puppy/Spock cries/McCoy is a preachy teetotaler in X, because I can't read that even if the rest of it is really good!" or do you say, "wow, [name redacted], YOU'RE A BITCH. either rec it or don't; none of this wishy-washy namby-pamby nonsense!" inquiring minds want to know.
and i said, hmmm. that is an interesting question! i think what the inclusion of caveats really does is preserve the reccer's reputation: basically, you're saying "i did notice the problems with this, you guys, i swear! you can still trust me." and that's not worthless.
on the other hand, i think i agree that if you include them, you're reviewing a fic rather than reccing it. a rec, i feel, is inherently an insta-click; while someone reading your review may still ultimately click through to read the fic, it's not automatic in the same way.
so i guess you have to ask yourself (a) whether you want to squee or analyze, (b) whether you're ready to 100% endorse the fic in question, and (c) whether you feel it's acceptable to publicly utter anything but praise. my position on (c), at least, is yes, but then again i'm not a BNF: my opinions aren't likely to make their way to an author, or lose a fic many readers. and i would qualify that "yes" just a little bit, by saying that i think when you're talking fanfic rather than profic, if you're reviewing-as-opposed-to-reccing,¹ you ought to leave the author a comment, or message her, or something. i mean, if you have the time for analysis, surely you have another thirty seconds to copy/paste or link it somewhere?
and now, back to your regularly scheduled faffing about. :D
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¹ in a proper post of your own, at least: i'm leaving descriptions on delicious aside for now, because i haven't really reached a conclusion there. if any of you guys have, though, i'd love to engage you in conversation!