On the topic of beta-readers.
People aren't required have to have them.
Yes, they can serve as proofreaders, story idea boards, and all sorts of useful things. Yes, they can help polish up a story by providing editorial input. Yes, the one-author-one-beta OTP is a well-established format in lots of writing-based fandoms. But they aren't required. Not in your fandom or in any other. They are required in professional publishing because a lot of time and money goes into producing a print of books and they want to be sure that there are no mistakes in it. That's why professional editing, like professional authoring, is a paid job, and amateur betaing, like fanfic writing, is not.
I'm glad that you have a beta reader that you've had good experience with. If you had a long epic struggle full of drama to find that one perfect person who could be honest and thoughtful and helpful all the time, I'm sorry about that. But other people are not required to go through the same process.
People don't need to provide an excuse or a reason for not having a beta. If they don't have a person they trust to be honest, or are friends with and are in their fandom, or are on good enough terms with to ask for the time commitment of checking all their fics and providing detailed info, or if they just plain don't know anybody with a set of good beta skills, then they don't have to have a beta. And in fact, even if they do know a person who has all these skills, if for whatever reason they don't feel like having them comb over their work before they publish it, then they don't have to.
They are not obliged to go combing over the internet, interviewing strangers like they're putting out a listing for an open job position. If they want to write a fic, give it a cursory spell-check, and slap it out onto the internet without a second look and never go back, then they can do that.
If they don't want to use a beta, they don't have to. And if you decide that you just can't read their fics unless they get a beta because their awkward phrasing is just too awful, then that's too damn bad. For you.
Yes, they can serve as proofreaders, story idea boards, and all sorts of useful things. Yes, they can help polish up a story by providing editorial input. Yes, the one-author-one-beta OTP is a well-established format in lots of writing-based fandoms. But they aren't required. Not in your fandom or in any other. They are required in professional publishing because a lot of time and money goes into producing a print of books and they want to be sure that there are no mistakes in it. That's why professional editing, like professional authoring, is a paid job, and amateur betaing, like fanfic writing, is not.
I'm glad that you have a beta reader that you've had good experience with. If you had a long epic struggle full of drama to find that one perfect person who could be honest and thoughtful and helpful all the time, I'm sorry about that. But other people are not required to go through the same process.
People don't need to provide an excuse or a reason for not having a beta. If they don't have a person they trust to be honest, or are friends with and are in their fandom, or are on good enough terms with to ask for the time commitment of checking all their fics and providing detailed info, or if they just plain don't know anybody with a set of good beta skills, then they don't have to have a beta. And in fact, even if they do know a person who has all these skills, if for whatever reason they don't feel like having them comb over their work before they publish it, then they don't have to.
They are not obliged to go combing over the internet, interviewing strangers like they're putting out a listing for an open job position. If they want to write a fic, give it a cursory spell-check, and slap it out onto the internet without a second look and never go back, then they can do that.
If they don't want to use a beta, they don't have to. And if you decide that you just can't read their fics unless they get a beta because their awkward phrasing is just too awful, then that's too damn bad. For you.