in the case I'm thinking of, I really don't think she was saying "send it to MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" so much as "send it when you like something".
Not making myself very clear, am I? I don't know who you're talking about (obviously) but in other places, from other people, I've heard versions of 'send feedback when you liked something' that sounded remarkably like 'someone must like my stuff and I need more feedback to convince me I'm not wasting my time here'. Which, of course, is true in some ways- we write fanfic to be enjoyed (in the first instance by ourselves, but also by others) and feedback is the only way we have of knowing that's happening.
I actually bridled slightly here, and then considered it and decided there was not point in trying to defend my nation's masturbation habits, whatever they may be.
Well, you know, I didn't mean that actual physical self-love was pointless. Just the sort of intellectual self-love that FW claims to be finding and mocking, and it would be just as pointless, per Fandom Wank, were it called Fandom Jerk-Off or Fandom Monkey Spank.
Not making myself very clear, am I? I don't know who you're talking about (obviously)
That was actually a crosspost while I was trying to answer Fay and chew gum at the same time. You said basically the same thing, but without getting into the kerfluffle specifics. (See the Fandom Wank entry with like, 200 or so comments for details.)
wrod.
Ple, most precious and bootilicious of constellations, what
time
is it round your way?
a crosspost while I was trying to answer Fay and chew gum at the same time
Right. Not me, board and real life type confusions. We're all agreeing really.
Ple, most precious and bootilicious of constellations, what time is it round your way?
3:13.
My rear-ended ass just finished a fairly stiff margarita, and is going to go and watch more sports night now.
And, personally, I consider a rec just as good, if not better, than feedback.
Wrod. A rec is far more than someone saying "I liked your story." A rec is
advertising.
More to the point, it's advertising that doesn't come across as shameless self-promotion.
What's interesting is comparing this feedback kerfuffle to a similar one that's going on right now in the shoujo anime fic world. Essentially, a few BNFs have received feedback that suggested that certain parts of their writing needed improvement. The BNFs took such criticism as flaming, and things got
really
ugly after that. One BNF took all of her stuff down off of two major archives and is screaming at another to take her stories down (after flaming the board's owners
on their own board
)
Meanwhile, it's become next to impossible to get feedback other than the ego-stroking kind. One bit of
good
feedback I received had with it a "please don't hurt me" tone and was larded with many apologies. I made a point of writing an effusive thank-you note.
Is there a link to the fanwank parade of idiocy?
Sticking only to discussion of things here, because I have zero, make that -10, interest in stupid people.
Feedback as a social/literary phenomenon has been a topic for griping ever since I got into fandom (and probably since fandom went online). The [newsgroup] fandom culture I was in, feedback was quite common -- although even then they griped about not getting enough, fast enough! --, and recs were what you did above and beyond feedback. Then, over time and the transition to lists, recs became more popular, until on one list of mine they were the
only
kind of feedback some authors got. (The public component of reccing can be used as a social tool/weapon, after all; the general populace doesn't know when you send private feedback.) There were technological innovations, whereby people "feedbacked/recc'd" by mentioning stories to each other in chat sessions. Now? Boards, on which the author may or may not lurk/participate, but on which we, at least, tend to be honest and willing to discuss in public upsides and downsides of a particular story.
To all of which I say: eh. Feedback is nice. I'm sorry the culture has changed, because I've had to learn new social situations a bunch of times. I prefer not to equate story value with social value, because I suck at one of those things, but I can see that some people do equate them. I ignore the rigmarole and go about my business.
I think the people most fanfic writers are complaining about are those who read something that really touches them, they talk about it all over the place, but they don't drop a line to the writer saying 'I really loved this.'
Which is exactly what I'm guilty of. Bad Lizard.
