even with the risk of sounding elitist, I have to get this off my chest

[pez]

My god. I wonder what's wrong with people these days. It seems like as long as a fic has a high word count it automatically means it's awesome. I just read a long piece of crap that could've been written by five different people and then meshed together into one fic and apparently it's supposed to be amazing. Or so the comments say.

And I do mean it when I say it's crap. You know I don't publically bash fics often, because I think it's usually a matter of taste. But this one, it's got characterisation inconsistencies, more than a handful of typos, skippy passages (which aren't stylish or clever), unexplained character traits that are really important... the whole lot.

But take santa_smex for example. I haven't read a lot of it yet, but almost every fic that's too long for LJ and therefore has to get a webpage? Gets lots of comments. Not saying that long = crap (I love a good, long story), but do people feel obliged to say nice things even when it's crap because it's long and therefore the author must have made huge effort? Or does longness drown minds out and make them not see that something sucks? I can verbal diahoerra, too, you know. Would fandom bow at my feet for it?

The sad thing is, a lot of those who commented positively are people who leave feedback to me, too. Some are even from my own flist. So probably the standards of my own writing are just about the same. Well, shit.

Shit, I'm supposed to be asleep since an hour ago. Maybe that's why I'm bitching. Haven't been having a very good night (thanks, Hana, for talking to me). Now I have 4 hours to sleep before work.

Comments

[alice-and-lain.livejournal.com]

To each their own, really. Everybody's tastes is different.

Except, in this post, you're complaining about tastes.

You know, I'm pretty sure I know which stories you're talking about. I was thinking last night about what you've written here and there's another another angle that possibly hasn't been mentioned.

I think order of the stories for an exchange matters a great deal. Upon reflection, there are a couple of stories I probably wouldn't have commented to if they had been posted much further along in the proceedings. It's a matter of comparison, really, and how my expectations changed during the month.

I also think participation makes a difference. For an exchange, I'm more open to writing with mistakes/off-characterization. I'm more open to commenting. But if I'm just a watcher, I tend to not comment at all unless the story is really, really fabulous. Maybe I shouldn't be more open when participating.

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

Except, in this post, you're complaining about tastes.

Not as much as I'm wondering why people reply a lot to fics that aren't good, saying that it's wonderful. I wondered if they truly like the stories or if they replied because the stories were long. ie, if they were being sincere in their comments. If they say the same thing to fics that are of different calibre, then perhaps they aren't being sincere. Or that the fics are actually about the same in standards?

Order definitely matters. My impression is that the ones posted earlier almost always get more comments? That said, if a really good one comes along even towards the end when not many are reading enthusiastically anymore, it'd still get all the praise it deserves. It's the fairly-good and quite-promising ones that suffer the most when it comes to posting order. :(