You've probably noticed by now that this isn't a story review. August is a busy month for me, and I spent the weekend on a mini-vacation, so I'm playing catchup on several fronts. Point is, I haven't written a new review yet. I'll plan to have it out Friday, for any of you sitting on pins and needles.
In the interim, I figured this might be a good time to ask you, the regular and semi-regular patrons of my little corner of the internet, a couple of questions:
1) Is there anything about the site you'd like me to change/do differently that would make it more accessible or useful? Bear in mind that I have little free time and less computer savvy.
2) Is there anything substantive you'd want me to change about my regular content? Stuff you want to see more or less of, things you want me to focus more or less on, etc.
You all are pretty good about leaving feedback on my reviews when I screw up (which I greatly appreciate, by the way), whether it's spelling errors or more egregious stuff, but I thought it couldn't hurt to ask if there's anything else that would make the posts more useful and/or entertaining.
No promises I'll be willing or able to make any given proposed change, of course. I do this for fun, and while I don't consider that an excuse for poor quality, it means there are some significant practical limits to the amount of time I can actually spend on creating new material for the site; writing three reviews or columns a week is pretty much my upper limit (and as cases like today attest, it's sometimes more than I can manage). But if there's something you can think of that I could be doing better, consider this my request for your opinion.
You're already doing a fantastic job, Chris. Keep doing what you're doing and I will be more than happy. The site is clear and accessible, and the reviews/posts top notch. What more can an internet consumer want?
ReplyDeleteActually... on second thought, I want a pony, Chris. Free ponies for everyone! :D
I want everything done up in four-hour long film, a brand new one every day, with Disney-quality animation and special effects to make James Cameron jealous, and I want a real unicorn to come out of the computer screen and give me a hug.
ReplyDeleteIf you can't do this then you have failed us all.
But nah, if I had to, 4srs, suggest something, hm...
Maybe there could be a post, once in a great while, with a small list of fanfics you found good, but might not have been rated six stars or were even put on EqD. (I am not picky. They don't even have to be pony fanfics.) Possibly with a brief description of what they're about, what genre, and why you found them good.
I'm probably being selfish, but with the star system the way it is and stuff, then that sort of thing could be really helpful for finding good fic!
You mean the Stories You Haven't Read series? Chris should definitely post more of those. Maybe once a month
DeleteBasically. They don't even have to be extremely obscure, so long as they're not super prominent either. Maybe they could even be underrated.
DeleteSo long's a reason's given about why they a decent read, it would be a worthwhile list.
That's definitely something I can try to do on a more regular basis: a few stories I've recently read and enjoyed. The only problem is FINDING those stories, of course (or at least, ones that aren't so exposed that pointing them out would be superfluous), but I'll keep it in mind.
DeleteI was just about to post a suggestion, but it's already been implemented https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzRKTfsDT84
ReplyDelete(I refuse to believe I simply didn't notice it before)
Ummm... If you're giving out free ponies, I'll take a small Pinkie Pie and a Cola Pony
I'll second Sessalisk's suggestion. I know for a fact that there are many fics out there that are rated lower (or not rated at all) that are much better than many 6-star stories. More posts in the "Stories you haven't read" category would be nice.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed "Trawling FIMFic: Seeking Out Diamonds in the Rough". Maybe you could do this once in a while?
ReplyDeleteam secretly hoping for the off-chance that Chris will comment on one of my fics
It's certainly something I'm open to, if only because trawling FIMFic is something I do anyway. The one thing I'd worry about is that, besides providing some context for comparing good stories to "average fanfiction," there's (usually) not of intellectual satisfaction to be had from looking at a random recent sampling of stories. I may do it again, but I don't think I'll be making it a regular feature.
DeleteI'm very conscious of how hard it can be to find good fanfic, though, and trawling the massive body of pony fiction for something that maybe, possibly, might not suck, is far too much work for ''anyone'' to do on a regular basis. I can look through AO3 for decent fanfiction all day, for instance, and maybe find a couple of fairly good stories, or at least ones that aren't utterly trite. And on top of that, stuff like stitching up the circuitboards and 水火 are things you find very, very rarely. If the ratings you've given the current six-stars are any indication, even the less-sucky stuff probably won't compare either. Even if you limit yourself to stuff that's been posted on EqD or in the feature box on fimfiction, there's bound to be stuff that stands out over the rest and hasn't been rated higher for some reason.
ReplyDeleteOh darnit. I shouldn't have been tabbing between here and tvtropes as I was typing that up. I tried to use the double apostrophe italics formatting instead of html. lol.
DeleteThis will sound weird, but... would it be possible to get a list of future reviews?
ReplyDeleteYes, this is me being selfish.
Here, this can work for starters.
DeleteChris, if you want, I can set this up so you can also edit it.
@Cold: Next Wednesday, if there aren't any hiccups or commentary posts.
Delete@Bugs: At the very least, you might want to set it up so I can see it. Assuming it's a list of future reviews, it might be worth putting a link to it somewhere on the blog.
Wait, no, Friday. I forgot about the story that just posted.
DeleteIt would be great if you could occasionally spotlight other fiction that have similar elements to an mlp story you are reviewing. As a way to compare their execution/ give shout outs to books worth reading. I don't know about the majority of your blogs followers, but I am not terribly well read, and it couldn't hurt to broaden my literary knowledge beyond the scope of colorful magic ponies. Heck, I reread LoTR thanks to your review of Dangerous Business.
ReplyDeleteI always feel unaccountably good when people say they read something because of me. Thanks for the comment, that's something I'll keep in mind.
DeleteAnd on a somewhat related note, I like the comments and conversation that spring up when I post what I'm currently reading. I think I might start doing that on a semi-regular (once every month or two, maybe) basis. More non-pony fiction from a ponyfic blog? Eh, why not?
I can't think of any changes I'd make, so all I'll say is don't hold back on the discussion topics. That last post spawned a lot of great talk, and I absolutely love having an outlet for deep analysis of marshmallow ponies.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Even when I don't have anything to contribute to a discussion, I love reading everyone else has to say. Y'all are a bright bunch
DeleteWell, outside of being a greedy ******* and asking you to move the review of my fic up from next year, I can't think of anything. Really, you're awesome, you're doing an awesome job, and I know you're already busy enough just doing three updates a week. So just keep being awesome, and we'll all be fine.
ReplyDeleteI quite like the column the way it is. Even though I'm one of the grammar sticklers at Ponychan, I've never felt a need to correct you. On the one hand, there are plenty of people to do that, and on the other, I 've never seen one that I thought was anything more than a typo/careless oversight.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I'd love to see, but still don't think it'd be a good idea, is similar to a few proposed above. Find some fics that are underappreciated. Of course, you already try that with your FiMFic front page searches occasionally, but that's entirely the luck of the draw for what happens to be up at the time. The best solution: take requests. The big problem: you'll get flooded with them. If I can think of a happy medium, I'll chime in. Don't wait up.
Oh, I'll be waiting. I've been trying to come up with something more controlled and prone to finding hidden gems than a general "Hey, what are some good fanfics?" for a while now, without much success. If you do come up with any ideas, I'm all ears.
DeleteYou may actually need your own pre-readers to pull something like this off, Chris. And no, I'm not volunteering (hell, I don't think I've allowed myself to read more than a dozen FiM fics since Jan of 2011), but if you do have a circle of confidants with trusted opinions and tastes to help track down leads, it might be worth a little reckless experimentation.
DeleteSemi-regular here. I do want to say I loved that one article on just skimming the front page of Fimfiction and I'd love to see that become a sort of regular thing.
ReplyDeleteThere are some interesting thoughts flowing around here, but I can't really think of anything in particular that I want more from you.
ReplyDeleteAfter all, you did sell your soul to me last week for a klondike bar.