Equestria Daily, Fanfiction, and You: A Survey: A Response

I assume most people who visit this blog also visit Equestria Daily on a regular or semi-regular basis.  That being the case, I'm guessing you've all already seen this post, with its survey about the future of fanfiction on EqD.  If you haven't already taken it, you should definitely find a little free time to go do that; I've already done so, but I thought I'd take a little time to lay out my opinions on a few of the broader questions, as summarized by me, in a more public place.  Below the break, as always.



>Should fanfiction continue to be posted on EqD?

Look, fanfiction is the red-headed stepchild of the fandom; I get it.  There are a lot of reasons for this: it's faster and easier to consume media like pictures, music, and videos than literature; fanfiction as a word carries a great deal of stigma; because the barrier to entry is lower (and because quality is harder for low-information creators and consumers to assess) with fanfiction than many other creative mediums, low-quality stories are both posted and praised at a much higher rate than typically occurs in those other mediums; lots and lots of people just don't read for pleasure; and on and on and on.  I understand, and I think most fanfic authors and readers do as well, that fanfiction is never going to be treated with anything approaching the reverence, or even the broad interest, that other media receive.

But for Pete's sake, no reasonable or intelligent person (traits that can suddenly be in short supply when one stops dealing with individual people and starts working with "the masses," as I'm well aware) could possibly conclude that there's any good reason--that there's any reason at all--why a site dedicated to FiM episodes, news, and fanworks would chose to start ignoring fanfiction entirely.  I don't understand why there's a "no fanfiction" button on the site in the first place, when there's not a "no drawfriends," "no comics," "no games," or "no PMVs" button.  Those buttons would all be asinine and useless--I can't recall the last time I watched a PMV via EqD, but I don't need a special search mode to get rid of them.  It's one to four posts a day, and I can just scroll right past; why, exactly, is it so hard for people to do the same thing with fanfics?

Anyway, I'm getting off-topic.  I'm hoping the question was put up just to mollify the irrationally angry and bibliophobic, and isn't being seriously considered.  But even if that's the case, the fact that it has to be asked at all is incredibly depressing to me.



>What sort of feedback should EqD pre-readers give?

Although the pre-readers' job is supposedly to chose high-quality fanfics to post, they often end up becoming surrogate editors, tasked with pointing out flaws and, if not helping authors fix their works, at least giving them a place to start.  The question being asked seems to be "given that it would probably speed up responses (which are tragically slow at the moment), would it be a good idea to cut the review part and just give an accept/reject response?"

I'm of two minds about this.  From what I've heard from the PRs, it's my understanding that somewhere between many and most of the fanfics they receive (this is just the ones that pass their filter, even) are obviously unsuitable for posting--major editing problems, the first two pages being nothing but the narrator relating his OC's backstory, that sort of thing.  For these, I think a one- or two-sentence rejection is probably sufficient, along with a link or three to some of the many editing and story-help services which exist in this fandom.  For authors whose stories are rejected for less immediately obvious reasons, however, I think the review-rejection is probably necessary.



>How many fanfics should be posted per day, and how should they be posted?

Although I didn't like it at first, I've grown much more understanding of story update group posts with the passage of time.  However, one thing that I've never liked about them is that a story's original post doesn't get bumped when a sequel contained withing that post begins or ends.  I know I've missed sequels to stories in the past because they were "hidden" in an update post, and I doubt I'm the only one.  I'd prefer to see any new story, and any completed story, regardless of sequel status, bump the original post.

Other than that, I don't have a real problem with the amount of fanfiction posted on EqD.  It's something like 1-3 new fanfics a day, I believe, which doesn't seem unreasonable for a site which is expressly only for highlighting selected works.  I wouldn't mind seeing a few more fanfic posts, personally, but I don't think the current level is wildly out of whack with where a reasonable person would conclude it "should" be.

There's also some mention of combining stories into group posts.  While this is a far less stupid idea now than it was a couple of years ago (then, most fanfics were in gdocs, and the comments section was the primary forum for feedback and author interaction; today, the stories are often on FiMfiction, and the EqD link directs such conversation there), I still don't like it.  I can't imagine any way it could be done which wouldn't shaft either all the stories, or all but the first posted, in terms of attention, nor can I imagine any way in which such conversation and feedback as still occurs on EqD wouldn't be dramatically reduced.



So yeah, those are my big thoughts on the matter.  I suppose we'll have to see what comes of it all.