A hypothetical question for you all....

[corilannam]

Just because I'm really curious as to what kind of reaction this would get in various parts of greater fandom....

A quick poll --  Let's say....

You belong to a hypothetical LJ fan fiction community of approximately 200 people, which if left to its own devices would get between 1-3 posts a day including stories and chapters of WIPs.  There are several different pairings represented (this may or may not be relevant, depending on your opinion on how fan fiction should be read).

The moderator implements a courtesy "suggestion" which requires that only one story or part of a story can be posted on the community each day.  If one author posts something, everyone else has to wait for the next day in order to give the first author her "moment in the sun" and to keep readers from being overwhelmed by too many stories.  This limit is not enforced except through peer pressure and occasional pointed reminders from the moderator.

My questions, based on your previous individual experiences with fan fiction communities:

1) Have you seen this kind of thing in fiction communities before?

2) Are these people on crack, or is this a reasonable and considerate means of increasing feedback, promoting community, and helping the readers?

I'd make this into a proper LJ poll, but my account ran out while I was off being a hermit last month.  Oops.  But if this goes well, I'll try a proper poll on OTP reading tomorrow.  Whee!

Comments

[gblvr.livejournal.com]

Never heard of doing it that way, and yes, they're on crack....

[widget285.livejournal.com]

1) Never heard of anything quite that stupid before and I've been on lots of fic communities on many fandoms

2) crack, but it's the really cheap kind that's been cut with detergent to give it an April fresh scent.

[chelseafrew.livejournal.com]

You already know what I think, but, for the purposes of collecting data:

1) Never seen anything like that before. It's stupid.

2) They are on the most cracktastic crack ever to crack.

[(Anonymous)]

Craaa-aack.

[taffimai.livejournal.com]

Oops, that was me. I didn't realize I wasn't logged in. :(

[noelql.livejournal.com]

I agree with everyone else. Never heard of this. Sounds like serious crack that should seriously be avoided. Step away from the crazy people.

BTW, hi there! Missed you!

[gloriana.livejournal.com]

Posting a comment without reading the other replies first:

I think I've heard vague rumours of some mailing lists that worked this way, but they were for really small fandoms where a story was, like, big news! (And I might be making that up anyway.) I've certainly never been on a community or list that did this.

And from my pov, anything that discourages posting relevant stuff can only be Bad. I've noticed strong seasonal bents in some lists/comms, depending on whether people are at university/school, over public holidays and such. There's probably a slightly less discernable weekday/weekend rhythm, depending on the age range of the members etc. Interfering with circadian rhythms...always a bad idea :)

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

Yes! Crack! Thank you! The logic of it just completely escapes me!

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

*laugh* Probably mostly crack, since I think this particular mod is mostly well-meaning. She just needs to lay off the pipe for a bit.

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

Yeah, ficathon organization is one thing, and I can understand wanting to do it that way, but I've never seen one that extreme, either. And of course, the very point of a ficathon is to produce a whole lot of fiction in a short amount of time....

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

It definitely makes me cranky.

And that's the best icon ever.

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

Yeah, those are all excellent points. And people in this community love to post multi-part stories in daily increments. Which is nice, but either they dominate the community for days or even weeks, or their flow gets interrupted, which isn't fair to them, either.

It's all just very silly.

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

I agree completely. But I was starting to think I was the crazy one, after getting whapped on the head enough times with the rationales.

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

Yeah. The people who get less feedback are still going to get less feedback. You might get more readers if you're the only game in town for the day, but that's not going to translate into more feedback. The same people will comment who were going to comment anyway.

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

I think they really believe it's the best thing for the community, and they don't understand why anyone would have a problem with it unless they were mean bitches. And mostly, they just don't understand that they're... just wrong!

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

I wish I could, but it's the only game in town for this fandom. It's not badly meant, it's just... well, stupid.

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the timezone issue has definitely been raised, since there are writers from all over the world in this community, and it's already the next day for one person when it's still afternoon for another. It was pretty much just handwaved away in a rather embarrassing display of US-centrism. *sigh*

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

Yes, we are all unique snowflakes who deserve our time in the sun... wait. Doesn't that mean we're going to end up evaporating? Shoot.

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

All excellent, excellent ways to describe it. *nods back*

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the timezone issues are a bitch, and the moderator has never given any guidelines on how we're expected to deal with that. And it can't help but cause way too much paranoia and frustration in the long run. Not to mention authors just hurriedly throwing their stories up, because they're afraid if they take the time to look it over one more time, they're going to miss their posting window.

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

*rolls eyes along with you*

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

Yeah, seriously. They're just lucky there aren't any other communities, or they'd have lost half their writing populace by now.

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't that be nice? A logic test or something, at the very least, to make sure they understand the basic concepts of cause and effect.

And the problem is, there's a vocal group of members who love this rule, because they want to make sure they get the maximum amount of attention and they think this will solve their lack of feedback problems. They are, of course, also stupid.

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

*dies*

Oh, you rock. I needed that.

And at least they'd have an excuse then! (though I wouldn't)

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I figured you'd see through the "hypothetical" smokescreen. *g*

And yes! That's exactly what's bothering me. We're being treated like small children who all need to be praised equally and kept in line. Thank you, but I graduated from pre-school quite a few years ago.

And yeah, it cracks me up when some of them complain that as a reader, they find two stories being posted in a day to be just too overwhelming to cope with. How on earth they manage to clothe and feed themselves every day, I do not know.