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

[minnaleigh.livejournal.com]

1) I don't hang out in fiction communities so I can't answer that.

2) I vote CRACK! That seems totally insane to me.

[slb44.livejournal.com]

1) Never heard of anything like this in any of the fic communities I hang out in and there are quite a few.

2) I'd say crack or megalomania. Power can be a terrible thing in the wrong hands, as we all know. ;-)

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

1. I have never heard of that at all. Even comms devoted to ficathons where the fic is posted in batches have more than one story posted per day, though there are sometimes hours between postings (see merry_smutmas).

2. They are on crack.

[prillalar]

1. I have never seen this sort of thing before.

2. Crack. And poor judgement. This will only make people resentful and cranky. It seems *way* too controlling for a comm that small and quiet.

[thalia]

(1) No.

(2) On crack. (a) Practically speaking, it's just ridiculous--it gives priority to whoever happens to be online whenever the moderator decides the "day" starts. (b) If someone decides to post a story one chapter a day, if their timing is good, it means that everyone else in the community has to wait until that story is finished before they can post at all, which is completely unfair to the other authors.

Now, I can see the point of limiting each writer to one story post per day, but the whole community? Insane.

[sidewinder.livejournal.com]

1. No.

2. No just on crack, but that's just plain batshit and utterly impractical.

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

1) New to me, too.
2) Of course they can run their comm however they want...but yeah. Crack. The idea that less stories a day means more feedback for each author is completely wrongheaded.

[lapislaz.livejournal.com]

1) Never seen it - but if I did, I would'nt be seeing it for long.

2) Not only are they on crack, but it's the bad stuff - power has gone to they tiny haids.

[maygra.livejournal.com]

1) never heard of it.

2) crack. Although that may be giving them too much of an excuse.

I think I'd be backing away from that comm quickly.

[aeshna_uk]

1) Never heard of that approach before!

2) Crack. Definitely. Have these people never heard of timezones?

[movies-michelle.livejournal.com]

Cracky, definitely cracky. I've not seen something like that before, either. I don't understand how this would generate any sense of community OR fiction. I mean, if the point is to give the author a place in the sun--isn't that what the author's own lj is for?

Oh, wait, right. We're all special.

[lanchid.livejournal.com]

1) Never heard of it.

2) Horse-hockey. Utter crap. Crack-tastic. Stupid to boot. ::nods firmly::

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

That...seems cracktastic to me. 1-3 posts a day is not excessive and won't drown out anyone's posts, is the first thing, and second thing, it's likely to mean lots of unpleasant collisions ("I was going to post the last chapter of my story, but someone else just posted! This has happened three days in a row! I'm never going to be able to finish this damn thing!"). And I won't even go into the time-zone issues.

[kimberlite.livejournal.com]

What everyone else said. *rolls eyes*

[reginagiraffe]

1) Nope.
2) Crack. And a really good way to drive people away.

[semielliptical]

1) No. 2) Crack.

Sometimes I wish mods had to pass some kind of "reasonable person" test before starting or taking over a community. Or at least understand that asking for input from members before imposing crazy new rules would be best for the community in the long run.

[sithdragn.livejournal.com]

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.

Please tell me this is a My Little Pony fan fiction community. Just please don't tell me why you're there.

Crack. The good shit.

[improperlydone.livejournal.com]

I know of which community you speak of and I think it's so childish.

I belong to a NUMBER of fiction communities and believe me, there's nothing abuot 'giving the author their time to shine' bullshit. This is not kindergarten. This is adults (hopefully) participating and sharing fiction online.

So what if I post and then you post. Are you saying that the reader is either 1) too stupid or 2) too overwhelmed where they have to make the monumental decision of which story am I going to read?

Please... I think it's stupid as all hell and very ridiculous. And I, as a reader and writer, do not appreciate to be treated with such stupid kid gloves.

[meyerlemon.livejournal.com]

1) No.
2) That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

[batagur.livejournal.com]

1. That kinda thing is new to me.

2. The crack pipe is wearing thin over there. People read what they want to read. It's silly to put a limitation on postings like that. That will only cause resentment.

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

1) Never seen any such thing.

2) It sounds well-intentioned, but ultimately destructive, so I vote for "on crack."

-J

[margueritem.livejournal.com]

1) I've never seen such a thing.

2) Soooo much crack, they'll probably need rehab soon. ;)

3 stories per day isn't that much. And if the community is multi-pairing, it means (possibly) having the reader wait for days until their preferred showing shows up. And if you're a writer, who wants to wait days before you can post your story?

I'm an avid fanfic reader. I don't like to wait for my stories. And such a "suggestion" wouldn't change the fact that of 100 readers, maybe 10 will comment: so their moment in the sun thing might not work.

*adds her 0.02$CAN*

[ndannais.livejournal.com]

Crack. Lots and lots of crack. That makes no sense. I'm not even going to say the logic is faulty, because that would mean there was logic there. And there isn't.

I want some delusional crack like that.

[jdgreybraid.livejournal.com]

Chiming in late, but with a hearty:

Mahhhnnn...

JD Greybraid

[mzcalypso.livejournal.com]

I watched the best fanfic list I'd ever been on strangle itself with nicey-nice regulations, and got thrown off as a moderator for suggesting they might be making a mistake... scuse me, telling someone HOW to ask for feedback? Instructing the ignorant on how feedback must be phrased? So I took my ideas elsewhere... last time I looked, my own list had more posts in one month than the other list had in the previous year.

You can't order people to give feedback, either. If you tell everybody to SHUT UP UNLESS YOU WANT TO SAY SOMETHING NICE ABOUT SUZY Q's STORY, what you will get... is people shutting up. When a story doesn't deserve praise and a reader is too kind to express an unwanted criticism (it seems even concrit is now called "flaming," in many circles) you get a great staring silence, which is a kind of feedback in itself.

CREATIVITY CAN'T BE REGIMENTED. WTF is wrong with more than one post? When ideas spark, you get the hell out of the way.

I don't know what community you're talking about, and I'm glad.