dbskyler: (time lord)
dbskyler ([personal profile] dbskyler) wrote2012-06-11 08:02 pm
Entry tags:

an experiment, or a sad trolling for reviews

I've had an AO3 account since Yuletide 2009, but I've never posted any of my non-Yuletide fic there. In particular, I've never put any of my Doctor Who fic there. I've always felt that the best place for Doctor Who fic is the Teaspoon, and the second-best place for my Doctor Who fic is my journal and sometimes certain LJ communities.

But, I realize that there might be a slightly different audience at AO3, so I've nevertheless toyed with the idea of putting my Doctor Who fic there. It's also occurred to me that some people who only know me from my Yuletide fic might be curious to see what else I have written. Unless they're big Doctor Who fans, they are unlikely to go looking for my fic at the Teaspoon. Actually, even if they are big Doctor Who fans, they are unlikely to go looking for my fic at the Teaspoon unless they happen to already know that I write in that fandom, which they would not know from looking at my AO3 account. When you put it like that, it makes sense to post all my fic in the same place at AO3. In fact, I believe that is one of the main points of having a multi-fandom archive.

But why am I feeling motivated to finally cross-post a fic or two now? Well, the sad fact is that I haven't written anything new in a really long time, and I am kind of missing reviews. I had been thinking that it would be nice to get another review. And then I thought, maybe putting an already-written story onto AO3 would be a good way to get a review.

So, I confess that I have gone and put "Spotter's Guide to the Doctor" up on AO3. This will be an interesting experiment to see if it's worthwhile to put all my Doctor Who fic up there.

And, perhaps I will get a review.
lolmac: (Shakespeare)

[personal profile] lolmac 2012-06-12 04:42 am (UTC)(link)
Ao3 is apparently getting flooded because someone at ff.net woke up and started actually enforcing a few guidelines. So lag times have mushroomed from the sudden demand.

However, the folks at Fanfic Flamingo have been accepting and redistributing donated Ao3 invite codes for quite a while. From what I can see, if you contact them with the necessary info, they can get you one pretty much right away.
Edited 2012-06-12 04:43 (UTC)

[identity profile] dbskyler.livejournal.com 2012-06-12 05:12 am (UTC)(link)
You mean ff.net has guidelines?

I know that comes across as sarcasm, but I'm being serious. What guidelines? In particular, what guidelines are being enforced there now that are not in place at AO3? I'm really curious.

I'm never going to post at ff.net, though. I can't even read fic over there. I don't know if it's an association with bad!fic or what, but every time I cruise over for a peek, I get the hell out again as quickly as I can.
lolmac: (request permission)

[personal profile] lolmac 2012-06-12 05:42 am (UTC)(link)
*snortle*

The Pit has guidelines, and every single time you post a fic there, you are forced to sign off on them, no matter how many times you have already done so. Even though (last time I looked) they haven't been updated since 2008.

Things That Are Forbidden include: smut; anything that isn't a fic; RPF; works that don't fit the category where they're posted; items on the List of Banned Authors (authors who, prior to 2008, publicly stated that they will not countenance fanfic).

I don't spend a lot of time there -- although I do post there, because, like it or not, it's where the bulk of the readership is. But even I have been able to notice that every one of their guidelines is constantly violated, especially the one about smut. Personally, I decided early on that the very very small and feeble amount of smut I wrote myself was not going there, because it would be stupid -- what if they actually enforced their guidelines someday?

Well, the day has arrived: apparently the smut is being deleted. I only know this second and thirdhand, but there seems to be a lot of deletion happening; there is certainly a lot of lamentation.

By not posting there, you're probably missing some readership, but you're also missing a lot of aggravation. The author side of the user interface is -- let's call it "user-hostile".

[identity profile] dbskyler.livejournal.com 2012-06-12 06:56 am (UTC)(link)
No smut allowed?! Ah, that would definitely drive people elsewhere.

I suppose I am missing some readership by staying away, but I'm willing to live with that. I already can't stand the reader side of the user interface, so if the author side is even worse, I doubt I'd survive it.
thisbluespirit: (badly wrong (matt Harvey))

[personal profile] thisbluespirit 2012-06-12 08:29 am (UTC)(link)
let's call it "user-hostile".

LOL, yes. I'll say. After finally getting on it, and managing to navigate the unhelpful interface, and posting three stories, when I came back, it had eaten my scene breaks. My scene breaks were important. I gave it up for good after that - and someone - oh, [livejournal.com profile] dbskyler got me an invite onto AO3, and I rejoiced, for I never needed to return to ff.net again.

I occasionally read fic on there, but rarely even attempt leaving reviews, let alone anything else. And I only dive into the pit in desperation. Even though there are some marvellous stories and authors on there, of course.

I think us DW fanfic writers are probably a little bit spoiled by Teaspoon, though, really.
lolmac: (Dead Bug)

[personal profile] lolmac 2012-06-12 12:21 pm (UTC)(link)
God, don't get me started on the scene breaks. Yes indeedy. Somewhere in the depths of The Pit is a monster they keep around just to eat scene breaks.

The POS interface parses them out. Just in my brief time there, they've tweaked it two or three times so that it parses out the workarounds as well (ASCII characters, dashes, etc.)

[identity profile] dbskyler.livejournal.com 2012-06-13 01:13 am (UTC)(link)
p.s. -- just noticed that you friended me (circled me?) on Dreamwidth. I should warn you that I hardly ever visit over there anymore -- don't even bother to crosspost unless I have a new fic. But it's still a nice thought to be friended. : )
lolmac: (Look me up)

[personal profile] lolmac 2012-06-13 03:22 am (UTC)(link)
You betcha. I finally gritted my teeth and got the RDA Daily comm imported, and while I was there it made sense to stalk look up some of the folks I know on this side of the alternate dimensional interface, so there you were!
thisbluespirit: (AA - Herr Flick not in the handbook)

[personal profile] thisbluespirit 2012-06-13 04:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, and it deceived me. It let me think they would be there, and stay there. And then when I came back a few months later, all the scene breaks had gone.

Next fic_rush, how about we set the Ninja Penguins on the scene-break eating monster from the pit?

Which sounds like crack fic of the fic rush variety, really. :lol:

I'm probably unfair to ff.net, but, as I said, with being a DW fan, we've got a big central archive - I didn't get more reviews on anything at ff.net than Teaspoon.
lolmac: (chemistry lesson)

[personal profile] lolmac 2012-06-13 05:56 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm probably unfair to ff.net

Careful analysis determines that this sentence is meaningless. ;-)

Let's definitely send the Ninja Penguins after the Monsters of the Pit. A fine way to celebrate our Rushiversary!!

[identity profile] dbskyler.livejournal.com 2012-06-12 06:29 pm (UTC)(link)
No scene breaks?? What do they have against scene breaks? I love scene breaks!

Yes, in DW we are spoiled by Teaspoon. <3 <3 <3

[identity profile] pitry.livejournal.com 2012-06-12 07:21 pm (UTC)(link)
It's just their awful site configurations - they disallow regular scene breaks like * (it eats them), and you can't have more than a couple of blank lines before it starts eating your lines too, and I'm sure there are other characters it eats!

I'm more annoyed with them for disallowing brackets and dashes in the fic's title. I just posted a fic that has a dash in the title and it ate it, too :(
lolmac: (Shush)

[personal profile] lolmac 2012-06-13 03:17 am (UTC)(link)
The only way to get more than a single blank line is to use a letter character: EVERYTHING else is parsed out. I use -x- as my placeholder. Because my scene breaks are important too, damn it.

And yes, I've had top work around the dumbed-down titling, too. Gack.

[identity profile] pitry.livejournal.com 2012-06-13 04:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh! You're the person I stole the -x- from :D
lolmac: (Widget)

- x - marks the spot where the narrative breaks

[personal profile] lolmac 2012-06-13 05:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Curiously enough, I still have plenty of them left even after your theft.