Old and New Fan Fic

[last unicorn]

Mods, I'm sorry ...


I find it slightly annoying that there are a lot of ANCIENT fan fic stories, written by people who haven's posted here in ages, and someone is always bumping them. Other people are led to believe this is a new story and add a comment, just to realise later that the topic is from 2002 (!) or 2003.

Can we please STOP that?!?! It's causing chaos in Fan Fiction and makes it really hard to search for new stories or new chapters to current stories.

Thank you.

 

[Carrie Anderson]

Good post, LU. And very valid.... but... I think the problem has come from someone - who I am sure had no intention to upset anyone - having a read and catch up through some old fan fics and just posting what she thought about them. Maybe she did not know about the fact that they "bump" to the top of the list.

For my part, I am guilty of replying to one that was on the top of the pile yesterday, without even checking the date.

That will teach me to be more observant.... and maybe this will serve as a lesson to others.

Check the Thread Start date before you reply!!!

Carrie

 

[last unicorn]

Yeah, but can't they just READ it without replying, especially if the people who wrote these particular stories clearly are not around here any more? I understand, I sometimes read older stories too, but I don't bump them, because I know it would create a lot of chaos on the front page of this forum. I find it hard enough already to find current stories and updates and keep track of what's currently being written.

 

[Acrobat Angel]

Completely agree LU It's very annoying

Is there a way of maybe bumping these threads down again so the fics are in some sort of order- rather than all over the place?

 

[Galeongirl]

Agreed! it's confusing the hell out of me! Every time I see one of those threads it's like Huh? but I"ve read this before! and then I see the date and realise they're over 5 years old!

It's okay to be a newbie and want to read all the old stuff, but please, just READ it and don't comment on it!

Like, it's not a CRIME to read something and not comment on it... it's especially annoying when people seem to post the same message over and over again just don't comment if you are only doing it because you feel you have to!

 

[youvedonewhat]

I agree w/you all but we should consider that if we want to post a comment then we should be able to.

*avoids all the rotten tomatoes*

Ok, going now....*slinks off*

 

[Galeongirl]

Well that is true, but then again, what are comments for?
IMO they are to let the writer know what you think of their work.... and do you really think those people from 2002 who wrote this stuff will come back here and read the comments? I highly doubt it! Most haven't been on here in years!
so doesn't that sort of destroy the reason for posting?

 

[Carrie Anderson]

It's a tricky one. I see the point from both of you. It is annoying to see old posts come up when you are looking for new ones only, but YDW is right, you should be able to post a comment if you want to. Having said that though, it should be a comment of some substance. While I agree that not many people who posted something years ago would be likely to be here.... what if they are here reading, and someone wants to say something really constructive about something that they wrote.

These recent posts are particularly annoying though, because they don't really say anything.

It's a hard line to draw, and I am glad I am not a mod and don't have to make the call.

*edited* Originally said DW was right (Dragonfly Wolfe) but it was actually YDW (You'veDoneWhat)!!!

 

[youvedonewhat]

Well that is true, but then again, what are comments for?
IMO they are to let the writer know what you think of their work.... and do you really think those people from 2002 who wrote this stuff will come back here and read the comments? I highly doubt it! Most haven't been on here in years!
so doesn't that sort of destroy the reason for posting?

Hi Gg. You're right of course. I totally agree w/you. I love getting feedback and yes, if I left, I wouldn't bother to come back and check if anyone had left me a comment.

I'm just thinking that if I wanted to say something regarding a thread then it'd be ok. It's a pity we couldn't have an 'old fiction' thread, similar to the PGP threads. I think that'd work. That way if you didn't want to look at old threads, then you could simply ignore them and get to the new stuff.

Just my opinion,

 

[Carrie Anderson]

Great idea... maybe the forum owners can look into that.

 

[last unicorn]

Yeah, we should have an archive for the older stories without any new chapters. Everyone who wants to read old stories can go there and all the current ones where new chapters are added can remain in the main fan fic forum. That would be a good idea.

 

[ali26]

Yeah, we should have an archive for the older stories without any new chapters. Everyone who wants to read old stories can go there and all the current ones where new chapters are added can remain in the main fan fic forum. That would be a good idea.

wehere are the new ones?

 

[Gluey]

wehere are the new ones?

I think the girls are talking about the new chapters to the currently active fanfics on here. Those bumped fanfics are very old, and not 'active' anymore, and I personally find it harder to backtrack to earlier chapters of a current story if there are a whole heap of old dormant stories suddenly in the mix.

I think there's nothing wrong with commenting on the current threads, constructive comments or not.

I know it would most likely be a huge task, but maybe if fanfics older than 6mnths or 1 yr were locked, it would save them being bumped and confusing things. I sometimes like to trawl back through the old stuff and have a read, but I never bother commenting on the old ones. There's no real point to it, especially if the original poster isn't around here anymore.

 

[zuropa_fit]

^ good idea Gluey. Who knew this would be such a heated topic!

 

[zuropa_fit]

DANGIT!!!!!! I totally just did it. oops.

 

[BluRmGrl]

LU - you've got a point. But from the other side of the coin (being the creator of one ancient, unfinished fan fic [The Next Best Thing]) I'd hate to see my story completely lost, if for no other reason than there might eventually be enough interest in it for me to pick it back up. And what is there might inspire someone else. I don't know - maybe I should take this as the inspiration to finish mine & get it out of the way!

 

[Gluey]

LU - you've got a point. But from the other side of the coin (being the creator of one ancient, unfinished fan fic [The Next Best Thing]) I'd hate to see my story completely lost, if for no other reason than there might eventually be enough interest in it for me to pick it back up. And what is there might inspire someone else. I don't know - maybe I should take this as the inspiration to finish mine & get it out of the way!

I don't think any of them should be 'lost', as there are a lot of real 'gems' out there, and on a quiet day I love looking back and discovering some new/old magic. Maybe if a thread was started and stickied, that we could post in if an old story REALLY had us ungrossed and we wanted to see more of it, we could post there with our requests/suggestions, and a link to it.....then people visiting could keep an eye on that and see if their old story has had a second wind? Ok, that was really rambly, but do you get what I mean? Then we don't get the problem of old stories taking over the first page, and people still know if their old story touched someone.....shutting up now....

 

[BluRmGrl]

I don't think any of them should be 'lost', as there are a lot of real 'gems' out there, and on a quiet day I love looking back and discovering some new/old magic. Maybe if a thread was started and stickied, that we could post in if an old story REALLY had us ungrossed and we wanted to see more of it, we could post there with our requests/suggestions, and a link to it.....then people visiting could keep an eye on that and see if their old story has had a second wind? Ok, that was really rambly, but do you get what I mean? Then we don't get the problem of old stories taking over the first page, and people still know if their old story touched someone.....shutting up now....

Makes perfect sense. Actually, I just looked through the Archives for Fan Fic & that's where my last work is.... TNBT, Chapter 16. Anyway, I think you make a good point - sometimes it's nice being able to go back & reminisce, maybe pull up a dusty old story that you'd never read or find an unfinished one that you'd like the author to complete or that you could request someone else to finish.

 

[Gluey]

... or that you could request someone else to finish.

Now THAT'S a cool idea!

 

[Galeongirl]

well I like the idea of locked threads, tho it's a huge task to lock all those pages of fanfic
The idea is that the fics are not lost at all, they can still be read, and that they won't mingle with the recent chapters either... it would be better for people who are reading old fics too, because otherwise you get this problem: Say, I'm reading an old fic, am in chapter 4 or something on page 40, and suddenly, I see chapter 6 and 7 and 8, but there's no chapter 5... I hate to continue reading a fic skipping chapters, so I stop reading... then later I find out that chapter 5 is on page 2 of this forum because someone bumped it randomly... it's just too confusing! The thing with posting a thread for each chapter is that they're posted chronographically, so you can easily follow an older story... ofcourse there might be a few switched because someoen commented later, but that's in a week or so later, not five years!

 

[last unicorn]

Usually, most new chapters of current stories are on page 1 which makes it quite easy to follow your favourite fan fic story. Some people even put the dates in the title, which I find very good, because it allows me to see very quickly which chapter of which story is the newest one. However, if people start bumping old threads, the current stories are starting to wander off to page 2, which makes it all much more confusing. Having been in this part of the forum for quite some time now I'd say the system works very well if we just stick to the current stories and don't bump old posts. I don't think it's a problem to bring something back that hasn't been worked on for, let's say, two or three weeks, if we know the writer is around and if we want to check for updates. But for stories that are 5 years old AND written by people who are clearly not active in this forum any more, I say there is no use for bumping. Maybe we can make an archive for these ones. I guess locking them would mean a lot more work with these many pages and stories posted.