Hi Cindy,
I see a lot of things going on:
Way back when I entered the fandom, we had (Zoomway's) boards for fic and comments, but we also had a thriving IRC channel, and the people whose fic you read and who did the commenting were there to chat with and hang out with every night. You were friends...mostly. I used to comment on WIP's back then. But as time went by, a couple things happened:
- Those who made the fic boards made it clear that any type of constructive comments were not welcome, because it might hurt someone's feelings. It kinda made the comments thread a safe space before that was a thing. I have no issue with encouraging authors, but I also want to read good fic, and don't see any problem with offering some constructive feedback if it's in good faith. I lost that argument, so...I don't comment on stories anymore.
- IRC became outdated. I haven't tried to logon to the channel in probably 9 years, mostly because I would need to find a program that would get me there. I feel disconnected from the community now.
- Life happens. The people who were into the fandom are mostly gone now, no though some of us old-times come back upon occasion, I image that those of us who were college kids back then have families and lack the time to devote to all this.
I agree to some extent that the show has been gone long enough that it's getting forgotten, and I'm actually pleasantly surprised that there still is a fandom that cares. That's a testament to the show.
Personally, I still read fic, but only completed stories. Currently, I'm waiting for the Kerth list to come out to give me some reading material to dig into. To the writers out there: keep writing. And take it on faith that we're still reading, even if it's not immediate. If you believe in your story, you should have all the motivation you need.
-Cindy
I don't know about anyone else, but I do NOT look for pats on the back. I want negative as well as positive comments. Take the gloves off. If I'm doing something you don't like or don't understand - LET ME KNOW!
How can I improve as an author if all I get are positive comments. I have some sharp corners that need to be removed.
As I pointed out in an earlier post, all of my stories are complete before post number one goes up so there will be no abandoned stories coming from me. That doesn't mean that corrections cannot be made to the story before it hits the archive.
If you have a legitimate beef with what I write, let me know. If I can't explain it to your satisfaction, I may have to change it before sending it to the archive. That is what the board is for.
All of the readers are being conscripted by us authors into doing beta for us.
