Just catching up here with the December posts - so many interesting points.
Coming from the POV of a long time FoLC (think my first story was posted in 1998 or 1999), but definitely not one of the icons, I'm finding something paradoxical and ironic in the gist of these observations.
It seems all fandoms, based on what Sue has experienced elsewhere and what has happened in FoLCdom over the years, produce, at some times, in-groups and out-groups. Not sure why that happens, but it does, although those who are in the in-group always deny that there is an in-group while those who are not "in", ask the question, "So why do I feel like chopped liver then?" (sounds a tad Catch 22 ish, I know
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So here we go again, this time the newbies/icons aspect being an added twist.
My thought, though, is that *now* I am a newbie. It occurred to me, as I read through the December part of this thread, that nearly all of the people who now post regularly in the fanfic & fanfic related folders have never, as far as I know, read my stories and so were I ever to manage to write again, I'd be writing as a new author.
So that makes me a newbie.
Also wanted to second the points made about "time" to read and comment.
Also, there's the whole issue of "genre preference" that influences reading and feedback, too. (e.g. Will Tank ever read a long fic that has kids in it???
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c.
