I guess my point is is why some folks (the folks that are still very active) automatically ignore the newer authors. (You know they do.)
*I* don't know that they do. I think I probably know most of the icons/old timers, and I can't think of one who has a deliberate policy of not reading newer authors. They might read and not comment, but that's a different thing.
The other thing I wanted to say touches on a comment someone said about the next generation of authors and readers. It's been lovely to watch the next generation arrive on the boards, post and read stories, and strike up friendships. You can see the evidence of those friendships in the way people interact with each other on the boards, and I think that's just wonderful. To think that these boards may have contributed towards bringing people together who might not otherwise have met makes me very proud.
One last thing. Sue described her experiment in anonymous writing. We did a similar thing here a while back, and it was great fun and quite interesting. So far as I remember, there were certain rules on story content that we all had to follow, and then the stories were all posted anonymously and people had to try and guess who wrote what. I don't remember the results exactly, but I'm pretty certain there was a lot of incorrect guesswork going on, and that some of the guesses were for authors who hadn't even written a story. Of course, this doesn't prove or disprove the issue of newbie-dom, but it did show that author style is a tricky thing to spot.
Of course, this doesn't prove or disprove the issue of newbie-dom, but it did show that author style is a tricky thing to spot.
