Yes but what is the show in terms of fanfic? I’d say a number of canonical elements, ignore or twist enough of them and sooner or later depending on the reader, he/she wont consider it L&C fanfic anymore.
Yes, speaking as a reader now, I certainly agree that it's a question of degree. We are never all going to see the characters in exactly the same way, so some varation on characterisation is a given and generally accepted.
But there will undoubtedly come a point - unless the story is quite clearly an Elseworld - when I will lose interest if the author's idea of the characters deviates too far from my own. The point at which I deem them to be acting OOC. This, I am sure, holds true for most readers.
However, it's also a given that the point of OCC will vary just as much with readers as it does with authors. Although I do think that there is a majority of general concensus on what the characters should be that generally underpins things and most stories don't deviate
too far from that majority concensus.
Having said that, if you're posting a story and 99% of your readers tell you that your characters are OOC for them - maybe they're on to something.
Although, it is of course always up to the author as to whether they agree, pay attention or go their own sweet way on it.
I think the Archive benefits from the fact that most of the submitted stories are posted here first. Generally speaking, if your story is acceptable for posting on the mbs (in gfic) then it'll be acceptable to the Archive. So any stories in the past which may have been borderline have probably been changed by their authors in reponse to this forum's fdk responses long before they get submitted.
At any rate, all I can say as EIC of the Archive is that in all the years that the Archive has been in operation, rejections on the grounds of non-LNC content have been very, very rare. Far less than even 1%, I'd calculate. Happens once in a blue moon. I think, generally speaking, that the majority concensus on characterisation is more usually the norm than any gross deviation. We're more together on how we see the characters than apart.
LabRat
