I rec to throw out sparkly hearts, too. The handful of times I've gotten recced it made me so happy, I just feel like it's good karma. Plus rec lists are usually what gets me into a fandom, so they have a special place in my heart.
And I've just friended you back - hi! (again - I know you left me such wonderful feedback on my Reboot fic. <3 )
My recent fandoms don't seem to have much of a reccing culture. I periodically bemoan this. Although Harry Potter wasn't my first fandom by several, I "came of age" in it in terms of writing and interaction, and there was a huge reccing culture there. My fic was rec'd all over the place - I don't mean that to say that it was that good, just that it was like everyone's - there was so much reccing around that everyone rec'd and got rec'd. I miss that, that shared enthusiasm. Of course, part of this just has to do with the splintering of fandom off of LJ. Ack, I could go on about this so I'd better just say yay for sparkly hearts! *g*
I've had that same thought about whether to bother to rec something that's already got eight trillion comments on it. I usually do anyway because:
1. I have lots of multi-fannish folks on my flist who only read sporadically in certain fandoms. So while every hardcore shipper will have seen the fic, some of the more casual folks probably won't have.
2. Like you, I enjoy having recs for my own records. I often refer to my own past recs when trying to find something to reread or to suggest to someone else.
3. Someone might not be ready to read something now, but they could pop by via my tags when they are new to a fandom and searching for something good to read a year or two later. It's good for archiving.
4. When I really love something, I just want to tell everyone about it (and sometimes make the author feel good with a rec if they happen to see it).
Oh, now that's a thought - that others might use them later when new to a fandom. If they've been on your flist and know what you read, even if they don't read them at the same time. I suspect that reason and reason #1 would have worked better for me when I had my old flist - rinsbane's flist was huge. Also #4, really. This journal has a tiny little flist. I tend to get a lot of good fic, both when new to a fandom and when I'm running out of ones I want to read that I'm seeing on my own, from bookmarks on AO3. Reading there by tag doesn't work for me - I need others to filter results for me by what they liked
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Reading there by tag doesn't work for me - I need others to filter results for me by what they liked.
Oh, interesting, I don't think I've ever looked at other people's bookmarks. I usually filter by pairing and then sort by kudos, assuming that stories with more kudos will more likely be better. Probably pretty similar results!
Do you ever tell a writer you rec'd something of theirs?
Nah, not usually. Often people who comment will say "here on a rec from secretsolitaire" and the writer will find out that way. But otherwise I'm too shy, even if I know the writer would appreciate knowing. :-/
And thanks for the kind words about my recs! I seem to do it more rarely than I used to -- I'd always rather be reading. But besides commenting it's the only thing I contribute to fandom, so I want to keep it up.
When I rec I usually rec for the same reasons you do...though I may not rec the most popular stories unless I'm using it to describe or explain something. But I would if I were writing a comprehensive rec list mostly because I think it's good to include what fandom deems are classic/popular fics that I've enjoyed since a lot of writing within the fandom sometimes gets influenced by it or at least it's referred to a lot.
And I guess you would have to take into account whether the audience is mostly multi-fandom fans and the longevity of the fandom. So for like Trek...it's over 40 years old---fics that were popular even five-ten years ago might not be on people's radar now.
By the way, I love that you're reccing! And I'm saving your latest fic for a rainy day :) (Also I added you as a friend, which I've been meaning to do for a while.)
Oh, absolutely. There's a difference between reccing something and compiling a rec list. I totally agree with your reasoning. I've never really thought about the longevity thing - I suppose that most of what I rec is fairly recent, although I think over the years I've rec'd some older things. I'm a pretty inconsistent reccer (and wish I weren't), so sometimes I rec a lot and then I drop off for months at a time.
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I rec to throw out sparkly hearts, too. The handful of times I've gotten recced it made me so happy, I just feel like it's good karma. Plus rec lists are usually what gets me into a fandom, so they have a special place in my heart.
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My recent fandoms don't seem to have much of a reccing culture. I periodically bemoan this. Although Harry Potter wasn't my first fandom by several, I "came of age" in it in terms of writing and interaction, and there was a huge reccing culture there. My fic was rec'd all over the place - I don't mean that to say that it was that good, just that it was like everyone's - there was so much reccing around that everyone rec'd and got rec'd. I miss that, that shared enthusiasm. Of course, part of this just has to do with the splintering of fandom off of LJ. Ack, I could go on about this so I'd better just say yay for sparkly hearts! *g*
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1. I have lots of multi-fannish folks on my flist who only read sporadically in certain fandoms. So while every hardcore shipper will have seen the fic, some of the more casual folks probably won't have.
2. Like you, I enjoy having recs for my own records. I often refer to my own past recs when trying to find something to reread or to suggest to someone else.
3. Someone might not be ready to read something now, but they could pop by via my tags when they are new to a fandom and searching for something good to read a year or two later. It's good for archiving.
4. When I really love something, I just want to tell everyone about it (and sometimes make the author feel good with a rec if they happen to see it).
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Oh, interesting, I don't think I've ever looked at other people's bookmarks. I usually filter by pairing and then sort by kudos, assuming that stories with more kudos will more likely be better. Probably pretty similar results!
Do you ever tell a writer you rec'd something of theirs?
Nah, not usually. Often people who comment will say "here on a rec from secretsolitaire" and the writer will find out that way. But otherwise I'm too shy, even if I know the writer would appreciate knowing. :-/
And thanks for the kind words about my recs! I seem to do it more rarely than I used to -- I'd always rather be reading. But besides commenting it's the only thing I contribute to fandom, so I want to keep it up.
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And I guess you would have to take into account whether the audience is mostly multi-fandom fans and the longevity of the fandom. So for like Trek...it's over 40 years old---fics that were popular even five-ten years ago might not be on people's radar now.
By the way, I love that you're reccing! And I'm saving your latest fic for a rainy day :) (Also I added you as a friend, which I've been meaning to do for a while.)
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I've friended you back - hi! *g*
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The way I see it reccing should be fun and it's totally cool that you do it whenever you have time...even if it's months or more in between :)
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