Fandom Guides FAQ
It at last occurred to me that it might be helpful to explicitly state the criteria I use to categorize links and whether I have any fandom biases.
Why are you doing this?
The idea dates back to when I finally gave in and got myself a LJ. I'm not much of a diary writer, and a part of me grew more and more appalled at the waste. Over my years in various fandoms, I've often found myself struggling to come up with one link or another. I thought, wouldn't it be nice if I could collect all my fandom-related links in one spot? It seemed to me, in lieu of a website, the LJ memories function would be perfect. I never intended these lists to be recs. Really, I just wanted to make it easier for myself and-once I got over my predisposition to selfishness-others to, well, find stuff.
Do you have any fandom biases?
I like to think of myself as being well read in all my fandoms, but, yes, I do have favorite characters that I tend to lavish my efforts on. How much of the fandom I frequent depends mostly on how much fanfic and other fannish material is out there; the more there is, the more I focus on what I like, whereas dearth leads me to read just about anything.
Within those limits, I'll read all genres and all pairings. My first fandom was Star Wars, and I was pretty much broken of inhibitions by the time I made my way through the more, er, exclusive sites (not to mention profic). My motto these days? As long as it's decent. Such stories that grow in the telling are even better. (I looove epics.)
Brimstone
For a TV show that was canceled in 1998 after only 13 aired episodes, the fandom is remarkably healthy. Doesn't mean the fandom ain't small. Very small. Happily, I have no religious or other compunctions to bar me from reading all there is.
Master and Commander
A small and exclusive fandom, there's no pressure to be picky. I do find that novel-based fics-or, more broadly, fics by writers with fair to extensive knowledge of book canon-are of higher quality. Jack/Stephen is by far the most popular pairing, slash or het, but there are nicely done minor character pairings as well. Mostly, as someone who's read O'Brian's work, I enjoy the historical setting and language.
Stargate Atlantis
I'm hopelessly intrigued (read: infatuated) with John Sheppard. However, he's only one of a large and, IMO, generally adorable cast of quirky characters. Even more than John and the other denizens of Pegasus, I love the infinite creative scope of the SGA universe. I read a lot of Sheppard/McKay, but I enjoy many, many other pairings and, above all, gen. However, because of my deep, abiding affection for the series premise and setting, it's hard for me to get fully engaged in AUs. Also? I have a crazy crush on the city of Atlantis.
The Magnificent Seven
My favorite of the Seven is Chris, but all the boys have grown on me since I finally watched the series. The fandom is small enough for me to have a fair chance of browsing through everything, so I don't really have an OTP. In fact, I rather think M7 gen fics are the best, though I've read and liked every pairing out there.
Trigun
V/W all the way! Yes, I have a bit of an OTP in this fandom. I'm not dead set against reading other pairings though, even if Vash and Wolfwood are split up. There isn't enough Trigun fic out there to drive me mad if I don't develop a character focus. Manga or anime, I don't really care-each has its unique attractions.
As a general rule of thumb for fanart and vids, quality and faithfulness to canon style and portrayal are the most important to me. Not that I won't watch a vid if it's, say, SW set to heavy metal, but the damn thing has to make sense. The same goes for fanart. While every artist has his own technique and approach, I dislike distortions of characterizations and universe that go beyond what's plausible for canon. For example, the tendency of anime yaoi artists to draw everything in an ultra-shoujo style (think Clamp) no matter the source material. I want my nonsensical elements with little to no canon basis to stay in gag art and vids, thank you very much.
That said, again, I never intended these lists to be recs. I just couldn't keep my big, fat mouth shut after hours of skimming websites and fics, clicking links. Probably the most important thing to remember when reading my short, italicized blurbs is that I wrote them on an ad hoc basis while coding HTML. In other words, expect erratic comments heavily skewed toward my fandom biases and whatever other fluff I had on the brain at the moment.
Ultimately, I hope to gather together enough links to serve as a good newbie resource. Thus, I'll add anyone who requests it and won't really screen recommendations. No editorializing, though, if I'm not personally familiar with the author's work.
Are there any quality requirements?
Not really, no. Otherwise, I'd be agonizing over whether I should include ff.net as a link. While these lists are compiled mainly by me, I do take recommendations, and everybody's tastes are different. Personally, I don't think I'm too picky about my fic-I've read some extraordinarily bad ones simply because I had nothing else to read. If I felt it was decent, I included it. Overall, I think most of the links here are pretty good.
What do you consider a fanfic archive?
Generally, any site hosting more than ten works written by more than three authors I consider an archive. There are, of course, exceptions. Multiauthor RPG fics, round robins, and any other sequence of stories (regardless of how many) stated to be connected that refer to one another are linked from Fanfic Authors, under Other Works. Personal sites with the work of more than one author are also listed under Fanfic Authors; it's usually clear that the writers in question are familiar with each other and likely share site maintenance.
Is there any kind of order to these lists?
The lists are alphabetically ordered. Fanfic archives by the main archiving site; authors by "first" name; communities, groups, and references by name or title; fanart by site name; vids, comics, and other standalone art by artist. In the case of multiauthor sites or related communities, I order by the name that would put the link closest to the top of the list. So, supposing that Larry, Curly, and Moe ran a fanfic site together, the alphabetic listing of their site would be determined by Curly's name, with Larry and then Moe cited after. Alphabetical order within alphabetical order.
What's listed as Other Works under Fanfic Authors?
Refer to the description of fanfic archives two questions above for three kinds of fics you would find in this section. In addition: single standalones written by authors with no other works in the fandom and that can't be found in an already cited community or group; any pieces that are neither fanfic nor essays but are obviously the creation of their respective author(s).
Just how accurate are your story counts?
For the large automated archives, very accurate, so long as the counts are up-to-date. These are either given by the archives or the search counts I get by sending in blank search forms. For personal sites and smaller archives, the counts are probably within a ballpark range, give or take 10-20 fics. I do actually visit all these sites and count some number of fics, usually stopping when I hit 30-40 to estimate by browsing through all the fic pages and scrolling around, measuring out chunks of 5-10 fics and adding them to my count.
What should I do if I find a broken link?
Report it to me, of course! The same goes for any mistakes in my short, short descriptions. You can post a comment under the entry in question or e-mail me. Barring some sort of personal or world crisis, I should get back to you within a few weeks. I do plan to occasionally click through all the links though, so hopefully this won't be a huge issue.
How frequently will the lists be updated?
I expect sporadic updates. Um. Okay. Likely few and far between. If I get any recommendations, the relevant lists will be updated. The same if I stumble across any new sites, recall any old ones, or need to edit existing descriptions. I'll also continue to add fandoms. With, however, an eye toward compiling links for fandoms that lack such resources.
Why are you doing this?
The idea dates back to when I finally gave in and got myself a LJ. I'm not much of a diary writer, and a part of me grew more and more appalled at the waste. Over my years in various fandoms, I've often found myself struggling to come up with one link or another. I thought, wouldn't it be nice if I could collect all my fandom-related links in one spot? It seemed to me, in lieu of a website, the LJ memories function would be perfect. I never intended these lists to be recs. Really, I just wanted to make it easier for myself and-once I got over my predisposition to selfishness-others to, well, find stuff.
Do you have any fandom biases?
I like to think of myself as being well read in all my fandoms, but, yes, I do have favorite characters that I tend to lavish my efforts on. How much of the fandom I frequent depends mostly on how much fanfic and other fannish material is out there; the more there is, the more I focus on what I like, whereas dearth leads me to read just about anything.
Within those limits, I'll read all genres and all pairings. My first fandom was Star Wars, and I was pretty much broken of inhibitions by the time I made my way through the more, er, exclusive sites (not to mention profic). My motto these days? As long as it's decent. Such stories that grow in the telling are even better. (I looove epics.)
Brimstone
For a TV show that was canceled in 1998 after only 13 aired episodes, the fandom is remarkably healthy. Doesn't mean the fandom ain't small. Very small. Happily, I have no religious or other compunctions to bar me from reading all there is.
Master and Commander
A small and exclusive fandom, there's no pressure to be picky. I do find that novel-based fics-or, more broadly, fics by writers with fair to extensive knowledge of book canon-are of higher quality. Jack/Stephen is by far the most popular pairing, slash or het, but there are nicely done minor character pairings as well. Mostly, as someone who's read O'Brian's work, I enjoy the historical setting and language.
Stargate Atlantis
I'm hopelessly intrigued (read: infatuated) with John Sheppard. However, he's only one of a large and, IMO, generally adorable cast of quirky characters. Even more than John and the other denizens of Pegasus, I love the infinite creative scope of the SGA universe. I read a lot of Sheppard/McKay, but I enjoy many, many other pairings and, above all, gen. However, because of my deep, abiding affection for the series premise and setting, it's hard for me to get fully engaged in AUs. Also? I have a crazy crush on the city of Atlantis.
The Magnificent Seven
My favorite of the Seven is Chris, but all the boys have grown on me since I finally watched the series. The fandom is small enough for me to have a fair chance of browsing through everything, so I don't really have an OTP. In fact, I rather think M7 gen fics are the best, though I've read and liked every pairing out there.
Trigun
V/W all the way! Yes, I have a bit of an OTP in this fandom. I'm not dead set against reading other pairings though, even if Vash and Wolfwood are split up. There isn't enough Trigun fic out there to drive me mad if I don't develop a character focus. Manga or anime, I don't really care-each has its unique attractions.
As a general rule of thumb for fanart and vids, quality and faithfulness to canon style and portrayal are the most important to me. Not that I won't watch a vid if it's, say, SW set to heavy metal, but the damn thing has to make sense. The same goes for fanart. While every artist has his own technique and approach, I dislike distortions of characterizations and universe that go beyond what's plausible for canon. For example, the tendency of anime yaoi artists to draw everything in an ultra-shoujo style (think Clamp) no matter the source material. I want my nonsensical elements with little to no canon basis to stay in gag art and vids, thank you very much.
That said, again, I never intended these lists to be recs. I just couldn't keep my big, fat mouth shut after hours of skimming websites and fics, clicking links. Probably the most important thing to remember when reading my short, italicized blurbs is that I wrote them on an ad hoc basis while coding HTML. In other words, expect erratic comments heavily skewed toward my fandom biases and whatever other fluff I had on the brain at the moment.
Ultimately, I hope to gather together enough links to serve as a good newbie resource. Thus, I'll add anyone who requests it and won't really screen recommendations. No editorializing, though, if I'm not personally familiar with the author's work.
Are there any quality requirements?
Not really, no. Otherwise, I'd be agonizing over whether I should include ff.net as a link. While these lists are compiled mainly by me, I do take recommendations, and everybody's tastes are different. Personally, I don't think I'm too picky about my fic-I've read some extraordinarily bad ones simply because I had nothing else to read. If I felt it was decent, I included it. Overall, I think most of the links here are pretty good.
What do you consider a fanfic archive?
Generally, any site hosting more than ten works written by more than three authors I consider an archive. There are, of course, exceptions. Multiauthor RPG fics, round robins, and any other sequence of stories (regardless of how many) stated to be connected that refer to one another are linked from Fanfic Authors, under Other Works. Personal sites with the work of more than one author are also listed under Fanfic Authors; it's usually clear that the writers in question are familiar with each other and likely share site maintenance.
Is there any kind of order to these lists?
The lists are alphabetically ordered. Fanfic archives by the main archiving site; authors by "first" name; communities, groups, and references by name or title; fanart by site name; vids, comics, and other standalone art by artist. In the case of multiauthor sites or related communities, I order by the name that would put the link closest to the top of the list. So, supposing that Larry, Curly, and Moe ran a fanfic site together, the alphabetic listing of their site would be determined by Curly's name, with Larry and then Moe cited after. Alphabetical order within alphabetical order.
What's listed as Other Works under Fanfic Authors?
Refer to the description of fanfic archives two questions above for three kinds of fics you would find in this section. In addition: single standalones written by authors with no other works in the fandom and that can't be found in an already cited community or group; any pieces that are neither fanfic nor essays but are obviously the creation of their respective author(s).
Just how accurate are your story counts?
For the large automated archives, very accurate, so long as the counts are up-to-date. These are either given by the archives or the search counts I get by sending in blank search forms. For personal sites and smaller archives, the counts are probably within a ballpark range, give or take 10-20 fics. I do actually visit all these sites and count some number of fics, usually stopping when I hit 30-40 to estimate by browsing through all the fic pages and scrolling around, measuring out chunks of 5-10 fics and adding them to my count.
What should I do if I find a broken link?
Report it to me, of course! The same goes for any mistakes in my short, short descriptions. You can post a comment under the entry in question or e-mail me. Barring some sort of personal or world crisis, I should get back to you within a few weeks. I do plan to occasionally click through all the links though, so hopefully this won't be a huge issue.
How frequently will the lists be updated?
I expect sporadic updates. Um. Okay. Likely few and far between. If I get any recommendations, the relevant lists will be updated. The same if I stumble across any new sites, recall any old ones, or need to edit existing descriptions. I'll also continue to add fandoms. With, however, an eye toward compiling links for fandoms that lack such resources.