Fanlore:Featured Article Archives/2019: Week 41

A Caution About Public Criticism is a 1998 post by Nascent at alt.tv.x-files.creative.

It highlights the challenges of newly-public online communities against the age-old discussions about feedback. Some topics discussed are "writing to the crowd"—do writers write popular genres or pairings simply for the feedback ratio?—are pseuds training wheels for future things, and hurt feelings and the thin veneer of civilization.

This post may have been, in part, a response to FanFic Misdemeanors According To Us :), an essay with many comments posted the day before. That essay expressed many opinions about the do's and don'ts of writing X-Files fanfic.

For additional context, see Timeline of Concrit & Feedback Meta.