Netiquette of badfic!
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| Title: | Netiquette of badfic! |
| Creator: | Anon |
| Date(s): | early 2000 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | multifandom |
| Topic: | Feedback, Fanfiction |
| External Links: | online here, via Wayback; WebCite |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Netiquette of badfic! is an essay posted at Writers University. It is by Anon.
It includes a list and links to Badfic sites current at the time.
Excerpts
On the Internet, there are many sites and many authors that mock bad fan fiction. These sites and authors are generally up front with the complaints about bad fan fiction. They are created for a variety of reasons: for fun, to insult others, frustration at the amount of poorly written stories on the net and the authors who don’t care about improving their material, to highlight problems with in a fandom or to bond with friends over a topic the authors or web masters feel passionately about.
BadFic serves several functions in the fan fiction community. One of the functions of BadFic is that it acknowledges the presence of poorly written fan fiction with in the community. This is a very important function. When newer readers and writers get on-line, some attain the perspective that all fan fiction is thought of as good by a community or not as good because the material differs from their taste even though a story may be bad. BadFic sites correct this misconception by highlighting BadFic in an in your face manner. Furthermore, it encourages people to reevaluate the way that they give feedback. It challenges current views. If people do not like the way that BadFic sites such as GodAwful Fan Fiction or Bad Buffy operate, they are challenged because of it to reevaluate their own behavior and modify it as a result. Another function BadFic sites serve is that of a safety valve. They enable frustrated readers and writers a place to vent those feelings to a community of people who have similar feelings. With out such a valve, there is the risk that these feelings of frustration and angst with the current state of fan fiction in a fandom by authors and readers will drive them from that fandom or fan fiction in its entirety. BadFic sites allow readers and writers to vent those feelings in an environment designed for that with minimal risk to their standing with in that fandom. BadFic and BadFic teaches. They teach new writers and old writers what not to do when writing fan fiction by giving them clear examples of what does not work. One such example of BadFic that does this is the work of Mary Sue Whipple, a parody of a bad fan fiction writer created by posters to God Awful Fan Fiction’s ]]message board]]. This deliberately bad material is something that can clearly be used an example of what doesn’t work.