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Well, I Was Gonna Read Your Fic, But...
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Well, I Was Gonna Read Your Fic, But... |
| Creator: | Flash |
| Date(s): | 2009 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | Hanson |
| Topic: | fanfic feedback |
| External Links: | Well, I Was Gonna Read Your Fic, But... |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Well, I Was Gonna Read Your Fic, But... (subtitled What Holding Your Fic Hostage Will Really Do) is a meta essay written by Flash for the articles section of PlaceToHide.net.
Excerpts
Prior to joining the Hanfic Community, I had never actually seen this “holding fic for hostage” phenomena for myself. I’d read rants about it on livejournal, but I’d never actually experienced it. Until I went to this one site where I’d been meaning to read some fics, only to find that the author wasn’t going to update anymore until they got an adequate number of reviews. I stared at this message for a good five minutes before clicking to the site and scrolling through that list of stories I had been planning to check out, only to navigate away from the page instead of reading any.
I have no problem with people asking for reviews (adding a polite “please review” at the end of a chapter or a “reviews are like candy” or something is fine. In fact, I have a friend who ties her “reviews are like…” sentences into her story in someway and it’s quite clever). Asking for reviews in a polite way is perfectly acceptable, it’s when you throw a hissy fit over not getting enough reviews that things get dicey.
Holding fics hostage might seem like a good idea, but in the end it’s more likely to deprive you of reviews and scare of potential readers. I know from reading rants on livejournal that many people find holding stories hostage to be rude, insensitive, and entitled. Yes, we all love reviews, but not writing just because we feel like we’re not getting what we’re due isn’t the best way to go about getting more.