Fandom Inquiry: Possible Interest in a Community?

[themostepotente]

Some of you may recall this thread of mine.

What I was wondering was how many people would be interested in a community that centers around newer, unknown authors/underappreciated authors?

I'm more than willing to put the time into this as moderator, but there has to be enough interest for me to do so.

What say you?

--P

ETA: I would expand this to include fan artists as well.

Comments

[danxsunday.livejournal.com]

Stupid question time:
Who are the famous ones?
And yeah I'd read any cool stuff.

[jetis.livejournal.com]

But who decides who is under-appreciated, because I skimmed over the thread and a LOT of those names I recognized and noticed that they have a fairly dedicated (and sometimes large) following.

[marksykins.livejournal.com]

My question exactly.

[prurient-badger.livejournal.com]

Ditto. Aside from that question, it does sound like a good idea.

[maeglinyedi.livejournal.com]

because I skimmed over the thread and a LOT of those names I recognized and noticed that they have a fairly dedicated (and sometimes large) following.

Yep, I'll second that. I just took a look at that list, and couldn't help laugh when I saw both Tradescant and Lupercali (Pru) on the list. Dude, they're some of the most recced and appreciated authors in this fandom.

So there you have your problem...because while some newer readers may think they're underappreciated, on the whole scale of fandom, they are certainly not. :-)

[jetis.livejournal.com]

Ahaha. I have NO CLUE who they are. I'd be one of those poor saps who would rec them, thinking they were unknown and underappreciated.

[scribbling-elf.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested...

And I'm nominating myself for unknown. LOL

[starrysummer.livejournal.com]

All over it, Penny. (and not because people named me on that thread)

Actually, Sophie and I have been talking about this for a couple weeks, but I went away and we haven't done anything yet... our idea was some sort of alternative recs community. We haven't really settled firmly on anything, though we have some ideas.

[felonytexas.livejournal.com]

I think it's a grand idea. There needs to be a way for new writers to the fandom to get noticed and recongized. Alot of people....are jackasses and don't read everything they should there for alot of people go unnoticed.

I confess to being the kind of person who gives a fic about half a page before I leave it. I started writing fanfiction becuase I couldn't stand half of what was out there, it seemed most of what I ran across some how managed to managle characters and dialogue and ...well I have one phrase for you "Plat-What-Plot". But I've noticed that alot of the authors I really like, have hardly any one commenting on their work. It would be nice to find new writers, new artists. So ...yeah that did all make sense in my own head...it's been one of those days.

[fluffyllama.livejournal.com]

I don't think 'centres around' is enough information to judge, to be honest. How exactly would it (presumably) support these new writers? How would it be different from any other community on LJ where people can self-pimp / rec / post?

[modernmouse.livejournal.com]

I was just going to suggest artists! You read my mind. On more than one account. I was just whining on and on about how so many lesser known writers and artists (but writers more I think, since it takes more for someone to read a story by a relative unknown than to spend two seconds looking at a picture) get discouraged by the lack of feedback.

I just see so many great pieces of art posted with so few comments (I would say the same about fic, except I look at far more art than fic, so I couldn't say from experience, though it seems to be the same case) and that really must be disheartening for someone trying to break into fandom.

So all in all, I'm completely for a community like that. New stories and art are both so refreshing!

[inell.livejournal.com]

It's a good idea but who says who is or is not unknown? Some people are known in certain circles but not widely known while others are only known by a few. In that thread, I knew a lot of the authors and had no idea they were "unknown". It's a neat idea and I'd be interested to see you go about it but it would require some sort of definition on "Known and Appreciated" versus "Unknown and Underappreciated" I think. But, hey, I'm open to read just about anything so woot! I'm there.

Inell

[curia-regis.livejournal.com]

It would be a good idea, but to echo everybody else, who decides who is unknown or underappreciated? Somehow I think it would be somewhat easier to decide the former than the latter.

[noticeably.livejournal.com]

I think it would be a great idea...but...echoing everyone elses concerns, who decides who is unknown/underappreciated? It would be hard, and those in charge would be garaunteeded hell from certin authors who feel they should/shouldn't been considered underappreciated/unknown.

[goldschlager.livejournal.com]

Oooh, that sounds like a great idea. I don't have much time to really search for fic, so I'm sure I miss a lot of good stuff...
I would definitely join.

[gmth.livejournal.com]

In theory, this is a great idea. I think it's going to be an entirely different matter in practice, though. How are you going to find these people? Presumably they're unknown because, well, people don't know who they are. And like everyone else has said, "underappreciated" is a very, very nebulous term. Hell, I feel underappreciated as a writer a lot of the time. Would I qualify?

[chasehunts.livejournal.com]

Hell, I feel underappreciated as a writer a lot of the time. Would I qualify?

I think you would qualify - I think your writing is terribly underappreciated. On the other hand, I think there's also a very common reason for it: Once someone sets "Oh my god" into a comment, words often fail to follow, because that's usually such a perfect fit for your stories.

You would fit a one day a week category of appreciation headed "Repeatedly Stunned By."

Chase

[gmth.livejournal.com]

Heh, well I was going for irony but I thank you very, very much for the kind words. You are such a dear. I still glow when I think of your feedback for Time Passages. :-)

[fiercynn.livejournal.com]

Here from Quick Quote. I think that would be awesome, because while I find lots of nice one-shots by lesser known writers through rec lists, it's harder to find good novel-length completed or WIPs if they aren't famous. And same with fan art.

[hiake.livejournal.com]

I never mod anything in my life, but may I suggest a criteria for being unknown?

Written less than a total of 5,000 words, or 5 non-series pieces (whichever less applies) can be count as "unknown"

Since it's pretty unlikely for a new writer to start an epic, thus the 5,000 words. Where as once a writer starts on drabbles and vigaretts (I couldn't spell I know), they do collect a certain amount of readership, thus the 5-piece.

I am being totally OT here, hope it helps, and of course, I think the idea is amazing! (Why am I commenting at all otherwise ;D)

[hiake.livejournal.com]

BTW, here thru DS.

[the-dark-twin.livejournal.com]

Written less than a total of 5,000 words, or 5 non-series pieces (whichever less applies) can be count as "unknown"

Since it's pretty unlikely for a new writer to start an epic, thus the 5,000 words. Where as once a writer starts on drabbles and vigaretts (I couldn't spell I know), they do collect a certain amount of readership, thus the 5-piece.

May I offer a counter-example - I know an author whose first fanfic was over 75.000 words long. That one got over 400 reviews on FF.net, but only 4 or 5 on skyehawke.com.
She's only ever written two fanfics on the whole (the second being around 10.000 words). And all that happened between October 2003 and March 2004.

Would she qualify as new, unknown, and underappreciated?


Sorry I'm being negative, I know you were only trying to help, but it is kinda hard to pin down how to select people.

[starkittyn.livejournal.com]

*hops up and down hopefully*

me me me me me!!!

[the-dark-twin.livejournal.com]

Have to agree with many other comments here - how would you define "new", "unknown" and "underappreciated"?

Does it mean that you can't have more than three fics written, that you can't have over a certain number of reviews, that you have to have under a certain number of people on your friends list? And do you get kicked out again after you've been a member for more than 6 months because then you're no longer new?

Would "unknown" refer to the HP fandom in general, or the ship/genre people write? Would it be restricted to LJ or would it refer to all online HP fandom? I just don't see how you could measure that.

And as for "underappreciated", aren't we all? ;)

(Seriously, I think this is so subjective that you won't get anywhere if you try and define it. Unless you make it a reccing community where the choice of recs is purely based on the personal reading preferences of the reccer, or something.)


I'm sorry I'm sounding so negative here, I'm all for appreciating comparatively new and so far overlooked authors and encouraging them whenever you come across them - I just think it's very hard to define them as a group.

[huntress1013.livejournal.com]

A community in which you rec underappreciated authors? Yes that would be interesting. I am always in search for new reading material.

[casebycasey.livejournal.com]

Hello, I'm here from the Daily Snitch.

Speaking as someone who sort of hovers off on the edges of the fandom and has written exactly one fic (which I'm fairly sure no one save my beta reader has read), I feel like for me what would be more useful than a community for promoting my writing would be sort of an orientation system for new writers. It seems like there are plenty of places to post or promote a piece, but it's not necessarily easy to know what's appropriate where. It would be great to have some place to ask for suggestions on where a piece might belong, or even just an annotated list of some sort. If it were possible to ask about fandom etiquette in the same place it'd be doubly helpful. Maybe this all already exists and I just don't know where to look. :D

Thank you for thinking of this, though.

[a_belladonna]

Sounds interesting. I agree with those who ask how "unknown", "underappreciated" etc is defined though - it's a tricky question. Perhaps you could look at the average amount of feedback the person receives or something?

[maeglinyedi.livejournal.com]

Right, and how do you know that author X, who only gets 3 reviews on lj, for example, doesn't have her stuff archived over at some pairing archive where there are dozens of reviews from hundreds of readers who have long since discovered her? Does that still make author X an 'underappreciated author'? Just saying. ;-)

[jetis.livejournal.com]

Ah, that reminded me of a friend who had just read A.J. Hall's stuff and she asked me why no one knew of this fabulous writer. And I was like, everyone does as far as I know.

Unknown itself, and then underappreciated is such a subjective term.

[a_belladonna]

Does that still make author X an 'underappreciated author'?
No, I wouldn't say that, just a bit invisible on LJ, perhaps. (But would author X feel underappreciated? Somehow I don't think so, but I have no way of knowing that)
I imagined you'd simply have to do the incredible boring and time-wasting thing and check and double-check on the authors, before reccing them as an "unkown" or "underappreciated" author.

I know that if I was going to rec someone that I thought was unknown/underappreciated, I'd do that. But perhaps it's just me being weird :-)

[ptyx.livejournal.com]

Am I underappreciated? Everybody feels underappreciated...

[maeglinyedi.livejournal.com]

Right. What everyone else says. I think it will be hard to find the 'truly unknown' and 'truly underappreciated' authors out there. (Hell, I found an author just 2 weeks ago I had never heard of before. But apparently, her work is well-known in a certain circle of fandom and one of her fics is considered a classic in fandom. How should I have known this when I didn't know her?).

I think that in the end, your community will turn out to be a subjective recs list, like so many recs lists out there. I always make an effert to rec 'unknown authors' on my recs list, and I know a lot others do as well, so in that matter your community won't add something new to this fandom.

And I think the problem isn't getting the people from your flist who are interested in finding new authors to participate in your community. No, I think the problem will be to get the rest of fandom, those who need a friendly shove in the good direction when it comes to unknown authors, to take an interest in the community.

Just a few things that are perhaps worth considering. :-)

[minerva-fan.livejournal.com]

Sure, I'd be interested.

[rivieremalfoy.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested. I know most people haven't read the few stories I have written. But my writing is becoming better and I'd like them to be read.

[orange-bastard.livejournal.com]

Yes, please. Sounds like a great idea. Fandom is SOOOO huge, I can't keep track. I have my favorites, but it's always good to see new writers (and artists)

[eudaimon.livejournal.com]

As someone who's constantly complaining about how hard it is to get almost anyone to read anything NEW in this fandom, I'd certainly be happy to be involved ;)

R