From:        Don Wang, dwang@sprynet.com

On Sun, 23 Jun 1996, Harold Ancell <hga@access.digex.net> wrote:

And a Fanfic C&C list.  This list could possibly feed into the social
list (I've always felt some "spam" was a good idea, since the line
between spam and brainstorming can rather thin), but that will require
some sort of (perhaps case by case) blocking technology so that too
much spam from the social list doesn't spill over into the C&C list.

	That's something I've been planning, too.  Since you brought this up, I 
might as well propose my idea.  What I have planned in mind is that one 
person, probably someone with a lot of Internet time and the proper 
facilities, receives all the fanfics and sends them out to the list to 
subscribers.  Then, the people on this C & C ML can write back individually 
back to the author with C & C.

I honestly think that this is a bad idea, if it's truly intended as a 
replacement C&C list -- and not simply an alternate way of distributing 
fanfics. (I think the idea of an additional list for fanfic distribution 
only isn't bad; I just don't want it to be the sole or even the main 
avenue for C&C.) Critiques can and often do benefit from shared or group 
criticism; witness the numbers of writer's groups, circles, and 
workshops. Group critiques have a synergy lacking in solitary comments -- 
one person's analysis can spark an insight for someone else, or clarify 
another's "there's something that bothers me here, but I can't quite put 
my finger on it." In addition, the best critiques can serve as an example 
for both other authors and other C&C'ers. Going to a system where all C&C 
were mailed directly to the author would lose this element.

I'd feel much the same way about splitting this ML into a "social" and a 
"C&C" list. Even a group C&C list would be sterile if strictly defined, 
IMHO; the best writer's groups I've seen have had a "looseness" and 
richness of topic, because almost anything can come up in the course of 
writing or discussing writing. (The WRITING echo on Fidonet is one of my 
favorites, for this reason.) And I think the social aspects/spam of this 
list would lose most of its interest without the fanfics and C&C to fuel 
it. 

The ML has gotten out of hand with spam in the past, and will probably do 
so again in the future. However, at least one of the two biggest flood 
topics of the last couple of days -- the "Author in fanfic" thread -- is 
not even spam, but is directly related to fanfic writing. I don't think 
anything short of strict topic control will ever eliminate message 
floods, and that would sterilize the list as surely as an overabundance 
of spam would kill it.



Travis Butler
(The Professor, formerly of Myth and Magick!, Lawrence, KS;
 tbutler@tfs.net, now from the Wandering Powerbook;
 <http://www.tfs.net/personal/tbutler/>;
 Mac page <http://www.tfs.net/business/tbutler/>)

...Cats are the proof of a higher purpose to the universe.