"Larry W. Fontenot" <fontenot@earthlink.net> wrote:

	As a newbie to the FFML, that raises a question in my mind.  What is the
accepted procedure for C&C?  Is it assumed that C&C should be sent
privately, or should it be posted to the mailing list for all to see? 

There's no set rule on this. Different readers and writers have
different preferences. Some writers ask that all feedback be sent
directly to them, and in these cases C&Cers should abide. But other than
that, it's a matter of whether a C&Cer thinks he or she has something to
say that's of interest to people other than the author. I myself send a
fair amount of my responses to the list -- if nothing else, it might
inspire more people to start commenting on fics instead of spamming. :)

Most
of the responses for my own story have been sent to my email, rather than
posted, and I've mainly done the same, but speaking for myself, I wouldn't
mind at all if it was all open posting.  I think that if everyone was able
to see the comments made by other people, there would be less duplication
of critique, which has happened a lot.

I agree with this, for pretty much the same reason. With my Hearts and
Minds series, I've tried to encourage people to send their comments to
the list. Other people have different preferences, though, and the best
thing I think is for authors to state their preferences in their
authors' notes.

OTOH, when people have no comment on a fic and just want to request a
previous chapter or some such, then there is no reason to post to the
list unless you want each of the list's several hundred subscribers to
send you a copy. :p I've gotten irate with people for doing this in the
past, and that's the reason for that little bit of self-satire that you
quoted.

	In that same direction, how about MST's?  Are they supposed to be
generally posted, or sent to the author first?

They are usually just generally posted.


Gary Kleppe
http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe/comics