On Tue, 5 Jan 1999, Jason Liao wrote:

fiction.  Flashback indicators aside, there's the large number of
dialogue/thought indicators: asteriks, tildas, etc... Personally, I can't
think of a single novel I've read that does so.

Sometimes, it works better.  In a published novel, there are cases where
one would use italics or boldface, but for those of us with text only
browsers can't read this.  Thus, it's easier in e-mailed fanfics to use
the *, ~, etc.

	Err, yes.  I've been corrected on this amply, and concede the
point.  Although I'd argue for some kind of standardization -- but that's
a pipe-dream on something like the FFML (or the internet).
	Personally, I use _ (underscore) on either side of italicized
words/sentence to to indicate it as such.  I never italicize thoughts: if
you write:
 	John looked at the woman he had just struck down.  She made faint
mewling sounds, burbling softly through the blood that filled her mouth
and trickled to the pavement.  My God, he thought, never has she looked so
. . . beautiful.
	Then it's pretty clear what's narrative, what's dialogue (though
there wasn't any) and what's thought. (The fact the prose says 'he
thought' is usually a good indication.)
 

	(The one convention that I actually do like is the "...".  I don't
know why.  It's just cute.)

The ellipsis isn't a convention.  It's part of english.

	I know the ellipsis is a standard part of english.  Ellipsis,
alone, as dialogue, isn't.  I've never seen it anywhere outside of
manga/fanfiction.

	There are other little nitpicks: things like situating the story,
giving pages of force-fed introductory details, for instance.  Is it
really necessary to say: this story takes place after v.32, but before
v.34, though the Googlesmash hyper-blast mongotechnique hasn't been learnt
yet?

Yes, it is.
Just yesterday, there was a slight characterisation error that I found on
the part of Akane, where Akane performs an action that might have been
plausible early on, but not after Ryouga's Breaking Point training.
Because the author did not mention the time frame, I almost missed this
point, but luckly, there was a brief appearance of Ukyou, so I was able to
conclude that the fic took place at a time where Akane's action was
unlikely.  Had there been a reference to when the fanfic was occuring,
there would have been much less of a chance of this slipping past.

	That's a mistake on the part of the author.  The author has a
responsibility to know what he/she is doing, and to be clear and (most
importantly) consistant in their characterization.  Assuming the error
exists as you say (and errors of characterization, I find, are _very_ hard
to argue, since it's such an interpretive issue), then the writer should
have simply paid a little more attention.  An outright indication of 'This
takes place after the Breaking Point Technqiue episode, but before Kumon
Ryuu's arrival' should never be necessary. 
 

Also, not everyone has seen every episode of the Anime series which the
fanfic is based, and noting when the action takes place helps one avoid
spoilers.  If someone writes a Gundam Wing fanfic, and tells me that it
takes place after the last episode, I'll know not to read it until I
finish the series. 

	<shrug>  I suppose.  Never been a concern for me.  When I write, I
write the story I feel needs to be told.  If there are spoilers within,
then so be it.  It's usually pretty clear from early on what the timeframe
is -- at least, in most cases it should be.  If it worries the reader,
then they have the indication they need to stop reading.)
	(Some stories are really time-independant.  Where they take place
within a series continuity are irrelevent.  These seem to be more
character-driven, I think, though I'm not sure.)

	-Mike Noakes