This post is partly relevant to the new thread and also to the
original post that sparked this in the first place. I apologize
if it gets confusing on whom I am speaking to at times...

Thoughts, panda-signs, telepathy, et al. are a major factor of
dispute in fanfiction.

IMHO a writer is entitled to use whatever they want to denote
these things although they should at the same time try to avoid
usage of weird characters not shown on the standard keyboard.

The problem with <. and {. and [. marks, however, is that some
of the email reading clients use html coding or another coding
language which uses those marks itself. I have come across many
a fanfic which looked perfectly fine in one email reader but in
another lost a lot of the content.

Personally I tend to use ' as an open and close mark to denote
thoughts and _ as an open and closer for exaggeration. Is it the
right style of writing..? Probably not.. but it's my way.. and
until someone comes out and says that my fics are causing
problems reading it's what I'll continue to use.

If someone wants to use <. marks to denote thoughts.. let them.
It is, after all, their work not yours. If you find yourself
unable to read the thoughts because the marks they use takes
away the text within them.. then just stop reading that person's
works or only use a mail client which can read them fully.

I apologize for the continuation of what at a glance appears to
be a subject which should soon be labelled off-topic, but it
concerns me that people are trying to control each other. As
fanfic readers / critics we should never forget that the work in
the end is the work of the author. We should make suggestions by
all means.. but never edicts.

Also, a comparison of the book / magazine / etc. formats with
the internet fanfiction community brings about several
problems. In the 'published world' type is usually sent out with
justified align/lettering whereas here it usually comes out left
aligned/solid letter spacing. We would also every one of us be
risking hefty fines/sentencing for the stealing of commercial
works if we were posting these anywhere other than the internet.

This does not mean that I necessarily disagree with many of the
points stated by the original critic's post which gave birth to
this discussion. I do wonder, though, as to the reasons 'real
world publishing' was used as an example of good content.. quite
often I have found as many mistakes and examples of poor grammar
in big-name books as I have in some of the fanfics that have
blessed this list and community.

Anyone ever read Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series? Great
stories they may very well be.. but even there you have some
major errors that just grate on the nerves if spotted... Did you
know that in "The Eye of the World" the same 3 paragraphs were
repeated twice on top of each other at one point? At another
point Rand thought about the scarf gained from a kind farmer..
the story continued without ever leaving/enterring flashbacks
and soon had him receiving a scarf from a farmer.. then later he
met the farmer for the first time and had a dialogue where he
accepted a scarf because the farmer couldn't afford to keep him
and Mat at his farm. Anyone else that finds that setup slightly
suspicious please raise your hand..

- Akraen (S. Metcalf)


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