Replying to a couple different people with one post just for brevity's sake.

I was actually thinking that perhaps encouraging a bit of traffic on the
list, even if a bit off-topic, would be healthy.

List traffic WOULD be nice. The problem is, fic requests aren't the kind of
list traffic we need, and most people aren't going to repost another
author's work without their permission--and most of the fics being requested
are either the work of authors who have long since vanished and CAN'T be
contacted, or easily available with a little patient searching of Google or
FF.net.

Considering I posted something just last weekend after years of doing
nothing and Richard Lawson reposted a couple of his "Thy Outward Part"
stories, that comment seems to be surprisingly accurate.

I remember this list two years ago, when I had to filter the posts into
their own folder to keep up. I remember four years ago, when I could

expect

at least a couple of different, often long, chapters posted every day.
Considering that the fandom has grown exponentially in that time, why is
this list fading like it is?

It really is, isn't it? We still get some good, long-running fics posted
here--a couple multicrossovers that seem to be fairly popular, Nowack's
exceptional Naruto fic, Megane's MSTings, Lawson's recent return, and the
like--but the general amount of traffic IS down lately, and it's not because
of the moderation--it's because of McBurger Syndrome.

For those not familiar with the term--although it should be pretty obvious
and self-explanatory--McBurger Syndrome is basically this:

For years, a small mom-and-pop diner is THE popular local hangout. It has
the best hamburgers in town, a friendly atmosphere, a jukebox, damn good
malts, everything.

Then, a McDonald's puts into the neighborhood.

Suddenly, within a couple years, the only people eating at the diner anymore
are the old-timers who eat breakfast and lunch there, or who hang out there
all day not actually doing much business, talking with the owners and each
other about the way things used to be. Sure, you get the occasional random
new customer--business isn't so bad as to warrant actually shutting the
place down--but the cash register's looking mighty lean and the owners find
they're ordering half as many supplies per month as they used to, simply to
avoid having so much to throw away.

The FFML (and to an extent, rec.arts.anime.creative) are the "Pop's Diner"
of the fanfiction world. Fanfiction.net is the McDonald's. Today's fanfic
authors want instant gratification and aren't especially interested in
getting honest, helpful reviews of the stuff they write--which is why they
flock to FF.net, where the most godawful piece of crap ever written can get
at least a dozen "lol luv ur fic rite mor plz" reviews within a day.

Meanwhile, the rest of us old fogies sit around reading our newspaper and
eating the occasional big, juicy bur---err, reading the occasional really
good, long fanfic and complaining about how it just ain't like the good old
days anymore.

FF.net is the McBurger of the fanfiction community, and is pretty much
what's been killing the FFML slowly over the last few years.

Please keep the stories coming.

Seconded. Even though I myself do very little actual writing anymore, and am
severely backlogged on reading my inbound fic queue, I'd much rather have
100 new fics to pile up in my inbox unread than the lean dozen or so that
are there now--and those date back to last February. While pissing and
moaning about it doesn't really do much good, it's better than just sitting
by quietly and waiting for The End to come.

That all having been said, fic requests STILL aren't a very helpful
contribution to the FFML. :P

================================
This message brought to you by the
Bay Area Association of Liquor Pirates:
"We're Here, We're Queer, And We're
STEALIN' YER BEER!!"
              ~~*~~
The Eternal Lost Lurker
www.lurkerdrome.com



             .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
             | Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
             | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
             |     Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject     |
             `---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'