I need a life, part 495,746

[sholio]

Pertaining to the previous SPN post, a couple of links to interesting discussions on race and gender issues in SPN:

Letter to Eric Kripke
On fannish objections to race/gender discussions of SPN

What I should be doing at the moment is working on my graphic novel script, which is soundly kicking my ass today. Obviously, I'm having some trouble maintaining proper focus. Also, I just realized it's already the 23rd and I still owe stargateficrec two recs each in the Sheppard and Sheppard/McKay friendship categories before the end of the month. Oops.

Hey, a question for everybody: When you rec stories, do you feel compelled to point out the flaws in your rec (making it more like a review, I suppose), or do you try to remain positive?

I find myself taking a different approach when I'm reccing things on my journal vs. at a public rec site like stargateficrec or stargategenrec. In my role as "public" reccer, I really do try to do all-positive recs -- which sometimes means finding things to rec that I really don't have any complaints about, or sometimes forcing myself to avoid mentioning the issues that I might have had with something I'm reccing. (Spelling/grammar mistakes, an ending I didn't like, etc.) I suppose that it seems unfair to bias a reader against something beforehand, when the item that bothered me might not bother them at all.

On my journal, though, I'm usually a lot more honest -- I still wouldn't rec something I didn't feel was worthy of it, obviously, but I do tend to mention things that bugged me about the story as well as things I thought were brilliant. The difference ... I guess that it's a matter of my journal being my own private space, and because it *does* make me a little uncomfortable to rec things I'm not 100% positive about without mentioning the flaws, I'd rather preserve my own comfort in my own journal. On public rec sites, I'm less concerned about my own comfort and more interested in pointing readers at a fic without predisposing them to look for the flaws in it.

As a reccer, what about you? Or is it even something you've thought about?

As a reader, do you prefer an honest, "warts and all" review, or would you rather go into a story with a more positive impression in mind? Or do you even read a rec beyond simply finding links to click on? (Which is actually the approach I take, more often than not. I'll skim the summary part of a rec to find out if the story sounds like my cup of tea, but I don't usually read beyond that because I'd rather be unspoiled.)

As a writer, do you object to having recs of your stories that aren't all-positive? Would you prefer not to be recced at all rather than have your story memorialized for all time as "Great characterization, terrible grammar"? (Me, I don't mind a bit, just for the record. Well, I might gripe in private about a review that I thought was really, truly unfair, but mostly I'm just interested to find out what people have to say about my stories.)

Comments

[parisntripfan.livejournal.com]

As a reader, do you prefer an honest, "warts and all" review

The problem with this is that what you (generic you that is) think is a wart, I as a reader might think is great or not a problem at all. I mean sure, problems with the basics - things like grammar, not being able to spell the names of the main characters correctly or really, really out of character behavior (without there being a good reason for said behavior) then yeah - those are problems. But if the problems are that big, then I would wonder why you were reccing the story in the first place.

I agree with the person who talked about one of the differences between a public reccing list and a private journal is I have slightly better insight into the people on my friends list then I do the general public. For example having read your fics Friendshipper I have a pretty good idea of your view of the characters so I would be better able to judge a comment like "interesting plot but I found Rodney to a bit out of character" from you then I would from someone who I didn't know as well and had no idea what his/her view of Rodney was. Does s/he see him as 1)a poot woobie who needs to be protected form his mean teammates, 2) total SOB who doesn't deserve the friends he does have, or 3)a guy with the hard outer shell, mushy insides who most the the time gives as good as he gets in his relationship with his closest friends. I might not know these things from someone on of the public reccing lists as well as I would from someone on my f-list.

I hope that makes some sense...

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's why I tend to mention the things I like about the story only (maybe a side note about name misspellings if applicable). What I like isn't necessarily what other people like, but I trust them to know that. But what I dislike is harder for them to tell without reading the story, and I wouldn't want to put someone off unnecessarily.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Er, but that's easily solved by saying why you thought something was OOC. "I found Rodney's characterisation unbelievable because canon has never shown us that he cries every night because Atlantis is mean to him" gives you all the info you need to know. If don't like that characterisation, you can stay away, but if you think canon isn't showing it, but Rodney really is crying every night and thinking of committing suicide by orange juice, or if you like that characterisation regardless of canon, you'll know it won't bother you (or will even be a draw).

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

It makes sense to me. In fact, sometimes it's amusing to me to run across someone griping about a fic on their journal, then go actually read the fic in question and discover that it's been completely misrepresented (well, from my viewpoint, anyway!).