[HP4GU-FAQ] Fwd: [Fantastic_Posts] HPfGU Fanfic FAQ Recommendations

[Susannah Myers]

--- Heidi Tandy <heidit at netbox.com> wrote:
> Here's a question which will need to be addressed:
> should we allow links 
> directly to nc17 fics?
> 
> In the past, hpfgu has not done so, and given that
> the faqs were hosted 
> on fa's server, it would not have been permissible
> for them to have, as 
> no links directly to nc17 material were permitted on
> the server - or are 
> now, in fact.
> 
> But next month, fa is moving to a new server and as
> I understand it, 
> links to nc17 material are permitted (although fa
> still won't do so).
> 
> Do we want to allow links directly to nc17 fics?
> 
> Can I ask that nobody create a poll on this for at
> least a week, so we 
> can discuss it first?
> 
> Heidi

Er. . . I, at least, would be extremely uncomfortable
with the idea; I rarely, rarely. . . just about never,
really. . . read NC-17 fics myself. 

NC-17 content is definitely *not* something at all
suitable for discussion on HPfGU; and since the FAQ
will be compiled by the HPfGU FAQ list and will be, in
a sense, the recommendations of the HPfGU community,
I'm not sure it would be appropriate -- apart from
everyting else, although the list *is* primarily
composed of adults, we do have some younger members,
and if they go and read the Fanfic FAQ, I'd rather
think that they couldn't find links to explicit
material there. And if neither HPfGU *nor* FA contains
such material. . . well, all in all, I think it might
be better not to link to it.

The other thing, though, is that if I'm remembering
the first current Fanfic FAQ correctly, it is a fairly
selective and limited list; this is a list of the best
of the best, not a catch-all sort of thing. And the
proportion of truly excellent fic that is also NC-17
is, I imagine, and going by the very little of it that
I *have* read, quite, *quite* small. To be blunt, a
lot of it is simply smut. Not all of them are, of
course, but quite a lot. And I think that, like very
sexually explicit or violent filmmaking, very sexually
explicit or violent writing is often just a form of
laziness -- good writers can generally make their
stories sexy without making them explicit. 

Given the fact that it seems so OOC for HPfGU or FA to
link directly to NC-17 stories, and given the -- IMHO
-- very real possibility that it could stir up a
controversy on-list, the benefits of the possibility
of including the relatively few Fantastic NC-17
stories out there seem pretty slim. 

I would recommend against it.

And, you know, there's one other thing I've thought
of. I've seen complaints from time to time on OTC --
some of them from parents -- about the difficulty of
finding well-written fanfic that isn't adults only. It
is out there, and it's something a lot of people would
like to find more easily, but it can be hard to
locate. I think that including NC-17 fic on the FAQ
might just sort of. . . make that gap worse. The adult
stuff (not just NC-17, obviously, but between that and
R) already *has* a majority -- I'm not sure we need to
spotlight it. It might, on the other hand, be nice to
have a selection of younger-age appropriate fanfic on
the list. I think a lot of people, a lot of list
members, might be grateful to have it.

How's the FAQ going to be organized, d'you know yet?
It might make sense to have it -- although it could be
subdivided within these categories, of course --
organized be age.

Just a few thoughts.





Derannimer

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