Loosing Good Authors

[Guest Ertia]

I've noticed that we're losing alot of really good authors.

At first I thought it was just the site being up and down and down and down, but now, with Morier Blackleaf leaving, I think it's more than that.

Some of my favorite authors have disappeared, and some have taken their archived works with them- Orchyd Constyne, Dark Dreamer and a number of others.

When did this become not a fun place to be anymore?

I've been struggling with a sudden upsurge of vicious reviews, both posted and privately emailed, to my own works, such that I've put them aside until I can stop second-guessing myself. I've been assured that the negativity has driven away other authors as well.

What's happening? And can we fix it? Can we make this a fun place to be again, or can we expect a further exodus of excellent authors?

[Guest Agaib]

I cant say Ive had more negative reviews before. I lot of authors might be leaving but hopefully with time we can get some of them back once the site is working properly. I hope that AFF will return to how it was, and maybe even better.

[Guest Melody Fate]

I would still bet that most of it is because of site troubles. Yes, there are other sites where you can post adult fiction, but AFF was one of the best, they will be again once the dust settles.

I haven't noticed a rise in negative reviews myself. Not saying it isn't out there, but for those who do have that problem, they need to look at the type of reviews they're getting.

If the reviews are "You suck, your story sucks, blah blah blah" just...ignore it. Anyone who can take the time to tell you they hate your writing can take the time to tell you why they hate it. If someone can't bother to do that, then you owe it to yourself not to take them seriously.

As far as what we patrons can do to help keep good writers? Read and review would be the best. Let these writers know how much you appreciate their work. Tell others about it and encourage them to do the same.

AFF could do a lot of things to try to make this site more "fun" but I'd say the biggest reason someone puts their work up here is for it to get read and reviewed. The owners/moderators of AFF are a small fraction of the population. They can't read and review every story, we as the "customers" need to do that.

[Guest Agaib]

Melody is completely right. A lot of people dont review because they "dont know what to say" but it really isnt that important. Say what you think is all an author will care. If you hated the story, and not because you missed/ignored a content warning. Tell them why you think it's bad, and how they could change it. If you absolutely loved the story, there is NOT a SINGLE author on this site that would dislike a review full of constructive praise and encouragement.

[StoryJunkie]

I noticed too. A lot of authors use dial-up, and when the site was so slow, they didn't bother updating. One author I knew did not even keep her stories on her hard-drive but wrote directly in the AFF window and posted. She's an AWESOME writer. And then the adminisrator told her if she kept doing that, she was going to have her stories deleted. (I won't say who, but I got the same message when I did that) So when the read-only came up, she couldn't post and got frustrated, and just didn't come back. I e-mailed her a couple times to let her know about the place where you could post, but the site was still so damn slow, I think that she just gave up.

I mean, there are many steps to know what happened here. I've had comments like: "AFF is so fucked-up" that they didn't want to even bother looking. I couldn't help but agree. The adminisrators said March, and it's June. How long does something like this take? I'm sure that they are to some degree frustrated as well, but would you want to post at a site where the admins threatened to take your work off, even though you were following what they said in their updates concerning their site (being back up by March). It's a circus. I hope that they learn a little more diplomacy regarding their posts and messages to authors.

EDIT: have you noticed that at the top of the page there are maybe no more than 10 people on the site at a time? It used to be three or four lines of people reading, browsing, updating. Sometimes it was so busy that streaming was limited. Now it's like a wide open range. So, in my estimation, about 2/3rds of the people have yet to re-discover AFF.

[Guest Melody Fate]

One author I knew did not even keep her stories on her hard-drive but wrote directly in the AFF window and posted.

Well... I don't know the reasons and circumstances, but to be honest, that's a stupid thing to do. You can't expect AFF to be anyone's personal storage. Even if someone doesn't want to leave stories on their hard drive for whatever reasons, there are other places to store it. You can always get a blog and put them there.

I can understand maybe writing them to the AFF window, although I also wonder now how she could spell check them, or let a beta go through them. But even if that's your prefered way to write, you could still back up what you've written to an online blog.

then the adminisrator told her if she kept doing that, she was going to have her stories deleted.

Huh? *Scratches head* Did they give a reason for this? Why should AFF care how someone gets their story up? That just doesn't make any sense.

Or, were you refering to the "Those who updated when some of us said you shouldn't and others of us said you could" fiasco? if that's the situation, I have to plead the 5th on that one.

[StoryJunkie]

"Those who updated when some of us said you shouldn't and others of us said you could" fiasco? if that's the situation, I have to plead the 5th on that one.

Um, yes, that's what I meant. I'm a bit bitchy right now, sry, but the question did merit some history, and that's bascially what happened. I have a pretty thick skin, and exchanged a few msgs with the admin in question just to get clarified on what exactly was going on. I think it was kind of hairy for the admins at the time, like "they couldn't read the crystal ball, who can?" sort of thing. Unfortunately, some authors were cringing in pain from that reprimand, and I think that the incident hurt AFF. I hope I'm wrong.

[Guest Agaib]

I think StoryJunkie was talking about the "add a chapter to this story" button that you can find. There was confusion among administrators and moderators what the situation was because of that after they had said that updating wasnt allowed. An admin posted on the forum somthing about being allowed to use that "back door" but a lot of moderators were under the impression it wasnt allowed and threatened to deleate accounts or stories. All it was really was a big misunderstanding, but it turned out to be quite a fiasco...

[StoryJunkie]

Loosing Good Authors, Anybody else a little concerned?

the question brings to mind another question: "Do good authors grow on trees?"

I will ponder this a while....

[Guest Melody Fate]

I think StoryJunkie was talking about the "add a chapter to this story" button that you can find. There was confusion among administrators and moderators what the situation was because of that after they had said that updating wasnt allowed. An admin posted on the forum somthing about being allowed to use that "back door" but a lot of moderators were under the impression it wasnt allowed and threatened to deleate accounts or stories. All it was really was a big misunderstanding, but it turned out to be quite a fiasco...

I know all about that fiasco. That's why I pleaded the 5th. I wasn't sure if that's what she meant, or if she was talking about something else entirely.

There are folks around here who are still reeling from the impact of that "misunderstanding." To be honest? It it was a misunderstanding, turned into a nasty peice of work.

[Guest Agaib]

the question brings to mind another question: "Do good authors grow on trees?"

Authors only grow on trees made out of encouragement and talent. Otherwise no, but once AFF is stable I'm sure as a haven it will attract all of those authors who grew on the right tree.

[Guest Melody Fate]

the question brings to mind another question: "Do good authors grow on trees?"

I will ponder this a while....

It used to be that you could say, "Nope, only the paper on which they write..." So, while good writers didn't grow on trees, trees were necessary for good writers.

With computers being so popular, trees are less necessary for writers.

Our forrests thank you!

[Guest Enchanted Faery]

Honestly I've been trying to upload a fic and the site has been down for so long that I have moved to another site and posted there! I love AFF but with the site being down all the time, it gets kinda annoying ya know?

[NinjaGaijin]

Forgive me for saying this, but...

...the average quality of authors in AFF is still lower than ffnazi.net or the greyarchive. [i'm saying this based on a limited sample in the Videogames section]. Then again, if more writers participate, quality will rise. If good writers are the top of a pyramid then their numbers will be larger if the pyramid gets bigger. Of course it will have its excess baggage of bad writers.

[Guest Serenanna]

See, I disagree with that. You're either too critical, or reading the wrong fandoms. I've found alot of the work here to be more readable and understandable at least in the summaries of all things. I can find a decent fic here in under a minute in the FMA section, where are it would take me five to wade through FF.net, and I know I wouldn't find any on the GA.

And at least here everyone lables yaoi so I'm not stumbling over things I don't wanna read. ::glares at ff.net::

Sere

[Guest Big Samurai]

Authors, good and bad, come and go. As has been suggested, the best way to keep the good ones in business is to let them know that you care.

[Guest Melody Fate]

Forgive me for saying this, but...

...the average quality of authors in AFF is still lower than ffnazi.net or the greyarchive.

Not all that familiar with Grey archives, but I'll argue on the other one. I'm actually thinking its about the same.

On the surface that seems right. So many people are writing fanfiction out there. Some are good, some are eh, some suck. As long as archives are willing to take anything, you'll get a mixture of the three.

What does make me wonder though, is that we supposedly have a big advantage, no one under the age of 18 is supposed to be here, which of course includes posting.

There are a number of stories here that either people are lying about their age, or I weep for the future. I'm not talking about the basic spelling and grammar mistakes, I made those when I was 18, because no one beat it into my head. It wasn't until I realized that people would never take my writing seriously if I didn't learn the basics that I tried.

I'm talking about just the whole quality of the story. Poor dialogue, poor plots, horrible sex scenes. Sorry but using caps and writing "OH YESSSSSS" over and over again is not a sex scene.

You would think with the age restrictions, that the number of bad fictions would be lower than it is with the "other archive." Instead, it's right along the same level.

Still, this place used to get mega traffic, with all the downtime, people drifted. Once they realize it's back up and running, they'll be back.

[Guest Serenanna]

I'm familiar with the Grey Archive, and considering the admin's decision to let Superjizz and PJ back in about two years ago now, it's gone down hill. I used to post my works on there and haven't since I starting writing again. It's a long long long story, and while it still holds a reverence in my heart as the breeding ground for many of my friends, fics, and choices I made, I have not looked back since it turned.

And I'm digressing/remininsicing.

The point is that, whatever you hear about the Grey Archive in regards to 'high-quality' is probably related to it being the archive with thee hardest stuff around, all of which is now under lock and key. I haven't tried to log in for a while as the forums there keep changing (another thing that irked me), so I haven't seen the latest stuff to know who is still posting there. Also, to my knowledge, there's not many women there (for which there's a reason and another long story), making it virtually yaoi free. Almost every other fic there, if I remember right, involved women, lots and lots ot women doing lots and lots of things that drive fanboys into hentai-crazed rushes. Oh, yeah, and the tentacles. If all this is your cup of tea, then it's heaven, but I always felt like the odd ball out there as my first original fantasy stories I posted there were straight, involved lots of romance, and had a plot.

So, yeah, while I was there before FF.net ever took off, back then, it was about the only choice for growing hentais internet-wide.

So, yeah, I'm here now. ^.^;;

Serenanna

PS. God, I feel old.

[NightScribe]

So many good points were brought up here. I have to agree that reviewing is a good way to keep an author around. I think, sometimes, it also depends on what category you're posting in. I really didn't get any feedback with my first three fics; then I posted a Phantom fic and the reviews were wonderful; literate, detailed, positive feedback, where the people explained why they liked the story. Added benefit; I saw more hits to my older HP fics that had been languishing. (I publish under a different name). Whenever I've left a review, I've tried to be encouraging, offering helpful hints/tips, even if the story didn't exactly float my boat.

I wonder, too, about the under 18 crowd. I hate to think that adults are churning out such poorly written dreck and leaving "this story sucks" reviews.

I have posted on a couple of other sites, but haven't been satisfied with them. They were much smaller communities, which I thought might be an advantage, but it didn't work out that way. I felt the big city stranger moving into Peyton Place; ignored. I eventually deleted from those sites. I don't think the traffic on AFF has dropped off as much as some people think. I never log in if I'm just reading stories, only if I'm posting or editing (and who doesn't keep a copy of their work?! I've got my fics on hard drive, zip disk, and paper. Then again, I started writing 25 yrs ago on a manual Smith Corona typewriter with carbon copies-yeah, I'm old.)

The one thing that puzzles me is, I've seen posts to these boards about people still having problems posting chapters. I'm just on a lousy dial-up connection, but everything's been going well for me. I just read the post from the administrator on the main AFF site and they said what I did to myself back in April; they must be tearing their hair out with this thing. But now, all seems well. Hopefully, some of those good authors who left due to frustration and impatience may come back to the neighborhood.

[Guest pepper]

For now, I miss the good old days where fics are easier to access. Every time i want to enter AFF, it is often under construction. As for the authors, fics begin to move very slow. some stories used to be updated once a week or a month. but now, it feels that it take a long time for the stories to be updated, to a point where one wonders if the author has stopped to update the stories in AFF.

[StoryJunkie]

Yeah, well, I won't be happy until Keith comes back.

Where did that old sailor get to?

[Guest Agaib]

maybe we should send a "we miss you" email to the old fart.

[StoryJunkie]

I already sent a "where the fuck are you" a couple days ago. Do you suppose that was too strong?

Maybe he's in jail...or worse, *gasp* his wife and kids found out....

[Guest Agaib]

I think his wife already knew so that cant be the problem

[Guest Soulsearcher]

I know during the downtime, I myself have been hanging out a lot at Mediaminer.org I'll post at ff.net, but as many have observed here, the maturity level there is unreliable at best.

I tend to be more of a lurker myself, but I am starting to attempt to involve myself more in communities I enjoy not only for the various fandoms, but for the interesting debates and discussions that take place among the members.

I'm sure there are many who also feel the way I do. Believe me, the moment I discovered the site was back up, I was all over it. There are a lot of real benefits to the community here. The adult atmosphere is definately one of them.

Hopefully, despite the bad business that apparently went on, people will return and give things another chance, with the realization that during the redesign frustration was at a high for many, authors and administrators/mods.