Loosing Good Authors

[Guest Jackie_Boi]

I really miss the old AFF. I used to get so many hits and reviews. Now I'm lucky if I get 1 review for the whole month! I also recall how AFF had tons of people signed in, now it's like one line of folks. I also miss how easy AFF made it to access the stories. Now the stories are in whole different links, making it take more effort to change from celeb fiction, to anime (I kno, I kno, I'm lazy) It's depressing really. But like you guys said, to keep the old authors on (or get some back) we have to support them 100%. Give them detailed reviews and such.

On the under 18 crowd thing. I've never had a problem with anyone giving me a review that simiply says "This story sucked" but I know those type of reviews are out there. I'm sure the over 18 crowd are the ones pumping out the quality stories, but I'm sure there are some under 18 that can get some decent ones out (prolly from 15 and up, under 15 I can't see having enough maturity to write a decent adult fanfic). But, of course, I know certain stories HAVE to had been done by someone under 18. There was a Brokeback Mountain fic that was just so terrible that I wanted to cry. I know my writing isn't the best, so I can't go around acting as if I'm the slash king or something, but it was so horrible that it made my writing look like that of William Shakespear.

Even though there are some stories like that, I doubt it has effected AFF that much at least not as much as the downtime. Hopefully AFF gets back to the way it used to be...

Anyone remember the really old AFF days? When whats her face owned the site before handing it over to the current owners? *sigh* Those were the days...

Speaking of mutherf**king downtime. I had to wait to post this cos they were backing up files. *sigh* I kno, they are doing their best, but MAN.

[Guest Melody Fate]

I also recall how AFF had tons of people signed in, now it's like one line of folks.

Yes, but it is increasing a bit every day. A couple weeks ago, I would notice only two or three names, now I'm seeing a whole row, often a row and a half. Slowly, word is getting out and slowly, people are coming back.

I have a couple reviews for my story where people pretty much say they weren't sure when the site was going to be up. I've also had people write, "You didn't update! Why don't you like us anymore?" which tells me that even if AFF had put a big disclaimer on the top of every single page, explaining what was going on, people still wouldn't read it and still would gripe.

But, as said, they're coming back. And in the past week or so, I've noticed they're coming back faster than in the previous weeks. I'm not a betting girl, but if I were, I'd bet that by mid to late July, we'll have the same traffic we had before the move started.

I've never had a problem with anyone giving me a review that simiply says "This story sucked" but I know those type of reviews are out there.

First review for my story says less than that, it merely says, "Story sucks" My first reaction upon seeing that was to calmly and maturely, toss a hissy fit in the corner. "Oh noes! People don't wuv my story!" Fortunately, that's about the only review like that on the story. Also, since the reviewer left her email address, I figured she didn't mean it the way it sounded. I wrote her and pretty much said that if she wanted me to take her seriously, she would tell me why the story sucked and if she didn't, I would dismiss her opinions as those of a troll. She wrote me back and I was able to determine that the only way I could have pleased her was by changing the plot and the personalities of all the main characters (this is original fiction, so it isn't like I had folks acting OOC.) Now I keep that review up there just to keep me humble.

I don't bring up that story to brag, I bring it up to point out that there are reviewers that just don't know any better, so they leave reviews that come off looking either like flames (story sucks!) to the babbling chibbles of a hyperactive Carebear. (Oooo, I luv UR story. Please update soon, plz, plz, plz? I'll give you cookies!)

Seeing that there are actual professional companies out there who will critique your work for you, (note I said critique, not edit, not fix, just read it and let you know what they think and how they feel a publisher will react to it) and charge for it, starting at rates of about 100 dollars for the 1st 100 pages, we writers sometimes have a bit of nerve expecting all our readers to give us carefully constructed, professional reviews.

But, of course, I know certain stories HAVE to had been done by someone under 18.

You know... I used to think that too, based on when I was 18, I wrote so much better than so many people here do. Hell, at 12 I wrote much better than a lot of fics I've seen around. But, I've found a lot of stories where I know for a fact the person is in their mid 20s and older, and they read like the deranged ramblings of a preteen who takes the special classes in school, the ones where all the books still have pictures.

I think in part the reason for this is exposure. In my day, writing was a pretty lonely thing to do. There was no internet to put up your story exposing it to hundreds, perhaps even thousands of readers. It took a lot of dedication to keep writing, knowing that chances are your story would never be published and the odds of you even finding more than a couple people willing to read it were minimal. I had lots of friends who saw me writing, and tell me how they were going to write a story too. Most of them never did more than talk. A few actually sat down and tried, but the lack of encouragement and feedback soon drove them to give up writing. Which, was a good thing, because most of them stunk to high heaven.

With the net, an audience is too easy to find. A medeocre writer can slap up her work and chances are, find at least a small group of people who will say it's good. Especially if it's got a lot of sex or if it's fanfiction with a pairing everyone likes. It's enough encouragement to keep some people writing, who would have normally given it up.

[quamp]

Well, as a long-time fanfic writer (I've been doing it online since 1997) I can say that it's pretty much the same for me. I write, I score a few hits, and rarely get reviewed.

I haven't seen much of those "You suck" reviews. Trolls come and go. Fanfic writers come and go. You just got to keep going at it. I don't see a problem.

[StoryJunkie]

Anyone remember the really old AFF days? When whats her face owned the site before handing it over to the current owners? *sigh* Those were the days...

Wasn't her name Beth? I joined a couple weeks before she left, and I think they were just starting up the coffee-mugs and t-shirt store. (is that still around?) I think Jaxxy was still here then and so was Apollo. If you look at their url, the numbers that represent them are very small. (My number, for instance is 1296778524 and I joined in Aug 2005. Kara, who joined in Oct 2002 is 304) (Apollo is 13, btw, kind of weird, eh?)

Change is part of life. Sometimes you succeed, sometimes you don't. Sometimes you surprise yourself and everybody around you. Sometimes you crash and burn spectacularly. What ever happens, I'm glad I was here for even a small part of it.

[Guest atsuita_no_renkinjutsushi]

We're definitely losing authors; and readers. I've been getting emails asking why nobody on AFF completes their stories, me included. I also talk to a girl who likes me stories, and she said she hasn't been back to AFF because the transfer made her think it was being shut down. A lot of people are moving to Livejournal now... I admit I've thought of doing the same. I enjoy the community and the sense of being a part of something like AFFnet, but I'm getting death-throe feelings here. I don't me or anythone else to lose AFFnet, but the authors and thea readers are leaving. if it all moves to LJ, we'll totally lose the community feel, we'll lose the togetherness, we'll lose the way everyone was in one place.

Do you know what I mean? I'm bad with descriptions in situations like this. I think I just kind of took AFFnet like a net family, people I could relate to with stories I liked, who liked my stories. It would suck to have that all disappear.

[Guest Agaib]

Now that everything is slowly coming back to normal, I think it's just a matter of the waiting game before the authors come back. I know they liked the community feel and as more people realize that AFF is quite functional they'll come back.

[NightScribe]

I'm really going out on a limb here, and setting myself up to be flamed, but here goes:

A lot of people resist change; they like things the way they are, if ain't broke don't fix it, etc. I think AFF tried to make things better, but it wasn't as seamless a transistion as they had hoped. It happens, so it took more time than they expected. Now, I don't know the average age of AFF authors and readers, but we live in an age where many people expect instant gratification, especially the younger generation, they're just used to it. "What do you mean I can't post? Why hasn't that author updated? I'm here now and I want it now!" It's sad in a way that society as a whole has become like that. We have 24 hour news outlets, e-mail notification on phones, high speed internet, next day delivery of those shoes you've just got to have by tomorrow. Maybe all that immediate satisfaction has reduced the ability to employ a little patience, and there's such a glut of similar outlets that people will move on to get that instant fix. Plus, it's so much easier to bitch and leave, rather than get into a dialogue and ask questions, listen, and make suggestions that could be beneficial to all. (Geez, I'm starting to sound like some liberal arts hippie-sorry about that!)

Don't misunderstand, I'm not knocking the younger folks; I love my fast computer, internet, cable and fast shipping as much as the next person, but maybe being a little older also makes me a bit more mellow. The site downtime was a bit of a vacation; an opportunity for me to think, get started on a future story, take a break from a story in progress and go back to it with fresh thoughts and renewed zeal. Of course, I could be totally wrong about all this and just talking crazy.

[Guest Agaib]

You're not crazy. I agree with what you said, and thinking on it another way. The underage crowd on AFF is the most likely to leave it and honestly. I don't think the admins or moderators will miss them.

[Guest Melody Fate]

It happens, so it took more time than they expected. Now, I don't know the average age of AFF authors and readers, but we live in an age where many people expect instant gratification, especially the younger generation, they're just used to it.

Well, I'm far from the younger generation myself, but it wasn't necessarily that the transition took so long, it was that it took way longer than they said it was going to, and a lot of people had no clue.

I've gotten way too many emails and a few comments along the lines of, "Boo hoo, you hadn't updated for so long, I was sure you'd abandoned the story!" Now, I went and took down all the email addresses I could from my comments and mailed all the readers I could to let them know the site was having problems and that I would be updating in an LJ until the site was back to normal. Yet, a lot of people still thought I just wasn't updating.

It isn't AFF's fault. I'm sure they were hoping they would switch over to the new server easily. But they couldn't.

Then there was stuff that apparently needed to be transfered by hand. I'm not an HTML/Web design expert, but it sounds like a lot of busy work needed to be done to get stuff from point A to the new point B.

I admit, if I was just a reader of this site, I might have forgotten about it too, unless someone came along and reminded me of it. "Remember AFF? It's back!" First it was the middle of February, then it was March, then it was, "We're working on it, be patient!"

It's one of those situations where everyone is to blame and no one is to blame. I admit the whole, "We need to switch servers... oops, wrong, we need to go back!" is a bit confusing, but This post explains it pretty well what happened. (Go to about the middle of the page and read Dark Avenger's response, that give the story. ) but once the situation is clear, it's easy to see what happened.

The site took a long time to convert. No one's fault, really, it was just one problem after another. You can't really blame the site.

The people leaving... well, let's say you have a favorite little bookstore. And they say, "We're closing for a week!" Okay, you can deal. You go back after a week and it's sort-of open, but inside, they say, "We're moving next door, we'll be back in business in two weeks!"

So, you leave and come back in two weeks. It's not open. You give it another week or so... you come back and it's open, but they cannot accept any delivery of new books, all they'll sell are the books they have. And this goes on for what seems like an awful long time. Finally they start letting some new stock through, but even that is going slow.

The reasons behind all this slowness might be perfectly legitimate, but after awhile, most people are going to look elswhere for another bookstore. The bookstore doesn't want this to happen, of course, but they really have no choice. Reasons beyond their control are hanging up the completing of the shop, that's why they can't stock it.

The best way to get traffic coming back? (If AFF even wants more traffic... I hope they do, but there were issues of people being bitched out for visiting the site too often) let people know it's back and running. The AFF staff isn't big enough to spread the word themselves, that's what we need to do. Put it in our journals, our sigfiles on other message boards, any place we feel former AFF customers might go. "Hey, AFF is back again!" with a link taking them to the opening page.

I doubt even 1/10 of the folks that aren't visiting here as often are doing so because they're snubbing the site. I'm betting they just don't realize it's reopened and people are able to update.

[NightScribe]

Melody Fate-

Good analogy with the bookstore. I'm sure there are people who might not know the site is back up, and it doesn't even occur to them to check back, having found something else. But I also think that new people will be taking a look and, hopefully, decide to stick around awhile and browse; if they like what they see, they may start posting fics themselves and we'll have good, new authors joining the community.

(Man, I sound so Mary Poppins optimistic, and I'm not like this in real life at all. I'm a smart-ass, skeptical cynic with a painfully dry wit. What has this place done to me???)

[Guest Jackie_Boi]

hmm, the site seems to be having some ok traffic, altho we can't exactly go off who is signed in, espically with this different set up, where the catigories are completely seperate, which becomes a hassle sort of for people like me who likes a bit of everything. But, I do see the site coming back and hopefully bigger than ever. Trust me, if people want some adult fanfiction, they will know where to find it. And those people who don't know it's back up will prolly bump into it one day and go "Wow, it's back on!"

Anyways, I think we already have most of the core members back. Because, if you cared enough, you checked into the site at least every 2 weeks. So, I'm guessing those who really wanted the site back up are alreadying reading and posting...hopefully. k, I'm done with my rambling .

[Guest cranky mom]

While I agree with most of what has been said it can be quite frustrating for authors, readers and admins and just anyone in general with this site. I was gone for the last 2 wks and when I got back I thought that there would be a lot of new stuff to read, new chapters posted and more reviews but nothing, it was still the same before I left. I always try to review on a story I like and give encourgment to keep at it, but I don't know things seem the same and I know its taking time but enough sometimes is enough! Hopefully when all is said and done it will be the Awesome AFF I used to know and love!!!

[StoryJunkie]

Sweet dreams are made of this

Who am I to disagree?

I travel the world

And the seven seas

Everybody's looking for something.

~Annie Lennox

[Guest Melody Fate]

hmm, the site seems to be having some ok traffic, altho we can't exactly go off who is signed in, espically with this different set up, where the catigories are completely seperate, which becomes a hassle sort of for people like me who likes a bit of everything. But, I do see the site coming back and hopefully bigger than ever. Trust me, if people want some adult fanfiction, they will know where to find it. And those people who don't know it's back up will prolly bump into it one day and go "Wow, it's back on!"

I believe no matter what section you're going to, you can see everyone who's signed on for all sections.

[Iggy_lovechild]

As someone who frequently posted on AFF I was very frusterated when the site became so goddamned buggy. It also pissed me off when various stories disappeared and reappeared to the point that I have know fucking clue what's what anymore.

But....

Today i recieved a PM from this forum and perhaps I can assume things are working now?

Call me bitter, but I just don't know what to do about AFF anymore because it makes me really cranky that I haven't been able to post.

[NightScribe]

Iggy-

You shouldn't have problems posting now. Things seem to be going swimmingly from my side of the laptop screen. Of course, there is that, you have to log in to the archive you want to post to thing. But as far as I can see, that's really the only difference now.

[Iggy_lovechild]

Yes, for the past couple days I've been cross-posting stories that would've ended up on AFF (if only it had been working at the time of their conception). I'm quite pleased with how everything is working.

I'll admit that I was angry before, but so long as everything keeps working I'll be fine. True, I'm not getting so many reviews anymore, but I'm used to that. Of late I've been writing for small fandoms, so I'm used to getting only a few fits and maybe one or two reviews.

I did move over to live journal, but that won't stop me from posting at AFF as well. Cross-posting isn't that hard, after all.

[Guest Mike256bit]

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.

To be completely fair, I end up being really disappointed at least 3/5 times because of that exact problem. Caps-Lock Syndrome is a real deal-breaker and it's just poor writing in general. To be technical, emphasis should be expressed in italics, anyway (but, Mike, they're shouting!).

For a while I was more interested by really detailed and intricate sex scenes, but a surge of pedestrian, formulaic, predicable cap-fests makes me long for the days where something was left to the imagination (and not because of a limited vocabulary).

[englishwitch]

It is true that a lot of good authors have left the site, but so many more have stayed behind and had faith and waited for AFF to get beck on its feet and i personally think its been worth the wait. the site isn't even fully up yet and i'm finding the new system easier to manage.

while we may have lost some good authors there is new talent finding its way to AFF every day, so i'd stick around if i were you, you may find someone else you like either just as much, or more.

Besides isn't the site a little better off without those fairweather fans? the first sign of trouble, one little request to be patient and off they go. the people who had faith in the site are left and i'd wager most of those people are the ones who put some effort in their fics, the cream of the crop so to speak. it always annoyed me when i found what looked like a good fic but then turned out to be half a page long and looked like a child wrote it. they are the sort of people who left and i think AFF is better off without them.

[Guest Mike256bit]

I guess it is a testament to those who came back. There's something to be said for having faith in the system. Still, it's hard to say that the wait, running far longer than it should have, wasn't confusing, irritating, and off-putting. Eventually, you stop checking every day, and then you stop all together. Unfortunately, a few have taken that turn (I was close to doing the same until a friend of mine pointed out the revival).

I do like the freshness, though. It's almost as if I'm rediscovering the site and it's fun to find works that I'd not read in forever. There also seems to be a rekindling of a sense of community and involvement, which is critial for creativity. I may not have been that united with AFF before it went down, but the fear (I guess you can call it fear) of possibly not having a free and expansive home for adult works made me realize that this place was not a place I wanted to lose. While there may be other archives, there's nothing like AFF.

It's memorable, for one.