Wednesday, October 08, 2014

Searching for Fic

The routine of checking for updates goes something like this...

First - check all the official "sites we check". Next run through a few dozen sites/livejournal comms I have bookmarked - most of which haven't updated in a while - some for 5 or 6 years. Live Journal was once a bustling, thriving site, packed with fanfic communities. Then they "improved it". Nearly always a bad idea to fix something which isn't broken. They tried to turn it into facebook/twitter/blogger/hotmail. And consequently drove people away. That wasn't what LJ was for.

When I've done that I get myself another mug of coffee - you can't face AO3 without caffeine.

The good thing about AO3 (which puts it streets ahead of nightmare sites like FF.Net) is its tagging and search features. I search on tags. The first one I search for is "female relationships". It's safe to only check that tag once a week - the most there will be is 6 pages or so. (20 titles per page). Most won't be relevant because they'll be friendships, mother/daughter, siblings, etc. But there will be a few that are f/f. Most of those will be duplicated in my other searches but there's always one or two which aren't.

The next search tag is "femslash". Once again a weekly search is enough. Strangely it's not a popular tag. There will be maybe 4 pages. (20 titles per page).

The next search is using the tag "F/F". You absolutely can not leave that for a week. (I found that out the first time I started searching on that and swore never again!!) If you do leave it for that long there will be 60 or 70 pages to check. I check daily (8 to 10 pages) and keep a running thread on a doc.

You can't simply report every item listed though. Some people tag for f/f even when it's het or m/m. Some people tag for f/f if there's a very minor pairing in an otherwise het story. Sometimes the summary helps. If not, it helps to a) know the fandom, b) know the characters/pairings, or c) read the first bits of the story. I read a lot - and I mean a LOT of first chapters. Even in fandoms I hate or with pairings I dislike. Though I have to confess I've found some fairly good stories that way.

I've also back-buttoned very swiftly out of some truly dire ones. I don't report on those.

I don't report on genderswap either. To me those don't seem like proper femslash. Nor do I report on RPF - real person fiction. Although that can be flexible. If the person is living, or was living until recently then no. But historical fiction will have real people in it. If it's long enough ago that there's nobody alive to question the depiction then I don't mind. The Assassin's Creed story tonight for example. Both of the female pirates in that were real people.

I also don't report on incest, graphic rape, or child abuse.

Nor on loli, futanari, vore, tentacle hentai. There's plenty of that around for you to search for if you're so inclined. (If you have no idea what those are and you are of a sensitive, sheltered, or innocent nature - do yourself a favour and don't google them.

I don't report on underage (below adult but not young enough to be loli) because it can be illegal to even read things like that in some countries. Though there are blurred lines in my choices depending on fandom/country etc. and varying ages-of-consent. It's why I don't tend to list high school AUs - most are set in the USA and if I understand the US system correctly that makes the characters younger than 18 - the most common age-of-consent in the US. Not that I understand the attraction in high school AUs anyway - but they seem pretty popular.

I can be illogical in my selections. I'll report on things I don't like but which are good stories. I'll report on fandoms I hate - even if I have to read the story to check it's ok to use. But if the summary contains more than three grammar or spelling errors in three sentences it doesn't stand a chance. *g*. And if the summary isn't a summary but simply the writer being rude or obnoxious... not even going to bother to see if the story's worth the effort.

Well. That's me for this week. Goodnight and may your God/s go with you/

Ze

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