I don't have any particular attachment to AOOO, but I prefer reading and uploading fics to archives over LJ. My reasons:
- It's much easier to find fics. On LJ, there are (sometimes) newsletters, which aren't easy to backsearch, and (sometimes) communities, which usually aren't easy to backsearch, and (sometimes) reccers who can point you to good fic, but there's no centralized way to get, say, all the SGA h/c fics over 5,000 words.
- It's much easier to follow multi-chapter fics. On LJ, some authors don't link their chapters together at all, forcing you to search through their entire journal for more chapters (or, more often, not bothering). Some people tag their fics, or put them in memories--but do they remember to tag and memory all the chapters? And some people do next/previous links or chapter summary posts, but again, those are subject to human error. There's no good automated solution. And by the same token, it's easier to upload multi-chapter fics, since I don't have to remember to link everything together.
- It's easier to separate fic stuff from personal stuff. Now, granted, it's possible to have separate fic and personal journals (and I do have separate ones in fact), but most people just mix them together. This runs into problems when, for example, someone flocks or deletes their entire journal because of some personal thing going on--maybe they didn't mean to make their fic inaccessible, but it's gone anyway.
Also, frankly, I don't always care about the non-fic thoughts of a ficcer I like. I like being able to follow someone's fic without having to hear about their cats or their thoughts on religion. I have made a lot of very good personal friendships with people through LJ and fandom, but I'm also satisfied with the relationships I have with people on FFN where I've been following them for years, but have no interaction with them outside of reading and reviewing their fic. I don't think either model is better, but I like having both options.
- Standardized headers. I like everything having a rating and a summary and a genre and a list of the major characters in it. This isn't a big deal for me, but I do like it more than the alternative.
- Hit counters. I know there's LJ Toys, but it's a pain to work with and a lot of people block it. I'm not a very comment-focused writer, but it makes me happy to see that 200 people (or whatever) have read my fic. I think it also gives writers more realistic expectations about lurkers, etc. (See for example the recent surprise at the comment:hit ratio on AOOO fics. Nobody who's posted fic on an archive with hit counters would be surprised by those ratios.) With a more elaborate counter, like the one on FFN, you can even see what countries readers are coming from, which can be really interesting.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2010-03-17 06:30 pm (UTC)- It's much easier to find fics. On LJ, there are (sometimes) newsletters, which aren't easy to backsearch, and (sometimes) communities, which usually aren't easy to backsearch, and (sometimes) reccers who can point you to good fic, but there's no centralized way to get, say, all the SGA h/c fics over 5,000 words.
- It's much easier to follow multi-chapter fics. On LJ, some authors don't link their chapters together at all, forcing you to search through their entire journal for more chapters (or, more often, not bothering). Some people tag their fics, or put them in memories--but do they remember to tag and memory all the chapters? And some people do next/previous links or chapter summary posts, but again, those are subject to human error. There's no good automated solution. And by the same token, it's easier to upload multi-chapter fics, since I don't have to remember to link everything together.
- It's easier to separate fic stuff from personal stuff. Now, granted, it's possible to have separate fic and personal journals (and I do have separate ones in fact), but most people just mix them together. This runs into problems when, for example, someone flocks or deletes their entire journal because of some personal thing going on--maybe they didn't mean to make their fic inaccessible, but it's gone anyway.
Also, frankly, I don't always care about the non-fic thoughts of a ficcer I like. I like being able to follow someone's fic without having to hear about their cats or their thoughts on religion. I have made a lot of very good personal friendships with people through LJ and fandom, but I'm also satisfied with the relationships I have with people on FFN where I've been following them for years, but have no interaction with them outside of reading and reviewing their fic. I don't think either model is better, but I like having both options.
- Standardized headers. I like everything having a rating and a summary and a genre and a list of the major characters in it. This isn't a big deal for me, but I do like it more than the alternative.
- Hit counters. I know there's LJ Toys, but it's a pain to work with and a lot of people block it. I'm not a very comment-focused writer, but it makes me happy to see that 200 people (or whatever) have read my fic. I think it also gives writers more realistic expectations about lurkers, etc. (See for example the recent surprise at the comment:hit ratio on AOOO fics. Nobody who's posted fic on an archive with hit counters would be surprised by those ratios.) With a more elaborate counter, like the one on FFN, you can even see what countries readers are coming from, which can be really interesting.