Standards

[Krystal]

Although this board is primarily filled with amateur writers attempting to create stories for our enjoyment or their own, I must ask. Do we have any standards or criteria that should be met before we post? I've noticed on several sites there are rules regarding punctuation, misspellings, etc.

While I do not want to make writing a story a chore or to remove any pleasure received by the writer, I've noticed a more casual approach to some of the posts.

I think it looks shoddy to our visitors and ill-managed to our members if any and all posts are accepted without the barest of guidelines.

I don't feel its necessary to have a beta for stories but a simple amount of pride in our work and maybe a spell check or dictionary could go a long way.

I've had typos slip by me despite searching so I am not speaking of the occasional mistake that is the exception and not the norm.

I invited a friend to the board and she frankly felt she would be frustrated and horror of horrors suggested I abandon the board for another site. (No fears on that score). I love the women and man on the board and it feels like family at times.

And before anyone feels its necessary to attack me for criticizing their stories, let me say I am not directing my words at any one story nor is it necessary to defend any of your stories to me.

Krys

[Sola]

I quite see your point.
Sure it would be great to have the board equiped with a good niveau of writing, without misspellings etc.

But I guess it's also understandable, that foreign users, with english not as native language, do have sometimes a hard time to get spelling and grammar right (just take me as an example ). Sure using a dictionary and checking the spelling is no problem, but grammar constructions and such are hard to manage.

Don't get me wrong, I'm surely not offended, I see the prob. But I'm not sure if there can be found a way to fix those stuff up. Cuz who should check for mistakes oneself doesn't see (..that's a lot with me...). April and Lies surely can't search for the mistakes and delete them, cuz that'll be a LOT of work.
So...I have no idea how to get to a higher standart.
Throu it would surely be desirable.

But I also think the standart isn't THAT much a problem here, since mostly there is no problem with undignified posts just like senseless flaming and stuff. At least I didn't see those.
So since we're al getting along like a family (you pointed that out wonderfull , guess one could live quite happy with the way things are running here.

Anyway...this hopefully doesn't sound like criticizing...and if, shift it on to my bad english ;D

Sola

[Karmin]

I don't believe the questions concerns the construction of sentences or poor grammar as much as pride in the story you produce. Everyone can read when an effort has been made to post a story that is enjoyable.

No one certainly wants April or Lies to be the "fic police" but in the same manner that it isn't proper to use "u" for "you" or lower case letters for proper names, there are certain standards that should be upheld.

I haven't really seen many cases of it here on this site but perhaps a bit of preemptive planning is in order to prevent future problems.

I am hoping that with the release of book six we will see this site grow by leaps and bounds as JKR finally reveals Minerva's and Albus' relationship. I do anticipate a rush of stories afterwards though.

I like the freedom of this site and ffnet is certainly placing the shackles on many areas but after reading the submission policy for fictionalley I can see where they avoided some of the problems that ffnet has with their stories. Karmin

[Catwoman99]

I understand your point. As for typos and bad grammar, I am quite anal retentive in my own stories because I can't stand to see them. (I try to catch them all, but I know some slip past.) As I read a story, I usually pick out all the typos and/or punctuation problems and if they are excessive I may mention that in my review. I don't do it as much on here for some reason as I have at FF.net. I agree that something as simple as using spellcheck would greatly improve things. I think that some authors are so eager to post something that they tend to rush; posting it as soon as they finish without going over it a few times or clicking on the spellcheck button.

As for posting a set of rules or guidelines, I'm a bit hesitant, seeing as how Lies and I started this board because of FF.net's rules. (And the fact that they were suspending and/or cancelling some of our favorite authors' accounts!)

I'll have to give this some more thought and talk it over with Lies.

- April :-)

[Kandice]

I certainly don't think we need a list of rules. Goodness knows ffnet has gone crazy. I think simple courtesy is enough. If you've written a story and feel you've taken adequate time to read over it and correct mistakes that you see then that should be enough.

A gentle reminder in a review should do it. I hate to read reviews that attack minor errors but if the story is riddled with them I consider it an insult to the readers.

I'm sure most writers try to catch their errors.

[ginger newts]

I agree there should not be rules, I like the fact that the board is free of so many of the restrictions from other sites. In fact, I think ff.net has gone a little crazy lately and is turning into a hostile environment for posting fics. However, I agree that there has been a slight problem with errors in stories.

It's not necessarily that you have to be a grammar whiz or have a beta reader, but you should take the time to make your story look presentable. If you really care about your work and want people to take it seriously and enjoy reading it then you should spend a little time checking it over before you post. I know a few people who get upset if their stories don't get what they feel are "enough reviews." The best way to get positive reviews is to spend a little time making your story easier to read. I find that if I have to wade through a lot of errors and correct as I read (which I do) or even stop several times to figure out which word the author intended to use it makes me dislike the story no matter how good the premise was. Many times I've given up.

Karmin made good points about not using "u" or "r" instead of words and you certainly always want to use proper capitalization and puctuation. I like to think of it as a courtesy to your readers, but it also helps to make you a better writer. Hopefully, even if you're only here for fun and relaxation, you have the goal of improving your writing over time. That's why we practice and post so much and it does get easier as time passes. I think it's always a good idea to use a spell checker and a dictionary and to look over your work at least once before you post it. It will make the board a little bit nicer place to be.

[angharad]

As I see it, this board was originally intended to be a place for us to try out our works-in-progress in a friendly environment. To me, this means a certain amount of tolerance for grammatical or spelling errors that might occur along the way, provided that we, as readers, gently point out such errors and we, as writers, make the necessary corrections before subsequently sending our story to one of the more traditional fanfiction archives. However, I think the board as a whole, due to the reluctance of most of its members to post anything but praise, has evolved into an environment in which "anything goes", no matter how shoddy the results might be. Perhaps the time has come to re-evaluate the purpose of this board, and implement whatever standards may come from such a re-evaluation.

I humbly suggest that everyone read the following article: ljconstantine.com/column9.htm

[Nerweniel]

Here are my Headmistressy two cents ;D:

I agree with what most people have said, namely that we shouldn't develop real grammar rules or whatever over here. April and I have founded this whole board in order to escape the sometimes-madness of fanfiction.net, after all.

I do think, though, that since we're all a pretty close group, we should just all think before we post. A lot can be solved with just a bit of good will (and spelling check). I'm not exactly planning on filtering every fic for mistakes (oh hell no ;D) but I think that everyone should just, you know, re-read their fic before posting and correct any possible mistakes she may find. It isn't as if we're going to kill anyone if a few of them went unnoticed and are still in there.

Anyway, should talk this over with April on MSN some time .

Love,

Lies

[Minx]

I totally agree with everything everyone has said. I think their should be basic grammar rules, not nit-picky ones.

Being from the U.S. I find in hard to write in the true British format, although I try. It's like someone from England learning to speak Minnesotan ;D

I also agree that many of the other fanfic sites are overdoing it on accepting stories. The first couple chapters of one of my fics were rejected at FF.net because they lacked description and the characters were OOC. I purposely made them OOC, as they had been seriously overwritten in many of the stories, keeping solely to JK's style. I find it rather boring to follow convention.