Fan fiction section- yes or no
This was sparked by a conversation with another member, so I figured I'd make a poll for it. When I was setting this board up, I didn't set up a fan fiction section because no one seemed to be interested in it. But the member I was talking to, who basically...might be helping with promoting the board, said that we could promote the board on fan fiction sites. However, I'm not certain that a fan fiction writer will even join in on a message board for writers that doesn't have a fan fiction section for post that writing in. So what do you guys think? Should we add it in? Keep in mind: -It'll mean a bit more scrolling (especially when I finally put in the RPing section) -It'll mean dealing with fan girls/boys who go crazy over things like Harry Potter -It'll probably mean dealing with writing that...won't have the grea-*test*-('") grammar (which shouldn't ENTIRELY matter...unless we're all secretly grammar Nazis in disguise :D) I...personally am sort of in between. On one hand, it would be kind of cool to post some of my old fan fiction pieces just for laughs. On the other hand...I'm not certain that there's much of a point in adding it. I don't think any of us are fan fic writers, and if we are, it's more of a side thing that we don't take seriously- correct me if I'm wrong, though.

The hate part is such a strong word, but when I joined...all of yesterday, um, it said we were supposed to try our best to have good grammar and spelling. Plus, we were to try not to have anything sexually filthy. My experience with Fanfiction is that it is both of these things. And, although it might help us have more members, why couldn't they just post it in response to prompts? Why don't we try to stave off their addiction, rather than feed it?

I was told this is a better description of it: We should try to heal their crippling illness, rather than feed it.

it said we were supposed to try our best to have good grammar and spelling. Plus, we were to try not to have anything sexually filthy. Right, and those things still hold true. My experience with Fanfiction is that it is both of these things. And, although it might help us have more members, why couldn't they just post it in response to prompts? Why don't we try to stave off their addiction, rather than feed it? Not ALL fan fiction is sexually explicit and filled with horrible grammar; there are those few writers who have a good grasp of grammar- a few of my friends included. On the other end, we do have the usergroup/board for those who are above eighteen years old to post sexually explicit stories, so those who do not want to read them/those who are minors can't view those stories without being a member of that usergroup. If people above 18 years old want to post fan fiction with sexual material in that section, they can, unless the group's moderator Shades of Madness has some reason not to allow it.

What would be the point of having allowing fan fiction if we tried to limit them to only responding to prompts? What if they wouldn't be able to come up with a response for a given prompt, for whatever reason?

Exactly, so why do they have to have their own forum? Why can't they just post like everyone else, and hopefully learn from people that aren't posting exclusively fanfics. I'm not saying all of them are bad, but all the ones I've seen are. Even people I respect that I think are fairly good writers go to the darkside sometimes and write ones with sex and/or with terrible grammar.

Wouldn't not giving them their own section just show that we'd be trying to exclude them as not being part of a genre of writing or something? That's not a message I want to send. There's really no reason not to give it its own section...or rather, just start allowing fan fiction, since the section for writing lists things by length and not by genre, though I never said that fan fiction wasn't allowed before. I forgot about that until now.

I understand that Fanfic writers can, and many are, very good writers, with excellent literary skill. But my problem is with a) the majority of them that aren't good writers and would only be a pox on our wonderful site, and b) the concept of fanfiction in the first place. I just have issues, not to offend anyone who is an avid fanfic writer, with people who use other peoples' worlds and characters. If you want to write fiction, write your own fiction, build your own world, and create your own characters. Again I must stress that I mean not to offend, and I do understand that fanfic does turn up great writing on occasion; there are exceptions to all generalizations. My opinion is just that fanfic doesn't belong here at a serious original fiction web community.

Touche, Master of the Boards. You're right, you didn't ban it, and it wouldn't take any of our space or anything. However, I also agree with the Moquan on almost everything except, I think it's ok to use other people's worlds and characters, as long as you have permission from the first author. Eg: Star Wars, Star Trek, and various comic books, such as Manga.

Personally? I just said yes because I really don't mind reading it. However, I'm sort of afraid of any sort of critique I'd give on it. Years of reading GAFF (a site devoted to being snarky about bad fanfic) might make anything I have to say on the subject be...a bit harsh. However, I don't really mind it being on the board, as long as fannish stuff doesn't take over the site/become the main focus of the site.

While I won't pitch a fit if we added a fanfic section, I'd really prefer to go without. This site is nice, to my experience, because it's for "real" writing. If you want fanfics, go to ff.net or a fandom-specific message board.

Terrible grammar and poor sentence structure can be found in any example of writing, fanfiction or not. I think it'd be nice to broaden the interests of the board, but I'm not really sure what fanfiction has to offer. To me, it's just very unoriginal. I don't really mind either way, so I suppose my vote is of no help. :/

I wouldn't have a problem with allowing a fanfiction board. Hey, some of us "original" writers have fun writing in our favourite fan-world now and then. I know I used to LOVE reading and writing Sailormoon fanfiction. Maybe we could have a sort of fun con-*test*-('") or something? Just for kicks, we all write a short story written in our favourite universe using our favourite characters? I dunno. As long as the fan-ficcers who join us don't overrun us...I wouldn't have a problem with having a fanfiction section.

I don't really care for reading/writing fanfic myself, but I don't really have a problem with it. However, I really wouldn't like to muddy the waters with a fanfic section here. The problem with that is that fanfic tends to Take Over Everything - soon, we'll be getting people who just write fanfic coming in and many of them wouldn't contribute to the original fiction section. I just think that there's a place for fanfic and there's a place for original fiction, and it doesn't benefit either to mix the two.

There are some terrific fan fic writers out there, some of whom actually almost surpass the real thing... but there are just so many more idiotic children (and adults who really should know better) who simply shouldn't be allowed to inflict their 'writing' on society. I think fan fic can be a good 'growing' tool for a lot of people, as they (can in theory) learn how to hold a story together and from paying attention to their more intelligent feedbackers or beta, hopefully develop into a somewhat more accomplished writer - who might be ready to strike out on their own. I wouldn't run off and sulk if this site ended up with a fanfic section, but I did think that this site would be for people who were already at the stage of being halfway competant writers, who know their craft and really want to develop their own characters and ideas - rather than simply regurgitating scraps of someone else's creativity. Yeah, that was a rather worthless rambling pennyworth from Jack... So, yeah, what I meant to say was, I don't really mind either way, but I'm leaning towards saying no to fanfic because fanficcers have lots of havens, but original writers don't.