IT: Prioritising

[Mad Hamlet <Mad-Hamlet@xxxxxxx>]

Greetings,

Hi there.

Guess what I'm gonna do?

Y'know what do I _Always_ do whenever I have something to post that isn't a
fic?

That's right, I'm gonna bitch.

Of course there's a difference between this little bitch bout and previous
ones. This time it could be taken personally. Usually when something I haveto
say could be taken personally I have a large number of witty moments and
waivers to prevent anyone from feeling so upset in my general direction they
feel the complusion to go and do something rash. (Like, I dunno, not like me
anymore?)

This time I'm not.

I'd be subtle as well, mumbling, meandering, dancing around the subject of my
distress but not out and out lambasting the problem in the middle of the
public eye. Well, not on THIS forum at least. There were a few
...ahem...mentions on the now defunct JAABAW(R.I.P.) but that was my turf.
Literally. So except for non local situations I was pretty, or attempted tobe
sublte and genteel.

This time I'm not.

The problem is not a trend, or a growing diffilculty; its here, its fatal and
it IS destroying the list. 

The problem?

Simple. 

Too much conversation about canon. 

This in and of itself is not unseemly; indeed one great resource of fic
ponderings IS discussion of fanfiction. Those heady days of 'What abouts' and
'What ifs' and all those other versimilutudes of possibilies(My, am I verbose
today or what?) that were the blood, meat and bone of this list.

However this is not what is happening now. Instead there has been an
explosion, a proliferation, a GOD DAMNDED INBREEDING AT RABBIT COPULATION
SPEEDS OF(When applied to the growth, creation and spread of fanfiction)
MEANLINGLESS DRIVEL!

This is _NOT_ a general BtVS Discussion list, this is not, point of order,
even a Buffy and Willow shacking up and shagging like bunnies list.

This is a Buffy and Willow shacking up and shagging like bunnies FANFICTION
list. 

Or at least it was.

For God's sake, look at the number of 'OT' threads that have been started.
They're OT people! And in case any have forgotten that means OFF TOPIC!

Thus we can safly conclude that the infection of 'Off Topic' has spread like a
bloody plauge and, because of it, the feedback, creation and posting of
fanfiction has dropped to nil except for some really dedicated types. 

I mean, okay, not all the fanfiction posted was great; indeed some could have
been labled 'Painful' others even perhaps 'BioHazard' but at LEAST it was
being done!

Now?

Now it's a proliferation of OT and Spoilers spaces. I'm not on a fanfiction
list anymore, I'm on a text based version of 'Space Invaders'

Cause

The 
Text

Is Marching

Across
Screen

Tromp
Tromp       
Tromp

Tromp
Tromp
Tromp



At this point I'm sure, anyone who is reading this, is narrowing their eyes
and thinking in disgust, 'Well, if you don't like it Mad-Hamlet why don't you
leave?'

A variation, no doubt, of that overabused phrase 'America, love it or leaveit
you pinko punk!' that was all the rage in the sixties(I really regret I missed
those.)

To wit I answer: Cause I DO like it! IT being the writing and discussion of
Buffy and Willow fanfiction; IT being the critique and enjoyment of stories;
IT being fictious tales of two women in love that also happens to center
around, for the most part, a pretty spiffy world; IT being the(And lets be
honest here) the mental image of Willow and Buffy coiled around each other in
all sorts of...mmmmmmmm....INTREStttiinngggg ways.

IT not predictions of S7; IT not being Spike, or Gardner or whoever the hell
he is today's future; IT NOT being anything, or at least very little, with
feelings, impressions of current canon; IT being NOTHING to do with Amber
Benso, Tara or whatever. 


And these meandering threads are just getting in the way!

Tell me that I'm wrong! Go back, over the list's history from...oh...let's say
June of last year and count up the number of ongoing discussions labled OT
verus the number of fanfictions posted and threads regarding those
fanfictions. Remember to include disscussions about the possibilites of Canon
B/W action because that is NOT related to fanfiction. 

The discussions themselves are not wrong, nay indeed is any discussion worng?
Well, actually yes but that's not here nor there. The OT's here are just jim
dandy in and of themselves. 

Their location on the other hand...

I would not say the situation has gotten to the point where an analogy would
be as if someone went to a KKK message board and posted the top ten gangsta
rap tunes of our times but it is getting pretty close.

'Fine then, Mad.' The thoughts might be flowin' right now. 'You're so smart,
what's the answer?'

I'm glad you noticed(Ego Plug, Ego Plug) well every time I log in to BWW
personally to make sure I'm getting all the posts there's this BIG blue text
RIGHT in the middle of the screen that reads 

'MAKE NEW GROUP'

That'd be a good place to start now wouldn't it?

Or you could do the two other things I myself tried. 

1. Making my own private real time channel on an IRC server.(That bombed like
wouldn't believe)

2. Making a personal Forum. (Okay, okay, I didn't MAKE JAABAW cause I'm a
stone cold moron when it comes to programming but I had some good people who
really knew there stuff till fate whupped us upside the head.)

And this is not me, telling you OT adovacates to take it
elsewhere...well..actually I am...but I'm not telling you to take off. Indeed
I'm not telling anybody anything. I'm suggesting though. I'll admit that; I'm
suggesting really, really, heavily.

It's OFF TOPIC for a reason, so...and color me crazy if you want...how about
we, I dunno, get just a wee bit more back on topic a bit more often?

Huh?

Maybe?

JUUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuusssst possibly?

I remain, as always,
Mad-Hamlet


W.B. Yeats: What rough beast, its hour come at last, slouches toward Bethlehem
to be born?

Mad-Hamlet: Me.