Re: Drain Brameged Inc. Bites the Hand That Feeds It

[Mad Hamlet <Mad-Hamlet@xxxxxxx>]

Greetings,

Yay! It's working. God damn I amaze myself&.

Or was that the response you all were expecting. Probably, masses always
assume so grandly with information so unreliable. Be that as it may here is my
response in an effort to keep the traffic level up. 

Think of it this way people: If you all interact, you prove me wrong (for the
moment) if you don't, you prove me right.

First Firerancher&.

> > I'm a syntactician, which means I work with grammer, and have been overly
trained in the great writing styles and works from the beginning of the
written word to 
now.

Great googley, moogely I'm envious as all Hell.


>>I have read fiction that has made my 149 IQ drop down to a 23. 

Firerancher I have three words to reply with(And crush your soul):
Legolas/Treebeard slash.



> > That's why we're all here (or rather almost all). 
To find the fun. 

Exactly. Truer words have probably been spoken but nothing springs to mind.
There's this thrice damned, god cursed, meandering, low-brow of an idea that,
cockroachlike, survives to this day despite all efforts to the contrary and it
is this:

That criticism is connected with persecution and the negativity that ensues. 

Criticism has nothing do with persecution. It has everything to do with honor.
A professional editor is paid to do a job, an amateur one, on a fanfic list or
original fic list does so by choice and if one happens to critique a piece it
done in honor to the writer. 

Do you know what another name is for a smooth, unimpeded, slick surface that
allows fast travel in a singular direction approved of by the entire
universe?

A hill.

Do you know where they go?

Down.

Which is beside the issues raised in the original rant.


> > If one person causes another person to stop writing, then that 
is truly a sad day. 

No person can cause another person to stop writing. The author can only choose
to stop writing. Life can cause a writer to stop, hell DEATH can cause a
writer to stop. Death, comes to think of it causes pretty much everything to
stop but life can do with commitments, duties, school, etc to get in the way
to a point but that point is a hell of a lot farther off than most think. 

I repeat: No person can stop another from writing. The author chooses to do
so. 
As for the variety of 'Whys' involved well that's between the author, their
ego, their power (or lack of it) and themselves.

> > I had nothing negative to say. I didn't tear her every 
word apart. No...constructive criticism is completely different than 
a person's personal opinion regarding a piece of work.

Constructive criticism without anything negative means either the critique
doesn't know what they're doing, isn't willing do what they're doing well, or
they just found God's personal biographer.  

> > You have to remember that a lot of people hated Van Gogh's work. Look where
he 
is now.

Yes, because he chose to not stop despite what other people said. Let's
emphasise the key point: He Chose.

> > Hell...I've probably pissed tons of people off just from this simple 
reply. 

I have no idea how this could be possible. Anyone offended by this quite
nicely written response could only be so by their choice to be so.

Personally I'm tickled pink. And that's another metaphor; literally I'm
somewhat pale. I should get out in the sun more.

Next Erin&.
> > A critique is a different story. These let a writer know 
what areas, on a particular story, or how their writing styles can use 
improvement, or is A-okay!

This is a repudiation of that cockroach of an idea I mentioned earlier. Wonder
of wonders but critique is also supportive. That's right, supportive; the idea
that critique is solely negative is incorrect and a misassumption of biblical
proportions. Why, one might honestly believe Switzerland is literally just a
land of cuckoo-clocks, chocolate and blondes with cleavage you could ski
down&oh how I wish that assumption was true.

> > It's the age old saying...'there's always 
room for improvement.'

There's nothing I can add to this. It carries its own weight without a hitch.

Now we have Sixfootoo&.

> > Email them, not post it to a 
message board. I like it to be a personal thing between me and the 
writer. I can only assume that Mad Hamlet does the same thing. 

You assume correctly, sir.

> > I understand that Mad Hamlet NEEDS a lot of attention

I am just the Oliver Twist of the 'net. 'Please sir, may I have some more
gruel?'

> > We all heard you the  first time. Move On! If you have never received an
email from me... I didn't love the story enough to respond. 

In this case, sir, you have reached a conclusion without the time taken to
investigate the facts. Allow me to enlighten you. You are, if I understood you
correctly, operating under the idea that the original rant is in reaction to
the low level or responses that the reposting of Prisms received. This is, as
stated, incorrect. The reposting of Prisms and the reposting of the Rant
(Drain Brameged Inc. Bites the Hand That Feeds It) are in no way connected
other than an attempt to stimulate some activity on the BWW Yahoogroups list.
In that it has succeeded wonderfully. 

The original rant was written on January 13, 2005 (Original Link:
http://www.wiffy-dreamverse.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=122)
for it's own sake. Or rather in response to the frustration garnered in seeing
other BtVS shipper communities prosper; like the Kitten Board with
four-thousand members and hundreds of posts a day, or the Spuffy community
drowning both FF.net and AFF.net in S/B fics. True, much of it is dreck but
you have to salute that energy involved. 

> > You shouldn't care about the rest of us. 

Wether I do or do not care is unimportant to me, whether the BWW thrives,
struggles, grows, prospers and kicks butt is.
> > You should be doing this for you and the love of it. 

Should? 

Hell!

Am!

> > the best b/w writers are gone.

I doubt they became the best by because they were born that way. 

> > I honestly believe this group is dying because of it and that is 
what is scaring Mad Hamlet enough to go through this all over again. 

Got it in one. Very astute deduction. That is exactly why I started all this.
You have to understand: I don't care what's happening only as long as it IS
happening. With nothing comes apathy and apathy can feed off itself. Nothing,
in clear defiance of conceived physics, in a social environment can,
metaphorically, acquire mass and inertia and drag groups down. 

So, an ass kicking seems much more&potentially productive than an impassioned
plea. 

And hey, it worked. Here you are. Hi, how ya' doing? Try the salsa, its extra
spicy.

> > Someone starts a  story... a great story... you tell them 'please write
more'. 6 months 
later, no update... email again 'loved the story please write more'. 2 
years later, nothing. Where is my incentive to keep going? 

Wait, wait, wait. Let me get this straight. A writer can spend hours, days,
hammering out carefully constructed plots, ideas, events&in other words:
stories, numbering in the tens-of-thousands of words and, after they sort of
peter out you try to get them back with MAYBE a fifteen word response?

And you honestly wonder why that doesn't have an impact? 

Your 'incentive' is sitting right next to the author's incentive to keep
going, that's where it is.



> > I bet if someone wrote a story beginning to end and then posted 
it would receive much much feedback.


Been there.
Done that.
Didn't happen.

For an example go take a look at Willow Boo's latest piece around
December/Janury: 'Again' or WizatHogwarts 'Dark Alliance'. True those were not
all posted at once but with SUCH speed that it makes little difference.


> > I guess I could've emailed you and said, 'sorry won't read it cause 

Huh, tell you what: over at Wiffy-Dreamverse.com there's a new fanfic archive
up with some of the greatest, and for the vast majority, complete B/W fanfics
available. Y'know, the locale of the movers and shakers of B/W shipperdome. 


> > getting a headache now and hope i didn't offend too much, 

Headaches suck&or pound rather. A sucking headache would be a novelty. You
did not offend, you could not offend. I wouldn't allow you to offend. 

Your points, those on topic at least, are valid. And, despite the opposing
view you think you take we are like minded. Yet you are inconsistent; you
state that this rant was done because I fear the community is dying (rightly
so) then turn around and say how nice it is someone like myself isn't part of
your Popular community. (Like, f'sure!) 

In what way then have my actions come to be seen by you as harmful? The
impetus is given, the reaction received, admired, recorded and treasure.
Things are actually happening herein and you say the catalyst of this is a bad
thing?

Or is it just the means chosen? 

Fine then: What alternatives would you offer?


> > Mad Hamlet start looking before leaping or in this case ranting

I always do. 

Actually, the forethought that goes into this kind of stuff leads me to
consider altering the title of these essays from 'Rant' to 'Lecture'. If a
somewhat polemic lecture.

> > thank you. 

You're welcome.

> > just because you can does not mean you should
No, you're right. It doesn't. 

'Should' doesn't enter into it at all. It's simply a 'Do' or 'Not Do'. Or, in
the terms of my somewhat namesake: To be or not to be, that is the question. 

My answer: To be. To do. I will always 'Do'. Hell, I'll do the Dew too.

To carry on, to carry through, you and me, me through you, to not, not do, but
just to do, and do the dew- cuckoo-ca-cachoo I AM THE EGGMAN, I AM THE WALR-

Sorry.

The issues at the core of all of this rambling is that there was not activity.
That the apathy was, and still has, taken a firm grip on the BWW and is
throttling it to death. The goal here was, is, and will be as I firmly intend
to continue, pry those fingers loose. 

I do not trust a large majority of the members herein. I do not trust their
Will to Do, to act. To be heard in any capacity beyond a platonic,
half-hearted agreement. To a point it could have been excused: The BWW
Yahoogroup is, after all, a YAHOOGROUP. Not the most sophisticated bit of net
tech in the world. The Kitten Board after all is a forum, and they have
webpages too! Chat rooms, and graphics, and contests, and competitions, and
trivia, and games, and actress based threads and random discussions and &wow,
I just realized I also happen to be describing Wiffy-Dreamverse.com.

Barring the actual number of people actively involved with all that.

Huh, funny that.

Anyhow: Please, keep disagreeing with me, or agree with the contents of the
rants and disagree there. Cite examples, refer to fics, debate, derail,
debunk, deduce. I don't care what's happening so long as something IS
happening.

So go nuts.

I remain, as always,
Mad-Hamlet


I was born modest, but it wore off.
                         -Samuel Clement(Mark Twain)


Look upon my work ye mighty and...ah skip it.
http://www.realmoftheshadow.com/madhamlet.htm
                                    -Mad Hamlet


Creator & Editor of Radio: JAABAFF.
The first and only BtVS Femslash Radio Show.
http://www.wiffy-dreamverse.com/




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