My very first fanfic was a Fire Emblem crossover fest in which I involved all the American FE's (and one of the Japanese ones--without having played it first), and it made absolutely no sense and was needlessly dark. It also had a plethora of Sues/Stus.

I just wish I hadn't deleted it about... four years? Has it really been four years? Otherwise, I would put it up on the sporking block right now.

We should be listening to authors after their stories have been sporked. Yes, the person who responded to Tray and Guv was petty and juvenile, but that doesn't mean we can blanket-ignore everyone we please. Sometimes, people make good points; although we never intend to be bullies, I bloody well hope, that line can get fuzzy, and it can be crossed. And if someone comes to us and goes "Hey, that line of bullying? You just crossed it," we'd better be willing to listen. For example, when a bunch of people began to write essays about why the term "Mary Sue" was sexist (and, yes, why the PPC was a bunch of bullies), most of us disagreed... but because as a community, we listened to their criticisms and thought about what they had to say, a very productive discussion about bullying, and that line we try not to cross, came up. I think we've been a lot more aware of potentially sexist terminology and tropes since then, and I'm glad the whole thing happened.

Also, to be honest, my response to people going "You did what to my story?!" is to think "...Wait, nobody told you?" I seriously think we should be giving concrit on stories before we go after them - doing that kind of pretty much takes all the wind out of jerks like Rhymeboom's sails, and keeps us from looking like hypocrites. After all, if we do care more about goodfic and writing quality than simply blasting things we don't like, concrit should be our first response anyway. If people ignore the concrit, or respond with the typical response of upset children everywhere, then... it's different. But it seems like our standards really should be to try to help before going in for the kill - we concrit each other, we should give fanfic authors that chance, too.

So I'm sorta opposed to responding to angry badfic authors with various comically oversized weapons; I think as a community we can do a lot better than the people we complain about by responding to criticisms, instead of attacking them.

*climbs off soapbox*

...er, carry on.