Subject: Re: An interesting logical exercise...
Author:
Posted on: 2009-02-16 13:43:00 UTC
"If the review on FF.net was good and the other one was horrible, I'd assume it had plenty of smut."
I presume you meant AFF instead of FF?
I got asked an interesting question yesterday, to which I have no answer.
"A fic is on Fanfiction.net and Adultfanfiction.net, word for word identical. If you read the reviews for the fic before the fic itself, which would you believe? A review on FF.net saying that the fic is good/horrible or a review on AFF.net saying the exact opposite?"
What the hell is the logical response? Generally, reviews from both FF.net and AFF are rubbish and worthless, AFF only moreso. However, you get the occasional intelligent reviewer on FF.net. But you also get the very rare person on AFF who appears to be a decent human being. I even spotted one person who could justifiably say 'If you don't like it, don't read it', something that I can't say the same for FF.net.
What are your views on this?
I would assume what it indicated was just the level of smut in the piece, more than the relative intelligence of FF.net reviewers or AFF reviewers. If the review on FF.net was good and the other one was horrible, I'd assume it had plenty of smut. If it were the other way around, I'd assume it had one of those cliffhanger-smut endings, where you suggest the smut but never actually get into it. That would make most AFF denizens mad, I think. :D
"If the review on FF.net was good and the other one was horrible, I'd assume it had plenty of smut."
I presume you meant AFF instead of FF?
I just dive into a fic headfirst - reading other people's (often uninformed and ill-thought-out) opinions just interferes with my ability to judge a fic on its own merit (or lack thereof.)
You have to remember that AFF.n and FF.n are two very different audiences. People going to AFF are going to be looking more for smut than plot, and vice-versa at FF.n (mostly). If the reviews are good at AFF, it's likely to be more smut, less plot. If it's at FF.n, more plot (hopefully) and less pr0n.
Either way, I find most reviews to be most helpful when I compare the proportion of positive well thought out comments versus one-liners. If there's more 'omg, best story evar' and 'Dracos sooooo~oo hot!' than 'Well, this is good, but you should really work on these three points...' then I find that it's usually a pointless story. If both types seem to be outweighed by the flames and otherwise negative responses, then it's dually not worth reading.
"I just dive into a fic headfirst - reading other people's (often uninformed and ill-thought-out) opinions just interferes with my ability to judge a fic on its own merit (or lack thereof.)"
I flick between reading the fic first and reading the reviews first. Sometimes, reading the reviews inspires me to read the fic, if only to understand what the hell the reviewers are babbling about.
"If the reviews are good at AFF, it's likely to be more smut, less plot."
Except with said Tomb Raider fic, where it had a lot of good reviews, but neither smut nor much plot (obviously, given that Lara died at the end of each chapter).
"If there's more 'omg, best story evar' and 'Dracos sooooo~oo hot!' than 'Well, this is good, but you should really work on these three points...' then I find that it's usually a pointless story."
Hmm... I'm not so sure that's a good rule of thumb. There are so many idiots on FF that I've had my fair share of those reviews, yet my beta readers come from here, so they can't be that pointless.
"If both types seem to be outweighed by the flames and otherwise negative responses, then it's dually not worth reading."
Or the author pissed off the author of a Suefic and the Suethor whined about it and got a load of counter-flames by her army of rabid readers. A friend had to delete her story once because she got hit by a load of those.
The comments thing is more a rule of thumb, especially midway through a story that I'm trying to decide if I want to continue reading.
I'd say the level of reviews are generally worse on AFF, unfortunately. I've seen utter dreck given rave reviews, simply for being 'hot', regardless of characterisation or plausibility, when it would get at least one negative comment on FF.net.
That said, I do tend to give decent reviews consisting of more than one or two words no matter what site I'm on (AFF, FF.net or LJ).
"I've seen utter dreck given rave reviews, simply for being 'hot'"
Or, worse, descriptions of how hard it made the reviewer climax. *shudders*
If I want to see my favourite characters have explicit sex (and I occasionally do), I have my better places to find it. Places with classier layouts and funnier jokes. Still, as far as I know, it's just FF.net with more smut, yeah? I haven't browsed it enough to have any idea what the general level of fic is. The only times I've been is when a specific fic has been recced to me.
I'm likely to treat the reviews with equal respect (translation: none) and either just read the fic myself to find out or not bother at all.
There are good fics on FF.Net, so I'm sure there's good fics on AFF.Net. However, the reviewers are much worse judges of good writing than the actual writers are in my experience so I don't bother taking them at face value.
(FYI, Adultfanfiction.net seems much more like smut for smuts sake than what I'm into (if Cassie gets back in time to read this she's gonna laugh her head off) so I don't go there very often.)
The answer I'm leaning towards is 'Screw the reviews, let's read this fic with rockets launchers standing by.'
And the general level of fic... hmm... search up Deathstalker (mainly for the Resident Evil section, but expands once in a while) or SuicideKing (for Harry Potter). Those will assure you that you never wish to return to the site again. But yes, you can get the very, very, very occasional goodfic on the site (or, at the very least, averagefic). I've encountered two that I can think of: one which has no smut whatsoever and just focuses on killing Lara Croft in a thousand different ways. It was well-written and the idea was so obvious yet rare that it was immediately spared my wrath. The second was a... actually, I can't remember what the second one was. A contender for the spot, however, would be a Star Wars fic with would be a very good (and incredibly phregging disturbing) torture fic if it hadn't had the sexual elements in (though, it's been a while since I've read it and they could potentially enhance the story further depending on your mindset).
AFF has very few non-smut fics and, hilariously, the reviewers complain when something isn't smut. DCase in point: that Tomb Raider fic mentioned above, one reviewer shouted 'ZOMFG how can you find this erotic, you sick bastard' or something to that extent, completely missing the point that it was simply too bloody for FF.net, rather than being too erotic.