I still can't decide whether My Immortal is a troll or not. Either possibility just seems too completely, horribly mind-boggling.

I think that usually, fanfics with lovingly described, perfectly beautiful Mary Sues tend to be real (well, most of the time). Some fanfics don't have terrible writing, just bad characterization, and those also seem to mostly be serious.

I am 90% sure that My Immortal was a troll, though.

I sort of feel like 'Cupcakes' and 'Sweet Apple Massacre' were actually meant to get a rise out of the MLP fanbase than as actual stories. 'Cupcakes' is just such glaringly obvious gore-porn that I find it hard to believe a true fan of the series would actually write something like that about two of the most beloved characters among the fandom, and 'Sweet Apple Massacre' is a trollfic and proud of it - the original author very loudly admitted it was just to tick people off. But that's just my sense of things.

I have found that 99.9% of My Immortal look-alikes are glaringly obvious trolls, though I'm doubtful about the original. I'm pretty sure that Thirty H's was intentional as well, because it actually has some pretty clear grammar, and a friend of mine that has seen some of the author's other works has said that they're all equally chaotic. I'm pretty sure it would be pretty hard to make something that bad more than once if it wasn't intentional.

The authors of "legolas" and "C*l*br**n" both later came out as trolls, I think. "My Immortal," of course, is the most famousest of trollfics, and it has a gajillion imitators in other fandoms.

Then there's my current sporking project, "Blood Raining Night." I've had several conversations about this one with various people, and we cannot tell for sure. It READS like a troll, but the author has a deviantART account full of pictures of the OC, not to mention a YouTube account where she's turning the fic into videos. The quality of everything is pretty terrible, but to me, it still seems like way more effort than you'd expect from a troll. Plus, she seems fairly genuinely clueless in most of the conversations I've read between her and her reviewers (some of whom are genuinely trying to help, some of whom are trolls themselves). This one is quite the puzzle! If she IS a troll, she's the most dedicated one I've ever come across. I find it easier to believe she's just completely obsessed with her OC and oblivious to criticism, constructive or otherwise, but I guess you can decide for yourself.

Either way, I'm still gonna spork the bejeezus out of it, because the raw material is just too good to pass up. ^_^

~Neshomeh

By name of Sue/Stu:
Syan This one is like the person went down a checklist of Suvian traits. Color changing eyes: Check. Sparkly name: Check. Perfectly beautiful appearance: Check. Seduces all the men: Check. All the women are her friends: Check. Member of a 'cool' species: Check. (bonus points for the species being uncanonical) Speshul powers: Check. (bonus points for uncanonical powers) Traumatic backstory: Check. Is the only person who can save them: Check. The list goes on and on.
Shaundrah The SPaG is just as bad as My Immortal. Perhaps worse. A few examples that will manifest amusingly: "he is so wired","nanaprobes", "expload in a few minuets", "shook violetly", "hankie pant key", and "good locking". And that's just a few of the examples. And let's not get started on the mind-boggling logic, or rather, lack thereof.
Jack Russel I have a feeling this author's a troll.

That legolas by laura was written while Laura was drunk off her tush.