An original stories board?

[Heathcliff]

A while ago, we had an interesting discussion about fanfiction (here). At the time, I sort of backed down from asking this question directly; but now I thought, why not?

Is it possible for us to have a seperate board just for original stories in the Obs/Stories/Artwork section?

Let me give my reasons:

The stories board is very busy. Many new threads appear every week- and threads like drabbles and stories posted in small parts will keep reappearing. Most forum authors want their stories to be read, and want comments- so, as such, they are all competing for attention.

If any part of the forum could benefit from being divided further, it's the stories board.

The distinction between original / fanfic is important to people's tastes. Some people (myself included) almost exclusively like original fetish fiction. It's just personal taste; I find the concept of fanfiction very hard to get into.

Also, many popular fandoms on the forum (anime, Supernatural, Glee) are not ones I know; so they are inaccessible to me from the start. I keep saying 'I' and 'me'; but from some of the comments I've seen on the forum, there are quite a few others who feel the same.

Fanfiction is posted more often and commented on more often. Looking at the stories page, fanfiction may not be a vast majority; but there is definitely more fanfiction than original being posted. Fanfiction has a ready-made audience: the fans. A story from a popular fandom is almost sure to attract more views and comments than an original story.

Also, let me mention a couple of potential objections and try to deal with them:

It would be a lot of work for the staff. I'm not a staff member; I don't know how difficult this is. However, all I am really suggesting is the creation of one new board called 'Original Fiction'.

I'm not suggesting someone take on the colossal task of moving the original fics currently in the stories board into the new folder (although I would guess that it would be easy to take everything tagged with 'original' in there and move it).

We could simply say "starting today, original fiction goes in there".

It's not needed because you can search for tags marked original. At the moment you cannot perform an 'AND' search for multiple tags. So, you cannot search for stories tagged with original AND female, for example. I think HoL said in the past that this will be fixed in a future software update; but as he said, we have no idea when that will actually be.

Anyway- if setting up a new board is not too difficult, is the search function really a reason for not doing it?

But what about drabbles with original and fanfic/ stories about real-life people / etc. They don't fit in either category! So which board do they go on?

My answer would be- who cares? Exceptions like this are sufficiently few and far-between, that people could just post them where they liked (or even in both). I am convinced that the vast majority of stories posted on the board will fit clearly into 'original' or 'fanfiction'.

If you want to see more original fiction, you should be writing it yourself, and commenting on good original fiction that's already there.

This is a good point- but commenting and writing should not be about original and fanfiction doing battle with each other, or trying to drown each other out.

Anyway- giving original fics more exposure will lead more people to read them and comment.

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Phew! That ended up much longer than I intended. Questions and comments are welcome.

Also, I'm not intending to start an argument over this. If the final conclusion is "It's too much work" or "We simply prefer the forum the way it is now", I will accept it... but it would be nice to settle this question once and for all.

[SapphireSong]

I, for one, think this is a fantastic idea! That way, it would be much easier for each of us to find what we personally prefer. I think it'd be really fair and useful for all of us who use the stories forum - we would be able to post our material where we know others are specifically looking for it!

[Sitruuna]

Yes, yes, yes.

I like this idea very much.

Stories do go unnoticed (to some extent) at this moments because of all the new topics posted weekly.

[bloom]

I support this 100%. I think it's a fantastic idea.

I would similarly love a further division with a separate subforum for drabbles, because they clog everything up so much. But that's probably because I can't get even mildly invested in a "story" that's only 100-200 words long.

[Heathcliff]

Thanks for the support guys. It's great to know that other forum members think this would be a good idea too.

[NoV]

I agree completely that this would be a fantastic idea. The Stories section is very busy, and like you Heathcliff, I sometimes struggle to find fanfiction accessible, especially if I am not familiar with the characters. Recently I was away from the forum for a few weeks and returned to find some great original stories pushed three or four pages along, maybe burying them too deep for the casual forum reader? Either way, I have sometimes almost missed some great writing due to an original story swiftly disappearing down the board due to the volume of updates.

[Anonymouse]

I seem to mostly write/read fanfiction, but I'll also read original stories, usually if it's male and written well. It would also be convenient for those of us who like both fanfiction and original stories if they were divided.

[Kiwifruit]

I still totally think this idea rocks... For all the reasons listed so far! And while certain fandoms may be popular for only a while, or even drabbles may eventually die out, the original/fanfiction divide will always be there.

[PuddinPop]

I fully support this idea, providing it's not too much work for the staff.

And as long as things didn't get silly. I mean, people requesting there are 150 million different story boards, like, for each fandom etc. I know the staff wouldn't necessarily agree to that anyway, but I could see this potentially becoming chaotic with requests from member's asking for more boards.

It's a fantastic idea though and if it's a possibility I think it would potentially boost the popularity of the Stories board. I, personally, used to read stories posted here all the time, but lately I've found that I have to do an awful lot of digging to find something I really like, which is fine because my tastes are specific, but it's very rare that I even look at the Stories board any more. Which is a shame, because I know there are still plenty of wonderful stories being posted that I'm missing out on.

[Heathcliff]

And as long as things didn't get silly. I mean, people requesting there are 150 million different story boards, like, for each fandom etc. I know the staff wouldn't necessarily agree to that anyway, but I could see this potentially becoming chaotic with requests from member's asking for more boards.

This is an important point- thanks for mentioning this.

What I am not suggesting is that dividing up the stories board further is always a good thing; or that the staff should create a new type of story board whenever any member requests it.

However, the original / fanfiction divide is a distinction that many members already have in their minds when they look at the stories pages. Making a very rough guess from my story statistics post, an original / fanfiction divide would split the stories about 1/3 and 2/3. Certainly a good enough proportion for a very busy board.

Junia has also suggested a seperate forum for drabbles. Personally, I think this is a good idea... but in the interests of keeping this thread focussed, I am still asking simply for one new board for original stories.

I, personally, used to read stories posted here all the time, but lately I've found that I have to do an awful lot of digging to find something I really like, which is fine because my tastes are specific, but it's very rare that I even look at the Stories board any more.

Yes! Exactly. I used to really enjoy fetish stories back when I first discovered the online community, but I increasingly found it hard to dig out something I liked on the forum, and these days I hardly look at the Stories board at all.

Rather than just whinge about what I don't like though, I want to try and do something positive about it; and this thread is part of that.

[tma]

I do think that searching for fanfics can most definitely be easier- because you can use search and type in either fandom name or a character's name.

I think that the rationale was respectfully and thoughtfully articulated.

I'm in the "if this works for Staff" camp on this.

[Squadilah]

Why not have the boolean search operators AND NOT and OR instead?

[tma]

I've heard- (but I don't know if I'm 100% correct) that this particular forum *won't* allow searches for multiple tags, Squad

And doing regular search only searches the entry not tags.

[Heathcliff]

Why not have the boolean search operators AND NOT and OR instead?

It seems all you can currently use is 'OR'... and it isn't even within HoL's power to change how the search function works.

[Shay]

I'm all for the division and I wouldn't mind the separate section for drabbles either. I guess count me as another person that doesn't view the stories board as much as they used to because it's so hard to find what I'm looking for in a sea of mostly fanfic for fandoms I know nothing about. If I do look at the story board, I'm usually just skimming it very quickly only looking at the tags, and I'm sure I've missed some stories I might have liked by skimming the board so quickly.

[•.*°•☆. Q .☆•°*.•]

I really like this idea! If the staff's up for it I would be super happy. I write a lot of original stuff, but I get discouraged because it feels like if I post something it's just gonna get instaburied under miles of fanfiction anyway and so what's the point? having a seperate section for original work would make me feel much better ^w ^

[zorakio2]

I'm all for it and I think that it is a great idea if it is not too hard for the staff to accomplish

[Blah!?]

I agree, I think this is a really great idea.

While it hasn't quite gotten out of hand yet, I feel like there's almost a bit of bad blood between fanfiction and original fiction around here. Sure, it's not leading to people rioting in the streets, but I get a bit of a sense that people who only write one or the other feel like they have to compete with each other for views and comments. Splitting them up would most likely resolve this issue, and everyone could get back to enjoying what they enjoy.

I'm currently taking a break from being an active moderator, but perhaps I could be of some assistance when I return. If the staff feels it would be too much work to keep track of another board, I would be happy to volunteer to keep an eye on it myself. Original fiction is my jam anyway, so I'd be happy to moderate a specific board for it.

[doggo]

I agree. This is a great idea.

Another problem with the tag-thing is that most of old stories - so probably most of all stories - are from time before the tags and thus untagged.

When it comes to moderator work; I'm too busy to actually moderate at the moment, BUT, if the staff would like to have me as a temporary aid for this task of dividing the fics, I would be glad to help!

[murphy dee]

I think this is a great idea, too. Unfortunately I, also, have pretty much stopped going to the Stories board. I'm not always in a fetish mood...it comes and goes with me, and I can go a week (or even weeks) without caring about it, and so by the time I get back into it I have to dig and dig through all these stories I missed...

I'd like to get back into reading stories and posting my own stories, so I completely support the separation!

[SterlingSilver]

I am in love with this idea. Genius! Sorting and finding would become so much easier <3

And I know I'm not a staff member, but I actually really love to organize things. Tedious tasks are really relaxing for me, so if the staff didn't want to get bothered by this and wanted to show me how, I would gladly (and seriously) move every single story to the best of my ability to new areas

[Squadilah]

so if the staff didn't want to get bothered by this and wanted to show me how, I would gladly (and seriously) move every single story to the best of my ability to new areas

me too, there can only be a few thousand so if we could get a few more people on this we might only have to move a few hundred each

[Lynne]

Okay, before this gets out of hand, I'd like to assure you all that the staff is currently discussing this proposal quite seriously and we're working out the possible logistics of it.

However, we will not be granting people access to moderator functions simply to make moving past stories easier or faster. We all appreciate the offer of assistance, but it will neither be considered, nor necessary.

[Not_Telling]

Hurray! This has got my vote!

Oh, and thanks Lynne!

[SterlingSilver]

Wonderful news~!

Another thanks from me, Lynne!