Informal poll! Categorizing fanfic

[amedia]

I've been posting my fics on my own website, Flammantia Moenia Mundi for some time now. I know that most people read the fics on my LJ, but I'm going to a convention and as long as I'm pimping, it would be easier to give out the website than to ask people to dig through my tags.

Tin Man is the first fandom in which I've written a significant amount of gen under the name Amedia; the gen TM stories are the only gen stories on the site. But right now the stories are categorized only by length: Stories (anything over 1000 words), Short-shorts, and Drabbles, to be precise.

I'm wondering whether I should separate out the gen pieces into their own category, so people who don't like slash can enjoy them more easily?

Part of the problem is that some of the stories, such as "Sipping Coffee" or "Continuity," could be read as gen but are still relationship-intensive and could also be read as pre-slash. If I put them in the gen category, then slashers who don't read gen would miss them, and I got feedback indicating that slashers did in fact enjoy them. On the other hand, "Complications" was supposed to be slash, but it was high praise indeed when a dedicated nonslasher read it as gen and enjoyed it that way, so I'm not sure what to do with that!

I suppose I could have three categories:
Slash
Shippy Gen
Indubitably Gen

And there's one heteroromantic story "Au Revoir" (Lavender Eyes/Ahamo). Back when I was young and dinosaurs roamed the earth, I could have put that in the gen category. Can I still?

Or should I just leave the site the way it is?

Recommendations, discussion, brickbats, mobats, all welcome!

Comments

[shawan-7.livejournal.com]

I think I'd go with the breakouts. If I was reading that fandom and since I prefer Gen, I'd be more annoyed to have to plow through Slash.

You are going to Eastern Media then?

[amedia.livejournal.com]

That's just the kind of perspective that I find helpful! As a former dedicated genner, that's how I would have felt back in the day.

And yes, EMC is a definite go!

[erinm-4600.livejournal.com]

Back when I was young and dinosaurs roamed the earth, I could have put that in the gen category.

Doesn't that count as a drink? o.O

*hugs*

What do you want to do? o.O

[amedia.livejournal.com]

LOL! A drink it is!

What do you want to do?

Hm... I want to maximize readership, and I also want people to read what they enjoy without its being inconvenient to find. But I don't want the categories to keep people from reading something they might otherwise have liked. (like "Complications," for example. [veg])

And I want... a real poll! With ticky-boxes! *off to figure out how*

[erinm-4600.livejournal.com]

Just realize that once a poll is made and posted, that's it.

I have yet to find a trick for editing them. And it makes me angry :p

*Post --> Create Poll (top right)*

[amedia.livejournal.com]

Interesting! Thanks for the tip and the heads-up about editing.

I noticed while the poll was in the process of creation, there was a button to look at the code (which I did), but once created, it doesn't actually post the code, but a link to where it's stored.

I wonder if you could save the code and paste it into another message with modifications - but maybe it needs to run from the remote location in order to work.

[erinm-4600.livejournal.com]

I haven't tried that...

Polls are weird... and they don't exactly give you any help with the settings...

It's kinda touch-and-go to start

[koslorollo.livejournal.com]

IMO: Leave it the way it is... Unless it bugs your conscience. And then, mebbe...

[amedia.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I guess it is sorta bugging my conscience, which is why I'm hoping to get a roundup of what people think.

Can I pimp my poll on ohzeebooks?

[koslorollo.livejournal.com]

Hehehe, sure!

[natlyn.livejournal.com]

First, I'd like to thank you for thinking about this. I confess that I've mostly stopped reading fic and the, er, looseness with which gen is defined these days in a major reason.

Because you would like to notify slashers that they may like the shippy gen, I'd go with Slash, Shippy Gen, and Gen.

Regarding "Au Revoir," I would consider it gen—because it concerns a canon couple. Others would consider it het because it is a romance. I think you'd be safe calling it Het, either way. I mean, I don't think the potential audience would overlook it it was called Het, but they may it were under Gen.

See you at EMC!

[amedia.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much for your thoughtful response! See you in a few days!

[candacestls.livejournal.com]

Hi gf, my two cents says, I'd go with the Slash/Shippy Gen/Gen to give people their own poison, so to speak.

You got me thinking of back in the dinosaur days....remember when you just stuck money in an envelope and prayed something readable would come back to you? I don't think anything (well, baring the births of children, etc.) has ever beat the feeling of getting that package in the mail, after weeks, months, years.....

Still there's a lot to be said for instant gratification!!

Well as I said that's my two cents worth, now I'm going back to drinking coffee and feeling guilty about NOT working on my journal....

[amedia.livejournal.com]

their own poison - that's it, exactly!!!

remember when you just stuck money in an envelope and prayed something readable would come back to you?

Do I ever!!!! I remember poring over Universal Translator, looking for new zines in the fandoms I followed - so exciting to see the notices! And sending out submissions, too, and waiting the requisite four-to-six weeks to hear back - my favorite mail to get was the envelopes addressed in my own handwriting!

*nostalgic sigh*

But we do love our instant gratification, don't we? [wink] It would be hard to go back to those days, now that we've seen Paree, I mean, Teh Intarweb.

And thanks for the input! After learning that "shippy" means different things to different people still, I decided to go with the ol' hyphen (remember that from Starsky-Hutch vs. Starsky/Hutch days?) and label the in-between stories as Cain-Glitch friendship.

[candacestls.livejournal.com]

'I remember poring over Universal Translator, looking for new zines in the fandoms I followed - so exciting to see the notices!'

The Universal Translator! Boy do I remember!

Nostalgia is great, but instant gratification is like 'crack' LOL and I'm totally hooked.

S&H (my second fandom...after trek) I remember very well. The gen verses slash got very heated in that fandom, LOL. I always thought of the stories in that fandom as divided between SLASH and the EVERYTHING BUT, LOL. Remember Terry White's novels, wonderful and gen but so thick with slash content except for sex, LOL

LOL, we were a lot younger then and everything seemed so damn important, didn't it? :D