Poll: Tell Me What You Read and I Will Tell You Who You Are

[thefourthvine]

I'd like to know more about y'all, and I'd like to play with my new paid user status. I blended these two yens, and voila! An excessively long, dull poll. I'll be delighted if you complete it, but don't feel, you know, obligated or anything. Next entry, I'll return to my usual fan fiction fangirlishness.

[Poll #322234]

Comments

[semielliptical]

About the "what percentage do you read" question - if it's a fandom I know, I read what you rec, unless your review mentions something that I really don't like in a fic. But I don't know every fandom you rec.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

I guess with that question I'm really trying to get a handle on how useful the recs are to you; there probably is some overlap with the fandoms question. (Although, since I brilliantly left out several fandoms from the list, perhaps redundancy is a good thing.) I mean, if you're, say, a big dS reader you'll use a lot more of my recs than if we only share rare lit and movie fandoms.

So, I'm curious. What are your special dislikes, the things you just can't stand in a fic? I'm gripped by this, especially since I discovered just today that an otherwise totally squick-free individual cannot bear to have food and sex appearing in the same story. So now I'm wondering what other people just can't or won't read in a fic.

Oh, god. I think I sense another poll coming on. But I will be strong and wait until next month, because there's only so many boxes I can reasonably ask people to check.

[semielliptical]

Polls are fun! I think this merits another poll.

I think there are two categories of things I don't like in a fic. The first are things that I will read once in a long while, (assuming it's a well-written fic) but that I generally prefer to avoid: character death, a character that I like being portrayed as evil, long descriptions of torture or rape. Then there are the annoyances that sometimes make me stop reading an otherwise decent fic, mostly too much cuteness and frequent use of epithets. I also don't like fics that focus on an established relationship if there is no tension in the relationship. Unless it's short and funny.

So, your recs are very useful to me, because they I can tell if a fic fits my likes and dislikes. I think it's difficult to do that in a rec - I only write very short recs, partly because I like selecting fics more than I like writing recs, and partly because I don't like to give plot spoilers. Though I realize that's not always helpful to other readers - I may not want to give away that a particular Remus/Sirius fic includes the Prank, but perhaps some folks would be more likely to read it if they knew that.