On Fri, 18 Jul 1997, Jeanne Hedge wrote:
At 06:47 PM 7/18/97 -0400, Tybalt wrote:
OK, Mr. Moderator, I would like a clarification, and perhaps the FAQ Writers
would add the response to the FAQ.
Fair enough.
Is it allowable to ask this list about writing fanfics if anyone knows who
wrote a certain fanfic? Please remember, this is NOT a fic request. It is
a request for information about a fic. Quite a different thing.
My gut reaction is to say no, it isn't. Why? Mostly because it gives a
easy loophole for people to request fics by. (Who wrote Ranma and Mihoshi
and Ethel the Aardvark go Quantity Surveying, Vol 2, and can I have a
copy?)
It all comes down to information sharing. I find it inconceivable that a
request for information (which is a different thing from a fic request)
would be a banned activity. However, from your late reply the other day to
the thread between myself and Gary Kleppe about how to find out who an
author is, you seem to consider this question as being the same as a fic
request.
Yup.
Before you respond, please consider a couple things. Unless it becomes a
requirement that everyone post all fics (not just FFML fics, but ALL fics)
to the various synopses lists, they are NOT a complete source of
information. I, for one, have never listed anything with any of them
(without looking at the RAAC archive [a place I'd expect someone to look
first if they know the name of the story, btw] or my web page, can you or
one of the synopsis list people tell me what I've written? Can you tell me
what Saffie has written?)
Sure, if I ask her. ^_^ There are a phenominal amount of places to look;
Mr. Kleppe listed most of them in his excellent post on the matter.
Also, no one individual can possibly know about all fics ever written. (Can
you tell me who is writing "Arms and the Maiden"? I know, do you?). If I,
as you say above, have spent 5 days looking for it, I doubt you could find
it if I couldn't.
If this fic is still being written and is unreleased, I rather doubt
anyone is going to be asking for it.
Unless you restrict all discussion on this list to stories posted to this
list, it is also possible that someone may ask about a story that wasn't
ever posted here because they see this list as the information resource it
is. And because it was never posted here, there is NO chance that one of
the synopsis lists would carry info about it. But someone else here might know.
Finally, a person can't always ask the question under discussion via private
methods either, because you don't necessarily always know who *does*, or
even *might* know. I haven't a clue about who to ask about Sailor Moon
fics. I don't have the slightest idea about who to ask about YYH fics. But
I bet someone on this list does.
All valid points. Trouble is, if you let one person do something, everyone
else thinks they can too. The inncessant barrage of requests would go on,
and on.... you really should be able to find out things like that here,
and I'm sorry that it isn't the case.
Here are two possible solutions.
1. - Mail the request for fic/information along with something else. If
you ask for a fic at the beginning of your C&C of a recently posted work,
I don't mind one bit. You can send out just about anything - test message,
fic request, what have you - as long as it's attached to something that
should be on the list. Note that this doesn't mean that you can send a
post like "Ranma and Bob Dole vs the Thing From Planet X-7 was cool, I
really liked it. Can someone send me Sailor Moon Dust Clouds Part 7?" It
has to be real, honest to God C&c.
2. Ask us. If our helpful and occasionally courteous staff doesn't know,
we might actually post it to the list for you.
- Tybalt, FFML Moderator
"It fits, when such a villain is a guest:
I'll not endure him."
Jeanne Hedge
OLD address: jhedge@waterw.com
NEW address: jhedge@wwa.com