Only two people have sent responses to me today, so I figure that this is
about all the data I'm going to get without bugging everybody on the FFML
again with yet more spam. For those of you who were arguing last week, here
is the data you said we didn't have:

In case you have forgotten, I have also attached the survey question below.


"Is having all the characters either "in character" or "out of character,
but explained why" a significant factor in a good fanfic?"

Of the 63 people who responded:

49 people said "yes," meaning that they thought if a character was "out of
character," a good fanfic should explain why.

14 people said "no," meaning that they thought if the writting was good
enough, it didn't really matter if all the characters were all "in
character" or not.


In other words, 78% � 10% of the FFML believe that all the characters in a
good fanfic should either be "in character" or should have the reasons for
their changed personalities shown. That's at least 2/3 of the population,
probably a lot more.

Unfortunately, it wasn't completely a random sample (which isn't really
possible to get on something like the FFML). People who wanted to responded,
and those who didn't, didn't. These results might only mean that those who
thought "yes" were much more inclined to respond then those who thought
"no." There isn't much that can be done about that though. Make of the data
what you will.

What you as a writer choose to do (or not do) with the data is up to you.

Note this message is NOT an invitation to restart the debate. I think the
data speaks for itself...

------------------------------------------

"There are three types of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics."

                                        -Samuel Clemons a.k.a. Mark Twain