YMMV

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=160 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="012a0643.jpg"> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=435 colspan=2 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="00f64643.jpg"> <div> <B>YMMV</B></div> <div>  <A NAME="ymmv"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <bR> <div> So I'm sitting around, minding my own business on a particular Sunday night, trying to decide how best to go about finding employment again as I'd just quit my job, when my e-mail alert starts to go NUTS.  I belong to tons of Stargate mailing lists and fan groups - the majority of them slash - and for the most part I have them on daily digest.  You know, that way there's about 25 messages per actual e-mail.  Cuts down on the congestion.  I'm sitting there watching as digest after digest from two certain groups pop up - so I know something huge has happened.</div> <bR> <div> I closed the employment section of the on-line paper, opened up the first e-mail and read an "observation" from a certain person regarding a recent spate of rather harsh or dark fics that involved some very intense physical situations.  The word "sick" stuck in my mind.  A reply from another "observer" in their answer to the instigating e-mail mentioned one particular scene by one particular author.  The 'tone' of these "observations" led me to believe that these people were passing judgment not only on fics of this particular genre', but on the people that read and enjoyed them.</div> <bR> <div> The e-mails flew back and forth, hot and heavy and suddenly there was one where the author whose scene was mentioned stated that she was taking her fics down FROM HER OWN SITE.  The volleying back and forth of strong opinions I could tolerate - it's the price one pays for being on a list with so many different types of people.  What I couldn't tolerate was that someone was made to feel they needed to remove their writing efforts from a forum they OWNED because someone else didn't have the good sense to keep their opinions suitable for public consumption.</div> <bR> <div> And it got me thinking, which in general is a dubious proposition at best.  I got to thinking about how out of all fan fiction writing, it's slash writers that are most often termed "deviant."  I got to thinking that when it comes to liberal thinking in terms of personal freedoms and rights, it's the slash writers who are usually out there shouting the loudest to make sure everyone has equal access to the forum that is the internet through which to 'show their wares.'  In terms of acceptance of alternate lifestyles, slash writers are definitely in the forefront of demanding equal rights for everyone.  Yet here I was watching this strange polarization happen right before my eyes.  One side saying, "you're sick and wrong if you like it when things turn rough between the two male leads in a slash fic," while the other side said back, "at least we don't read crap sap fic by horrible writers."  I just watched the valley open and people start to fall into the chasm.</div> <bR> <div> Then I thought some more about the particular set of stories that were being "discussed" (and that is SUCH a polite way of putting it).  In the hew and cry of 'not enough warnings' and 'those sort of stories have no place,' I tried to remember exactly what it was that I'd seen when I'd personally went to read this particular series of fics.  And thanks to a reasonably accurate memory, I do remember the warnings right at the top of EACH page of EACH story saying, in general, "if such and so and this and that bother you, then DON'T READ."  It was right there next to the NC-17 rating.  Right there.  Couldn't miss it.</div> <bR> <div> Well by this time the e-mails looked like a round of cannon fire from the ships in Master and Commander (or whatever that movie's called) and I'm sitting there trying to understand why the people who'd written these "observations" were nattering on in the first place.  And then it hit me . . . they would have had to have read the ENTIRE series to get to the point in that one particular scene where that one particular action happened that had so 'sickened' them.  Yet, they were decrying how horrible it was for this sort of story to be posted because it 'condoned domestic violence' as did, apparently, the people who enjoy reading the rougher side of gay sex.  But they went right beyond that very obvious warning, didn't they, and read it anyway.</div> <bR> <div> So they weren't really "observations" at all at this point, were they?  They were flames.  Finger-pointing, holier-than-thou, unrighteously indignant flames that someone decided was worthy of public consumption because they, after ignoring warnings that were posted in order to spare people from reading something they wouldn't like, took their personal choice firmly in both hands and read it anyway . . . then had the gall to object to it being posted ON A PERSONAL WEBSITE.  Huh.</div> <bR> <div> Well I'm a big believer in freedom of speech.  BIG believer.  And I believe that what someone puts up on their website is their business.  If you want to partake, go ahead.  But don't go to this privately held site, read EVERYTHING they have while staying entrenched in your dark, secret, can't-let-them-see-me-doing-this-cause-I'd-be-embarrassed corner, then come out and point a finger and say, in essence, "Oh, you horrible, horrible writer!  How dare you write an entire series like that - every single line of every single chapter of which sickened and appalled me."</div> <bR> <div> Can I just ask a rhetorical question?  Why the hell didn't they (one or both, who knws) quit reading at the warning - or, lacking that, stop when they got to a setting they objected to?  I'll tell you why.  CAUSE THEY'RE IDIOTS!  And arrogant besides.  Now, thanks to this, there's yet another huge rift in a fandom that has enough problems.  Nice.</div> <bR> <div> This all was a rather deplorable example of things 'not to do' in <I><B>public</B></I> forums (read mailing lists).  Learn to live by the code of YMMV (your mileage may vary) - just because you don't like it doesn't mean someone else doesn't.  Flames couched with the terms of "just my opinion" or "observation" need to stay off public lists - take it up with the person in private and leave the rest of us out of it.  </div> <bR> <div> It's like me talking about that god-awful drivel I've come to call Beagle!Fic.  GOD I hate that stuff and the sickly sweet, overly effeminized, OOC <I>crap</I> that gets written by that one particular writer.  I don't mind airing my opinion - but I don't do it in public forum like a mailing list because THAT'S NOT THE PLACE.  Just . . . get your own website, or LiveJournal, and post your  "opinions" up on those . . .  I did.</div> <bR> <div> C.</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id3_sg1_slash.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Stargate SG1 Slash Fiction"><U>Back to Fic List</U></A>     <A HREF="id2_directory.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Directory Listing"><U>Back to Directory</U></A></div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=45 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="00f64643.jpg"> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="161" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 45 ><NOBR><div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="39" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="29"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Plotexpo.com"><U><B><IMG SRC="0181d270.jpg" border=0 width="29" height="39" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER WIDTH="15"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="45" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="15" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER><NOBR><div> <A HREF="id50.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Life, the Universe and Everything"><U><B><IMG SRC="017271d0.jpg" border=0 width="39" height="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER><NOBR><div> <A HREF="id51.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="WHY BOTHER?!?!"><U><B><IMG SRC="016271d0.jpg" border=0 width="39" height="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>