Fanfic Archives

[beccastareyes]

Okay, for those of you that don't know, about two years ago I was asked by Fanilia of Mediaminer.org to take on some modding work at that site. My duties were mostly in helping select Featured Fanfiction (basically a Mod's Choice type thing), and removing fic that violated the rules, though I had at least a voice in the running of the site, even if it felt like I was usually the loyal opposition -- most of the other mods liked me, even though I was usually the one saying 'Now, hold on. I disagree."

Recently it's coming to my attention that I really don't like the way Mediaminer handles things -- I am disagreeing more and more with site policy -- look at Fandom Wank for details. And frankly I don't know what to do about it. I really like the structure of Mediaminer, as it gives me the discussion of a LJ community, via the forums, with a multifandom archive. I like the contests and challenges, the fact there is a beta-reading forum and place to ask for concrit onsite, and things like that -- it was one reason I switched from FF.net.

On the other hand, I do think the fact that the mods are BNFs is affecting their behavior. I don't like the fact that it usually seems to be 'And once again Becca is the sole voice of dissent'. Occasionally a few other mods will join me (I think I had about two or three allies in the discussion on what minimum spelling/grammar standards should be.), but usually I seem to be the devil's advocate.

Now I don't know whether I should leave or stay. If I leave, it would be total -- delete my stories, archive my reviews, and ask the mods to remove me from the list of mods. But that feels like giving up. I told crisi83 last night that one reason I beta read/give concrit on fanfic is that I would consider it hypocritical to complain about the lack of good fanfic without trying to help people make their fic good. I want to remind the mods that 'Hey, just because 50 people love an author so much that they will be asses to people who give her negative reviews doesn't mean we shouldn't protect that reviewer's right to a publicly posted opinion. And just because some people have crummy grammar doesn't mean we can't require a spell-check and proper formatting.'

I suppose I have a number of options now:

1. Shut up and do nothing. I don't like this one at all, even if it is easy.

2. As above, but also leave the site. Cite 'creative differences' in the email to Fanilia where I resign my position. This isn't much better.

3. Make a post against the behavior of BNF and the rabid fans that lick their boots in the forum. Be polite, be firm, do not name names, and see how long it takes me to be banned. Appealing, but wanky, since at this point it is akin to trolling (deliberately posting something solely to produce an argument).

4. Bring the matter up in the mods forum. Probably what I should do, but I don't know a way to say 'Listen guys -- I think we have an irreconcilable difference of opinions. Since the staff on the site should have a united face, I think I'm going to have to leave' without sounding like I'm threatening them to 'Change things to suit my needs, or I will pack up my toys and go home!'

There's also a small part of me that would like to build the fanfiction site I want -- a multifandom archive with forums and maybe some sort of queue (a la Elfwood) to make sure all fics are at least spelled correctly, formatted correctly, and don't break any rules. But I don't know nearly enough PHP for that, nor have the space on my site, nor have the time, nor can expect things to take off unless I can get some BNFs (or at least NFs) to archive stories there.