Fanfics Review / General Discussion Thread

[ShikyoxYaiba]

I agree, actually. I like to give my threads (or at least, I try) interesting names, but I never try and pretty it up. Instead of making me think, "Oooh, it attracts my attention, let's read." it makes me think, "That's a lot of colons/hearts/whatever. Huh." I personally click on everything, and if it's new, I'll scan the first few lines to see if the grammar is readable or GENERALLY typo free. But good TITLES (not flashy) generally make we wanna check it out first. To sum it up, I go for interesting titles over pretty ones. But I'll go through everything eventually, so it doesn't HAVE to be cool sounding or anything. :p Therefore: NAY!

[JFC]

What is the Yay or Nay vote actually for? Is it "Do we forbid it? Yay/Nay" or "Do we allow it? Yay/Nay"  ?

Personally, I don't think the decor is necessary, but at the same time they don't really bother me unless they're REALLY excessive/overly gaudy. A "decorative" thread title might look pretty when one first sees it, in the long run it doesn't make a difference in the quality of the actual story. If it's a story that grabs my attention/interest, I'll come back to it regardless. If it doesn't really grab my interest, then I don't.

[Estrea]

^JFC just stole the words out of my mouth...or off my fingers, you know what I mean.

I habitually click on all new story threads just to glance through, just like Shikyo, but I only go back to read if I think it's worth following. Thread titles don't really matter although too much decoration annoys me as well...but if it's a good story, I guess it doesn't matter.

A good thread title does help in piquing my interest though. I personally try to make my thread titles, I dunno, interesting and relevant to my story. As rokun pointed out to me once, my sandbox really is just a place for me to play around with random things. Hence, a sandbox. Relevance, yo. No need to excessively prettify it.

[Kuji]

Hm, since my last fandom often made titles that more or less resembled this: ～///}my S T O R Y's○E●M○O●name+++
...I can safely say a couple of hearts, stars and whatnot do not bother me. The writer is what really makes the difference. If someone I really enjoyed reading made a really decorated title, I'd shrug it off and read it anyway. It's when the really decorative title is the ONLY thing attractive about the story, that there is a problem.

But really ℃-ute could just be Cute, Lucky☆Star could just be Lucky Star and Tommy february6's ♥Lonely in Gorgeous♥ could just be Lonely in Gorgeous. Either way, they're still enjoyable and the content is all that matters to me. What's in a name?

[Estrea]

^True, content matters more than anything.

[0508]

Personally, I'm kinda indifferent about it, and it's not a big enough issue for me to say anything. As long as it's not overdone and doesn't look like spam I'm okay with it. Though I kinda do like a "clean" feel to the page...

And really, like others said, I'll clicked on every new story there is. (Especially if it's 3AM and I got nothing better to do.) Unless the title advertised/mentions something I'd stay away from, I'll check it out. And yar, CONTENT is most important to me. :3 Write on, writers!

[Amarghetta]

Pimped up titles usually deter me from reading a story, because I dread the amount of cheesiness I might find in it. I tend to avoid them for days or weeks, until I'm just too bored for anything else. But once I give it a chance, my decision to come back is only based on the content, not on the amount of pwetty dots or hearts I find at first glance.

Therefore, I don't think you should outright forbid authors from adorning their thread titles. Encouraging the glitter aficionados to refrain from over accessorizing would be a better course of action. That way, you don't come across as a tyrant, and newcomers don't get scared with (y)our pettiness.  xD

Also, I'm inclined to believe that people here have enough common sense to make things work without having mods or admins breathing down their necks, so it shouldn't be much of a problem. But if it gets really bad and there are complaints about it, you can pull a Miki and glare/grope/molest/whiplash the offenders into submission, or you can set some rules about the title format after the forum is reorganized. Not just because it pleases you or any other member here, but because it would keep things easy and simple in the long run. (Yet I hope we never reach the point where rules are actually needed...)

[Sukoshi]

xDDD Is it necessary to like, personalize your story's titles with the likes of .::.:::. and/or hearts and another nifty things? (The Kouhaku doesn't count xD It's not a story)

Yuuyami ijiwaru~   (though I was basically the same with my complaint over the excessive stickies)

Ya know, I think you just basically named names and called them weak
I went to look and it's clear as day who you are talking about 

This is a unified community of writers. Not a mall where it's like "IRASSHAI IRASSHAI COME READ MY STORY KPLZTHNX." 'cause you know, if you seriously need things like that, wouldn't that make you kinda... weak? o_O; I mean, I understand the fun of personalizing things but doing it here is kinda ridiculous o___o;

So what does everyone else think? Yay or nay?

your example makes my eyes bleed   [bgcolor=#131313] (I also clicked on one of the stories...and the first sentence was along the same lines...you know...teh ppl dat rite lke tis.  my poor poor eyes)[/bgcolor]

...you know...I didn't really notice the decorations all that much until you actually pointed it out.  Maybe you set a bad example with your kouhaku! 

but maybe they feel this incredibly strong urge to express their cuteness/individualism...   I can't say Nay to that if that's the reason.

I don't think their titles help them all that much though.  As Amarghetta so well explained, they tend to turn me off as well...until I'm bored enough to read.  I'm just afraid it's a reflection of what's inside but there's always that saying of don't judge a book by it's cover.  With that in mind, I tend to eventually give the stories a chance.

[Kuji]

^ Completely agree with the book cover comparison because aren't the titles the fics' equivalent? Therefore, like with actual bookcovers, the things that would turn me off would be excessive amounts of clearly unintentional bad spelling/grammar, netspeak being used seriously and not just to be funny or vulgarity. Other than that, I'll follow the 'don't judge' saying.

...although, I guess I might not buy a mystery/suspense novel that was covered in pink glitter and bunny rabbits at the bookstore and that same principle would apply here. Estrea mentioned relevance already. With special characters, you can have a good thing and then you can have too much of a good thing.

[writerjunkie]

Yeah I don't really like the decorations on a title. When I first read fanfiction I thought it was strange. It's just better if you give the story a interesting title and that might draw people in that might not. Plus I don't even know how to do that with titles. lol

[Yuuyami]

Ooooh, good points here and there xDDD

I guess it's a yay then xDDD

Well, a short yay o_o

Community says it all~! Glitterfying is fine but no over-accessorizing allowed xDDD

[writerjunkie]

it's not a yay in my book. lol but if the writer feels better doing it I guess they should do it.

[stefy]

whats the difference?

How long will it take to just click on the fic and scan through to see if you, as a reader, like it or not... Fics are pretty much all about content. The title, be it flashy or not, only helps to speed up or delay the interest/curiosity of the readers. For me, I normally try to avoid clicking those flashy titles with hearts or titles with lame phrases. But at the end I'd still look through them when I have nothing to do, and actually some fics with flashy titles are quite entertaining.

[strawb3rrykream]

Wow, I'm gone for a few hours and this happens! The makeover is interesting, I like.

As for the decorations in titles, meh. I don't particularly care either way. I personally only use ~ when my titles have a sort of "sub-title" thing. But yeah, content is obviously more important.

[JFC]

Holy shit, I'm in the middle of commenting on Essy's latest update, and all of a sudden there are a couple new sub-forums and shit's been moved around!

[Yuuyami]

Eheheheheheheh... -wipes sweat before going back to moving things around-

YUUCHAN TO LOSER-CHAN GANBATTE~!

[Sukoshi]

Yuu-chan~

wouldn't it be better if the Asylum fics stay on the main instead of a sub-forum?  Cause all that's left on the main fanfic section is random old stories....

[Yuuyami]

Actually, we're moving all the old stories in there too~

We are REALLY gonna do some spring-cleaning~!

-wears hardhat and runs off to move stuffs again-

[Estrea]

Poor Yuuchan having to move everything. lol. *gives her a cookie*

Ganbatte~

[ShikyoxYaiba]

Ganbare~ So what IS gonna be left in the main section...? Or is it just gonna be straight to sub forums? Either way, I'm sure it'll look good. Ah, my buddy finished reading, so I'll be sending in my vote for Kouhaku, too. *scurries off*