The Gang of Five
Howdy, everyone!

As you know, the forum has been fighting spammers and bots for years. We have seen our fair share of "Custom Kitchens UK", scammy Internet hosting companies, and bots trying to send us to a business's homepage. But after fighting the tidal wave of spam for so many years, the admins had a persistent thought: what if the spammers are right? Not in terms of posting nonsense links and trying to scam our users, but in trying to make money through our unique platform?

Well, thanks to the helpful counsel of Taunt, we have finally decided to move the forum in a new direction. Please see his important post on the matter in this topic

Get a load of this.

LoyfeCycleProtector

  • Petrie
  • *
    • Posts: 793
    • View Profile
Yeah, I heard FF freaked out at the possibility that others would try to emulate it's 'style'. They didn't my want an incoming truckload of fiction that's barely legible, so they axed it. Not sure if that'd the real reason, but it would make sense.


WeirdRaptor

  • Cera
  • *
    • Posts: 4745
    • View Profile
    • Knowhere: A Geek Culture Fan Forum
That sounds like something FF would and the reason it would do it.
"All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you." -Gandalf


Ghostfishe

  • Chomper
  • *
    • Posts: 102
    • View Profile
I know a fair number of fanfiction writers who manage to be a lot better than 90% of the published fiction for sale on bookshelves, but I think such writers will probably steer clear; one of them has already said something on Facebook to the effect of "heck no". Mostly for the reason DarkHououmon mentioned, and I feel the same way; I've always written because I enjoy the creativity, not because I have secret ambitions to "get something out of it". Most of these writers already have aspirations toward their own original fiction, or are already writing original fiction with the intent to publish someday... they don't need to use someone else's work as a crutch to help them make money.

Judging by Amazon's terms as stated so far, it sounds like they're trying to avoid the majority of "bad" fanfiction. Though I doubt they realize just how squirrely belligerent writers can be about exploiting loopholes... oh their approval staff is going to have so much fun.  :lol


Littlefoot1616

  • The Circle
  • Cera
  • *
    • Posts: 3881
  • The game is on; so let's play!
    • View Profile
As daft as the whole concept appears, you can't argue that the idea does sound tempting especially to those who reckon they have the "right stuff" to make a good fanfic with x amount of reviews limited to "good job" or "good chapter. Can't wait to see what happens in the next one". The prospect of the whole thing is laughable but you know there is some sorry sap out there that will actually think that their cautionary tale of Harry Potter becoming a Pokemon trainer whilst Iron Man makes a guest appearance would make for a best selling read.

As usual, you guys have hit it on the head. Those who actually write fanfics (for the more noblest of reasons) generally do it for the fun and creativity within your own mind. Not with the scope to attempt to make mega bucks from an idea of mish-mashing two or more impossible movie or game concepts into one setting. And I stand with you all. I write for the pleasure of doing it. There's no way I could publish what I've done and I would never attempt to (unless Universal actually approached me on the idea then I'd have to battle with the stigma of "selling out").  :lol Good luck to any poor fool that goes for this and doubly good luck to the proof readers. Hope Amazon can supply enough coffee makers to keep them going.  :DD