i miss random afternoon naps already

Sgastoryfinder social experiment?

On one hand, who doesn't go to sgastoryfinders to read the hilarity of some of the requests? OTOH, astroturfing requests for lulz in a community based on good-faith requests feels weird somehow. I kind of thought the funny was in the sincerity of the search and the way people remember things, in almost random bits of plot or dialogue or scene and why some things that seem insignificant to the author or even other readers make such a lasting impression that they define how the story is remembered. It was funny to see your fic remembered as the one where John wore pink or Rodney got a hangnail after he ate a donut, but also fascinating that something so small could define it, and try to work out why and how. And in any case, it was kind of flattering that anyone remembered it well enough to look for it at all because they wanted to read it again. The results either way are the same, but I feel kind of weird for the people who searched for the fic and those who wrote the ones that were found and didn't know they weren't doing something nice for someone else, but participating in a joke on themselves.

OTOH, it's two days post-con and my sense of humor is on par with a slug in the sun and I seriously am scheduling myself like, a weekend with Comedy Central or something. My recent personal tragedy involved a broken nail and a search for a file that took on epic proportions ending in a bitter exchange when it was found Child had absconded with it for reasons I decided I just didn't want to know, but for the record, I'm getting uncomfortable with him having an empty aquarium that is slowly being filled with layers of sand and decorated with rocks in a way not unlike a place you plan to store, oh, some sort of lizard. And frankly, how a nail file fits into this is information I just do not think I am ready to know.

How is everyone else's week going?

ETA: *winces* Okay, made it to second page of comments and there are actually some people who were upset by this. I apologize if anything I wrote here made them feel more uncomfortable. I can see their point on feeling unhappy they thought they were doing something nice for someone else and find out now they were kind of a punchline instead.

ETA 2: Mea culpa. Objectivity does indeed fly out the window when it's a close friend and cowriter whose fic ends up being involved. Thank God for people bringing me sympathetic post-vacation slump Snickers.

I apologize for my initial response if it came off flippant, because--yeah, no, that's pretty shitty behavior. I don't really participate in fic searches in public all that often, but I'm pretty sure if I did, I'd like to know I was starring in metacomedic performance art for the amusement of someone and their friends.

ETA 3: ineptshieldmaid in comments states the post has been taken down. More in the comment.

ETA 4: Thanks to raine for linking me: here toft apologizes with a longer explanation of her motives.

Comments

[domarzione]

I've long wondered why underhanded fic authors don't sock puppet requests for their own stories to drum up interest/gain readers -- I've been storyfound and I know what sort of a bump in traffic a link there brings. And my conclusion was always that on a community like that, so reliant on goodwill, the risk was deemed to outweigh the reward. More fool me.

Performance artists tend to be... not amoral, but their intent is to bring attention to themselves for their own reward without regard for consequences. It's the quaint uncle of the cult of celebrity. I suppose this little experiment falls under that rubric.

[seperis]

And my conclusion was always that on a community like that, so reliant on goodwill, the risk was deemed to outweigh the reward. More fool me.

No, I think you're right, but the person in question has to have an investment in the fandom at least and maybe something in the community that would dissuade questionable behavior.

Performance artists tend to be... not amoral, but their intent is to bring attention to themselves for their own reward without regard for consequences. It's the quaint uncle of the cult of celebrity. I suppose this little experiment falls under that rubric.

Huh, good call. I hadn't thought of it that way.

[percysowner]

I've long wondered why underhanded fic authors don't sock puppet requests for their own stories to drum up interest/gain readers -- I've been storyfound and I know what sort of a bump in traffic a link there brings. And my conclusion was always that on a community like that, so reliant on goodwill, the risk was deemed to outweigh the reward. More fool me.

Well I can't prove it, but I've been 95% sure that sock puppets visit finders coms for a few years now. I don't write, but I read really fast and I read a lot. The first few times I read a story and then 24-48 hours later a request for a story fitting one I just read, sometimes including details, I blew off as coincidence. After 10-12 times, I just figured some writers either make sock puppets, or get their friends to make the rec's. I'm not a writer, so I shrug my shoulders, and if I can find it I link, because it might be a real request. If the details are so exactly matched to a just posted story, I shake my head and move on. Also, it's not just SGA, I've seen it in man ficfinder communities.

Looking to interest people in your own story is one thing. Making up requests and laughing behind people's backs is mean.

[mecurtin]

The first few times I read a story and then 24-48 hours later a request for a story fitting one I just read, sometimes including details, I blew off as coincidence. After 10-12 times, I just figured some writers either make sock puppets, or get their friends to make the rec's.

Humans being human, this probably does happen. But I know (because I've been one of those requesters) that not infrequently a story is posted, I start reading it right away, then lose the link before I even finish it the first time and have no memory of where I saw it. It's as though my brain doesn't bother to fill in the "author title" fields in my mental database until I've finished the story and know whether it's worth remembering -- and often not until I've thought about the story enough to leave feedback.

In fact, I'm in that situation right now -- read a story within the last week, liked it, remember many details, planned to write feedback ... and now can't remember the author or title, just that it wasn't McShep Match. I'll probably be crawling to storyfinders soon.

[percysowner]

Well last week I would have said 95% of the posts are real and if I had a way to find them, and no one had I did look and post links. After the dustup I think if you factor in the troll then 94% of the requests were real and I still will help if I can and no one else has answered.

As for my saying that I think authors sometime use finder lists to promote their newest work, I agree that people are people and that this is a clever way to try and have people who might not have found something you wrote find it. It's harmless and I don't hold it against them. I'm sorry if I in ANY way seemed to include them with a poster who deliberately asked for stories with scenarios that she made up and didn't think were out there and then laughed behind peoples backs about how they ran around trying to help them.

NOTE: By the time I got to check my lj and learned about the rumpus, the original post was locked, so anything I say is going on complete hearsay. I know it happened and I have no doubt about the insensitivity of the OP, but any references I make about the poster that started this whole thing are not based on actually reading the post.