ā13irgit replied to your post: I think itās great...ā
I think there's much to be done about it! if you are AWARE that you only read stuff by the same person, maybe your awareness could cause you to actually broaden your horizon. I mean, there are fics with thousands of kudos and they seriously never pop up in the rec lists, and I don't think that's right. I do it too, constantly (re)-read the same stuff by the same people, but I'm aware so I always look at the updated list and I read as much new stuff as I can. Support new talent is important.
So yeah, I really get all your points (I do it too), but I donāt believe itās unavoidable at all. I donāt want people to accept that only three or four of the soooo many amazing writers are being appreciated for what they do. Itās frustrating and unfair.
And then, I mean, there was this time I only ever read my Harry Potter books, if Iād stayed in that lane I would definitely not have broadened my horizon the way I have now. Itās good for you to read different stuff, much better for the mind.
And itās not just individuals, I mean, I asked jonxsansafanfiction once āwhy do you always recommend the same stuffā and I just got such an annoying 'we have our list and we always tag everything, so you can find it thereā response, like, thatās a lame excuse and not at all the answer to my question. I even named stories 'why is this not in here and this?ā And the answer was literally, 'we tag everything, find it thereā dude š
Thereās a few different thoughts here Iāve tried to respond to.
there are fics with thousands of kudos and they seriously never pop up in the rec lists, and I don't think that's right
I tried not to say this in my first post but--if it literally has upper hundreds or thousands of kudos, thereās a good chance (80%+) that I did read it and didnāt like it, and therefore didnāt rec it. Full stop.
(Or that I did like it but not enough for it to survive the winnowing to my favorite 14 or whatever. Thereās only so much time and effort Iām going to put into a recs list.)
I hate being negative in recs, but I also donāt like glossing over things I dislike/things I think other people might dislike in those fics, so I end up not reccing them at all. There are whole categories of fics Iām not going to rec:
stuff that has is really good in one way but not in others (super interesting concept + iffy writing, for example, or hot smut + characterization that makes my eyes bug out)
stuff that is objectively or technically good but just doesnāt hit my buttons, or contains elements I dislike - tropes, kinks, certain interpretations of canon/characters (since weāre friends I can pick on @jonnsansa here and say I think sheās a great writer and I love her stuff, but if her A/B/O fic updates thereās a good chance Iām not going to pay much attention because that trope just isnāt for me, you know?)
WIPs that are promising but still in the early stages; if Iām going to rec a WIP, it has to be substantial (@mon-blanchetts fr ex; I really dig her writing and it makes me have a lot of feelings [THE SHEER ANGST, and also a really admirable ability to delay explanation of whatās going on in a nicely suspenseful way], but the fics Iād rec just have a couple of parts right now. So if youāre cool with that, go read her stuff! But hopefully itās understandable why I wouldnāt put it on a recs list until it was further along?)
Maybe this is just me being super picky, but ĀÆ\_(ć)_/ĀÆĀ I donāt really care? Itās a free internet, I can be as picky as I want.
But if you catch me in a more private space Iām okay with criticizing more freely. If you like a story and want to ask me what I think of it, feel free to privately message me and Iāll be more candid.
Supporting new talent is important.
I am ānew talent,ā so to speak, so itās not like Iām part of some cliquey cabal of āold guardā friends who only read and rec each other. (Not that thereās anything wrong with that, for that matter. Life is too short. Read & rec only your friends if you want!)
But there are several new(er) writers that I did include because I really like their stuff--@jonnsansa, @toyhto, @aknightfornawt (@maybetwice? how new are you? Ugh, this is what I get for coming to a fandom super late, the room is on fire and I have no idea whatās going on). Iām pretty sure I recced literally everything @aknightfornawt has written for Jon/Sansa except maybe one (such a tremendous writer yāall), and we started writing for the ship around the same time.
Itās good for you to read different stuff, much better for the mind.Ā
Iām in fandom for fun. Broadening my horizons and improving my mind is what my graduate degree was for.
At a fundamental level, Iām doing this for fun. Like you, I donāt have a lot of time--itās mostly taken up by other less fun stuff. Like, you know, my multiple jobs, and also my PhD program.
I just donāt think I have an obligation to force myself to read more of a fic if I donāt like the first chapter, or to keep giving a writer more chances if I know I just donāt like their writing style and thatās unlikely to change.
At bottom, all my recs lists were saying is āhere are some things I like.ā I never said it was an objective assessment of quality. I didnāt pretend it was comprehensive. It was just some things I happen to really like. Lots of other people already liked lots of them. Oh well.