Snark incoming.

[krait]

Possibly one of the most useful features of a sci-fi/fantasy fandom: it's really easy to weed out fics you don't want to read, just by checking to see which ones can't spell the fandom-specific made-up words correctly. Kismesitude? Paidi Aiji? Valdemarian? NOPE, sorry, no +1 hit count for you!

(Also useful in these fandoms: excluding "human AU" from your search results; but that's another rant for a different day.)

Comments

[tropicsbear]

I think this is generally applicable across any fandom. I mean, if you can't even spell "masturbate" properly, that does not bode well for your smutfic.

[krait]

It's definitely applicable to spelling in general, across all sorts of fandoms! The sf/f version just gives me a slightly different vibe. Like, okay, if you can't spell 'masturbate' then no, I probably don't want to read your fic, because you haven't put in even minimal beta effort so I doubt you've put in a lot of work on other story aspects.

On the other hand, if you can't spell 'kismesis' or 'silmarillion'? Not only are you failing at basic find-a-beta stuff, you also appear to be failing at canon; the vibe I get is "the characters will be generic OCs with fandom names, and the fandom setting will be pastede on."

[blnchflr]

Excluding "human AU" seconded!

[krait]

HA! Yes!

It's completely baffling to me why anybody would take a fandom with whole alien cultures to explore... and decide that what they, and a bunch of readers, really want to see is a story about a bunch of {American} high schoolers. *facepalming*

There are already So. Many. Fandoms. where the entire cast is high school kids; just go read fic for one of those fandoms! Why is "how can I strip out every vestige of what made these characters interesting when they first appeared in canon" such a popular route to take?!

Siiiiigh.

(Heh, and I'm such a xeno-snob, too; I get annoyed when aliens are written as 'too human' as well as when they're deliberately turned into humans. It's part of the reason I was so hideously disappointed by Avatar - the idea that a bunch of telepathic aliens with biology shaped for a completely different environment would be basically people in monkey suits was just offensively poor writing... even before the rest of the offensive bits of the writing became clear.)

[blnchflr]

Yup - it's also why I was so disappointed in the later HP books: In the beginning, the wizarding world was so delightfully other; later it was just regular world with a magic!lol spin. Cf. also movie!HP with Death Eaters in Muggle leather jackets.

[krait]

Oh, man -- now I'm super happy about missing most of the HP movies! That's just awful. (I was already annoyed by the third movie, where for some reason Hermione has to run around in a stupid pink hoodie for most of the scenes! Though that was only half "stop making it Just Like Muggles"; the other half was "please stop giving me Creepy Pedo Director vibes".) DX

[blnchflr]

Oh, be glad those missed those bits indeed! But be a little sad you missed platonic!Harry/Hermione dancing BADLY in the last movie. Against my will, I was thoroughly charmed.

[cheyinka]

Thirded - especially in series where part of the appeal is that the aliens aren't humans with funny masks and weird names. I don't want to read Hilfy Chanur angsting over having to start her own iteration of her family's chain of restaurants or Jago wondering whether it's okay to ask her boss's secretary out on a date, not that I think there is a lot of human AU Cherryh fanfic.

[krait]

WORD. And wow, never thought I'd be happy that Foreigner fandom is so small, but I guess at least it does mean that we don't have the critical mass needed to achieve whatever madness makes a fandom decide that "what if they were all a clique of human college students" AUs are the only kind of fic that needs to be written... *sigh of relief*

I mean, really; now I'm trying to picture it, and I just can't! College student!Banichi? High school romance!Jago/Bren? Pfeh. Does not compute.

On the other hand, maybe I'm going at it backwards. Maybe the reason Foreigner is a tiny fandom is because it's too hard to imagine an all-human AU? Perhaps "ability to inspire human AUs" is a necessary component for becoming a large fandom... *ponders*

[cheyinka]

I can't picture it even as a joke except for that one summary, and that took me a good five minutes to come up with. I mean, I've read "everybody is a normal human on earth" AUs for Stargate Atlantis, and some of those are okay, but their aliens are humans, just humans who weren't born on Earth. Anything with nonhuman characters? Nooooope. (Both the "no human AUs" and "spell canon terms correctly" rules work for Babylon 5 fanfic, too, not that I expect they wouldn't.)

[pebblerocker]

I would friggin' LOVE to read about Banichi in his equivalent of college, studying to be an incredibly good assassin. But only if it's set on his world, in his culture.

AUs that take people in a mundane setting, like a cop show, and put them in a magical fantasy or on a spaceship, can be pretty amazing. I don't get the impulse to make things LESS interesting.

[krait]

Oooooooh, yeah! Alien-assassin-college!Banichi would be awesome. :D But I suspect that would be almost entirely lacking in the cliches of the bog-standard College!AU that seems to be popular.

take people in a mundane setting, like a cop show, and put them in a magical fantasy or spaceship

Yes, I like Fantasy!AUs (especially Temeraire fusions; they're a major weak spot) and InSpace!AUs of non-magical fandoms. I even enjoy AUs where a mundane setting has been replaced with another mundane setting (What if Clark Kent had been adopted by a Kansas farm couple in 1805 instead of the modern day? That might make a really cool AU!) It's strictly the magical-to-nonmagical switch that I find unappealing!

[unsettledink]

Unfortunately the last one is only good if they actually tag things. :(

(Due to my frustration at HOW MANY DIFFERENT TERMS TO I HAVE TO - TO MAKE YOU STOP SHOWING UP ARG)

[krait]

Hahaha, yes, TAG YOUR AUs is a thing I shout at the screen pretty frequently, alas. *grumpyface*

And NO, Homestuck fandom, "College AU" does NOT necessarily imply "Human AU"; you need to tag both of those!

[unsettledink]

And it works (or doesn't, frustratingly) in the opposite direction. I cannot begin to say how many times I've searched through a certain tag and found very little, only to find something that's perfectly that not tagged as such. TAG BENEFIT EVERYONE AUTHORS.

Said as someone who is terrible about tagging beyond the basics at AO3 at least. >.>

[krait]

Oh, yes; same!

as someone who is terrible about tagging beyond the basics at AO3

Alas, I'm bad at it, too. I need to start keeping a list of awesome useful tags that I come across when reading, so that whenever I post something I can check it against the list.

Now I want to hit up AO3 and try to revise all my tags...

[unsettledink]

Oh man, I keep thinking about going back and making my tags a little wider, but so much effort. o.O