On reccing

[extrapenguin]

Words aren't coming for the WIP, so some thoughts on reccing. Potentially unpopular? IDK.

Namely: the purpose of reccing is to give people links to stuff they might have otherwise missed.

So a rec list that's the first page of the fandom tag when sorted by kudos is a failure of a rec list. Everyone knows those fics, everyone has read them or made an informed decision about not reading them, yes even the newbies. The purpose of a rec list should be to tell people about good fic that, whether due to the author's NNFdom or sparse tagging, might not rise to the general fandom's attention.

(Note that I'm talking about unsolicited recs – the "I have made a reclist and am informing the void about it" type thing. Solicited and targeted recs à la "here's every Lin Jing h/c fic like you asked for" or "here is a selection of 5 fics that you, my BFF, will probably like" have their own lines.)

Comments

[china_shop]

As someone who doesn't keep up with AO3 (I don't read much, and when I do, it's usually shorter stuff) and doesn't really know who counts as a BNF, I find both kinds useful.

For me, reccing is primarily "here's some stuff I enjoyed."

[extrapenguin]

It is very noticeable when, say, one looks at several rec lists and discovers that they're actually the same fics in a slightly different order (and perhaps biased towards one author who might be good but isn't head and shoulders above everyone else). It always feels like such a waste – I thought I'd get links to 40 fics, and instead it's links to the same 10 fics I've already read/decided I don't want to read.

(Admittedly, I think I experience the hype backlash reaction at a sooner point than most other people.)

For me, reccing is primarily "here's some stuff I enjoyed."
Same, actually, though I try not to rec the stuff with the best stats – I figure everyone's heard of that already, and I'd rather concentrate my efforts on underappreciated things.

[china_shop]

I figure everyone's heard of that already, and I'd rather concentrate my efforts on underappreciated things.

*nodnod* That's what the "hidden gems" prompts are for in the bingo. (Though the "everyone" in "everyone's heard of that already" will often not include me.)

I try not to pay too much attention to stats when I'm reading, either way.

[extrapenguin]

I try not to pay too much attention to stats when I'm reading, either way.
Neither do I, but when reccing, I'll generally check if it's got eleventy billion kudos and comments already. And if it has, I might remove it and replace it with something else for the recpost.

[schneefink]

Accepting the premise that the purpose of reccing is to give people links to stuff they might have otherwise missed, a rec list that is made up of the most popular fics of the fandom might still be useful to newer fans thinking about getting into the fandom, fans who don't check the Archive regularly, fans who e.g. wouldn't read a particular pairing unless the fic comes recommended (ideally by someone whose taste they trust), and people unfamiliar with the fandom who might nevertheless be interested in checking out stories with particular tropes.
(But I agree that my favorite rec lists are those that help me discover stories I otherwise wouldn't have found.)

[extrapenguin]

fans who e.g. wouldn't read a particular pairing unless the fic comes recommended (ideally by someone whose taste they trust), and people unfamiliar with the fandom who might nevertheless be interested in checking out stories with particular tropes
IMO these both come under solicited recs, especially the latter one, and they have a different audience than general-fandom recs.

As for newbies/people who don't check the AO3 tag being recced stuff outside the top 20 by kudos – where's the harm? Every fandom large enough that there's a point to rec lists has more than 20 fics worth reading. Reccing outside the top popular fics will just mean that the fandom has more than one rec list circulating about and no-one's accidentally plagiarizing anyone else's rec list. :P

[trobadora]

I know what you mean. There's a point where it feels like recs and kudos and all that just becomes self-perpetuating - the things that are already popular are more visible, and therefore get recced and kudosed more and become even more visible ... It can be pretty frustrating.

But still, most rec lists these days are just "I enjoyed this a lot!", and there's no purpose behind it other than sharing the joy. There aren't as many dedicated reccers as there used to be, back before AO3 when you needed the help to actually find where things were posted.

[extrapenguin]

There's a point where it feels like recs and kudos and all that just becomes self-perpetuating - the things that are already popular are more visible, and therefore get recced and kudosed more and become even more visible
Yeah, this. It's just ... I already know how to sort AO3 by hits/kudos/comments/bookmarks/whatever. Grump grump.

most rec lists these days are just "I enjoyed this a lot!", and there's no purpose behind it other than sharing the joy
I know this logically, but then I get baffled by the fact that either people only read the same 20 fics in the fandom, or only like those (despite the fact that very often at most 1 of those fics - and more commonly 0 - is so spectacularly stunning that it deserves to dominate rec lists forevermore). Are other people really that narrowly read, or is there something else going on?!

[ranalore]

In my circles, the purpose of reccing has always been to point other people toward things the reccer liked, preferably with some commentary on why the reccer liked them. It's the fluffier version of literary analysis.

I agree there is an issue in that it seems, post-AO3, most reccers have not read beyond the top-kudosed stories in their respective fandoms, and I am frustrated by how, more and more often, the associated commentary is the unenlightening "I enjoyed this." And while it might be realistic for a tiny fandom to have rec lists that resemble each other quite a lot, I feel that Guardian certainly has more than enough fic in AO3 (and elsewhere) at this point, that it becomes more obvious when rec lists are less rec lists than simply copypasta of the first page of the fandom tag sorted by kudos. I am fine with there being multiple recs of a fic, but especially in those cases, I want to know what it is about that story that appealed to each of those individual reccers. Without those personal reactions, I just move on. I'm a former tag wrangler, I know how to search AO3 on my own.

[extrapenguin]

In my circles, the purpose of reccing has always been to point other people toward things the reccer liked, preferably with some commentary on why the reccer liked them. It's the fluffier version of literary analysis.
I don't think I've encountered that precisely - only the "here is a rec, here's a description of the fic" type - but that sounds really cool! If only it were more popular.

I feel that Guardian certainly has more than enough fic in AO3 (and elsewhere) at this point, that it becomes more obvious when rec lists are less rec lists than simply copypasta of the first page of the fandom tag sorted by kudos. I am fine with there being multiple recs of a fic, but especially in those cases, I want to know what it is about that story that appealed to each of those individual reccers. Without those personal reactions, I just move on.
+1! And Guardian also has a large seam for reclists, what with the tag containing enough mistagged Chinese fic that it takes effort to sort it out. Too bad it's an untaken opportunity for the most part.

[ranalore]

I don't think I've encountered that precisely - only the "here is a rec, here's a description of the fic" type - but that sounds really cool! If only it were more popular.

It used to be the default, way back when the main modes of fannish engagement were message boards and private mailing lists, and then blogs, and then Livejournal and its reccing communities. I realize recs are welcome on both brush_and_lantern and sid_guardian, but I have often thought wistfully an actual dedicated rec comm would be useful, with established guidelines about discussing specifics of why you're reccing a particular fanwork (and likely a cap on number of fanworks per post, because the point of this kind of reccing is the personalized quality of the rec, not the quantity of things any one person can assemble into a rec list).

And Guardian also has a large seam for reclists, what with the tag containing enough mistagged Chinese fic that it takes effort to sort it out. Too bad it's an untaken opportunity for the most part.

There's that too. I mean, we have the database we can search to point us to all the English-only fic, but that's just the thing. We have the database to provide a list of stories and their summaries. Recs should be more than that. Tell me why you like this fanwork, and why you think I might like it.

[extrapenguin]

It used to be the default, way back when the main modes of fannish engagement were message boards and private mailing lists, and then blogs, and then Livejournal and its reccing communities.
Aw, I missed it by over a decade.

I realize recs are welcome on both [community profile] brush_and_lantern and [community profile] sid_guardian, but I have often thought wistfully an actual dedicated rec comm would be useful, with established guidelines about discussing specifics of why you're reccing a particular fanwork (and likely a cap on number of fanworks per post, because the point of this kind of reccing is the personalized quality of the rec, not the quantity of things any one person can assemble into a rec list).
Have you considered setting one up? You could call it Guardian Recs or Merit Brush or whatever and see if a centralized recs comm would get off the ground. (Though I must admit, I didn't realize brush_and_lantern allowed recs.)

[ranalore]

Aw, I missed it by over a decade.

I still know people who do it, and there's at least one multi-fandom comm, fancake, on which I've seen several Guardian recs. It's not a widespread fannish practice like it once was, though.

Have you considered setting one up?

Honestly, I just don't have the spoons or time. I used to mod—co-mod, usually—a number of comms on LJ, so I know what's involved in just basic maintenance up to my own standards. I can't even keep up with my personal DW right now.

(Though I must admit, I didn't realize brush_and_lantern allowed recs.)

Hmm, I might be wrong about that, but I thought that was one of the things they allowed, given the comm's raison d'etre is the creation and promotion of Guardian-related fanworks.

[extrapenguin]

I ... am having the perhaps unwise desire to resurrect the practice now. Oh no. I don't have the tiiiime to do regular rec posts! (Or maybe I will, once the rewatchalong is done?)

I thought that was one of the things they allowed, given the comm's raison d'etre is the creation and promotion of Guardian-related fanworks.
brush_and_lantern seems to me more geared towards the creation side? Like, whine about your creative process not working, what are prompts, halp I need a beta – sausage factory things rather than "here's a bunch of nice fics I read!" The FAQ also doesn't have any mention of recs.

[bonibaru]

I think using fancake in the interim is a worthwhile idea ....

[bonibaru]

I don't think I've encountered that precisely - only the "here is a rec, here's a description of the fic" type

Yeah see, to me, that's not a rec. That's a share.

[bonibaru]

This comment matches what I was literally just thinking (no surprise) which is that lately I am guilty of sharing more than reccing.

[asya_ana]

I don't mind rec lists like this. In my experience, # of kudos does not = the best fics (it's often simply about being a BNF, or because it was posted in the early days of a fandom and has been up for a much longer time), and I don't generally look for fics this way. I'd much rather read the recs of a person I trust. Given that, I would want the reccer to link to *any* fics they loved, regardless of kudo count, because I'm not browsing via the kudo sort anyway. In particular, this is important for newbies. And I love having a solid list that I can use as a baiting device to lure in unsuspecting fans. :) Also, I think that some reccers do recs because they want to help people find things they may have missed, but other reccers are sharing their squee over something they loved. I'm not much of a reccer, but if I'm really excited about a fic, it's like I'm bursting with excitement and want to share. I'm reading an NiF fic right now that has been widely read, and I'll probably post about it anyway, just because I'm so EXCITED and I FLOVE it. :)

[extrapenguin]

I don't mind rec lists like this. In my experience, # of kudos does not = the best fics
So ... are you agreeing with me? I said I was annoyed at rec lists that were just a copypasta of the first page of fics when sorted by kudos. Was I that unclear?

In particular, this is important for newbies.
Is it bad if the newbies get linked to fics outside of the top 20 by kudos? Would the world collapse if the newbies got a glimpse of the fandom beyond, say, one BNF's output?

Also, I think that some reccers do recs because they want to help people find things they may have missed, but other reccers are sharing their squee over something they loved.
Are those two things necessarily mutually exclusive – after all, the love for a single instance of a rare thing often eclipses the love for a single instance of a very popular thing? Do people really only like such a narrow selection of things?

...sorry, this went all Socratic. Too tired to rewrite tho.

[asya_ana]

Oh no, you were very clear! It's probably me being unclear. I guess I just mean, at the end of the day, I'm happy to get recs from people whatever they might be, whether the rec is a high kudo'd work or a hidden gem :)

[tassosss]

As someone who does sporadic recs in all sorts of fandoms, I hear what you're saying about not wanting to see the same things over and over again. One of my observations though, is that sometimes I'll rec something that I think I'm late to the party to, that everyone has read, and someone will comment to thank me for the rec because they'd not heard of it.

My reasons for reccing are 1) I really loved it and had a strong emotional reaction to the story and want to share and 2) so I can find the story again quickly for myself since I find it faster on my DW than trying to remember the title in my bookmarks. I don't rec everything I bookmark. I generally rec something a few weeks after I've read it, and when going through my bookmarks it's the stories I've been thinking about a lot or whose plots I remember instantly when I see the summary that make the cut. Some of them are popular, some not. I'm also more likely to rec things with summaries that don't really summarize what the story is and then include a "why I liked it" type thing that ranlore talks about.

As someone who reads a lot of stories because of recs, I find that actually seeing something recced over and over again is useful - enough people liked it, usually enough people I trust liked it, that it's worth my time. That said, I love it when people dig and find things I never would have read otherwise.

For Guardian specifically, I feel like the English-lang fandom is still small enough and the number of AO3 works small enough that reccing the good stuff does/would be very repetitive very quickly. As you say, it's relatively easy to navigate. Though I was surprised when I did search the top kudosed fics and there was only one from 2019 and less than five that I would have said get recced all the time. But I got into Guardian this past July, so I can't speak to what was recced heavily before then and my exposure to the fic in general is way down since I haven't been sifting through it as long. From my perspective as someone relatively new, a rec list of the top kudos page would have been 80% new to me. (I usually sort by length rather than kudos tho, so the metric obviously can affect what's new to people.)

I love the idea of a more concerted reccing effort on a comm or promoting more varied reccing in the fandom. It's certainly something I'll keep in mind.

[extrapenguin]

As someone who reads a lot of stories because of recs, I find that actually seeing something recced over and over again is useful - enough people liked it, usually enough people I trust liked it, that it's worth my time.
Huh, usually I either click the first time or never click it. (And it's never the fics I'd consider masterpieces that get this treatment – it's the decent fics that just happen to press a trope button which I don't have, and suddenly it's the rec circuit darling while I'm left here getting severe hype backlash.)

For Guardian specifically, I feel like the English-lang fandom is still small enough and the number of AO3 works small enough that reccing the good stuff does/would be very repetitive very quickly.
It's pretty small, but between themed reclists of various stripes I'd imagine that we'd get at least 100 of the not-quite-700 works onto reclists, instead of 25-ish heavily recced fics and another 25 brought out occasionally. Then again, I don't think I've spotted that many themed reclists. Hmm.

I guess I'm just cranky at seeing the same few stories recced over and over again when they don't really do anything interesting. Perhaps I should broaden my follow-horizons. Whose recs are you reading? I've enjoyed starandrea's posts.

[tassosss]

I guess I'm just cranky at seeing the same few stories recced over and over again when they don't really do anything interesting. That's fair. As I said, I'm still new to the fandom, so my perspective is different, but it's definitely something I've encountered in fandoms I've been in for a while until they get so big I lose track of things.

To be honest I haven't seen many rec lists, which is likely an artifact of me being relatively new and I'm very slowly adding people to follow. starandreas's are probably the most regular I see, which seem to also be from what's new on AO3, so I always appreciate the heads up.

I've seen a bunch of one-off recs from individual journals on my circle and network, and when I first got into Guardian I was definitely seeing naye's fix-it recced a lot (It think it had just completed?), which prompted me to save it for later. There'v been a smattering of others too, though I can't recall what they were, but once I was watching the show I was pretty much clicking on everything to at least save for later.

I don't think I've spotted that many themed reclists. Ooh, this sounds like a gap that needs filling!

[extrapenguin]

To be honest I haven't seen many rec lists, which is likely an artifact of me being relatively new and I'm very slowly adding people to follow.
The fandom's also reasonably light on rec lists – but it has more people dropping links to individual fics with occasional OTT praise.

I suppose part of my issue is that I get hype backlash faster than average, so if people keep reccing a fic that I, say, found okay at best (especially if accompanied by keysmashes and a level of zomgsquee I find alien), I'll start downgrading my opinion of the fic due to overhyping.

Ooh, this sounds like a gap that needs filling!
It does! Would you like to fill it? :P

[bonibaru]

We'll have to agree to disagree on the purpose of making a rec list. I have always used them to remind *myself* of things I want to keep separate from the hell that is my AO3 bookmarks section, lol. And to attempt to lure other people into a fandom, as I myself have been in the past, by a story that covers tropes and archetypes I like in a fandom I'm not in but am willing to give a shot to anyway for the sake of a story I might like. Your post does however draw to my attention that my reccing style has changed, and probably not for the better. In the past days of LJ etc I might expound for a para or two about WHY I liked a fic, what drew me enough to let others know about it. Perhaps in the days of easy kudos/bookmark/comment on AO3 I have lately been "sharing" more than "reccing" and going back to explaining why I liked a particular story enough to mention it to anyone else that might possibly be interested, would serve better than simple sharing to boost the signal.

Also I would agree with the person above who said if you're tired of seeing the same recs over and over then you might try expanding your reading list horizon to get some new blood in? I do that from time to time on twitter. True, I occasionally regret it, and flee screaming into the night, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, lol.

[extrapenguin]

Huh, my bookmarks section is for a completely different purpose (namely, quickly finding reference works) nowadays. I consider recs a completely different thing.

(I also don't really read stuff for fandoms I'm not in, and am approximately 0% trope-motivated. Fanfic is about love of the setting and characters etc for me, and my narrative preferences are better-served in origfic.)

I would agree with the person above who said if you're tired of seeing the same recs over and over then you might try expanding your reading list horizon to get some new blood in?
The person above was probably me. Do you have anyone to suggest who recs/shares/links to fics that aren't the usual rec-culprits?

[bonibaru]

I am so far behind on DW and the fandom at large that I'm a terrible person to ask, lol. I am only just now catching up on DW from like .... two months maybe? Am at skip=300 and almost ready to weep.

I'm curious about something you said in an above comment, now that I've had a chance to back-read what others said. Are other people really that narrowly read, or is there something else going on?! .... I'm struggling to get your meaning here, can you help me? I mean, there are certain tropes that exist by default in a fandom's source material that tend to draw people to that fandom who particularly enjoy those tropes. Identity porn in Guardian, for example, seems popular with a subset of fans. Twincest for another subset, perhaps (I'm assuming for that one, since anything SW/YZ I tag blacklist nope right out of, but ... it probably exists? since you can only have twincest in a fandom where there are twins, lol). So I'm struggling to wrap my head around what I am reading as you equating "popular" with "narrow". People like what they like, and DNW what they DNW, obviously, but why does it seem strange that subsets within any fandom might cluster around certain pairings and tropes more than others just based on preferences and tastes (and that in a fandom of smaller size that would simply be more visible in the raw data set)? What else is it that you think might possibly be going on? ... bribery? A cabal? Secret society? Sockpuppets? lol ... I mean I'm joking but ... is there something else going on got me thinking about what might possibly be going on and I'm drawing a blank as to what sinister forces might be at work that are causing people to - like popular things. Multi-chaptered fics posted sequentially on different days/times are always going to draw more attention and get seen by more eyes. Authors with a lot of subscribers already from other fandoms for example are always going to draw more attention than newbies, no matter how deserving those newbies may be. Rarepairs are, well, rare and etc. Outside of the logic of how reach works within a fandom structure, what do you propose might else be driving certain fics/pairings/etc to the top of the lists?

[bonibaru]

OH and additionally to say that "trope" might not be the perfect word to describe what I mean about people being drawn to a source for reasons but it's the best one I can think of. For example: the canon has aliens and alien biology - is this a trope? Maybe, maybe not technically? IDK the other word for it. But the drama has the possibility for space ships and space travel and alien biology, which you like, which draws you to explore it.

There is an unhappy ending in the drama (by some tastes) which draws people who want to write and read fluff and fix-its.

There is AMPLE whump in the drama canon and thus draws people who love h/c and want to write/read it, because it's already in the source, so like moths to a flame they flit about.

There is identity porn and twins as mentioned above.

So to me it is not a surprise that certain things which draw people into the canon and more importantly, keep them active in creating/reading/drawing/reccing/commenting/etc (participating in whatever way) would be the same things that float to the top of the fandom's content preferences.

But I'm a data driven person, so I'm gonna look at it this particular way. Not everyone will slice and dice the fandom via the same methods.

[extrapenguin]

Are other people really that narrowly read, or is there something else going on?! .... I'm struggling to get your meaning here, can you help me?
I mean not what you thought, but rather that – okay, let's use Guardian and identity porn. Imagine that there are a fair number of identity porn-y fics posted. Nevertheless, only three authors' works get recced ever, even if others wrote good identity porn. And people only ever reccing identity porn, which I also don't understand, since surely the reccers must enjoy at least two things enough to rec them? It's not like Guardian is a firehose of content with 10 identity porn fics posted every minute.

(That said, I do think that "popular" is a narrow thing, since the field of things that are popular is always a narrow subset of the things that are possible. And as I mentioned earlier, I don't get the trope-based interaction with a canon where everything goes in service of a trope.)

I mean I'm joking but ... is there something else going on got me thinking about what might possibly be going on and I'm drawing a blank as to what sinister forces might be at work that are causing people to - like popular things.
I wasn't imagining some shady sockpuppet cabal or anything, no, just ... leaving the door open for me not getting something here. (Humans are on occasion baffling to me.)

I mean, the original point of the post was, stripped to the basics, "Why are people telling their friends about the existence of things they already know exist, instead of the much more understandable ‘OMG I discovered an instance of [Favorite Thing] I hadn't found yet!’" I can understand the latter. A repeated – let's call it a circlejerk – of people reccing the same fic to each other over and over again just makes me boggle.

[bonibaru]

AH ok. I follow now.

I mean - your premise is based on the assumption that everyone already knows a thing exists and everyone else should assume that everyone already knows that thing exist. Which I think is a premise that is flawed at its core because you can neither prove nor disprove the base assumption.

But let's assume that the premise is literal, and accurate, i.e. "everyone" really has already seen "every" popular story. So in that case think of it like this: people who say something to another person like "the weather is beautiful today" are not telling the person next to them something they don't already know, since both of them are ostensibly looking at the same weather at the same moment - but they are inviting starting a conversation about a shared topic, or even just a commiseration on "hey we both like this kind of weather and are reinforcing the happy feeling it gives us by sharing it with someone who agrees". Which is part of the communal nature of humans. And we can extrapolate that to fandom. "I enjoyed this" often leads to others saying "Me too!" or "I know, right?" and contributes to a feeling of community and shared happiness.

^^^the above is just one example of what else might be going on. There are certainly others. Some of which may in fact involve secret cabals reccing each other to create a power feedback loop and take over first the fandom, then the world, but probably we're not supposed to talk about that and if you never see me again you'll know they found me

[extrapenguin]

So you're saying that when someone recs a story they have seen recced twice on their flist already and that if they check they will see has all the numbers, it's a form of small talk?

...

(Sometimes, I feel like an alien anthropologist.)

people who say something to another person like "the weather is beautiful today" are not telling the person next to them something they don't already know, since both of them are ostensibly looking at the same weather at the same moment - but they are inviting starting a conversation about a shared topic, or even just a commiseration on "hey we both like this kind of weather and are reinforcing the happy feeling it gives us by sharing it with someone who agrees". Which is part of the communal nature of humans. And we can extrapolate that to fandom. "I enjoyed this" often leads to others saying "Me too!" or "I know, right?" and contributes to a feeling of community and shared happiness.
Huh. I don't think I've experienced "the weather is beautiful today" -type remarks as anything but an opening remark for an in-depth discussion of the coming weather and/or what should be done while the weather's nice, so someone responding to "I enjoyed this!" with "Me too!" doesn't count as bonding/responding-responding the same way. (The "correct" response would be elaboration – "I loved the way it explored the contents of Zhao Yunlan's refrigerator!" or some other thing that's not just the verbal/textual equivalent of "Read 19:53". Hmm.)

[bonibaru]

I mean ... why are you assuming that they have already seen it recced or that they care about "the numbers", versus, they just want to point out something that they liked?

Your definition of any particular response as "correct" (therefore implying that all others are "incorrect") and your repeated attempts to apply your specific, personal tastes and experiences to other human beings, then being confused that we are not all coming from exactly the same place in how we interact with a source and with other fans, is a main source of the disconnect, if I can just speak freely. Why are you trying to take dynamic, multi-faceted human beings with a myriad of cultural and philosphical differences and backgrounds, and trying to stuff them all into one box as to how they may correctly experience fandom according to the way you have defined as the right way?

[extrapenguin]

I mean ... why are you assuming that they have already seen it recced or that they care about "the numbers", versus, they just want to point out something that they liked?
I was basing the whole "seen it recced" thing on examples I'd seen in the wild, and added the remark on numbers as a means of excluding the hypothetical case of something being recced by the only two people who'd clicked on it. So, restricting my analysis to popular things where people know they're not the only people to read it, and can relatively easily see that it's popular.

Your definition of any particular response as "correct"
I very intentionally used scare quotes there, as you noticed. I was attempting to clarify where I was coming from.

Why are you trying to take dynamic, multi-faceted human beings with a myriad of cultural and philosphical differences and backgrounds, and trying to stuff them all into one box as to how they may correctly experience fandom according to the way you have defined as the right way?
I'm not? I grumbled that I'd rather people not do something I find pointless, you explained that the thing I find pointless is socially equivalent to small talk (I assume), I posted a waffly thinking-out-loud comment, and now you're annoyed. Is this a case of tone not carrying over the internet, or did I miss something?

[bonibaru]

Oh, I'm not annoyed, just curious!

[extrapenguin]

Ah, so an issue of "tone over the internet", then. Glad that got resolved!

[tinny]

i was going to laugh (in agreement, because I know exactly what you mean), but oi you got weird comments on this post. O_o

[extrapenguin]

Yyyyeah. I was ... surprised, let's say. I was expecting a bit of nodding, maybe someone being all treacly-sweet and asking me to be the change I wish to see, and a passive-aggressive vaguepost by someone else later on about how every rec is precious, but turning up to argue with me on my post? That was unexpected. (Are people truly that uncomfortable when someone so much as suggests us being not about the BNFs 100% of the time, to adapt the "I am uncomfortable when we are not being about me" meme?)