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Existence Rant (of a different flavor)
Jan. 8th, 2009 03:59 amSorry for all the post-spam, but...
(1) Firefox 3.0.5 is being an absolute bitch when it comes to Bookmarks. I don't normally bookmark things to begin with, but for some stupid reason, if I have anything in my clipboard, that URL appears in my bookmark's URL field rather than the page I'm actually trying to bookmark. I went to the MozillaZine forums, and it seems to be a cross-platform problem with the browser, not with the software and a particular extension. Still, we're slated for an update soon, so I hope it updates and fixes this error... though people are saying Mozilla hasn't even registered the existence of this bug, so I don't want to hold my breath.
So while I'm going to stick with Firefox, it's not perfect. But that's also why I love it-- because the people are willing to acknowledge the issues and fix them (soon-ish).
(2) I'm trying to find a semi-decent RSS reader for Firefox. I've been using Mail.app, but it doesn't support cookies, and frankly I'm sick of missing protected entries on my friends' page (there tend to be a lot). I've switched from Sage to Sage-Too to Simple RSS Reader to Wizz RSS. None of them are perfect. They seem to be affected by the same error that the Bookmarks are, because a lot of my feeds (like if I imported them from the Livemarks, or if I was trying to paste the URL into the manual add feed area of the reader) kept getting the wrong URL.
Also annoying but not completely awful: the little icons beside the feeds keep changing depending on what my active tab is.
What I want: something that sits in my sidebar that shows the journal/community name, subject line, and timestamp. I don't NEED extra bells and whistles like indicator dots for the "read" status, but I do NEED it to allow me to either preview it in another pane or open it IN A NEW TAB.
Sage: no longer updated
Sage-Too: see above; also has persistent XML parse errors for no explicable reason
Simple RSS reader: settings pane has no "close" option; doesn't parse subject lines of LJ posts properly, so all that I really see is the username of the journal
Wizz RSS looks cool, but it might be too heavy for my needs. So far it does have the subject lines and journal name thing down pat, as well as organization by time, but I need to have a new tab already open or my current tab will be overwritten once I click on a subject line in the reader. There's no way to preview a post without clicking on it and thus opening up the whole post in a new tab. So what's the point of the preview?
Does anyone have any suggestions? Searching through the Mozilla add-ons collection for "RSS" for 3.0.5 produced an array of results and there's no way to know if any of them are halfway decent. I could judge by reviews, but they seem to be skewed anyway
(3) Also, I do want to update BEA with the Fanart and Fanfics, especially the latter. However, I'm wondering if there should be a new format for the recommended fics with reviews, but I don't know what that format might be. Suggestions?
On the same subject, one of the FFnet C2s I'm in shared a host of Seto x Anzu fics. Excited, I checked them out; turns out they're all by the same author. When the first fic I clicked on displayed clear lack of grammar knowledge/usage (despite the author complaining about that very thing in her profile), I cringed a little, but I made the effort to keep reading. The plots are a bit cliche, but both of them are... vaguely in character.
Some of the stories are more or less PWP, in which case slight amounts of OOC are fairly excusable, except for the underlying feeling I get that SETO WAS A RAPIST. I really didn't like the idea that the author intentionally (because you don't put something in a fanfic "accidentally") had Anzu resisting him and then just falling into bed (or wherever) with him. Part of the reason why I (and countless other Azureshippers) enjoy the pairing is because Anzu doesn't hesitate to tell Kaiba off. She is very vocal and open with her feelings --about him, about her friends, and about how he treats her friends. It's part of the fun of their relationship. Even the author acknowledged this on her profile page.
But she's got Anzu telling Kaiba off for a brief moment, and then he just says something like "I won't take 'no' for an answer" or he does something that gets her to shut up/moan instead/blank out on whatever she was in the middle of saying. And not only is that OOC for Anzu (because I think even in a sexual situation, she wouldn't let ANYONE take advantage of her), but Seto too-- even if you envision him as a sexual being (and you take into account his canon asshole personality as it shows up from time to time), that doesn't mean he would force a woman to have sex.
Rape is about control and violence, NOT about sex. And yet... the author seems to think it's "sexy" to have this implication of rape, as if Anzu's resistance and eventual giving-in is something steamy.
For me, it just makes me shudder.
And it got me thinking: How does one write a good Seto x Anzu fic? Not just steamy/sexy fics, but Seto x Anzu (Azureshipper) fics in general? I'm also going to pose this question at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
setoanzulove, but basically I want to compile opinions for a new feature at BEA (while I'm contemplating what to do for the Fic section as a whole).
The temptation was there to
a) leave a review... which I fear might come across as a flame because when you've got something so huge as RAPE in the fic, it's hard to focus on the good aspects. Also, I have issues with "sandwiching" reviews where you say one nice thing, a critique/something you didn't like, and then something nice again. It's not only formulaic, it misses the point of true concrit.
b) MST the fic. Like seriously, lambast it.
c) Include it as a "How NOT to write Seto x Anzu Fic"
But I don't think any of those are appropriate. So I'm just going to stew for now and try and think of some positive things to get out of this whole experience. I'm not going to write every little thing the author's done as godawful; I'm reading some of her other stuff and it's not all or completely bad, but... it's not really good, either.
I had no problem with reviewing things with 3/5 (or lower? I didn't read the old stuff carefully) on BEA before, but for some reason I think doing it for every one of this person's fics would be a bit of an overkill. I do think people WANT to grow and learn, and aside from one end-of-the-fic comment where the trite "If they were a little OOC, it's fanfiction, so I can do what I want!" excuse was, I do think this author is one of them.
(1) Firefox 3.0.5 is being an absolute bitch when it comes to Bookmarks. I don't normally bookmark things to begin with, but for some stupid reason, if I have anything in my clipboard, that URL appears in my bookmark's URL field rather than the page I'm actually trying to bookmark. I went to the MozillaZine forums, and it seems to be a cross-platform problem with the browser, not with the software and a particular extension. Still, we're slated for an update soon, so I hope it updates and fixes this error... though people are saying Mozilla hasn't even registered the existence of this bug, so I don't want to hold my breath.
So while I'm going to stick with Firefox, it's not perfect. But that's also why I love it-- because the people are willing to acknowledge the issues and fix them (soon-ish).
(2) I'm trying to find a semi-decent RSS reader for Firefox. I've been using Mail.app, but it doesn't support cookies, and frankly I'm sick of missing protected entries on my friends' page (there tend to be a lot). I've switched from Sage to Sage-Too to Simple RSS Reader to Wizz RSS. None of them are perfect. They seem to be affected by the same error that the Bookmarks are, because a lot of my feeds (like if I imported them from the Livemarks, or if I was trying to paste the URL into the manual add feed area of the reader) kept getting the wrong URL.
Also annoying but not completely awful: the little icons beside the feeds keep changing depending on what my active tab is.
What I want: something that sits in my sidebar that shows the journal/community name, subject line, and timestamp. I don't NEED extra bells and whistles like indicator dots for the "read" status, but I do NEED it to allow me to either preview it in another pane or open it IN A NEW TAB.
Sage: no longer updated
Sage-Too: see above; also has persistent XML parse errors for no explicable reason
Simple RSS reader: settings pane has no "close" option; doesn't parse subject lines of LJ posts properly, so all that I really see is the username of the journal
Wizz RSS looks cool, but it might be too heavy for my needs. So far it does have the subject lines and journal name thing down pat, as well as organization by time, but I need to have a new tab already open or my current tab will be overwritten once I click on a subject line in the reader. There's no way to preview a post without clicking on it and thus opening up the whole post in a new tab. So what's the point of the preview?
Does anyone have any suggestions? Searching through the Mozilla add-ons collection for "RSS" for 3.0.5 produced an array of results and there's no way to know if any of them are halfway decent. I could judge by reviews, but they seem to be skewed anyway
(3) Also, I do want to update BEA with the Fanart and Fanfics, especially the latter. However, I'm wondering if there should be a new format for the recommended fics with reviews, but I don't know what that format might be. Suggestions?
On the same subject, one of the FFnet C2s I'm in shared a host of Seto x Anzu fics. Excited, I checked them out; turns out they're all by the same author. When the first fic I clicked on displayed clear lack of grammar knowledge/usage (despite the author complaining about that very thing in her profile), I cringed a little, but I made the effort to keep reading. The plots are a bit cliche, but both of them are... vaguely in character.
Some of the stories are more or less PWP, in which case slight amounts of OOC are fairly excusable, except for the underlying feeling I get that SETO WAS A RAPIST. I really didn't like the idea that the author intentionally (because you don't put something in a fanfic "accidentally") had Anzu resisting him and then just falling into bed (or wherever) with him. Part of the reason why I (and countless other Azureshippers) enjoy the pairing is because Anzu doesn't hesitate to tell Kaiba off. She is very vocal and open with her feelings --about him, about her friends, and about how he treats her friends. It's part of the fun of their relationship. Even the author acknowledged this on her profile page.
But she's got Anzu telling Kaiba off for a brief moment, and then he just says something like "I won't take 'no' for an answer" or he does something that gets her to shut up/moan instead/blank out on whatever she was in the middle of saying. And not only is that OOC for Anzu (because I think even in a sexual situation, she wouldn't let ANYONE take advantage of her), but Seto too-- even if you envision him as a sexual being (and you take into account his canon asshole personality as it shows up from time to time), that doesn't mean he would force a woman to have sex.
Rape is about control and violence, NOT about sex. And yet... the author seems to think it's "sexy" to have this implication of rape, as if Anzu's resistance and eventual giving-in is something steamy.
For me, it just makes me shudder.
And it got me thinking: How does one write a good Seto x Anzu fic? Not just steamy/sexy fics, but Seto x Anzu (Azureshipper) fics in general? I'm also going to pose this question at
setoanzulove, but basically I want to compile opinions for a new feature at BEA (while I'm contemplating what to do for the Fic section as a whole).The temptation was there to
a) leave a review... which I fear might come across as a flame because when you've got something so huge as RAPE in the fic, it's hard to focus on the good aspects. Also, I have issues with "sandwiching" reviews where you say one nice thing, a critique/something you didn't like, and then something nice again. It's not only formulaic, it misses the point of true concrit.
b) MST the fic. Like seriously, lambast it.
c) Include it as a "How NOT to write Seto x Anzu Fic"
But I don't think any of those are appropriate. So I'm just going to stew for now and try and think of some positive things to get out of this whole experience. I'm not going to write every little thing the author's done as godawful; I'm reading some of her other stuff and it's not all or completely bad, but... it's not really good, either.
I had no problem with reviewing things with 3/5 (or lower? I didn't read the old stuff carefully) on BEA before, but for some reason I think doing it for every one of this person's fics would be a bit of an overkill. I do think people WANT to grow and learn, and aside from one end-of-the-fic comment where the trite "If they were a little OOC, it's fanfiction, so I can do what I want!" excuse was, I do think this author is one of them.
