[ SECRET POST #3462 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3462 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 45 secrets from Secret Submission Post #495.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

01. http://i.imgur.com/Lwbz7Md.png

[(Anonymous)]

Even people who get betas still have bad fics. And sometimes people without betas write perfectly fine.

[(Anonymous)]

You underestimate the number of people who claim to have a beta, but obviously don't. It wouldn't work.

[(Anonymous)]

How exactly would they check for that?

[blitzwing]

I haven't noticed any real difference in quality between beta'd and unbeta'd fics, unless the person has had multiple betas and clearly brainstormed/plot-explored a lot. Basically, has the writer gotten a true edit or just a proofreading?

If you have decent SPAG skills, you can usually do just as good a job proofing your own work if you let it sit for a few weeks, or have Word read it to you to catch typos/mistakes. You only really need a beta if you need a true story editor to give content advice, or if you have lacking SPAG skills.

[(Anonymous)]

OP, this isn't a criticism, just a question - are you from one of the older sites that used to require them? (Or still does, if fic sites like that still exist?)

Because those sites also generally were for fans who took writing very, very seriously. Ao3 CAN be for that, but is also for people who just want to have fun.

[diet_poison]

I maybe could get behind this in concept, but I'm not as optimistic as you about its execution. And also, I don't think it's really fair to stigmatize writers who are just doing it for fun and don't really care about improving - even if I'm usually not as interested in reading their fic (though it depends). Ao3 isn't an elite club; it's for everybody.

[kallanda_lee]

If it's any consolation, I usually warn for it in my author's notes.

[malurette]

Considering how hard it is to find a beta these days, nope, sorry. Unless you could swear this tag would attract good willed betas to my fics and prompt them to offer their services...

[philstar22]

Not every fandom uses betas. Mine doesn't. I'd love to get my fics beta'd, but I haven't been able to find anyone to do it.

[(Anonymous)]

The biggest change for me in fandom in the last ten years has been a shift from people trying to make an effort to write a good fic, to this general attitude of 'I wrote this and I'm a special snowflake and how dare you even suggest that it's not perfect'. Sigh.

[(Anonymous)]

I feel like kudos are almost always going to be a better marker of quality than whether or not something is beta'd, and it's really really really really easy to filter by kudos already, so

[(Anonymous)]

I feel like that would lead to less stories being posted.

Ficfic writers will know beta stories get more views, so they'd wait to get a beta rather than posting, and since betas are so hard to find.... less fanfics.

[nightscale]

I write it in my notes that I don't have my fic beta'd, but I don't care if other people do. I can usually tell if I want to keep reading a fic after a few lines anyway.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know, I feel like plenty of fics I hate are betaed and plenty I love aren't. I can usually tell from the first few lines if I'm going to enjoy it or not.

Actually I read a fic this morning with several weird large plot inconsistencies and it was betaed! It was for a gift exchange so I imagine it was rushed, but still.

[(Anonymous)]

I use a beta and I'm a perfectionist with my writing but I have to admit I'm getting pretty tired of the reader entitlement within fandom. Fanfiction is something that people do for fun. Some people take it really seriously. I'll totally admit I'm one of those people. Other people don't take it that seriously. For some people it's simply an outlet or something that they do because they enjoy it or just something they do for themselves.

It's not a paying job. It shouldn't have to be a job at all. I feel like trying to force all writers to use betas just because some readers demand perfection would backfire completely and it would just end up in less fanfiction.

[(Anonymous)]

hm. I rarely encounter fics that make me wish they'd been betaed. could be because I tend to read only explicit and finished works. Somehow the overall quality of those seems to be better than other stuff, at least on average.
Even if they're obviously unbetaed like my absolute fave smutfic (Reylo: Appointment) they only have the kind of little mistakes (like typos or the odd lexical fail) that even my grammar nazi self can easily forgive in the light of the action.

[quantumreality]

Mountain, molehill, anon. (Besides, filtering by "betaed fics" would end up being useless since it'd be on the honor system anyway)

[(Anonymous)]

There's a tag for Betad and Unbetad that you can put in, but most people don't. I do, just because I know some people can be a bit snobby about it, but I wouldn't mind it being one of the required features.

My beta's damn good at her job, hell, make it a feature where you have to say who did it too. She deserves the recognition!

[(Anonymous)]

Sadly, I'd be honest, but then that would mean people would pass up a perfectly passibly edited fic because I don't have a beta.

I haven't had much luck with them. Every time I find one, they either 1) miss the entire point of what I'm writing, even when I explain to them in detail. Funnily enough, the readers get it, warts and all. OR 2) try and hijack the fic aka try and make it what THEY would write instead of me.

I had basic grammar, punctuation, etc. pounded into me when I was young. I hold a B.A. in English. I think I have at least a vague idea of what I'm doing. :p And the one time I had a fic betaed by an imaginary friend for a fic exchange? Nobody called me on it.

[grausam]

meh, I already use the unbeta-ed tag just to cover my ass. except for exchanges where betas are supposed to be mandatory somehow.

[insert obviously rhetoric question about where would I ever get a beta reader for this specific fandom and pairing here]

[mrs_don_draper]

But AO3 DOES have a warning if a fic's been beta read (or at least reviewed by the author): the summary.

[(Anonymous)]

Part of the problem I see is what everyone defines 'beta' differently. I have someone who gives my fic a once-over for spelling/grammar that I may have missed. They may not catch everything, but they do catch a few, and some people consider that betaing and some consider that proofreading and beta needs to offer story/character concrit.

[(Anonymous)]

I just saw a fic that had a thanks note for the author's betas (four of them!), yet the first paragraph had several typos.

So... I don't think that'd help to indicate quality.
Some unbeta-ed fics are carefully edited, just like some betas are bad and some authors don't make the corrections their beta suggest despite thanking them.

[(Anonymous)]

I can see where this would be tempting, but I've seen too many fics where thd betas meant well, but they either didn't know what their role was or the author ignored all their suggestions. I wish this was a more reliable yardstick of measurement. :(