fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #6118 ]

[ SECRET POST #6118 ]

⌈ Secret Post #6118 ⌋

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

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06. [SPOILERS for Mortal Kombat 1]

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07. [WARNING for discussion of underage ships/etc]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #874.
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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Do you search by kudos, comments, bookmarks, or hits? Why?

If I was looking for the most popular, I’d use kudos. That seems like it translates best to “fics people have read and at least moderately liked”.

If I was looking for “good” fics (i.e. ones that I’m most likely to enjoy), I’d usually use comments. Those seem to be more correlated with fics people really enjoyed and got engaged with. Fewer short fics and less simple fluff or smut (which I do enjoy, but only in certain moods).

To me, hits just say how appealing the tags and summary are. And I’ll have to read an evaluate those myself anyway before reading.

Lastly, I’m always confused about how people use bookmarks. Some seem to bookmark what they really like, some bookmark everything they’ve read, some bookmark things they haven’t read yet. So I mostly ignore that stat.

I usually go by Kudos. Then I'll check comments but there is usually a ton of crossover.

I don't search for popular fics. Neither my ships nor my kinks are popular enough to even measure what is and isn't popular among them. When AO3 hands you a silver platter of three fics, you do not send two of them away in favor of only one.

Yeah, REGARDLESS of the ship/fandom, I've never searched for the most popular fics. Most popular, in my experience, is NEVER the best, nor the most personally appealing. The writing might be technically skilled but about characters I don't know who just have the names of characters I do.

In fandoms I've been in that have had those runaway giant popular 'must read' fics, I've found said fics to be unreadably bad, OOC, and depressing. In one fandom, the writer seemed to want to sound smart, but made characters unlikable and also, like... Okay, I don't want to give away the fic/fandom by explaining what the special thing in this world is, but this fic at one point like... just stated something completely counter to the way that that thing works and there were so many weird power-plays and things?

And then in another very big fandom, with a very popular ship, there's this One Fic Everyone Has To Read which is... first, an AU that removes a lot of what's appealing about the world and characters-- and I *like* AUs! But this one is removed in such a way that the characters don't feel like themselves, and then you go through all that for an ending that honestly offended me. (and the second One Fic Everyone Has To Read is just as bad imo)

Like... for my rarepairs, I just take what I can get, and for big ships I search the tags that interest me, because popularity is such a random mix of things-- it's the timing of when you post it, it's who finds it and shares it, etc etc etc, but it may take off among one group of fans and leave a lot of others cold, or just not appeal to you personally, so trying to go by popularity, to me, is useless.

But, going by kinks or tropes at least I know I'll like one thing about it, and if the characterization is bad, then I don't have to finish it.

I usually go by hits or kudos, but only when I get desperate to find a specifically explicit fic when looking through tags has failed me.

None of my ships are popular enough to need to filter any out, so as long as they don't have any major squicks, I will read literally everything that gets posted.

Comments.
Or just filter by kudos>100 and read the most recent

Wait. What does the >100 do?

or kudos>500, depending on fandom size. Gives fics with more kudos then the number specified.

I don't search for popular fics, but if I needed to for stats or research or something, I would use kudos. I'm one of those crazy people who, when I get into a new fandom, I order everything by date and start from the oldest to newest and look through everything (yes, even for MCU). So I sort all my fandoms by newest first by default.

Seconding.That way I can see the stories written before fanon takes over. Often they're much better than the recycled stuff.

I don’t look for the most popular fics ‘cause I’ve been burned by them too many times. I tend to search by completed and filter by tags.

I don't. I don't want to search for "popular" fics and I feel the very idea appalling. I don't trust the-rest-of-the-fandom's tastes!! I search for fics that scratch my own itch. So, curate tags and explore chronologically. Do NOT look at "popularity" markers.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #6118 ]

When looking for the most popular fics on Ao3 for a pairing/character/whatever...

Re: When looking for the most popular fics on Ao3 for a pairing/character/whatever...

Re: When looking for the most popular fics on Ao3 for a pairing/character/whatever...

Re: When looking for the most popular fics on Ao3 for a pairing/character/whatever...

Re: When looking for the most popular fics on Ao3 for a pairing/character/whatever...

Re: When looking for the most popular fics on Ao3 for a pairing/character/whatever...

Re: When looking for the most popular fics on Ao3 for a pairing/character/whatever...

Re: When looking for the most popular fics on Ao3 for a pairing/character/whatever...

Re: When looking for the most popular fics on Ao3 for a pairing/character/whatever...

Re: When looking for the most popular fics on Ao3 for a pairing/character/whatever...

Re: When looking for the most popular fics on Ao3 for a pairing/character/whatever...

Re: When looking for the most popular fics on Ao3 for a pairing/character/whatever...

Re: When looking for the most popular fics on Ao3 for a pairing/character/whatever...

Re: When looking for the most popular fics on Ao3 for a pairing/character/whatever...