Site Post » Fimfiction Editorial: Issue #1 · 5:29pm Jan 9th, 2014
Hi, guys. How's it going? Great? Acceptable? Agonizing? Good to hear!
Mostly.
It's going great for us, at any rate, because we've got the honor of introducing to you the awesomely, possumly Fimfiction Editorial.
"What is this Fimfiction Editorial?" you may ask. Glad you (hypothetically) asked! Basically, the Fimfiction Editorial is an effort to collect cool, insightful, and interesting blog posts by Fimfiction's handsome userbase. "Why?" you may ask, as a follow-up question. Well...
As a website of authors, Fimfiction's got a perfect storm of intellect, over-analysis, and downright wit and charm--exemplified not only in our stories, but in our blog posts as well! Thus, we want to collect cool blog posts about colorful ponies and the writing thereof, so that as many people as possible can share and enjoy. We're open to recommendations too, so be sure to submit any contenders you may have written (or enjoyed reading) in our thread at the Fimfiction Editorial Group, such that we can look them over for a potential feature in our next issue.
(Also note that, since this is our first issue, it may not be fully representative of later issues, which might have more blog posts/authors than this one.)
Finally, credit for all this goes to the dashing mastermind behind our endeavor: Wanderer D. Also beautiful and alluringly-dressed co-hosts, Obselescence and NickNack.
Without further ado:
Welcome to the First Edition of the Fimfiction Editorial!
Most of us are fans of the wonderful, funderful, mythological unicorn. But how did we first imagine them, and why have little girls and boys been asking to own one since before our ancestors' time? Yinglong Fujin seeks to answer that question, with a fascinating exploration into history and mythology, which will likely tickle your inner horn enthusiast.
NickNack has penned for us his observations of what society appears to be like in Equestria compared to human society, and so challenges our usual perception of Equestria as a 'better' society than our own.
Obviously ponies have the natural advantage in cuteness, but it's still worth the time to read.
Have you watched 'Rarity Takes Manehattan' yet? Of course you have! If you want to check out an interesting and entertaining summary of the episode, along with some thoughts on how its plotline worked out, take a look at Ponydora Prancypants' blog.
Ever sat down and wondered how someone can write so much? What they might sacrifice as an author, and the drawbacks of writing more words for less effort? Well, our very own Obselescence has, and he's put his thoughts on that down in a blog. Give it a look!
Feel like your writing could use a little more oomph? Want to impress strangers with your adept handling of the English language, but aren't sure how to acquire such a mastery? Well, the Writer's Workshop series would be a good start! In this particular post, Golden Vision explains how proper use of simplified prose can be effective in writing. It's often said that less is more, so be sure to check it out.
In this blog post, user Aquaman discusses the objectification of Luna as a character and how the fandom has treated her in some less-than-stellar ways. The title and premise of the blog are sure to turn some heads, but it's definitely worth a read and some thought.
Changelings, am I right? Why do we like the little bugs so much? What about them captivates us so, and inspires so many authors to write so many stories about them? Fimfiction's own Denim_Blue tries to explain the sensation that's conquering the nation by writing up a blog on the subject, exploring a few reasons as to why we find them so neat.
In this aptly-named blog, your friendly neighborhood Wanderer D shares his thoughts (complete with over-analysis) on Spike, his relationship with the fandom outside of the show, and the the little dragon's depth as a character. Spike's an easy dude to overlook sometimes, so be sure to read and give him your love--or hate, if you're into that.
And that's it for our very first Editorial! Here's hoping you found a worthy read to lighten your agony. Again, if you have interesting, insightful, and/or entertaining blogs to recommend, don't hesitate to post them in our blog recommendations thread at the Fimfiction Editorial Group!
k
So it got accepted? Awesome
I'm reading almost as many member blogs as stories these days, so this is definitely relevant to my interests.
I just added a few more people to put on my follow list. Impressive lineup!
Damn it, I have too much to read as it is! Thank you...
I might suggest some of Viking ZX's writing blogs. Good stuff those.
The only problem is, I can't rant on majestic pony porn. Besides that, I like the likes of this.
This is a great idea!
Though it would be even more useful if we could favorite blog posts...
Tangent: There are a lot of odd differences between blog posts & stories that cause complications. For instance, you can't favorite a blog post; you can upload a story but not a blog post from google docs, so I have to create a fake story chapter for each blog post, upload my blog post to it, then cut and paste it into a blog. Formatting is a little different, views are counted differently (blog posts count multiple views by the same user separately), and there's no way to list all of a person's old blog posts in a compact view. It would be nice if blog posts were, internally, a subclass of story.
This is excellent.
I'd say shut up and take my money, but of course I want y'all to keep writing. Also, I'm broke.
This is useful. I'm not following every user on the site, and I wouldn't be able to find the good and interesting blog posts even if I were. But this will give me and people who are in a like-situation as me, a better ability to find good blogs to read that may stir our thoughts into action. (Not that mine need stirring… I'm quite stir-crazy as it is.)
Hey, guys! Pay close attention to us, okay? Okay.
1698746 This is, in a way, my attempt at circumventing the lack of "like a blogpost". When we have bloggers like you, or many others that have already submitted their blogs (or blogs written by others), we can at least spread the words!
Great.
Hmmm....
Hmhmhmhmhmmmmm...
I would like to know how these presented blog posts were selected. Care to give some insight to the selection process?
I don't know why, but I keep reading Obs' site posts in the Aperture Science announcer voice.
I like writing using changelings for my warfics mainly because they are so easy to use, and have lots of creative ways to incorporate them.
Example: Not only may they have a potentially large force, they may also make excellent spies and assassins.
What makes them so easy to use?
The fact that they are the only villains in the show that canonically have a standing army of some kind might be helpful.
...Except for maybe Daring Do's arch-rival that had those tribals at his disposal but they weren't really shown in large numbers like the changelings, only a small team or squad was seen.
Silver out!
1699126
It doesn't help that I've got a great enthusiasm for science, as well as combustible fruits.
I don't really have anything useful to contribute, but I like this idea
I hope it will stay mostly to fanfic-ish stuff (I use the very broadest sense of the term), though. I've got no issue with PrancyPants' thoughts on Rarity Takes Manehattan--I thought them very interesting, in fact--but I don't think I'd want to see these newfound editorials swamped with a dozen or more episode reviews every week. Lord knows, EqD spotlights enough of those (albeit mostly in video form) already!
Changelings? Oooh!
As everybody knows, I really do not like the guys. Honest. Stop looking at me like that.
Well, great. Now we get to see some of the admins draw a metric ton of unnecessary attention to people who write half-decent rants.
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay....
1699162
I no longer feel comfortable in your presence.
1698942 This first batch was done with what we had available, the next will depend on recommended blogs by the community. You can check the group for more info.
Oh shit, is this a sitewide post?
... well, that would explain where all these notifications came from.
1699213
"Half-decent"? Aw, you shouldn't have. Mine's a piece of shit. I think I edited it into something coherent at some point.
1699162
i.imgur.com/HYkQlzi.jpg
Finally I get to use this.
THIS IS RELEVANT
TO MY INTERESTS
1698746 ^This. A decent chunk of my followers follow me for blog posts and not my stories or editing services. It'd be cool to have them circulate across the site.
I feel like this is the closest thing I have to anything remotely poignant, but someone might find it interesting regardless.
This turned out pretty good; I'm glad to see Yinglong Fujun made it into the final version.
A thought: consider setting up a new account that you guys all have access too, which is used to upload these types of posts (these editorials, the SA reviews, maybe the group updates). This would collect them all in one place, so that if anyone wants to look at previous issues they wouldn't have to dig through either all of a given mod's blog posts or the various groups which manage them. This would also let knighty, if he so wished, set some sort of toggle that people could check to hide these posts from their feed by blocking the one account, which wouldn't also block actual, important site news and updates.
This looks interesting. He said, deliberately omitting any detail that would let anyone decide what he meant by that. (Actually, it does look interesting.)
1699352
Ahhh, thank you! I thought I was going mad when I read this, I was certain I had read it, pretty much verbatim, before. Site-wide vs Ob's blog post.
One less reason to think I am going crazy!
"Five stars! Five thumbs up! Five children..."
Hey next issue we should talk about why spike is shipped every-fucking-were
I assume that you Wanderer Knighty and the rest of the FimFiction staff is included in this statement?
handsome bastards
1700865
"Five divorces! Five court actions! Five restraining orders..."
Five Hooves Up!
fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/357/a/1/2_hoofs_up_by_comeha-d6z0lto.png fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/357/a/1/2_hoofs_up_by_comeha-d6z0lto.png fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/357/9/7/hoof_up_by_comeha-d6z0jqb.png
Point of order; an editorial is "a newspaper article written by or on behalf of an editor that gives an opinion on a topical issue."
While this blog post does contain things written by the mods, they were not commissioned/written specifically for this purpose. This "editorial" is actually a "spotlight".
On a related note, there seems to be a massive amount of bias in the selections. Only a single user featured has less than 350 followers, and three are by the arrangers of the event. While I admit this is only the inaugural issue and content collection will be easier now that more people are aware of it, that is hardly an excuse for such a blatantly bland, self-aggrandizing set of selections.
Hopefully the next one will have more effort put into its choices. I'm beginning to suspect that Seattle's Angel's are the only FIMfic instillation that actually bothers to avoid a bias towards already popular entries.
1701496 The point of this isn't to highlight unknown people, but to highlight interesting blogs, regardless of who wrote them or how many followers they have. Write an interesting blog and I don't care if you have 1 follower, it will be posted if we and the readers like it.
But you know what, I won't stop posting the blogs of people just because of the number of followers they have, because honestly, that is bias, or are you saying just because you exceed say, 550 followers you don't have anything interesting to say or are less deserving than someone who has less than that? This is equal chance for for everyone.
Seattle's Angels' point was to look for hidden gems by authors that deserved more attention. That is not the aim of this Editorial. The aim of this is to share interesting blogs, no more no less.
There is no bias when we had a limited number of options. It's growing a lot now, so there's more to choose from, but please, don't come in and drop self-aggrandizing-accusations when there's no such thing happening.
Edit:
Poetic License. Look it up.
I wonder, has anyone else ever noticed how similar "semantic" and "pedantic" sound? Everyone reblog this, I only have 17 followers and need exposure.
1701544 I am not saying that popular people have less interesting things to say (I am a firm believer that people earn popularity, even if for fickle reasons). I am saying that being popular doesn't necessarily make you more thought-provoking or eloquent than anyone else (why, just look at me).
I was saying that nearly all of FIMfic's content spotlights (The Vault, The Canterlot Royal Archives, et al.) have a tendency to just regurgitate things that the fandom is already aware of; to spotlight things that already have stadium lighting, if you will. That was one of my main criticisms of the Vault, and I'm sad to say it already applies here.
Anything which strives to be relevant, and especially those that want to highlight worthwhile content, needs to move past such biases. Otherwise, they are going to be ignored, damning their entire mission (like the Vault was).
Also, there's a fine line between Poetic License and inaccuracy; if your title doesn't inform potential readers then its semantic qualities are moot.
So where's that sub button? Do I get free things if I sub for 12 months? How about 24 months?
1701593 I'll take that under advisement.
The post should have been named THE BLOGGENING: Circlejerk Edition.Maybe a bit mean but that's what i think.
Also, just to be rude: Groups don't always get a site post solely dedicated to them, but when they do they are made by an admin.
This is actually a really good idea. I often see some really witty or generally good blog posts. This should offer a good chance of the better ones being seen.
1701346 This is where I got the quote from. It's a funny little skit, and they have many others.
1702150
Maybe you should write about it, or read why the selection was as it is instead of being rude. Might get you posted.
Yep. And if you have a problem with that you can bring it to the groups that have drawn the attention of several members who were unaware of them. Also, who else do you expect to make a blog and why is this a problem?
1702359
All I have to say...
Thank you I will definitely check out their other videos.
fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/357/9/7/hoof_up_by_comeha-d6z0jqb.png
--Sollace
1702432 Nope no problem, just ironic satire. However, a bit peeved about how site posts are used to drive these things. Your group seemed to be doing fine without the special site post notification bump. It was my attempt at humor and an attempt to make someone else annoyed in response to my annoyance. I think it worked.
1702497 fair enough
Needs Moar Bookplayer. Actually, the whole list should just be Bookplayer blogs. I highly suggest Bookplayer's blogs.
1701496
Agree with you on the part with the organizers putting in their own blogs (kind of lame, but the blogs were good so that's excusable), but the rest of it is you just hating on people because they're more popular. Show some maturity for Pete's sake.