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Wanderer D


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  • Thursday
    Welp, here's a life update

    These last couple of weeks have been a bit of a rollercoaster. Good things have happened, and also bad ones. No wonder I could relate to both Furina and Navia in the latest Isekai chapter. Sometimes pretending things are fine is really exhausting, even if they do get better.

    Read More

    10 comments · 229 views
  • 1 week
    Welp, another year older and...

    ...still writing ponies. (Among other things, granted.)

    28 comments · 230 views
  • 2 weeks
    Update to the Isekai coming tonight! And some additional details and change of plans.

    First, to everyone waiting patiently for the next Isekai chapter, I apologize for the delay. I know there are a lot of people that want to see another visit to Hell happen soon, and it will, I promise. However, due to some circumstances, I decided for a different pair of visitors to visit the bar this week.

    Read More

    3 comments · 284 views
  • 2 weeks
    Boost Reminder!

    As discussed not too long ago, local legend and friend Skeeter The Lurker suffered some devastating losses that impaired his ability to work and live. We've all done well to get him close to achieving his objective, but he's still a bit short! Just saying, that if 10% of all of you awesome people that follow me donated a dollar

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    2 comments · 156 views
  • 3 weeks
    RIP Akira Toriyama

    Without a doubt one of the most influential creators in not only animation but modern culture. Everyone around the world has been touched by his work in one way or another. Love it or hate it, the man made a mark in the world and a lot of our hearts.

    He will be missed and remembered.

    11 comments · 200 views
Apr
16th
2015

Ranty: This thing with Anon · 12:04am Apr 16th, 2015

So yeah, I had an awesome blog planned for tonight, talking about the nuances of literature and how Fan fiction affects the world today, the positive aspects of it on the grand scheme of things, and how our community tends to set a higher standard of expectations when it comes to level of writing. Then... I saw one more of those annoying 'Anon' fics and the thunder was gone.

Anon. The lackluster way of saying "you" and skipping any actual development, because it's not really you-you but a self-fulfilling insert of the author acting out in ways that ultimately "you" wouldn't.

Anon. The lazy way of making an OC human (for the most part) that receives less hate because he's not named "Mark" or "John" or "Pedro", and thus is a "safe" way of putting on an OC that would be odious otherwise, because, you know, Anon. He's you. You can't hate you when you are getting the fantasy out of it.

Anon. Seriously. WTF. There has been an influx of Anon stories lately, nothing terribly original either. Just another, run-of-the-mill thing, with the anon-bandwagon power to fuel it. You see, I never have , ever understood the appeal of a faceless, incorrect, shallow attempt at a projection of myself that requires my entire suspension of disbelief (and then some) to approximate a situation where I would find myself responding like the authors of these stories claim "I" (or you) would respond at any given time.

Why not simply just admit that it's your self-insert story and that it's going to be as generic as you can possibly make it and rated "teen" because you simply want the attention you wouldn't get if you put it on "mature"? I mean, props for not turning yourself into Anon the Red & Black Alicorn of Attraction and Seventh Element of Inanity, son of Discord and Discord and Celestia via Fluttershy, but really, the effects of the Mary Sue are in-media-res already in these stories, there's no development to get Anon to where he/it is and worse, this dashing creature doesn't even have a real name.

When I look at stories that have these Anon characters, this is what I think goes through the author's mind:

"Welp, I can't be bothered to think a real name, and I'm such a Flash Sentry fan I'll deprive this character of a real personality just to emulate FS, but I can't name him Flash Sentry because people will know he has no personality... so I'll name the character Anon. That's brilliant... it's only been done by like seventeen other people in the couple of weeks too! So I'll tell the reader to slap their own name instead in their head and save me the trouble of making it work through real effort. But in my head, it's gonna be Sentry. Yeah. (giggle)"

And then this stuff gets to the Feature Box. Which, granted, has never been a lighthouse shining on the best of the best in the darkness of the ocean of fan fiction, but come on.

Report Wanderer D · 1,123 views ·
Comments ( 64 )

I think it's important to distinguish to forms of anon.

There's the shitty "It's wish fulfilment self-insert but I don't want to call it that" anon who is universally crap, and then there's the "4chan personified" anon, who I think might have potential for humour. I can't say I've seen the latter in stories, yet, but he is rather prevalent in art.

derpicdn.net/img/2014/5/8/620416/full.png

And second-person stories as a rule generally suck all the dicks, so there's a second strike.

I *always* read Anon as "Stanley."

But really, Anon is stupid.

Oh, and the anon author has over 1,000 followers, a definite strike against the "number of followers gets you a bonus" thing.

I just don't read stories with an Anon in them. It isn't that they can't potentially be very well-written or entertaining. It's just that when I see "Anon", I cringe.

Well said. I Loathe Anon fics with a passion so it's nice to hear that it isn't just me.
[rage]
And then there's the sneaky sort of bullshit when you have a HiE fic, with a name, but then it turned out that he really was called Anon anyhow. :facehoof:

Two things help me in these cases.
1. Messing with the author and insisting that the guy is called something else. "His name is Steve, for he does Steve-like things."
2. Getting a word filter (and thank Xenu for those). All my Anons are currently called Mike (Michael) this month. I think that next month will be Robert.
[/rage]

Ah... There we go... Sorry about that.

I guess what turns me away from Anon is the lack of creativity with the concept. I almost always see Anon green-skinned, like Crayola Green, his only facial feature a question mark (I get why that sorta works, but still...) and wearing a black suit with a red tie. Every. Single. Time I end up seeing him. It's almost like eating a McDonald's Big Mac for every meal. It's gotta get old sometime.

...I don't think I could get tired of their fries, though! :raritywink:

Whenever I see an Anon story which says something like 'You are Anon' in the description (or the actual story, ew), I always want to comment something along the lines of, "No I'm not. I'm Drynwhyl. Shit story, immersion ruined."

2988210
I agree on your second point, since I also haven't seen any "Anon" story having its protagonist be a personification of 4chan or its culture. In which case, using the name Anon as a catchall is incredibly lazy, regardless of whoever the character is supposed to be. If anything, it just further turns people away from the (sadly) unappreciated potential of the 2nd-person narrative and contributes to its bad reputation, as 2988214 so eloquently demonstrates.

2988210

then there's the "4chan personified" anon, who I think might have potential for humour. I can't say I've seen the latter in stories, yet, but he is rather prevalent in art.

ros For Life by MnM is one of the VERY few Anon fics that are really good. And this fits the "4chan personified" aspect perfectly.
It is a clopfic, mind you, but the clop is secondary to the comedy aspect of the story.

THANK YOU! FUCKING THANK YOU!

This is EXACTLY the shit I've bitched about. It's been going on for way longer then a couple weeks though, dude, but yeah an INCREASE in LAZINESS and just that this green selfinsert is just... It just really turns me off from readon second person wannabe stories since it's not even YOU. It's ANON!

An OC given the role of 'YOU' in fiction. People think it's funny or cool or clever to make pasty green inserts with a blank face other then a question mark for features, but it's NOT.

It's stupid. It's lazy. And for fucks sake it's not interesting to read!

I blame stories like "Celestia Sleeps in 'Your' Bed" and all those Anon fucks all the ponies in Equestria fics. Too many people being 'inspired' by people who made a popular fic or two and so clearly ANON is some pimp god insert that EVERYONE LOVES TO READ ABOUT.

It's stupid. The instant I read the name "Anon" I just backspace the hell out of there. As if the quality of fiction these days weren't low enough! :twilightangry2:

Preach it, brother.

Anon is pure lazy.

~Skeeter The Lurker

yup
its dumb
stop
pls

You know, I've always read "Anon" the same way I read first person stories, where "I" and "Anon" are substituted with "the author".

From now on, Anon shall hence forth be re-casted as that green guy from Justice League no one really cares about.

ic.pics.livejournal.com/toddalcott/8687293/17877/17877_320.jpg

Finally, somebody said it.

2988247

Hey, I don't pull punches.

It's part of my charm. :raritywink:

2988277

But I like the martian.

It's not even that hard to come up with a real name, either. You can have a perfectly serviceable audience insert named 'Seymour Butts', and it would be less loathsome than 'Anon'.

Wanderer D
Moderator

2988218 you know that was a joke, right?

Can someone not write an Anon story without someone pointing the finger and claiming that's an attempt at a self-insert? I know what you mean when you say that, but lets look at it from another way.

Firstly, any Anon character is a blank slate. Literally anything can be done with something like that, whereas if you were to make up an OC character, there's potential to cop more hate just because they're OCs, and from my perspective in the way I look at Anon VS OC, there's less hate towards Anon just because s/he's so versatile in how you use them. That said it can be trickier to make an OC that people like because people tend to bomb OC stories. The only ones I've found are the more popularized ones.

I don't know what's got your knickers in a twist, but I would like to know the underlying reason as to why you don't like Anon stories aside from your "I don't like Anon stories just because I view them as a shitty attempt at a shameless self insert." philosophy.

Another point. Second person vs Anon. Literally no difference. I've read good second person, and I've read just as good Anon stories. The only difference between the two is the use of that one word: 'Anon'.

But at the end of the day it just comes down to personal taste. I can't say I'd write a biased blog post to rant about this kind of thing when I like to think I'm more objective than subjective in criticisms. I'll read just about anything if it's well written, and if I'm going to criticize something I'd do it from a professional point of view and not one that's skewed by an influenced distaste.

I do understand where you're coming from, and with all due respect it is coming across as a rather pedantic thing.

Haven't you ranted on this before?

Anon makes me angry.

No seriously, I get a little upset and my will to read any story simply vanishes the second I see "anon"

I mean FFS I used to get a touch annoyed with the horribly contrived name "Lero" but at least that name had creativity and thought put into it.

Anon? I can feel my creativity being sapped away just knowing that someone, ANYONE found that a good name and even worse, that some people thought "Oh ma gerd, thas brillyint!" and decided to copy it... I can almost accept it in artwork... almost. But in a written story, well it ruins all immersion and overall just makes me angry.

Oh D, after all the crap you put up with, I thought you would've know Sturgeon's Law is still in hard effect. Hopefully, the new season is leading to some great stories being written even as I type this… it'll just take a bit of time to come up with while any hack could scratch their plot and they'd have an anon story.

PS, originally tried posting this from my phone but I kept getting two error messages "Request Failed (0)" and "Signing Key not found, please log in again" (yes I was logged in when I read your post)

Whatever happened to those two writer characters you made and why can't you vent some abuse on them every now and then? I miss those guys, and the posts that they used to be in. Funny enough, they were, in my opinion, more developed than half the bad OCs out there, even if it wasn't your intention, D.

But yeah, like so many things the whole 'anon' thing is just the flavor of them month. Give it some time and, as the season comes, we'll get new things. Like, I hear Punklight Sparkle is becoming a thing. That could churn out at least a couple of good stories, right? *Knocks on wood* As such, I don't really let the anon fics get to me. I just ignore them.

Wanderer D
Moderator

I believe I already answered the main issue;

You:

Firstly, any Anon character is a blank slate. Literally anything can be done with something like that, whereas if you were to make up an OC character, there's potential to cop more hate just because they're OCs, and from my perspective in the way I look at Anon VS OC, there's less hate towards Anon just because s/he's so versatile in how you use them.

Me:

Anon. The lazy way of making an OC human (for the most part) that receives less hate because he's not named "Mark" or "John" or "Pedro", and thus is a "safe" way of putting on an OC that would be odious otherwise, because, you know, Anon. He's you. You can't hate you when you are getting the fantasy out of it.

I haven't seen any more versatility than any other OC fic, to be honest. The use of the Anon reeks of simply avoidance of owning up to your story and its contents. And like it's been said, it's not 4chan anon that gets used around, it's mostly the most basic random empty character with a name that makes it more "tolerable" than using a real one.

As for quality, sure I guess a lot depends on the reader, but I have yet to see one that actually has real work put into it to differentiate it from your regular wish-fulfillment.

D, I need to meet you irl, just so I can buy you a case of whatever beer you want for the stuff you put up in blogs.

Seriously.

*shoves paper into fire*
Ya know, I had actually come up with an idea for an Anon story
Hey, let me finish, it's not what you think.
See, before season five had started, I had been toying with an idea about a society of folks that never saw each other's faces (sort of like the naga in the austraeoh series). part of the society's ideology was "Identical is Equal".
It's not like the premiere, but it's close enough that I don't think I'll finish it....

My next story will be a second-person anon story. I hope it will make its readers cry themselves to sleep regretting their life choices. :trixieshiftleft:

2988261 I can't seem to find it, but I know there was one where Twilight gets a spellbook, summons a demon that turns out to be 4chan's anon, literally calls himself the manifestation of the dark side of the internet, and Celestia is sitting in her room laughing about knowing the secret phrase that will get him to do what you want him to (Anyone familiar with 4chan would instantly know the correct phrase). I remember the cover being anon sitting at a desk with twilight, and he was fiddling with something, but I can't for the life of me remember the name. It wasn't a bad story either.

2988354
Forgot to hit the reply button, WD. You've been making that mistake lately, it seems. :raritywink:

2988321
The problem with the "blank slate" argument, I think, is that it boils down to an image versus an ideal.

In my mind—and I suspect this is the same for a lot of people against Anon stories—is that he isn't a blank slate at all. He's a character. It's inarguable that the green-skinned, suited, faceless figure is a character, and all the artwork surrounding him has helped establish this. He may be a representation of something or be incredibly versatile, but physically speaking, he's a predefined character. This creates conflict with a reader because they don't know whether or not Anon is supposed to be "you" the reader, or the predefined character. If someone were to write a 2nd-person story from Twilight's perspective, they know it's Twilight Sparkle, and that the narrator is acting like Twilight Sparkle, and so they understand they're not explicitly meant to be Twilight Sparkle. The same can go for any character written in the 2nd-person perspective, original or not. But Anon stories often tell the reader they are supposed to be this character Anon, and people often don't like being told they're doing things they wouldn't think to do. It's this perception that really gives the 2nd-person perspective a bad name, but that's more on the fault of the reader being unable to separate themselves from the character. Anon stories seem to gladly embrace the reader so they can't separate.

But if the story isn't meant to give the reader the previously stated mindset, and I especially feel weird for making this next point, then why not use the 1st-person or 3rd-person perspective? This calls to the other argument that Anon stories are simply lazy, because they're using a predefined original character, throwing Anon into the same category as Snowdrop, Nyx, or an edgy red-black alicorn. A story could very easily create their own character to use, but instead it defaults to using Anon, and this begs the question why there isn't an Anon-verse or something since he's in all these stories, but then practically none of them are even remotely related to the other aside from the protagonist, defeating the purpose of a -verse.

I know Anon is supposed to reflect an identity rather than a character, but seemingly by popular convention, that isn't the case. Really, Anon is kind of like Jesus Christ. Jesus is the perfect man, the representation of all that is Holy, the figure of all that's good in the world, and simply a miracle worker. But he's also a predefined character. If you're writing a story about Jesus, you could easily swap him out with any OC who's meant to save the day and bring about eternal happiness to his followers, so an Atheist would say. Because to an Atheist, Jesus is just a character.

That allegory made more sense in my head than I think it does on paper.

Really, Anon is only a blank slate in the same way Flash Sentry is, which is lacking a personality. But he's still a predefined character, and it's a reader's ire to be told in-story to associate with a character who they simply can't.

Tangent: There's also the whole 4chan culture associated with Anon. Whether you like it or not, there will be people who harp on Anon stories just for that.

2988215 Stanley stepped into the broom closet, but there was nothing here, so he turned around and got back on track.

There was nothing here, no choice to make, no path to follow, just an empty broom closet. No reason to still be here.

It was baffling that Stanley was still just sitting in the broom closet. He wasn't even doing anything. At least if there was something to interact with, he'd be justified in some way. As it is, he's literally just standing there, doing sweet F-A.

...

Stanley was fat and ugly and really, really stupid. He probably only got the job because of a family connection, that's how stupid he is. That or with drug money. Also Stanley is addicted to drugs and hookers.

Anon. The lazy way of making an OC human (for the most part) that receives less hate because he's not named "Mark" or "John" or "Pedro", and thus is a "safe" way of putting on an OC that would be odious otherwise

Is… is that how it works? That doesn't even make any sense :twilightoops:

I've actually been sampling the HiE genre recently, but I refuse to touch a single one of these.

In spite of my millions of words read, I'm 90% certain that I have avoided Anon fics completely. At the very least I've read few enough that they're drowned out by everything else. Second person fics though, plenty of those.

Mainly I'm just freaked out by the art. That question mark face, ugggh.

2988333

The thing with Lero is that however you view the name, like it or love it, Lero's character as a whole has a lot of effort put into it by the group of people that work with the character regularly, and I often think about it as a human character done right.

Anon, I think we can all agree, is often lazy on just about every single account where it matters, though I admit to reading those stories more than once. I find it more enjoyable if the character at least remains nameless.

Hehh. Why not add my opinion? Yeah, I'll do that.
..."Anon" stories are there so people can enjoy being a self-insertion Mary-Sue Human-in-Equestria character without having to go to the effort of writing anything. :pinkiesick:

PresentPerfect
Author Interviewer

I made Anon work. :V

2988307
Certainly wasn't an April Fools Joke. Even Midway Island was on April 2nd.
Unless Site staff lives in a time warp to yesterday...

But then how would they stop The Langoliers?

But honestly, Unless you're Anon is 4chan incarnate, a terrible naming gag, or a bad EQG villain it shouldn't exist.

And empty soulless shell characters should never be in clop. Its like clop with a manikin.

I remember an EQG Fic that seemed to play with this, having a socially-awkward character named Randy. I thought it was interesting at first, but it went straight to funny when I found out it was short for "Random Insert". I thought that was a clever way to poke fun at these sort of characters.

Mayhap I'm reading too far into this.

The issues with our community have nothing to do with the quality of our standards, it has to do with the fact that entry into the fandom usually comes via some meme-centre of the internet.

This fandom is far more meme-driven than most others.

I highly doubt the authors of most anon fics take their stories any more seriously than authors of "Velociraptors rape X" fics.

I mean anonXpony has its main origins in the 4chan RainBroDash and FlutterRape crackficlet threads.

It's garbage. Junkfood for the imagination. No wonder your pancreas is cantankerous.

Can I steal your title for when I have an urge to mock Anon in Equestria?

son of Discord and Discord and Celestia

That's a really weird 3-way.

I can't speak to the quality of "Anon" works, since, like so many others here, I just don't read them. The character-that's-not-a-character things turns me off before the race even starts. I read to consume experiences beyond my own. A blank chalkboard (that's what we old folks used to write on in school) is useless to me.

2988277
I would be way more interested in a crossover with J'onn J'onzz than a story about Anon doing whatever it is Anon does.

2988402
I am only somewhat familiar with 4chan. What is this mystery phrase?

Amen, brother!

Anon. The lazy way of making an OC human (for the most part) that receives less hate because he's not named "Mark" or "John" or "Pedro", and thus is a "safe" way of putting on an OC that would be odious otherwise, because, you know, Anon. He's you. You can't hate you when you are getting the fantasy out of it.

Personally I'd rather read a story featuring "Mark" or "John" or "Pedro", even a second person one, then one with the craptacular name "Anon".

2988277
His name is J'onn J'onzz and he is awesome!

2988532
It's like the Riddler and Slenderman had a kid.

Although you know...

2988247

the (sadly) unappreciated potential of the 2nd-person narrative

We need more For Whom We Are Hungry, mang. :fluttercry:

I beleive most people on earth are stupid. Including me. I still hate these stories.

2988889 He he, the comments section was filled with the phrase...

Do it, faggot

It's basically the taunt they use when someone makes a threat.

2988972
Ha! Oh, that.
I feel stupid now.

There's far more cancerous shit on this site, I'd hardly deign to call out the anon stuff as the worst of it. When put up next to the joke fad stories, that cosplayer transformation shit, or the fetish trash that plagues the site, I have absolutely no problem with an intentionally generic faceless/nameless self-insert character.

2988632 While you stay at home and slave over a hot stove? Well, someone has to play the role I suppose. Just don't let him take you for granted just because he works an a 9-5 in some cubical! Your work is JUST as important, only it's not, but it lets him focus on being a frustrated alcoholic in peace knowing he has a fully cooked meal to come home to.

Except when you forget to, because that talk show host was just so good at tearing up that insensitive jerk who tried to claim he wasn't the father and those chocolate bonbons just got you all up on cloud nine, not your fault your Anon will come back home all frustrated and hating his boss and expect to relax to a brewsky while you serve him a perfect steak dinner. He loves those. You're so considerate!

Only he flips out. Calls you a lazy good for nothing. Tells you how it's your fault your face is colors all blue and purplish now. You really shouldn't have been such a lazy good for nothing, you tell yourself. But you make Anon work. You're the only one who can make it all work.


*BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *click* *click* *click*

You tried to make it all work. It wasn't your fault. You tried. Though you blame yourself, it isn't your fault.

You made Anon work.


He just didn't work for you.

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