Story spam? · 7:00pm Nov 11th, 2016
So, I've had this conversation with a couple of different authors now, and I'm really not quite sure how I feel about it, even now.
Story spam, which is a debatable topic in itself. You can look around fimfiction, and see some authors with upwards of 60 stories, and they pump these things out like clockwork. I certainly don't have time to read all of them, and I'm sure a lot of other people don't either. That brings up the question of quality vs. quantity. Fimfiction's algorithm supports quantity over quality, by far. The long-used method of throwing shit at the wall and riding on the popularity of the shit that sticks is still alive and well on this site.
I want to ask, what is constituted as story spam? And if a person gets overwhelmingly popular by doing it, is it story spam, or is it just dedication and success?
And as an author, would you rather be known for your select choice of good, wholesome stories, or your flipbook of mediocre ones with the occasional gem lost somewhere in the middle?
I'd probably consider "story spam" to be if someone's doing it either because:
a. Just to prove that they can, and for no other reason.
b. The stories all obviously have little to no effort put into them.
If the stories are all pretty good, the latter.
Interesting thought. This is the first time I'm hearing of the topic, so I don't know how much clout my opinion would have.
Based on the info you've given, the way I see it, story spam could be:
—If an author gets recognized for one OC story, then decided to pump out a ton of side stories or smaller stories about the same character just because that one story got attention. My guess is that the next fics wouldn't be recognized as much, but the author just gave it a shot.
—If an author gets recognized for a story that has a fun/funny/interesting premise—though poorly written—and continues to write stories in such a fashion that the stories' ideas are fun while the writing is shotty, and still gets recognized. I've seen this happen—for me, sometimes fun stories with shotty writing can be forgiven, but when it happens too much it gets bothersome.
—If an author likes to write to such a degree that they just don't care about what anyone thinks of their writing, and as long as it's just well-written enough to pass moderation, they'll pump out story after story no matter what the subject.
I'm sure there are plenty of other instances of story spam. Some of them may not necessarily be a terrible thing, but that's just my opinion. I do know the bothersome type you're talking about, but I just tend to ignore them.
If the stories are good, though, then I wouldn't consider them spam stories—I'd consider the author to be a good, dedicated writer. There are quite a few of them here.
Depends, if it's Kudzuhaiku, then no I don't think it's "Spam" but if it's someones "My Little Dashie" clone that is on the third sequel then I would say yes.
4297574
4297420
Are any of you familiar with the "Regidar approach?"
Story spam can be pretty clearly marked by the percent of stories in a month that are labeled as incomplete. You can throw sh!t at the wall but if you've got three boxes, don't keep picking up those you've thrown off the floor.
4298503
I personally haven't heard anyone actually use that phrase, but I know what you're getting at.
I follow Regi myself, and while not everything he writes is Grade-A, every now and then he does write some stories that I enjoy, for whatever reason. The way I see it, if you look at the description and you don't think you'll like it, just leave it. No use having a fit over it. So he'll probably end up in the Featured box whether it was a good story or not. Even though I like having stuff up there myself—I have ONE story with a following that gets back up there when updated—I've learned not to always trust it when it comes to new material.
4298503 Doesn't he just do one story every month or two? I wouldn't say that's spam.
4299467 Well, I'm not sure what he does now.
But two years ago?
Oh man.