ssokolow's Recommendations 64 members · 1,270 stories

Note: As I am still migrating from an inferior categorization system, the categories will become more nuanced as I find time to re-examine stories I haven't read in a while.

Also, don't forget to check out my lists of music, art, and comics in the forum.

Group Mission Statement
This group has three purposes:
1. To provide a curated, categorized list of recommendations so I can give proper attention to fics that are truly favourites.
2. To compensate for the tendency of some authors to be too liberal with their tags by categorizing them more strictly on the dominant elements.
3. To allow people to explore and subscribe to my recommendations in the most comfortable way possible, should they decide their tastes are similar to mine. (Unlike the list I'm still draining the last few fics from on my profile page.)

By doing this, I hope to help, in some small way, to give readers the confidence to try stories they might otherwise miss or dismiss.

Common Themes (Untagged):
While they're often difficult to do significantly enough to be a story's dominant trait in and of themselves, here are some common themes you're likely to find in many of the stories here:
- Character exploration/building (especially for villains)
- Realistic but optimistic depictions of humanity
- Use of plot devices like "you were a changeling all along" to shatter a character's worldview so their attempts to pick up the pieces can reveal their true selves. (The sort of thing I normally use gender-bending for in contemporary settings)

Uncommon Themes:
...and here are the elements that will only appear infrequently:
- Stories which deviate too far from the feel of canon (eg. Probably not the second story arc of Anthropology)
- Stories involving bronies (They usually feel too much like fourth-wall breaking or wish fulfillment to me)
- Clop (I have nothing against it... it's just harder to find fics that have both clop and the elements I look for)
- Tragedies (Again, nothing against them. I'm just not normally in the right frame of mind to appreciate them.)

Submissions
At present, submissions are not needed as my "Read Later" list continues to grow at twice the rate I shrink it. However, non-story suggestions are welcome in the appropriate forum threads and you can feel free to PM ssokolow if you truly think you know of a story I'd like.

Based on my own experiences with some of the Human in Equestria groups, I'd rather not offer a submissions box since there's no way for subscribers to opt out of receiving update notifications for the un-accepted fics.

Rationale For This Use
While I admit this may seem like a somewhat unintended use for the groups system, I feel that it presents a net benefit to the site for the following reasons:
1. It allows people to sort, filter, and subscribe to my recommendations, unlike the ever-growing "custom text" widget on my profile page did.
2. Readers who may find it interesting are much more likely to discover it than they would my profile page or a custom recommendations list hosted on my personal website.

Therefore, while this "group" isn't really intended to have more than one contributor, it still works toward the goal of helping authors and receptive readers to find each other. (I have also asked one of the staff and been told that it shouldn't be a problem.)

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