Rant ahead ...
Incoherent ranting that is. Hey, I'm on medication, all right? Anyway, here it is.
I've been reading fanfiction for close to twelve years. That's pre-Internet, all the way back to 'zines. I'm a hopeless fan-girl, always have been and like it that way. Now I've never had the same issues with 'zine fic that Internet fanfic seems to inspire, especially in regard to quality and presentation. 'Zines are edited (well, hopefully they are) polished, slaved over by obsessive people, etc. and you will rarely find too many huge glaring errors, in spelling, grammar, formatting etc. This doesn't cover content quality because I've read some serious stinkers in 'zines -- ones that I've actually ripped out of the binding and thrown in the trash lest my eyes be seared by their Overwhelming Badness ever again. (Yes Virginia, a well-edited, perfectly grammatical story can suck. It's true.)
Internet fanfiction is a different barrel of fish entirely. There is no mandatory editing, there's no required labeling, there's often no rhyme or reason to anything and once you get past the word "FIC" in the subject line, honey, you are on your own. Typos leap out of the bar doors, shooting wildly ... POVs jump around like Mexican beans in the sun ... rape fics come up behind you and hit you like the 1:13 from Memphis ... men apply garish make-up and get pregnant in the general store. It's often not a pretty sight and part of me doesn't blame people for railing against these crimes against their eyes, minds and stomachs. I can understand the emotion behind angry crits, bad-fiction sites and the like. I really can.
But none of these things will change the basic fact of Internet fanfic -- it's a writer's world, not a reader's.
Unlike 'zines, which you pay for and are allowed a certain amount of expectation, Internet fan-fiction comes with no guarantees, no rules, no respect. It's an ever-renewing pile of dung in which you must dig deeply for the oft-hidden jewels and if this tires or upsets you at any point, then your fanfic reading days in that fandom are probably coming to their natural end.
We all know about the happy, mindless devouring we do when a new fandom is discovered and many of us also know how bitter and weird we get by the time we burn out on one too many "Marty-Sue and His Amazing Threesome Experience With The Boyz" fics. When we reach that point, it's time to rely on rec-pages, word-of-mouth and the authors you've learned to trust and leave the angry crit lists/badfic sites alone.
So-called "badfic" will never be stopped without list moderation or mandatory editing and frankly, I believe its pointless to try. Most of it's posted by newbies, children, non-native speakers of English and a stubborn few who know no shame and besides, they have a lot of readers (mostly newbies, children and non-native speakers) who like them and their rancid fic a lot, thankyouverymuch. It's the very way internet fanfic is set up that makes it so, and to try and change it through intimidation is to miss the point completely.
Of course, if you just like to bitch and moan, hey, that's cool. I do it myself. A lot.
So, I guess my point is this: sit back, open your mail, enjoy what's offered if you can and feel very lucky if you do. I'm in a fandom right now that's churning out a shocking amount of quality fic but I know that's not going to last very long. In fact, when the inevitable flood of crap comes, it's going to look all that much worse since the stuff that came before it was so good. That's why I'm investing in my nose clips now and not a domain called "suckyclexfic.com"
Because the best offense, in Internet fanfic, is a good defense, always. Peace.
