Strictly Curious

[kriadydragon]

Because I'm bored and kind of sleepy and bored and... did I mention bored? Will go watch some Bleach after this.

Has there ever been a story recommendation that you felt shouldn't have been recommended (for whatever reason. For example, it was a rape fic that seemed to glorify rape or something)? And if you have, please do not tell us which story and by which author. I am not asking this question to have stories and authors outed. So, please, be as vague as you can - ex. say character A and B instead of, say, Sheppard and Rodney or whoever.

I've actually never experienced this myself. There was one story I was rather iffy about, rec'd by another person for the concept but overall felt OOC to me and my interpretations of the character. But, overall, though I've run into stories that aren't my cup of tea I've never encountered one that it left me reeling that anyone would recommend it. To each their own, of course, but it's made me curious as to whether or not there have been stories that, to you, personally, should not have been recommended at all for some reason.

Comments

[leoraine.livejournal.com]

Ah, hard question, probably because there was a ton of bad story recommendations. True, none of them came from my friends or my favorite authors (I try to keep with them and their recs as they usually have a higher standard for good fic than non-writing people) . What I can't often bite down though are the ficfind or genrefind comms. I mean.... sheesh! I would put a ton of warnings just for the searches (or maybe set up a hotline to psychologist for some of them, really) I've already left several of those comms, because seeing all that in my friends page was just too much. I've stayed with few, but am much more careful in reading. Though sometimes it doesn't help. I've got a rec for some NCIS and HP stories from an author I like, or from people who like the same author. But those stories? They sucked in a big way. Even if the story might be good, the way it's written or the dialogue is just wrong. Not to mention the pairing. What I find incomprehensible is how many good reviews these things get. I mean, come on... who the heck reviews these things? Five year old girls? Ok, end of rant, cause it's getting longer than your post lol.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I've always had mostly good experiences with recommendations, and if I ended up backing out of a story that was rec'd it was usually for personal reasons. The only issues I had was with the story I mentioned above. Though the concept was unique, over all I felt it a negative portrayal of the character written about - out of character, even - and felt fans of that character would be more insulted by it than find it interesting.

Okay, now that I think about it there was another story I felt shouldn't have been rec'd due to technical inaccuracies, even though the story itself was cute.

Fic and genre recs - ugh :P To me, those sites draw the line at "to each their own." Some of the things requested... *shudders*. And you're totally right about the requests alone needing warnings. I used to use... I think it was a genre finder site... but quit using it because I never got a reply for my search. If it was gen fic you were looking for, you were out of luck. But ask for something porny and you'd get quite a few replies in a couple of minutes. It was depressing.

[parisindy.livejournal.com]

not so much stories i wish i never recommended
but there have been recommends that other people didn't like that i loved. and i think that's because i don't get real hung up on typo's and grammar problems etc
where was some of my friends do

[sholio]

Hmm ... I actually can't think off the top of my head of a time that's happened. There have been plenty of rec'd stories that I haven't liked, but it was generally just a matter of personal taste -- the story happened not to be my cup of tea, or contained pairings I wasn't into, or whatever. I can't think of any times that a rec'd story has been so blindingly awful or offensive that it gave me pause (though I have definitely run into such stories, usually on my rambles through the iffier parts of ff.net *g*). I imagine it happens, but if I've run into something like that, none of them have stuck with me.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Grammar and typos, I think, are pretty forgivable if they're not monumentally distracting (and, really, I can't complain seeing as how I went without a beta for quite a long time). And, yes, I hate it when people get hung up on stuff like that. It drove me nuts when people kept telling me how to spell (did they really think I was that incompetent or something?)

I have had issues with stories that were rec'd that, in my opinion, weren't all that different from stories that were of a similar trope. Yes, I'll admit, most of the time it was a case of jealousy :P Other times, though, I didn't see what was so special about that particular story when there were so many others just like it.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I've hit a scattered few "iffy" fic (as mentioned in the post and comments). Not iffy enough to say "that shouldn't have been rec'd at all!" but that I was surprised were rec'd. But overall when it comes to recommending, people do have pretty good taste, because even if a story wasn't my cup of tea I still got why the story was recommended.

But my experience is pretty much limited to SGA and, of course, gen fic (and, well, Sheppard-centric or team fic as well. Yeah, very limited :P).

[patk.livejournal.com]

Happens pretty regularly to me, though not because I think the story contains something that shouldn't be recced in my opinion but mostly because I can't find the exact thing (or see it the same way as the reccer does) that made the reccer rec the story.

For instance, a story recced for solid characterization of the main character/s and when I read it I wonder if the reccer even watched the show. Or a story recced for suspense and a thrilling plot and I just find it predictable and boring. So I guess, in my case it comes mostly down to differences in personal taste.

Or a gen story turning out to be solid het. *g* I've never come across a gen-rec that turned out to be real slash but it happened a few times with het-pairings that weren't canon in the respective show.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Yeah. As I mentioned in another comment above I've come across recs that left me wondering why that particular story was rec'd when there were other stories that ran along the same vein and were just as good. But that extends beyond just rec'ing. I've seen stories that, to me, were of equal quality, yet one story ended up getting more reviews than another story and I never got why. Then there are those stories that, really, aren't that great getting more reviews than those stories that are so well-written they stick with you. Tis a mystery.

The story I mentioned in my post I actually felt kind of annoyed by as I felt it not only OOC but a bit character bashing. It was something I just couldn't see the character doing, and felt that in contradicted who the character was in the show. So though, yeah, I got why it was rec'd it still bothered me that it was rec'd.

Ugh, I hate spontaneous pairings, and hate even worse when the story is labeled gen, or we're not even warned about the pairings in the first place (of which I've already ranted about in an earlier post, so won't get into that again ;)).

[parisindy.livejournal.com]

man! thats crazy i can't believe people are jealous!

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Er, heh, I meant it was a case of me being jealous ;) Not other people. I was going through a major self-doubt period with my writing. I would see other stories get rec'd, and get all kinds of jealous and wonder what the heck I did wrong that kept my story from getting rec'd. It was... not a pretty time in my life.

But I got over it. I still have minor moments but overall it's a mindset I'm no longer plagued by (thank friggin' goodness).

[parisindy.livejournal.com]

awwww sorry i misunderstood

man i get the confidence thing though.. its why i struggle the most. ((hugs)) its cool that you got over it! i am getting better with it but man sometimes its a struggle for sure.

[flingslass.livejournal.com]

I don't look at anything rated NC-17 (which isn't even a rating in Australia) or R. Not interested so I find that I've been pretty safe, I have been surprised by some of the Gens though.