Forum / Facebook

• 
  Gloria Garfunkel

  Mar 16, 01:23am

  I know nothing and care to know nothing about facebook or tweeting, but some humbugs were recently complaining that people are using facebook and tweets to double the number of people who read their stories. Those numbers are pretty obvious. Is this an issue of unleveling the playing field or a trivial stupidity not worth even discussing?

• 
  Matthew Robinson

  Mar 16, 01:51am

  It's up to the individual writer how they want to market their stories up here. I imagine most people publish their stories on this site with the intent to have them be read; utilizing those social networks is a damn good way to achieve that end.

• 
  Matthew Robinson

  Mar 16, 01:59am

  Fictionaut has a couple of Twitter accounts as well, one of which posts links to "Recommended" stories, meaning stories that have earned any number of favorites or otherwise favorable comments. I'm not sure who runs it (though I have my suspicions), but they're pretty committed to it.

• 
  Gloria Garfunkel

  Mar 16, 02:05am

  I guess any method of getting your stories read is OK. Some people have more resources than others. That's life.

• 
  Matthew Robinson

  Mar 16, 02:13am

  Well anybody can set up a Twitter account or Facebook. They each come with their own hassles, but I'm so acclimated to them that it doesn't bother me anymore. I also try to share stories by others which moved me in particular, not all self-promotion.

• 
  Matthew Robinson

  Mar 16, 02:25am

  If we're worrying about whose stories are getting more views than others, then I'm not sure we're focusing on the right things.

• 
  Gloria Garfunkel

  Mar 16, 02:47am

  Having blogged for a long time, until recently, facebook just seemed like another challenge to master and another intrusion into my private life. I've never read it, I have no sense of it, it's a mystery. I agree that when the discussion gets to who has more views and faves I get uncomfortable because it is all so relative and there are varied irrelevant reasons. I think all we should care about is our stories and the feedback we do get and ignore the rest. It's not a race.

• 
  Matthew Robinson

  Mar 16, 02:51am

  Exactly! It's all about the literature.

• 
  Ann Bogle

  Mar 16, 02:59am

  The playing field is leveled by handicap in golf. Handicap at Hazeltine National Golf Club is particularly difficult for a one-time miniputter such as myself to understand not knowing where Jeremy Bentham's head landed. Francis Ysidro Edgeworth revived natural parameters in statistics.

• 
  Gloria Garfunkel

  Mar 16, 03:36am

  I'm as familiar with golf as I am with facebook and have no idea what that means. Clearly I'm a completely out of it individual. Maybe I should be writing Victorian novels.

• 
  Ann Bogle

  Mar 16, 04:31am

  Mrs. Gaskell is Barbara Logan's pick for Victorian novelist.

• 
  Marcus Speh

  Mar 16, 06:42am

  I love Mrs Gaskell. I also should write Victorian novels as they easily are my favorite reading material. For the record, I have used Twitter, Facebook, my Blog and Google+ to get people to read my stuff here...I can get the (relative) attention of nearly 8000 avatars (that's one reason why it is relative: who really knows which dog sits at the other end of the line? Perhaps not a dog at all? It may be a sentient machine for all I know) and it shows whenever I put a story up (which I rarely do anymore, alas). I'm one of the original developers of the Web, so this stuff comes easy. I'm also a psychotherapist, and a physicist, and a lecturer and a father, and a man, and I use all these things on and off the page to get people to read my stuff. It is as Matt indicates: you uses all the resources available to you. Why wouldn't you? This is after all an online space and though it retains an element of exclusiveness, it still really is a public venue and it seems more than fair, namely adequate, to treat it as such. Having said all that, it IS all about the literature. I came to see this after herding readers to my stories like cattle, like numbers, but apparently I needed the experience. As for meaningful feedback and response, it's pretty much the same group of 10 to 20 people (not avatars though we don't know each other personally) who comment and pat me on the old back and this is a lot more important than 100 or 1000 avatar accesses which are forgotten before the pixels have dried on the screen wet from the tears of the blocked writer...

• 
  Marcus Speh

  Mar 16, 06:46am

  The question of resources, especially digital resources, at the disposal of the writer, dear Gloria, is totally blown out of proportion and in my considerable experience with the medium, irrelevant to the quality of the writing or its ultimate success with any number of readers. This is something I didn't want to believe at first (when you have resources it males you feel so...good) but it is true. The more wind anyone is able to male digitally the less I listen now...and I think an increasing number of people are coming round to that place, or rather, their unconscious does before their egos know it.

• Frankie Saxx

  Mar 16, 09:45am

  Marcus, I think that is very true. I've consciously been culling my Twitter of people that do nothing but make wind lately. It was getting to be like a wind tunnel in there. It's much better now.

  Your wind is always charming, however. Like a mild breeze off the sea on a hot July day.

• Frankie Saxx

  Mar 16, 10:53am

  This topic seems strange to me, I think because it's predicated on the idea that views have some intrinsic worth or meaning, and that there are lawful and unlawful ways of acquiring them. It must be, because if views are meaningless, then no one would care how other people get them.

  I always tweet when I put a story up here. Once, maybe twice, if the first tweet went out while America was sleeping. My literary community extends beyond Fictionaut, the common ground where we all congregate is Twitter. There are people I enjoy reading & they do me the courtesy of telling me (via Twitter) that they've posted a new blog or that they have a story in a zine. I'd be pretty fucking rude not to return the courtesy. It's the razor edge that separates communication from making wind.

  I suppose if this were a contest, if there was some kind of tangible reward for getting the most views, then making rules about which views are legitimate and which are cheating would make some kind of sense. But it's not, and it isn't, and the only value that a view has is personal, something we, as individuals, assign to it. If someone chooses to make it a contest and use it to compare their stories to other stories as though it says something about the quality of the respective stories, that's their delusion and I'd just as soon be left out of it.

• 
  Marcus Speh

  Mar 16, 12:12pm

  Over the past six months perhaps due to increased interest in Facebook (it waxes and wanes), or perhaps because I've got so used to dictating on my text instead of typing them, I have experimented with hybrid forms of non/fiction writing. It is much easier to describe how I what I did than it is to describe what it amounts to. In the first step I write a so called Facebook "status" report. In my case this is usually a note for which I afterwards find a suitable (public domain) picture. I choose this format (note plus picture) because now begins a process of adding to and refining the note, often in concert with comments that other people (Facebook in its virtual wisdom insists on calling them my "friends") leave for me in relation to the note. In the second step I take a screenshot of the finished Facebook post and I improvise another text for my blog. The second text is like an expansion or an afterthought of the first text. On my blog I rarely publish only one of these but dozens of these little prose pills at once. Here are two examples:

  http://marcusspeh.com/2013/01/11/a-facebook-feuilleton/

  http://marcusspeh.com/2012/09/14/recycling-facebook/

  I haven't done anything like this with Twitter. The reason is that it's simply doesn't give me enough the space I need. A few years ago I used my own Twitter messages to compose a poem of sorts, later published, but poetry is not my thing, really.Here it is anyway

  http://halvard-johnson.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/secret-brush-strokes.html

• 
  Sam Rasnake

  Mar 16, 12:37pm

  And Marcus, don't forget the brilliant Cahiers du Cinéma. That piece is many things, but certainly poem is one of them.

• 
  Gloria Garfunkel

  Mar 16, 03:22pm

  I am technology-impaired and it just came as a surprise to me. It never occurred to me you could even or want to do that. The numbers aren't totally meaningless or they wouldn't be there in the first place. They are one kind of (pathetic) feedback, much less valuable than a comment or fave. We are not here just to have our stories read, but also to get feedback on them.

• 
  Carol Reid

  Mar 16, 04:19pm

  Sometimes I get a spike in my reads and I have no idea what prompted it. I have occasionally shared a story link on Facebook but oddly enough, that doesn't add many reads at all.
  Sometimes I ask writers here if I can post a link to their work on my FB page, not sure if it's done them any good either!
  I'm sure it doesn't reduce feedback, getting more reads.
  Anyway, if I didn't want to have people read my stuff, I'd just keep in tucked away in a notebook with a rubber band around it, in my sock drawer. And now that I've reached the level of the glaringly obvious...

• 
  Sally Jayne Heymann

  Mar 16, 05:16pm

  I take my desired audience into account. There are some pieces I want my friends and family to see because they are about common events or periods in our lives, and there are others I do not wish for them to view. For many of my readers on Twitter and Facebook, it gives them a chance to comment on those mediums about my work; whereas, not being members of Fictionaut, they cannot do so here. It's all about the feedback for me and whether it is well received by my intended audience.

• 
  Matthew Robinson

  Mar 16, 06:23pm

  I essentially consider my contribution of work on this website as part of an archival process. The stories I currently present here are stories I want seen together, whether or not they end up published together in a future collection. I've shared them on FB/Twitter/Tumblr, received feedback/encouragement from those mediums, as well as this one. I've also removed several stories or hesitated to post others, as sometimes I feel wary about the recreational aspect of this site. Writing is not a hobby to me, it's a way of life, and although I consider the camaraderie I've gained from this website utterly invaluable to my growth as a writer and reader, I sometimes question the inherent value of posting work here in the first place. I ask myself, Am I doing this just for attention? Or is that simplifying the issue? Afterall, the act of writing itself is one of vanity; am I really inflating my own self-worth that much more by sharing on a website designated for sharing such work, and then spreading that work further across the web with outside networks? Or is it all relative in the quest to be recognized for the painstaking hours and love and agony put into forming the work? What, really, is the reward for the efforts? Where is the prestige, beyond satisfaction of creation?

• 
  Marcus Speh

  Mar 16, 07:01pm

  @matt Prestige? The French thing? There's none to speak of. None that any independent court not consisting of muses or their advocates would recognize anyway.

  My ideal henceforth will be to kiss the one and only reader of anything I write under the mistletoe at Christmas, kiss her with a bag over my head so that my identity can remain shrouded in mystery.

• 
  Gloria Garfunkel

  Mar 16, 07:08pm

  Not a plastic bag. That would be horror lit.

• 
  Barry Basden

  Mar 16, 07:12pm

  @Matt If, like many here, you have work scattered and potentially lost (e.g., Emprise Review, et al) around the internet, fnaut is not a bad place to gather them all in one place--public or not.

  I know several members have publicly groused about doing that, but hey, "To each his own," he said as he kissed the cow...

• 
  Dolemite

  Mar 16, 07:12pm

  " I sometimes question the inherent value of posting work here in the first place."

  There are 173 reasons to post work.

  All of 'em are valid.

• Frankie Saxx

  Mar 16, 07:27pm

  Carol:

  I confess, I sometimes tweet links to other people's work posted on Fictionaut. If I read something and really enjoy it, I often share it.

  God, I just realized I'm a social media slut.

  I wonder if there's a support group. Maybe it has a facebook page.

• 
  Sally Jayne Heymann

  Mar 16, 07:30pm

  Is this what you are looking for, Frankie?
  http://www.thefix.com/tags/social-media-addiction

• 
  Gloria Garfunkel

  Mar 16, 09:24pm

  If the numbers meant nothing they wouldn't be there, they wouldn't be used to rank recommended. So admit it, the numbers mean something and everyone cares or they wouldn't look at them.

• 
  Dolemite

  Mar 16, 09:27pm

  You give too much power to forces beyond yourself.

• 
  Gloria Garfunkel

  Mar 16, 09:31pm

  You are right as a crystal ball, but that has been my life. I can't change that. But I can change giving a shit about such trivia, Sir C. I wish I were you. At least one of you. You could pick the one. Any would do.

• Frankie Saxx

  Mar 16, 09:32pm

  Sally: Let me tweet that & see if anyone's tried it...

• Frankie Saxx

  Mar 16, 09:40pm

  @Gloria:

  I don't think they're any more meaningful than the Google analytics stats on my blog, which I never look at, or the number of followers I have on Twitter, which I also never look at -- one of the things I love about my Twitter client is that it doesn't shove numbers in my face all the time.

  If it wasn't right there on the page, I would never know what the number was because I don't care enough to look. It's just a number counting clicks.

• 
  Dolemite

  Mar 16, 09:41pm

  Gloria...

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow0lr63y4Mw

• 
  Marcus Speh

  Mar 16, 10:24pm

  @matt hilarious AND true. ROFL i think is the expression. marvelous.

• 
  Susan Gibb

  Mar 16, 10:39pm

  Hahahaha! Love the video.

• 
  Gloria Garfunkel

  Mar 16, 10:40pm

  OK, Matt. I only have a ten. Do you take change?

• 
  Gloria Garfunkel

  Mar 16, 11:19pm

  btw: THE best self-help book for panic disorder is called Don't Panic and by the same author the best classic self-help on OCD is Stop Obsessing. And I meant do you give change, which I know you don't, so can I have another five minutes?

• 
  Sally Jayne Heymann

  Mar 17, 02:34am

  So, was Bob Newhart cremated?

• 
  Charlotte Hamrick

  Mar 18, 04:16am

  Seems to me like some people are over-thinking this issue. Social media is just another venue of getting your work out there to potential readers. Ignoring the value of using social media is short-sighted, imo. I know for a fact I have readers of my blog who click over when I post a link on Twitter. People are busy and there are lots of choices of reading material - putting your work out there with the ease of a click is smart, not a sell-out.

• 
  James Claffey

  Mar 18, 04:36am

  i share others' work consistently, work that moves me and that i think non-FN folk might enjoy.

• 
  Jane Flett

  Mar 18, 11:16am

  Hmn, if I look at those numbers at all it is the opposite way round. "Wow, I got three likes and only X people have viewed it, this is clearly working!"

  I used to be a total Facebook whore but I quit it to write a poem a day for a month, and then realised I was better off staying quit. I think it is a smart way to promote things but I am terrible at being smart on the internet and prone to fall into a bucket of cats, or Wiki linking for hours on end...
  

• 
  Jim V

  Mar 18, 01:28pm

  I link everything I post here on Facebook and Twitter, and I thought everyone did. To be honest, I consider them my audience more than the people here, as I spend little time here and don't play the fave-for-fave hustle.

  Moreover, people on Facebook and Twitter who are not also members of Fictionaut cannot comment or fave, which accounts for the bulk of who gets to the top of the lists around here.

  Believe me, if they could, the dynamics of this place would change rather drastically.

• 
  Charlotte Hamrick

  Mar 18, 10:02pm

  I'm a newbie here but,honestly,I'm still trying to figure out exactly what Fictionaut is all about. Is it for readers? Is it for writers? Is it for networking? Is it for critique? All of the above?
  Compared to other sites I frequent, it definitely could use updating. I find it clunky to navigate as a reader and a writer. No offense meant.

• 
  Sally Jayne Heymann

  Mar 19, 02:01am

  I agree with the comments. I wanted to get feedback on my writing, but was afraid to show it to anyone, until Bill told me about this site. I have found the people here to be very welcoming. I think there could be more criticism, but you can't force people to do that. Fictionaute has given me the confidence to write again after a long period of passivity and inactivity, and I thank the creators and all participants for that gift.

• 
  Jane Flett

  Mar 19, 05:07pm

  Charlotte, I use it for all of the above:

  * reading stories/poems from writers I might not otherwise have discovered.

  * posting things I have written. For me, it's mainly things I haven't yet submitted anywhere but plan to and want to know which things people like more. Often, the things I think are too romantic/ridiculous/personal/indulgent are the ones that work best (at least within the audience here), which is good to know.

  * networking isn't something I do actively, but I have been contacted by journals and an agent after posting on this site. If I was currently running a litmag, I would definitely be soliciting things.

  * critique happens in closed workshop groups rather than on the main page. If you're looking for it, put an ask out in the forums.

  Personally, I love the Fictionaut setup. I find it intuitive and pretty with good fonts, just the right amount of white space, and not too many things to click on. YMMV.

• 
  Jane Flett

  Mar 19, 05:31pm

  Also, James, it's funny you would say that. I kind of think that opening up to Facebook/Twitter/whatever is what would really turn things into a popularity contest. I used to have armies of flying monkeys I could send!

  If people do hustle for faves, wow, that is silly. Does anyone really, really give a toss about the recommended? I like when people favourite me because it stokes a fragile writer ego that spends too much time alone in a room with a notebook and an email account full of journal rejections. I don't know if my ego would be suitably tricked into feeling good if I had to ask for the faving.

  I also really am confused about using "fave" as a verb.

• 
  Sally Jayne Heymann

  Mar 19, 06:11pm

  I think if people are going to put stock in the "fave" button, they need to move it closer to the "post comment" button because I've noticed that people put the * for fave in the comments, but then do not hit the button. I prefer to know how many people have read my work, knowing that it has been seen by my intended audience....that's what I really wish, that we knew the target audience was being met.

• 
  Carol Reid

  Mar 19, 06:12pm

  I've always been confused about the lack of an "e" on "fav". I also enjoy being faved. To me it's like when I go for my daily stroll and people I don't know say hello and smile as we pass on the trail. Just an acknowledgment of fellow humanity and general good will.
  When I first joined here I thought the fav was some kind of elite pedestal reserved for pieces that change the reader's life in some deep literary way. That attitude turned out to be no fun. Now I fav whatever pleases me in that particular moment of reading, and that has turned out to be much more fun. And I've read and enjoyed a wide variety of work and become acquainted with some pretty interesting personalities.

  On a deeper literary level, I have received some deeply appreciated help in the private critique groups.

  All of which has nothing to do with Facebook, right.

• 
  Sally Jayne Heymann

  Mar 19, 07:01pm

  *faves* Carol's comment

• 
  Jane Flett

  Mar 19, 07:11pm

  Carol, yep, me too!

• 
  Charlotte Hamrick

  Mar 19, 07:14pm

  Thanks for responding, Jane. Now see, this is part of what I mean: there are private critique groups? How would a newbie know that? Closed groups are fine, even preferable sometimes, but shouldn't they be listed under the "Groups" heading? Why make them so hard to find? If they're invitation only, that's ok. Just note it as such. Also, when I say "clunky" I'm not talking about the font or template which I think are fine. Here's an example of clunky: when I click on a tag ("poetry" for instance) the page that loads has entries from 2008. One has to scroll forward to get to the newest entries. That doesn't make sense for readers - in our attention span deficit world,some might find it too much trouble and just move on.

  I realize this has nothing to do with FaceBook. Sorry, I just grabbed the chance to opine. *smiles*

• 
  Gloria Garfunkel

  Mar 19, 09:22pm

  The phantom fave for fave game, if it exists, is infantile and meaningless and I believe is just a myth. Who would stoop that low and still have self-respect? I think of Fictionaut as literary and facebook as popularity. That is the main difference between the two, James.

• 
  Gessy Alvarez

  Mar 19, 09:35pm

  This debate is heading towards a familiar path. That said, I shall take my spring break early. Keep writing. I shall read your stories and send you love notes from the underground.

• 
  Gloria Garfunkel

  Mar 19, 10:04pm

  New path for me but doesn't sound good. So I'll trust you Gessy and sign off too.

• Frankie Saxx

  Mar 19, 10:05pm

  @Carol:

  I do like you. Fave willy nilly. A great slathering of writerly affection, a little click of thank you, a shiny star to illuminate your day or night or basement or whatever the fuck needs illuminating in that moment. Sometimes it's a soul.

  If my internet had a rule, it would not be about who is allowed to click what, or who is allowed to link where. My internet's rule would be, "leave it nicer than when you found it."

• Frankie Saxx

  Mar 19, 10:12pm

  @Charlotte: It would be easier if there was a thread or something to advertise them.

  I think it's nice that the completely private ones aren't listed, otherwise I'd feel like that kid with no money, little nose pressed up against the candy store window.

• 
  David Ackley

  Mar 19, 11:10pm

  Charlotte,

  J.P. Reese's admirably succinct guide to fictionaut which heads this Forum mentions "private groups," and how to access them.

  Frankie,

  Come on. You know the invitation is in the mail. And the other invitation. And the one after that. Maybe they'll all arrive at once.

• Frankie Saxx

  Mar 19, 11:26pm

  @David:

  I blame Fritz Lang. I think he's eaten them. Perhaps they smelled of sausages.

• 
  Charlotte Hamrick

  Mar 20, 03:47am

  @David, ah, I see that the private group issue is addressed in the guide. I must have overlooked it when I read it before. Okey dokey, then. My bad.

  @Frankie, yes, in the real competitive internet world it's all about ease of navigation sometimes. Just sayin'. :)

  As far as faves go, to me a fave is someone taking the time to say they liked my work. I'm all for readers liking my work and I appreciate anyone making an effort to say so.

  That is all.

• Frankie Saxx

  Mar 20, 12:05pm

  @Charlotte

  I think the "You" section especially could be more intuitive, but that's a whole other kettle of worms.

• 
  James Lloyd Davis

  Mar 20, 12:42pm

  There are many ways to ask the question:

  WHO are you?

  who Are you?

  who are YOU?

  But no matter how it's asked, the answers are often just a guess at best. I know mine is... was... will be.

• 
  David Ackley

  Mar 21, 02:12pm

  Frankie:

  ...or can of fish.

• Frankie Saxx

  Mar 21, 04:39pm

  David:

  A fish in hand is worth two in the can.

• 
  Sam Rasnake

  Mar 21, 08:01pm

  Then it follows: a can in a fish is worth two hands.

• 
  Matthew Robinson

  Mar 21, 08:12pm

  A can of fish is worth one tuna melt.

• 
  David Ackley

  Mar 21, 09:09pm

  Give someone a loaf and teach them to fish and Burger King just lost another customer.

• 
  Sally Jayne Heymann

  Mar 21, 11:07pm

  Teach BP to fish and for them to eat the catch and we might not have another oil spill.

• 
  Dolemite

  Mar 22, 04:38am

  ...well this place has gone dead boring...

• Frankie Saxx

  Mar 22, 12:10pm

  ... I went to the dentist ...

  I have very nice teeth.

• Frankie Saxx

  Mar 22, 12:11pm

  You can teach a man to fish, but you can't make him drink.

• 
  David Ackley

  Mar 22, 02:12pm

  Anybody that has to be made to drink isn't worth teaching to fish.

  Depity Dawg

• Frankie Saxx

  Mar 23, 10:53am

  There's more than one way to drink a fish.

• 
  Sam Rasnake

  Mar 23, 01:46pm

  Dark Side of the Fish

• 
  David Ackley

  Mar 23, 02:20pm

  Sure, nice teeth, Frankie, but, did he give them a "fav[e]?"

• 
  Gloria Garfunkel

  Mar 23, 02:35pm

  I now have everyone in my household fave me instead of give me compliments. It's the only thing that matters in life.

• 
  Gloria Garfunkel

  Mar 23, 03:11pm

  If faves could give you special powers they'd be worth even more. How many faves would it take to fly?

• 
  Gloria Garfunkel

  Mar 23, 05:39pm

  I got seven faves for dinner last night. Four human, three feline. I'm ecstatic.

• 
  David Ackley

  Mar 23, 05:59pm

  Glad this thread has returned to the serious question which with it began.

• 
  David Ackley

  Mar 23, 06:00pm

  Oh, wait , that was some other thread.

• 
  David Ackley

  Mar 23, 06:01pm

  with which

• Frankie Saxx

  Mar 23, 08:25pm

  Dave: I think so. They always get real excited and get other dentists to come and admire my teeth. It's weird, but it seems to make them happy, so I go with it.

• Frankie Saxx

  Mar 23, 08:27pm

  So, if you teach a man to loaf and you give him a fish?

• 
  James Lloyd Davis

  Mar 23, 09:38pm

  When loaves and fishes are on the menu, can a sermon be far behind...?

• 
  David Ackley

  Mar 24, 02:56pm

  See Story Page for next chapter.

• Frankie Saxx

  Mar 24, 07:55pm

  I am not sure what I'm looking for.

• 
  David Ackley

  Mar 25, 01:12am

  Nothing. Cancelled it.

• Frankie Saxx

  Mar 25, 09:06am

  I always miss the good stuff.

• 
  Jim V

  Mar 25, 03:41pm

  "The phantom fave for fave game, if it exists, is infantile and meaningless and I believe is just a myth. Who would stoop that low and still have self-respect? I think of Fictionaut as literary and facebook as popularity. That is the main difference between the two, James."

  There is no "phantom fave game." People have repeatedly come forward to say that people trade faves. Even if they did not, we all know the other game, the faving everyone else until you instill in them a sense of obligation to read and fave and comment on yours. It's not a coincidence that the most active people here get the most faves-- by far.

  Not that I care. People can do whatever they want and it's okay by me, since I'm disinterested in playing the game, but the idea that there's something noble about the people here and something ignoble and un-literary about Facebook readers is on its face silly. Some of my Facebook friends have spent their lives in the literary world, while some of the people here are just starting out, getting their feet wet. I'm not saying one is better than the other, but I'm not going to say my friend Laura Orem, who blogs at Best American Poetry, is somehow inferior in literary credentials to someone newbie flash fiction writer here who has penned her first six paragraph-sized stories.

  Even my friends on Facebook who aren't in the literary world deserve respect. Are we only writing for each other? Do you need to be a writer to appreciate writing? How are we ever to expand the readership of our work if we focus only on some insular group of active people here?

  Anyway, it makes me giggle to think someone really believes that no one would "stoop that low"? Really, Gloria. Stick around the small press for a time. You'll soon come to know how low some people will stoop.

• 
  Jim V

  Mar 25, 03:53pm

  "Also, James, it's funny you would say that. I kind of think that opening up to Facebook/Twitter/whatever is what would really turn things into a popularity contest. I used to have armies of flying monkeys I could send!"

  Jane, I'm not looking to change Fictionaut and have no interest in giving faves to outsiders. That said, it wouldn't be any less of a popularity contest than it is now. It would just be a different kind of popularity contest.

• 
  Gloria Garfunkel

  Mar 25, 04:46pm

  I was not referring to membership of the two organizations, since they overlap, but rather the stated purpose of the two: one social and one literary. And I'm new to the small press world. I know nothing about it. I'm new to Fictionaut since June. And I know people stoop that low. They're idiots.

• 
  Gloria Garfunkel

  Mar 25, 04:47pm

  And I wasn't around for those discussions, or at least wasn't aware of them.

• 
  Gloria Garfunkel

  Mar 25, 04:59pm

  An it is stooping low for an in crowd to cheat on the new people coming in sincerely expecting honest feedback. There are lots of ways to stoop low and that's one, funny as the in crowd thinks it is.

• Frankie Saxx

  Mar 25, 05:14pm

  My motto: "Fave fucking everything."

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  Gloria Garfunkel

  Mar 25, 05:22pm

  I go back and forth, being bipolar. On depressed weeks, I fave nothing. On manic weeks, I fave everything. That's what a precise system this is.

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  Gloria Garfunkel

  Mar 25, 05:59pm

  I'm exaggerating. I think carefully about the fave, but mood, attention, other things going on figure into the borderline cases. In general, I lean towards faving than not.

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  Gloria Garfunkel

  Mar 25, 07:02pm

  I will always give people the benefit of the doubt.

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  Letitia Coyne

  Mar 25, 08:17pm

  I fav rather than comment often. I like the fb LIKE button. I like the convenience of being able to acknowledge someone's work, as I would with a smile or a nod in the real world.

  What I do really appreciate are the small group of people who go out of their way to regularly comment and give support to other contributors. They are champions. The same group of names comes up repeatedly and I'd like to thank them.

  Lxx

• Frankie Saxx

  Mar 26, 09:33am

  Agree, Letitia.

  Plus, I just like to click things.

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  Charlotte Hamrick

  Mar 27, 04:24am

  Ditto, Letitia and Frankie.

  Lord, it's getting dark in here. Whew!

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