Justacat, you've just blown me away.

[icarus]

Go here, to Justacat's recommendation's site. I'm totally blown away.

This is incredibly thorough, outstandingly rich and... and... bottomless. There's no end to the good stories, and recommendations of places to find more good stories.

What an incredible gift to the fandom. Thank you, thank justacat. For me, it's also been a wonderful chance to say thank you to some of the people who've recced my stories, where I haven't been aware of it. This is just great.

Hey, who else loves LJ's new clean layout? *raises hand*

Comments

[tinderblast.livejournal.com]

I do, actually. I wouldn't mind having some of the options in non-drop down form, but I like it so much more than the old staticky version. The blue sooooothes me.

Justacat's site is going to be a great tool to keep tabs on things. I saw that she 'hated' (the minus sign) two of my favourite stories, though, so I might just agree to disagree with her about content.

-brodie

[wishwords.livejournal.com]

*sigh* I'm not on her list. I'm just a fandom nobody. *pout*

I think I like the new layout, much cleaner.

[justacat.livejournal.com]

Wow! This is so nice! You're welcome, and thank you for the kind words. I'm really glad so many people seem to be finding it useful; it makes the time and effort seem worthwhile. And I very much appreciate all the people who are emailing me with corrections and comments.

Now I just have to find the time to actually read all the stories on the list! :)

[justacat.livejournal.com]

I saw that she 'hated' (the minus sign) two of my favourite stories, though, so I might just agree to disagree with her about content.

Oh, please do disagree with me - that's what makes fandom go round. I debated long and hard about whether to put my own ratings in there at all, since I didn't want to turn the site into a rec page - I want it to be a resource page. I've decided to keep them in there, for now, but the thing is they are incredibly subjective.

For example, there are wonderful stories that everyone recs - like some of Amanuensis's, for example - that I think are incredibly well done, but I dislike them intensely because they are too dark for me. It seems a little unfair to group those in with the ones I think are just plain *bad*, but since the ratings were originally for me - so I would know which stories I might want to reread - that's how I did it.

So the ratings reflect my personal preferences (rather than literary/writerly merit) to an enormous degree. I tend to be a little bit of a happily-ever-after slut (though not if it comes with mush or smarm. So you are someone who likes darker stories or noncon it is highly likely that you will not agree with my ratings. Please feel free to just ignore them!

Out of curiousity, which are the stories about which we disagreed?

[lyricalnights.livejournal.com]

the ratings reflect my personal preferences (rather than literary/writerly merit) to an enormous degree

Sorry to butt-insky here, but I thought this was a really good point to make. The only suggestion I would have (having visited your lovely site) is that you might want to put that point in clearer sight than just in your ratings explanation page. Your reasoning makes perfect sense to me, but someone unfamiliar with you or the fandom/author in question could very well take "i thought this sucked bunches" and "well-written, but not my cup of tea" to be the same thing, which would be doing a big injustice to many authors, IMHO.

Just a thought, and I think the site is great. =)

[tinderblast.livejournal.com]

So far, stories by Slytherlynx and Aspen. I was surprised, as these were brave and striking stories though, especially in Aspen's case, really not for everyone. I was just zipping through the index, as I still have yet to absorb the whole site, and these two stood out for me.

It seems a little unfair to group those in with the ones I think are just plain *bad

Maybe another symbol could be added, like = instead of -? To signal 'technically good, but didn't appeal.' This response happens to me all the time with famous or rec'd stories, and it's a perfectly legimitate response. I liked the recs system you use, i was just being precious about stories that I like ;)

-brodie

[salixbabylon.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting about justacat's resource site - it's amazing!

I've been throwing together my own recs page, and give what a huge pain in the ass that is... well, I can't even imagine a project like that.

I'm glad you posted about it, or I'd never have heard of it!

[justacat.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestion. I've been working on this - I've made the disclaimer much much more prominent on the ratings explanation page, and I've put a big bold "please see ratings explanation page" at the top of the main HP page, and I've tried to make the links to the ratings explanation page on the author pages more prominent .... I've also revised my descriptions of my ratings, so the lowest is now "not my cup of tea" - hope it's okay that I used your phrase!

If you have any additional suggestions I'd definitely be willing to consider them; the ratings clearly are the most controversial aspect of the site, but enough people seem to appreciate them that I've decided to retain them.

And thanks for the kind words about the site!