Age of the geek, baby.

[apocalypsos]

Leverage's John Rogers talks about his attitudes towards fanfic, makes me want to have massive amounts of sex with him.

I would argue the "a lot of fanfic is crap" line except ... well, it is, it's only that people who've been in fandom long enough know where to find the good stuff and to avoid, say, the Pit of Voles unless there's a recommendation from a trusted source involved.

Also, I would like to throw a melted slushy in the face of whoever asked that question. Way to be snide and snotty there.

Comments

[deepbluemermaid.livejournal.com]

I have been eagerly awaiting his answer since that question was posted (yes, I had Kung Fu Monkey open in a tab for several days, waiting for him to post...), and I wasn't disappointed. What a sane answer, seeing fic as a reflection of fans' enjoyment of the show and not a massive threat or an insult!

[narrelle.livejournal.com]

So. Now I really have to go buy Leverage and watch it.

I had a similar discussion on a panel at Continuum 5 two weeks ago. When someone wrote a fanfic using a character from my novel, I was chuffed as anything! Having been a fanficker once myself, the idea that someone liked my universe enough to want to play in it was AWESOME. I felt like I'd really made it.

I can't control how someone reacts to what I write, and I don't want to. I want people to get out of it whatever they personally get out of it, and if it inspires them to play with the text, all joy to them.

Mr Rogers. You are A-OK with me. :)

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

I would argue the "a lot of fanfic is crap" line except ... well, it is

Yes, but John Rogers is rather overlooking that a lot of professional media is, too!

[fools-game.livejournal.com]

He also threatened to spank somebody for torrenting the show. I like him bunches.

[thebitterguy]

As a Canadian, I wish we had an option.

[deepbluemermaid.livejournal.com]

Same! I'm in New Zealand, and I don't think the show will be broadcast here any time soon. So I don't feel particularly guilty about downloading the eps.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bounce_/]

exactly!

I would totally watch it legitimately if I could.

[exsequar.livejournal.com]

I. LOVE. HIM.

His posts are full of win on all kinds of topics - he's just the coolest TV writer, and one of the coolest people, I have ever run into. He's frank and honest about a lot of really touchy subjects and has some fantastic, intelligent things to say. &JOHNROGERS; I really love (and am not surprised) that he totally gets the fanfic thing, where the impulse comes from, how it's completely not a "threat" to him at all. It's something cool that goes on that's a big tip of the hat to how awesome his show is. And he gets it! <333333

[kelly-girl.livejournal.com]

Sounds like an awesome guy. Thanks for the link.

[sabotabby]

He is made of win.

(Of course, the show is about thieves. If he got all corporate-intellectual-property about it, this would be terribly hypocritical.)

[ciara-belle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd definitely argue that the "fanfic is crap because it's written by non-professionals" bit, because there are plenty of people writing awesome stuff and not really getting paid for it, but he is right that there is a lot of crappy fanfic out there.

But what a refreshing attitude towards the fans! As if I didn't already love Leverage enough. ^^

As a fanfic human, my guess is

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Hardison probably reads fanfic.

Re: As a fanfic human, my guess is

[sabotabby]

Hardison probably writes fanfic.

[lovedbythesun.livejournal.com]

Why not? Willow did.

Re: As a fanfic human, my guess is

[modillian.livejournal.com]

LOL trufax

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

When you're looking at straight up Sturgeon's Law abiding volume of fic, then yep, I still agree that 90% of everything is shit. it's just that when you're talking about a sample size of 1000 that means 900 mediocre or bad stories, versus 9000 of a sample size of 10,000. The ratios don't change--but the volume of badfic does.

(I also hate hate hate the fact that people still refer to FFN as "The Pit of Voles". But that's my own personal issue. I've been archiving there for a decade, had a column there back in the day, and still go there first for most small fandoms because it's the easiest to use multi-fandom archive out there and it's one of the few that have been around for a decade and stands to still be around a decade from now. And if everyone counsels against good writers archiving there, then that's helping to create the signal:noise problem we're all complaining about, instead of doing anything to change it....)