poll! KFZ!

[aimeelicious]

So I've been giving a lot of thought to character death in fic, and the fic header warnings that often come with them, but sometimes don't. In the interest of fostering a dialogue on the topic, I've created a poll to gather some general information about reader preferences. This post/poll is UNLOCKED, in the hope that some of you will be willing to PIMP it in your journals and hopefully encourage others to fill it out, as I'd like as much input as possible. ETA: I do plan on doing a results post based on this poll, so please know that your responses will not just disappear into the ether.

Feel free to answer the poll anonymously if you wish, and take over my journal for discussion, just don't get nasty! This has been declared a kerfuffle-free zone (KFZ).

[Poll #450697]

ETA: Sorry for forgetting Smallville as a fandom...it's one of my faves and I left it off! Dang polls, can't edit them.

Comments

[mpoetess.livejournal.com]

I don't think character death warnings should be required forever and ever throughout fandom (though, er, ironically I require them on my mailing list) but I'm very leery of reading things without them if there's any indication of possible darkness, and I'd certainly love it if authors *chose* to use them. (Someone did a rather neat thing in a post yesterday, where they had a link that you could click to find out if there was character death in the story or not. The link was a completely separate page, so those who opened the story without wanting to know ahead of time wouldn't be spoiled. Obviously if one *only* used that when there was character death, people would catch on quickly and it would be the same as just blatantly saying it in the header, but if it became a general practice, that would be rather nifty.

And as a BtVS-verse sidenote, I can handle vamped characters, though if they go from good to evil, I have to detach greatly from the story. Sometimes completely (meaning hitting delete), depending on how evil.

[aimeelicious]

I saw that post yesterday, with the separate link for character death warning! It's definitely a fine idea, but you're right, it would have to be used consistently whether there was a warning or not, otherwise it's mere existence would be a *dead* giveaway. Heh. I'm funny, even when I poll!

Thank you so much for participating, I really appreciate the response. =)

(ps--I tend to enjoy death=vamped stories only if said vampee hangs on to their supposed soul or is somehow not your typical eat first, ask questions later kind of bloodsucker. I like cliche, augh!)

[mpoetess.livejournal.com]

I tend to enjoy death=vamped stories only if said vampee hangs on to their supposed soul or is somehow not your typical eat first, ask questions later kind of bloodsucker. I like cliche, augh!

Oh no, me too. Basically I can only read ones where they don't hang onto their soul or stay relatively good/neutral, for kink-smut, or if it's highly, highly humorous. Anything I'm going to let myself actually connect with, it's got to be still the real character (usually Xander) in there.

[aimeelicious]

Yes, the humorous ones I can usually get through, because I love the funny! (Which you are so very talented at writing, by the way.)

Speaking of funny, I assume swmbo has seen your perverted raccoon icon? Ha!

[mpoetess.livejournal.com]

*points to my actual LJ layout*

All for swmbo, baby.

[aimeelicious]

OMG, she must have to put on blinders to go in and read your posts! That is too much. Poor Swm. If you put a few pictures of icy sidewalk patches in there, the terror would be complete. =)

[mpoetess.livejournal.com]

And dead fish!

[aimeelicious]

Oh no, not Mr. Larry! *snicker*

[mpoetess.livejournal.com]

And thank you!

[judas-iscariot.livejournal.com]

Wow- who ever came up with the idea of a seperate link is brilliant. I certainly wouldn't have thought of it. I'll have to borrow that concept for future use. Thank you for bringing that option to my attention- it successfully respects the rights of both types of people.