Flame on!

[prillalar]

If you've been writing fanfic for a while, and especially if you write slash, you've probably been flamed. I know I have. Generally it doesn't bother me too much. If people post flamey comments on my website, I usually leave them up.

Someone's working her (or his, I suppose) way through my LotR fic right now, leaving the usual remarks about the characters aren't gay, blah, blah blah. No big. But she quoted one of my fave flames ever, which someone else left about a year ago on a rather innocuous Merry/Pippin story:

This website is promoting the fact of them being gay!!!!

How great is that? Their gayness is not in question -- it's outing them that's so blameworthy.

I don't know why it is, but the LotR fic gets many more flames than anything else on my site. I had to actually disallow comments on one story because people started flaming each other over Merry and Pippin. The other stuff -- X-Files, X-Men, Star Wars, Stargate, HP -- rarely draws any anti-slash negativity. Actually, there's one HP drabble where I've been flamed quite a lot because Harry and Draco don't fuck. (I did get quite a few flames on a PotC story, since apparently Jack Sparrow is the straightest man on the planet and wouldn't kiss another man to save his own life.) Prince of Tennis doesn't count since they're all gay anyhow. This is the fandom where het stories on ff.n are marked "non-yaoi".

Have you gotten any cool flames? If you're multi-fandom are there particular fandoms that draw more flames? Do you ever want to sneak around late at night and flame people anonymously?

Comments

[gloss]

Flames on fic? I tend to get them only on Giles-slash, especially Giles/Oz (the usual Giles isn't gay! And he's not a child molester!. But marginalia gets the best ones.

[annotated_em]

Prince of Tennis doesn't count since they're all gay anyhow. This is the fandom where het stories on ff.n are marked "non-yaoi".

[cackles]

So sad, yet so very true. If there were more than three eligible females on the show...

Konomi has only himself to blame.

Have you gotten any cool flames?

Never. I only get the standard "u suck cuz Dou and Heero aReN't GHEI!" emails, which I grammar-pick and mock mercilessly and then send back.

...no one ever flames me twice. ;_; I'm so unloved.

[copracat]

Life is so unfair. No-one ever flames me. I have never, ever got a flame. I've been in fandom since 1996 and posting fiction since 1998. What am I doing wrong?

[gloss]

Er, there ought to be a closing parenthesis up there.

And I've been flamed, too, for not bringing on the smut, Joss forbid apparently that Giles and Xander *don't* get it on.

[xsmoonshine.livejournal.com]

Heehee! I noticed that one about "promoting the fact of them being gay" too, the last time you mentioned flames. Yow. I don't know wy, I've posted all sorts of things everywhere and never got an actual thing that could be called a flame. Possibly it's my fandoms and the stuff I write - by and large anime, and one Smallville, mostly humour and non-explicit. I don want to flame people - I just wring my hands and wish I dared say butbutbut that's wrong - and send corrections, or something. :)

[xsmoonshine.livejournal.com]

argh, I'm so sorry - no idea why so many typos today...

[pauraque]

I have never been flamed. This fact causes me greate payne.

[azurine.livejournal.com]

I once received a flame for one of my stories that wasn't actually meant for me. It was meant for the person who stole my story and posted it on a website under her name. (http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/137161.html)

Except she forgot to take my email address off the headers, so I got the email instead of her, which is how I discovered she had plagiarized me.

I sent the flamer an email thanking him for inadvertently alerting me to the theft. *g*

[codyne]

I only ever get flames on my Yu-Gi-Oh! stories. Largely that's because I also have a very high-traffic Yu-Gi-Oh! Episode Guide that draws a lot of people, probably mostly young boys, who get very freaked out at the idea of their idol, the super-cool Kaiba, being gay. (I never get flamed on the Yugi/Jounouchi stuff, only the Kaiba stories.) It's a folder on my main fic site, so even though there are no links to my fic on the Episode Guide, it's very easy for people to back up a folder and find it.

If I'd had any idea how popular the ep guide was going to get I'd have gotten a separate domain for it in the beginning, but it's too late now. I did eventually SafeSurf code my entire fic site in response to the person who told me I'm the sickest person in the world for leaving that fic out where little kids can run across it. I don't necessarily agree that my stories are that harmful to children, but on the other hand, having the ep guide on my site does make it easier than it should be for little kids to unintentionally stumble across the stories.

Still, my total number of flames since starting the ep guide has been maybe five? Which isn't that many considering how much traffic the site gets. So I don't worry too much about it.

[greensilver.livejournal.com]

The one time I ever posted to a general BtVS fic list (looong time ago), I got super special off-list flames from a couple different people - because Buffy/Giles was sick and wrong.

Never been flamed for slash, though. Just the sickandwrong het. I find that kinda humorous.

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

I have never been flamed for my stories, possibly because my author's note tends to include a warning that flames will be returned with interest. I've certainly seen my share of flames in discussion, however.

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

I was once called a peddler of pedophilia on ff.net for a one-line mention of Logan/Rogue in a Scott/Jean story in XMM. And I wrote a Scott/Rogue/Logan threesome which was trashed because Rogue was "nothing but a sperm receptacle for the two men." Of course, the latter came from someone who'd written Kitty/Scott/Logan where Kitty was only 15 and was being picked up to be taken to the school, so I got a little thrill out of the hypocrisy of it.

I don't think I've gotten flamed in any other fandom, though I did once receive what would probably have been a four-page essay if I'd printed it out, on the wrongness of my Remus and Sirius characterization (Remus=too perfect, Sirius=either too submissive or too much of a bastard, the person couldn't decide). It wasn't flamey so much as ... incoherent and inspiring of a huge WTF moment, when she went on and on about preferring the popular fanon versions to the more accurate canon-based versions (her terminology, not mine).

But I'll never forget that 'peddling pedophilia' line, considering Rogue was at least seventeen and the story wasn't even about her. If only that person could see some of my HP fic. *snerk*

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I would love to be The Mad Flamer, anonymously--trashing people who have no concept of grammar or prose narration and the like. Running through ff.net posting, "Please, for the love of all that is holy, STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP. You have NO IDEA. You are a force for chaos and terror in this world--STOP IT NOW."

[branchandroot]

*howls with laughter* Ah, yes, the Eternal Truth of Fandom: flamers are incapable of properly employing Standard English grammar.

I've never been flamed for a story. The closest it's ever come was snottiness about some characterization or other, and then only three times I can remember. All Prince of Tennis. The scarcity could, I suppose, be because I respond fairly extremely.

...not as extremely as in my personal journal, of course. That's the only place I really flame, to blow off steam (and mix my metaphors). In direct response I prefer freezing.

I've been flamed once or twice for my analytical sites. The most memorable was someone who wrote at great length to say (and reiterate in various phrasings) that Faye loves Spike, not Jet. At least, I think that was the point; since I don't make any pairing argument at all on the Cowboy Bebop pages I don't recall precisely what mis-reading exercised this reader. Oh, and also that I shouldn't reply because she wouldn't read the message.

Personally, I thought that was cheating, for a flamer.

[ruric.livejournal.com]

...since apparently Jack Sparrow is the straightest man on the planet and wouldn't kiss another man to save his own life.

Sorry but that just reduced me to fits of giggles *g*
And no - never been flamed. ::sob:: I do but live in hope.

Never had the desire to flame anonymously. Should I ever go the flame route I shall get it beta'd and consult evil-tongued friends to ensure that I have the correct balance of insults and vituperation.

Once.

[kormantic.livejournal.com]

I have been FLAME flamed exactly once, in a series of hysterical letters from some poor young woman who rather overidentified with a character in a story I wrote called The Sad Ballad of Mary Sue's Blues. This girlio FREAKED OUT and in fact hunted me down on AIM to froth at me in person. Poor old kid. She could not be persuaded to believe that I was anything less than a supermodel who looked down my lovely nose at her for being (I can only assume) a podgy librarian with bad skin and sixteen cats.

I have gotten several rather formal and grave "corrections" sent to me, concerning the actual alcohol content of magic beer, the true probable reaction a Sentinel would have to high quantities of bee pollen, and the outright ridiculousness of the idea that Fraser and Ray could survive a fall from 30,000 feet.

Heh.

Good times.

I get SW flamage!

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Clear Vision:
"NONONONONONONONONONONONOOOOOOOOOOOO! So wrong! I don't mean homosexual love because I have *no* problem with that...but just not Han!!!! He belongs to the princess!!! Sorry, i could keep quiet no longer.......;)" --Han's Wookiee

"All the waters of Corellia" (Han/Luke romance):

"What the are you doing you mother er! This is so wrong. Han is supposed to be with Leia you head! This story absolutly sucks the
ass. You're making them out to be homos. Are you one yourself and you just wrote this for your own amusement? Your seriously ed up!" --HANNA

Cockpit (missing scene from ANH):

"u people with ur gayness its nasty" -d

Hidden Destinations:
"You suck you s*** head. Stop writing and get off the internet. If you want to write these stories, go ahead. Just don't post them on the net for everyone to see you homo!" --anonymous


And my personal favorite, from "Every harlot":

"Stop puting Han/Luke together its gust sick puting two male Star Wars carters together like that. I want to read Luke/Leia and some other women also."

Because incest and orgies are great, but gayness is nasty.

[lucidscreamer.livejournal.com]

I tend to get flamed in response to con-crit I've left in reviews. I think I've only gotten flamed twice for actual fic. It was all incoherent and poorly spelled, though...

[harriet-spy.livejournal.com]

I just got one recently after a long silence from the flaming crowd:

"Just because he's British and he's a little more sensitive than some men, does NOT mean he 'got busy' with Ethan Rayne. Ewww. I always thought that Rupert was a fine example of a MAN..."

I love the almost plaintive tone of it. Just because he's British and sensitive doesn't mean he's gay, damnit!!! It DOESN'T!!!!

The other funny bit was when she went on about how JW wouldn't appreciate my "perverting" his work. Because we all know that Joss Whedon is the homiest homophobe that ever 'phobed, right?

Re: Once.

[the-star-fish.livejournal.com]

What is the "real" alcohol content of magic beer?

God love canon magical realism. dS fanfic is so much tamer than the actual show ...

[prillalar]

They're too gay, they're not gay enough -- when will people just realise that we know best!

[prillalar]

I saw a story on ff.n where the summary was something like:

Pretend that some of the Seigaku boys aren't gay.

I feel the lack of women on the show! I wanted to write a parody where the boys are pining for the girls and the girls only have eyes for each other, but I was stymied by the sad lack Girls With Names.

I don't think I've gotten any GW flames thus far. Hmm.

[prillalar]

Hmm, hard to say. People are much more likely to flame in a public environment, though, like ff.n or a website like mine that posts the comments on the story pages.

It's really hard to know what will set them off. Hell, I wrote that story where Krycek kills and *eats* Mulder and most of the fb I got said, OMG! That was great but you're going to get so flamed! But nary a flame did I ever see. But let two hobbits gently kiss each other and I'm going to hell.

[prillalar]

I don't usually want to flame people either. But sometimes I think it would be Sekrit Evil Fun. :) Maybe I should make a list of all the people here lamenting that they get no flames and send them some next time I've been drinking. *g*

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

I've actually been very disappointed, overall, in the quality of the flames I get in response to my LJ. (But, hey, I still have scorch marks from some of the worst non-fandom flame wars I've been in, so I have high standards for irrational vituperation and ranting.) But I notice that the biggest trigger for flaming on my LJ is: inability to understand sarcasm. Most of the flames I've received have been the result of someone taking something (or somethings) seriously when that was in no way my intention. I just accept those as inevitable. And I revel in the "insults" selected by said flamers, because these people haven't the first clue about what would actually insult me.

But I also get the occasional mystery flame complaining that I focus too much on slash, slash is disgusting and evil and SICK SICK SICK, and my correspondent will DIE from exposure to this horrible bad bad thing and it will be all my fault and she will hunt me down DOA-style to gain vengeance for her impending tragic death that is, once again, totally my fault. Which - um. Check, you know, the title of the LJ, and the title of the post, and the pairings, and all the other nine million subtle clues that this is slash, and then go read something else if slash offends you so much that you lose your ability to put together a coherent sentence.