How Not to Become a Well Loved BNF, lesson #1
I'm sure a few of you are aware of an anime called Full Metal Alchemist. It's a trifling little drama about alchemy, and had gathered a small little fandom of its own, despite being so, well, microscopic.

A little while back, scimitarsmile opened up an archive for Full Metal Alchemist fanfiction. Probably to her surprise, interest was unusually high, and she found herself hosting many stories (some by notably excellent writers). Even above the pit of voles Fanfiction.net, this site gained notoriety as THE place to archive FMA fiction.

How does something like this happen? How does one humble webmistress become exalted above all the rest? Part of it is skill, of course: the site has a clean look and is easy to navigate. But the rest is clearly serendipity; there was a vortex of bad fanfiction out there, and clearly this miniscule, chibi, hardly-to-be-accounted for shrimpy fandom needed a decent outlet.

Well, scimitarsmile gave us one. And in return for this, what does she acquire? A Giant Fucking Prima Donna Complex, aka, her "Story Archiving Policies." At issue is the following bullet point:

1. The primary requirement is that all completed FmA stories by any hosted author are archived here. It's an all-or-nothing agreement.*

EDIT: As has been pointed out, I can and do make exceptions. They're rare, and entirely at my discretion.

...

As is often the case, the best wank can be found in the replies, as incredulous hangers on boggle over how any writer could possible find exception to a policy that wrests online publishing control of fics from an author, although scimitarsmile's wounded ego is amusing to witness as well.


6.11.04 EDIT: scimitarsmile has locked the thread. Yes, THAT scimitarsmile, the one who said "I'd lock this thread but I have such a strong streak against censorship." Um, psyche?