ingrid

Certain folks in the SPN fandom want to make a "review board" rec community, one that will list only fics that have passed the criteria of a select panel of readers.

This goes over as expected.

I've been through the wankstorms of endeavors like this since mailing lists first began. Good intentions, blood-red brick road to hell, yadda, yadda and every time I think about writers getting their fics recc'd in these elite communities (or desperately trying to) I'm reminded of that quote from the Marquise de Merteuil about seducing a married woman:

"It's commonplace if you succeed, humiliating if you don't."

(Not to mention how many times I've been recc'd "classic must-reads" that were giant balls of flaming dog poop. I know I'm not alone in that one.)

See, the problem with finding (and creating) the perfect rec community is that the responsibility of discovery is on the reader, not the reccer. There is no one reccer that will be a good fit for every reader -- in fact, I'd doubt if any one community would find a consensus of what's good fic with 25%-40% of readers during any given time period. Tastes fluctuate wildly, from reader to reader, day to day and one gal's poison is another's Turkish Delight, even if the fic is, technically, well-done.

It's up to the reader to find the reccers that have similar tastes and preferences and stick to them like glue, not the reccer to find something they think is the greatest thing since Ulysses and expect everyone, or even a slight majority, to squeal in agreement.

This is why the Crack Van communities are such a good idea because along with the fics, they highlight various reccers, among whom the reader might find a kindred soul --albeit with a stomach of iron and damaged eyes that have suffered far too many indignities while sifting through the garbage for your benefit.

Anyone can make a list of fic. It's a rare reccer who'll make lists of fics I'll enjoy more often than not. And it's a misguided person that will tell me up front what I will be sure to love just because they say so, unless it's been pre-determined we have roughly the same idea about what constitutes a great read.