Brad:
> I might have heard this, but the person who explained everything (Ken
> Arromdee, IIRC) is no longer on the list to cross-examine.  I vaguely
> remember hearing that most of the ridicule (wherever the source) came from
> the fact that "Hitomi" herself was a completely fabricated character, down
> to where she lived, what she'd done with her life, what she knew-- most of
> what got her respect in the first place.

    Sounds like what I heard too.  Wasn't there something about how Hitomi
wasn't even Japanese?

> >I had not realized that there was also a "fan-fic" ML as well...  The
person
> >who told me all about Hitomi-San (who will not be named here) is someone
who
> >is quite respected in Ranma Fandom.  If I said the name, you would know
them
> >immediately.
> Depends on how big they are.  I stopped reading fanfiction about a year
ago.

    The fanfic community is pretty detached from this one.  I think Chris
didn't like Water Under Earth because it's not canonical.  If the two
communities are supposed to be related, well, I don't think that fanfic
would've gotten very far.  Those I know on a first name basis here certainly
don't reflect the likes of the fanfic world.

    Assuming FFML hasn't changed too much, it's just not a very good system.
There's too much fanfic to read, most of the stuff gets ignored.  Unless
you're already well known or you happen to write something everyone likes,
it's not a good way to get meaningful feedback.

    There's also the problem that the good critiquers don't like to read bad
fanfic.  I used to critique a lot but I find myself basically end up saying
"Your fanfic has no resemblance to Ranma 1/2 aside from having characters
called such.  If that's your intention, fine, but otherwise you should go
back and check your manga."  One thing I noticed is that a lot of people
want their fanfic to be canonical (which is why they're written in the first
place, I'd imagine), but they really don't know enough about the series to
make it right.

    If you're not lucky to have a couple of good friends to critque, then
you're basically out of luck.  I'd say 90% of the meaningful feedback I've
received comes from Lyn, and no, there are a bit more than one person that
reads my stories.  :)

    I'm not sure if it's true about others, but another problem for me is
that sometimes you need more than just grammatical critiques and stuff.
Sometimes you need people who understand what you're trying to get at so
they can offer new suggestions, and it's hard to find someone who shares the
same kind of thoughts as you to do that.  I was stuck on Wings of Wind for
the longest time until Andrew came back from his long hiatus from The
OtherWorld Shrine because he's one of the few people that loves Chrono
Trigger & Cross as much as I do and still sophisticated enough to understand
the underlying symbolisms.  I've been writing a new Chrono Cross fanfic,
called the Children Of Lavos, and I think there might be like 5 persons in
the entire fanfic community that will understand who the Children of Lavos
symbolizes (anyone care to guess?  ^_^).

> But the FFML may or may not be an offshoot of this ML, considering how
many
> fanfic writers called it home in its dim past.  The Archives list John
> Biles, James Stone and Hitomi on back in '95 (not to mention other big
> names like Toshifumi Yoshida, Dov Sherman, Kevin Lew, Thomas Cardwell,
etc...)

    It's not.  The fanfic authors never commanded any real power in this ML
at least ever since I was on (96?  When did Ranma manga end again?).  The ML
has always been dominated by knowledge of the series in the past, though
recently it's sort of a free for all since there's not much left to discuss,
so knowledge of the series isn't as relevant anymore.  I think Richard
Lawson was on the ML at some point too?

Don