scrape_r_rational/data/cache2/6gd7n0.md

[META] Evaluation of Serial Fiction

• Author: u/Soren_Tycho Clothing-optional Spacetime*

• URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/6gd7n0/meta_evaluation_of_serial_fiction/

• Score: 2

• Created: 2017-06-10T03:32:22

Post:

That is, how do we as a community we handle long-form fiction where the work as a whole might qualify for [RT] or [RST] while individual chapters don't - assuming said chapters are intelligible as separate works of fiction at all. When these conditions aren't met, does posting an announcement for each chapter here make sense? I can see arguments pro and con.

Pro:

• many works update in an unreliable manner and it's nice to have an aggregation thereof here
• a given chapter might not even qualify for [RT] taken alone but in the context of the work as a whole be [RST] or at least worth discussing in that context
• the post makes a nice nexus for discussion in a forum where community members can use a platform on which they already have accounts, karma, etc
• it gives a nice up-to-date view of what's current in the thought of the community overall at a glance (e.g. right now we're all reading MoL, NTBS, and Promised Neverland, so they're likely to constitute necessary context in any given conversation)

Con:

• it increases noise in the subreddit while not necessarily being different, structurally speaking, from just reposting the table of contents each time the work updates
• potential dilution of the definitions of [RT] and [RST] in the minds of especially new community members
• increased mod workload leading to reduced moderation quality or quantity per post overall

Potential bias disclosure: I have a horse in this race because of this comment.

Comments:

u/GaBeRockKing [+18] Horizon Breach: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6785857 (59 minutes later)

[PERSONAL OPINION WARNING]

Individual chapters should be posted when:

• The work is just starting, and both the story and the sub could benefit from increased readership
• The work is very popular and likely to engender discussion (ex. mother of learning)
• The chapter's contents are very in-line with this sub, even compared to the baseline level of rationality of the story.

Aside from that, chapters should be posted on new arcs, when a story ends, and when a sequel begins.

u/Prezombie [+3] (2 days later)

Adding to this, I think frequency of posts, and a lack of native discussion fora should also be a factor. If the story's host has easy native support for discussing the work with other readers, or there's updates more than once a week, posts here can be more limited to significant events.

If updates are less common, and the hosting site has no comment section (or a horribly designed one like Fictionpress), this sub can reasonably support the regular post.

u/tonytwostep [+1] (2 days later)

I fully agree with this assessment.

Particularly with the OP's linked comment, as the mod pointed out, even if the work it's taken from is rational fiction, the chapter was not at all in line with the purpose of the sub, nor did it lend itself to any sort of in-depth discussion. At a base level, the post serves little purpose, and gives new community members a skewed idea of both the story in question and the sub in general.

u/hoja_nasredin [+2] Dai-Gurren Brigade (6 hours later)

I'm a bit out of loop and need to be spoonfed. NTBS stands for?

u/gbear605 [+4] history’s greatest story (12 hours later)

A Naruto fanfic, The Need To Become Stronger. That's the first time I've seen someone use an acronym for it though.

u/OutOfNiceUsernames [+2] fear of last pages (18 hours later)

I think if it’s a rat!story, there’s no problem with creating a thread for each new chapter. If the subscibiers don’t like it for whatever reason, they can just downvote it and move on.

If the story starts as a rat! but then fails to uphold the standards for whatever reason (e.g. OoC zombie decisions, idiot balls, unrealistic psychology, bad writing tropes, etc), then the readers can discuss that and maybe decide that for that story further updates should not be posted on this sub any more. Exclusion to this — if the writer gets in touch and hints that the critisized elements are intended and their purpose will be revealed later in the story (e.g. a character’s being mind-controlled, has been converted into a manchurian agent off-screen, etc).

One problem I personally have with chapter-by-chapter discussions is that I can’t demonstrate my support by participating in the chapter discussions because lately I’ve started waiting for the work to get finished first, before starting to read it. The only exception to this being MoL because of its frequent and consistent updates.

Also, a shout-out to /r/noveltranslations/ — there are some web originals that are overall good ones even if they fail to match the criteria for this sub. Updates on some of such stories I’ve seen posted on the mentioned sub (even if they’re not translations).

u/ketura [+4] Organizer (25 minutes later)

I'm not sure there's any value in differentiating works which are fractally rational at all levels and those works which are rational as a complete whole. Even if the world runs on relativity, if you don't scrutinize it too closely it can look Newtonian. Actions can similarly be rational at some higher level of information and not others; this does not make the territory irrational, merely your evolving map.

u/DCarrier [+1] (4 hours later)

Could we have two subreddits, one for individual updates and another just for entire works?

Honestly, I don't think we should even have posts for chapters. It's not hard to set up an RSS feed or email for when stuff updates. It just adds noise and gives longer works with shorter chapters disproportionate publicity.

u/Bowbreaker [+18] Solitary Locust (7 hours later)

What's this fear of 'noise' based on anyway? As is, there are posts on the front page that are a week old, meaning that currently posts are sorted more by chronology than by popularity. As long as we don't need to go to the second page to find 3 day old posts I say the more content the better, as long as it is in some way relevant.

Honestly, why not let upvotes/downvotes take care of what we do or don't want to see here. It's not as if we're even remotely popular enough to have to worry about meme flood or anything like that.

u/DCarrier [+3] (13 hours later)

The fear is that I'll be ignoring all the /r/rational stuff in my feed because it's mostly chapter updates which don't give enough detail for me to decide to read.

u/callmebrotherg [+1] now posting as /u/callmesalticidae (15 hours later)

Check /r/rational once a week or (like me) set up an RSS feed specifically for /r/rational.

u/MagicWeasel [+9] Cheela Astronaut (6 hours later)

I like being able to discuss each chapter of Animorphs: The Reckoning, for example, so I think chapter threads have their place, personally.

u/DCarrier [+1] (13 hours later)

Oh. Right. We do need that. Different subreddit then? I like to be able to discuss a lot of them, but there's no need to have them in my feed. Is there any way to filter what's in your feed by flair?

u/None [+1] (a day later)

[removed]

u/DCarrier [+1] (a day later)

But then I have to specifically search for it. I want it to just appear in my feed. I can't subscribe to a search, can I?

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