Poll: fic reading habits

[schneefink]

A poll about fic reading habits, because I'm curious.

(I'm posting a survey without testing it first, I keep flashing back to the semester-long seminar Don't Do That as well as the myriad real life examples of why this is bad. Fortunately this is not scientific.)

Poll #18459 Fic reading preferences

This poll is closed.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 58

View Respondents

Do you read fanfic?

View Answers

Yes, often
33 (56.9%)

Yes, sometimes
8 (13.8%)

Yes, with varying frequency
14 (24.1%)

Yes, rarely
2 (3.4%)

No
1 (1.7%)

Other or more details:

View Answers

What kind of fics do you like to read?

View Answers

Only finished stories or series
3 (5.3%)

Only finished stories, but ongoing series
16 (28.1%)

Finished stories, and WIPs only if there's a regular update schedule
9 (15.8%)

Finished stories, and WIPs only if I trust the author to finish the story eventually
9 (15.8%)

Finished stories and WIPs, preferably finished stories
19 (33.3%)

Finished stories and WIPs, preferably WIPs
0 (0.0%)

Finished stories and WIPs, no preference
1 (1.8%)

Only WIPs
0 (0.0%)

Other or more detail:

View Answers

I read fic for...

View Answers

fandoms I know
57 (100.0%)

fandoms I've heard of or know vaguely
35 (61.4%)

fandoms I don't know
17 (29.8%)

Other or more details:

View Answers

When looking for new fic, I...

View Answers

look at new works for my fandoms on AO3
40 (70.2%)

look at new works for my fandoms in other places, e.g. Tumblr or ff.net
6 (10.5%)

browse tags on AO3
37 (64.9%)

browse bookmarking services, e.g. pinboard
12 (21.1%)

follow recs
48 (84.2%)

go through my backlog of "to read" bookmarks
20 (35.1%)

Other, please elaborate
8 (14.0%)

Other or more details:

View Answers

Comments

[dancing_serpent]

I don't go looking at Tumblr, but ff.net is a site I'm still frequenting. Especially, as I'm often interested in small fandoms or rarepairs. For whatever reason, if I can't find anything on AO3, ff.net most often has something for me. No guarantee for quality, but at least something to give a try.

[schneefink]

I read fic on ff.net, but only things that got recced. I'm not sure if it's the site or if it's me, probably a combination, but I'm terrible at browsing to find good stuff there.

[dancing_serpent]

I definitely get more misses than hits on ff.net. But really, the same goes for AO3. I'm resigned to try and error by now, but it can be pretty frustrating. When I'm in need of a good fic and have no time or patience for searching, I mostly re-read my favourites.

[schneefink]

My hit-to-miss ratio is better on AO3, and I'm pretty sure the tag system is a large part of that, and that I don't know ff.net well enough to know the best way to search. I also have many fics bookmarked as to read on AO3, very convenient when I want something new.

[dancing_serpent]

Yeah, my ratio is better on AO3, too, but not that much better. People tagging for side pairings in the main pairing section messes a lot with my search, and after a while my search strings become really long and impractical with all the stuff I want to exclude. Sometimes I just give in and resolve to endless scrolling.

On ff.net I'm scrolling even more, though. Mostly because so many people refuse to mark their OCs as such, so I can't filter them out in my search.

I have currently only six fics bookmarked for later reading on AO3, and none of them is for the fandom I want to read right now. *g*

[schneefink]

I currently have 280 fics marked for later on AO3 ^^ Half of them I saved for later because I just wasn't in the mood, half of them because they were too long to read immediately.

[dancing_serpent]

Oh, that's a nice number! *g* I often find so little to read that I'm even resorting to giving the bad fic a try. Which isn't exactly satisfying, but sometimes I'm desperate. Right now, for example. I'm watching NCIS: LA, and really want to read fic for the show.

[the_rck]

On FFnet, I pretty much exclusively chain from one story I liked to the author's list of favorites. I have occasionally poked at themed lists there, but those tend to be 90% terrible with the other 10% permanently incomplete.

Unless a fandom has very few fics, I don't tend to look at the fandom category on either FFnet or AO3.

[schneefink]

When finding a new author whose works I enjoy, the second best thing (after that author having written many other good stories) is that author having many bookmarks :)

[jesse_the_k]

+1.

My rabbit hole starts with a rec to a good story. Then I read everything else that author has written. Then *their* bookmarks on AO3, and if their psued permits, their rec lists. I'm still down there with Sherlock BBC.

[schneefink]

This is also how I find many recs for stories in fandoms I don't know: if they're by authors I like or bookmarked/recced by them I'm likely to try them. And there's a bonus chance to win the lottery: every once in a while that led to me checking out a canon and sometimes I fell in love with it :)

[beatrice_otter]

Same here!

[devon]

Ah, when reading other people's responses, I was reminded of a good way to find fic at AO3. I go to an author I like and try to read their fandoms that I don't know very well. If it doesn't work, well, I just stop. But I haven't tried looking at their BOOKMARKS of stories that they really like enough to save, so I'm going to try that. Also, I have more authors I like whose "other" works I haven't read, yet.

[schneefink]

I don't really use bookmarks on AO3 myself, but I like it when other people use them so I can find cool stories :) Maybe I should start using them as a rec list equivalent.

As for places to find SGA recs, when I first came into SGA fandom I was lucky and found many long rec lists, on LJ but also on people's own websites. I think several might have been taken down by now, but if you want I can check if I still have a few links.

[beatrice_otter]

Every fic on AO3 that I like well enough to save I bookmark on pinboard and on AO3. And when looking for new fic, I regularly go to favorite authors and search through their bookmarks. I've found a lot of great fic that way!

[schneefink]

Some people whose fic I like a lot have bookmarked a lot of fics that I don't like at all, which is always surprising, but usually the chances of finding more good stuff are pretty good :)

[sholio]

The question about reading fic in fandoms you don't know was a hard one to answer for me, because I do, but not very often, and usually only if it's written by a writer whose work I love or recced in a way that makes it sound interesting enough that I'm willing to try reading it as original fic. So it's not something I do regularly enough to feel like I should tick those boxes on the poll, but it is something I do.

On Tumblr I usually find new fic via the character or pairing tags. I still read fic on ffn, but generally only via recs anymore -- it's not a fic-quality thing (AO3 has a similar dreck-to-quality ratio anymore, in my experience) but because I prefer the AO3 search interface and find it easier to find good fic that way. AO3 has been my first stop for years when I get into a new fandom or need new fic to read. Tumblr is increasingly coming up behind it as a second choice, but since there's no easy way to search for fic specifically, it's a hit-or-miss kind of thing and really depends on how people in the fandom typically tag stuff.

[schneefink]

It's interesting to me that people say that they read fic in fandoms they don't know as original fic, because that's not quite how it works for me, or at least not always. When I read fic in fandoms unfamiliar to me I'm usually aware of the fact that there are nuances, character backgrounds, worldbuilding details, references etc. that I'm missing, and depending on how much the fic depends on these details and/or how obviously, the story works for me or not. When reading original fic I know that there (usually) isn't more there than what I'm reading, so I approach open questions and background details differently.

To me it seems like it would be even harder to find fic on Tumblr than on ff.net, but it probably depends on how one uses it, and on fandoms' tagging conventions etc.

[weird_one]

It's cool to see how many people use an author's bookmarks to find new. It's reassuring to me that I'm not the only person who does this!

[schneefink]

Definitely not the only one! I should have added that option.