R.I.P., GAFF

[crowdog66]

I've stuck with the Godawful Fan Fiction forums

http://www.godawful.net/gaff_forums/index.php

since they were resurrected (again) a few months ago, but today I'm throwing in the towel. It used to be a place where intelligent and witty people gathered; now it seems to be populated mostly by trolls and assholes. The Gabbery in particular is full of manure, and the quality of the snark has gone into the toilet as well. I'm tired of wading through the bullshit to find the posts, and the people, that I value.

I was slapped in the face by one particular troll/asshole about a month ago, and the bad temper it's put me into hasn't abated. I'm taking that as a sign. So fare ye well, GAFF -- it's not likely you'll be seeing my face anymore.

Comments

[eastpath.livejournal.com]

You could always try to rescue the people you liked from there and make an LJ community for them to join (members only) and have the fun in a better space for you thereby avoiding the trolls and asshats :)

[crowdog66.livejournal.com]

Meh. A lot of them are LJ Friends already.

Good suggestion, though.

[matrixrefugee.livejournal.com]

It's been a while since I've stabbed any badfics, but I'm more inclined to do it in the context of my own LJ, since some of the PRESHUS people over on fanficrants have torn into me on account of some of my rants.

Hm... I don't doubt that if I stirred the waters on ff.n, I could find something really nasty to tear into... The last one I found was a "Stardust" fanfiction that was glaringly short on stardust, and then there was the "Hellsing" mpreg that wasn't really that bad, but it was still a bit "bzuh?!"-inducing.

[eye-of-a-cat.livejournal.com]

Yeah... I never went back when the forums were resurrected. The snark stopped being snark (and stopped being funny, too) a while ago; it seems like somewhere in the middle of a massive crowd of people yelling "Mary Sue! OMG [canon character] would NEVER do that! KILL IT!" like being able to tear some fourteen-year-old into self-righteous shreds gives you an elevated status in fandom, everyone forgot the joke.

[elaryn.livejournal.com]

I lurked for a while, didn't like what I saw and left. Please try not to feel too badly. You at least gave it a whirl.

[dinpik.livejournal.com]

I still poke my head it every few days, but it's to laugh at the GAFFers rather than with them.

[flamingchords.livejournal.com]

That's the biggest reason I go there any more...

That post where Knorg revealed himself to be Largo Pants? Brilliant. And sad, in a way. I looked at a forum filled with lots of members, and a few trolls, and said "fuck it, I'm siding with the trolls."

(Uses his C minor chord icon, because it's the saddest one he has.)

[dinpik.livejournal.com]

Knorg was Largo Pants? He must have been really bored.

The kicker for me was the posting of Knorg's friend's story. It wasn't Stunning Litrachoor*, but it was spell-checked, had complete sentences that were understandable, and the sex was there for a reason. I liked it.


*(Let's leave that to the acafen who think slash is subversive and transformative.)

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

I was out of there even before the resurrection, because it was so hard to find something entertaining. These days, I only go in after I've poked Charles at a bad Transformers fic and I know he's sporked it. But even that's lost it's appeal to me.

Sad to say, but Fandom_Wank and various offshoot communities are a lot more generally entertaining to me now than reading badfic is. (Unless it's really badfic. One can't deny the entertainment value of an epic saga involving vampire!Starscream conquering the universe but being constantly attacked by vampire!Skywarp (or vampire!Jetfire, depending on the author's mood) and forced to upgrade himself so he can stay on top.)

[matrixrefugee.livejournal.com]

Icon directed at the idiots who sucked the life out of GAFF...

I haven't been on there in a while, but I was getting sick of the way the IQ level had dropped on Gabbery -- do NOT get me started on that idjit SPIGOT THE BEAR, so I'm with you on bidding farewell to GAFF. Lately, I've been getting my dose of crazy from bad_rpers_suck

[lunarkitten.livejournal.com]

I haven't been on GAFF in a while. I stuck around for a while after it was revived, but I just haven't felt like going for a while. I don't read much fanfic anymore, and the ones they've been posting are for things I'm not interested in anyway. *shrug*

[karmyn75.livejournal.com]

I check every few days or so, but hardly read much there. New Releases is full of fandoms I don't recognize and most of the other forums are more of the same or lame trolls. Too many trolls, too much harley being an attention whore who can't get a clue, and people calling the troll and harley on their shit. Where's teh funny snark?

[princessmusey.livejournal.com]

I generally don't venture into GAFF that much. I check some of the thread titles but there isn't usually much that interests me. Or I see it was started by a troll and give it a wide berth.

Part of me wants to do the asshole-y "look what you've turned GAFF into" post, but I know it's not worth my energy and nothing will change it.