I hear of people in fandom tell me that it is “impolite” to discuss stories when the author isn’t present, because then she won’t benefit from the discussion or be able to ask that the discussion not happen. This concept makes me crazy and has now seeped into other areas of fan creativity. In the early days of vidding, vidders *wanted* their vids shared among the fen. They wanted their vids seen. The most reliable way to get vids was from other fans, not from the vidders, who would have rather spent their time making new vids than cranking out copies of the old ones. Now, there are a few vidders who not only don’t want their vids shown in any venue in which they are not present – again, it’s that whole thing about the criticism being for the benefit of the creator – they don’t want them distributed unless they are doing it. As a result, there are fewer and fewer con tapes and people aren’t *seeing* vids because of the vidders need to control feedback and reaction for their own benefit. Doesn’t this make these vidders the same as the Hollywood moguls they complain about who control their own creations (the things which fuel our fandoms and which we use to create our own fictions and our vids) with an iron fist. Same with the writers that I’ve heard about in other fandoms who say, “here is my story, but you CANNOT talk about it.” Excuse me?

“The Art of Fanfic Critique: who and what it is for” an essay by Flamingo written in 2001