Meta on Reccing: A Rather Haphazard and Certainly Incomplete List

[kiki_eng]

In 2012, for reasons that don't bear exploring at this juncture, I decided to make a list of all of the meta on reccing that I could find. I went through metafandom and I started going through metafandom and I ran out of steam. Every once in a while I'd pick it up again, and I'd, say, go pull more meta data for the links I'd pulled from metafandom. Sometimes I found that those links and entries that I read had since become locked or deleted; I chose to keep those links because I'd read the content there and I knew that I cared about it and maybe, someday, the entry would be accessible again, or, anyway, surely the data I did have meant something; I couldn't make myself delete anything, so there are some dead links in here.

It's also - when I write "haphazard" and "incomplete": yes, that is accurate. This list is reflective of when and how I have engaged with fandom and how able I am to navigate that space. There was a period when I was researching this where I gave up on tumblr. There's time periods I don't have a lot of meta for, not necessarily because it wasn't being written, but because I wasn't engaged or as engaged with fandom then and I didn't find links for it that someone kept. There are probably some authors on this list that would happily unlock their entry or entries; I didn't ask them to do that. There are also all kinds of fannish spaces that I don't inhabit and whose content is not on this list because of that.

There's no methodology here. The only directional notes I kept for myself on this thing were a vague to-do list. I forgot what I was doing between extended bouts of not doing it.

This entry owes a lot to metafandom / metafandom (a lot) and also to isiscolo and musesfool, who both had really useful lj memories.

n.d. (2)
(title not retrieved) by Clare Chew (No Date)
(unavailable)

Espresso Recommendations by Espresso Addict (No Date)
My rationale in selecting stories for this recommendations archive is to showcase some of the very best fanfiction in those fandoms that I read. I strive to select works that are particularly innovative or stylish: present or future fandom classics. Clearly, these are just personal opinions, but I hope you will share them! I particularly enjoy plausible alternate universes & crossovers, well-crafted original & minor characters, casefiles, future fics and pastiche, so these sub-genres are probably over-represented here.
(reccer describes their recs/reccing)

1998 (1)
Twenty-Seven Grilled Bards And One Reviewer: Rare, Medium And Supertoasty by Whoosh! online edition, Issue 25: October 1998, interview with Lunacy (1998, July 18)
I became involved in the Xenaverse around August 1996. During those first months I was primarily active on the NetForum and it was there that I began reading my first fanfic. After a while I started exploring the Web sites and discovering some incredible stories there that I suspected many of the NetForum regulars weren't aware of so I started posting messages telling them about those tales. Those messages were the early beginnings of the fanfic reports.

2001 (1)
I Know All The Best People: pet peeves about recommendations pages by Destina Fortunato (2001, June)
What are my issues with recommendations pages? Ah, this is a lovely collection of hypocritical and self-indulgent irritations. It sometimes depends on the time of day or the cycle of the moon, in fact, as to whether or not these things bother me enormously, or not at all. But by and large, these are the things that make me write mental hate mail. Have I done some of these things? Yep. Do the people whose recs pages I adore do them? Most likely. The beauty of this list is, we all fall victim to these frailties, sometimes by choice. Recognizing these things, particularly if we do them unconsciously, helps remove their power to inadvertently overtake your recs page.

2002 (3)
You Say Potato, I say Potahto, or Why I Hate Recommendations by Emily Brunson (2002, March 1)
I hate recommendations. And it's not for any reasons other than selfish ones. If I don't make a recommendation site, I will obsess over it for WEEKS. And underneath all the wondering about why I didn't make it when compared to X author or Y author, there is one pure feeling: "Why didn't they like me?"
(on rec lists from a writer's perspective)

Rec and (tiny) Rant by wolfling (2002, August 12)
I've noticed a trend when slash stories get recc'ed on mixed lists that it's done in an apologetic manner. "This story is slash/insert slash pairing here but it's *good*!"

(no title) by stakebait (2002, August 12)
So I don't think that saying "this story worked for me, and usually this pairing doesn't" necessarily implies that the recommender believes the rest of us are doing bad work. But even if it were true, aren't we allowed to have an opinion that isn't completely complimentary, once in a while?

2003 (13)
hallelujah jordan by cofax (2003, February 4)
I had a thing happen a while back where I put up a recommendation for a story that was mostly positive, but had some critical comments about pov, which is one of my pet peeves. The writer came across the recommendation some time later, and sent me a note contesting my criticism.

that I can hardly speak by cofax (2003, February 7)
I don't know if I'll change the way I do things here. Probably not -- I'm a creature of habit. But I'll try to keep the more pointed criticisms off the recs page, and let people know when they're being recced. That's just good manners, and I've been bad about that.

Poll! by thete1 (2003, March 24)
Basically, I'm wondering about the kinds of things you rec, and how much thought you put into it. If you catch yourself reccing the same people again and again, does it bother you? Do you make a conscious effort *not* to rec the same people? Are you an 'anything goes' type?

the big blue reccing crew by musesfool (2003, March 25)
(locked or deleted)

recommendation pages by hesychasm (2003, April 23)
Although, hmm, it strikes me that's a weird way of speaking, since it seems to imply I think the rec'ing business is like investing in stocks or running a newspaper, where you want to scoop everyone else. Which I don't, really, nine times out of ten. Even though admittedly, a lot of the pleasure of recommending comes from the notion that I'm pointing people to fics they might otherwise not find -- i.e., that haven't been rec'd elsewhere.

Recs Philosophy Redux by musesfool (2003, April 24)
(locked or deleted)

Recs Yet Again - response to Jintian's comment by musesfool (2003, April 25)
(locked or deleted)

Rec Sites You Can Trust by Seema (2003, July 1)
(unavailable)

In literature as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others.* by musesfool (2003, August 9)
(locked or deleted)

there is no disputing taste by musesfool (2003, August 25)
(locked or deleted)

rambling about recs by isiscolo (2003, November 18)
A few new lj communities and Yahoo groups devoted to recs have shown up recently, and although I started out participating in several of these, I'm beginning to think these are not really useful, particularly when anybody can post to them with a recommendation. That's because the point of recs is not just, 'here's a story that somebody likes' -- it's, 'here's a story that this reviewer in particular, whose tastes are similar to mine, likes.'

There's Something About Recs... by kaiz (2003, November 19)
(locked)

What I read and rec and why...a general outline. by norah (2003, November 19)
(deleted)

2004 (3)
Reccing the Reccers - updated 3/19/07 by norah (2004, March 17)
(deleted, discusses what and how specific people rec)

on reccing and popularity by isiscolo (2004, September 11)
Second, I noticed a few people saying that it's a catch-22, that you have to already be popular to be recced. That if you're a nobody, nobody will read your fics, especially not reccers. So I took a look at my own recs.

on feedback and reccing. by ari_ (2004, September 20)
17. Can I think of some text to accompany the rec?
No: stop. Yes: post rec to ari_recs (or, more likely these days, put link and comments in "to be recced" file.
(how ari_ decides to rec a story or not and the steps along the way)

2005 (28)
one day is fine, the next is black (on recs, yet again) by musesfool (2005, January 4)
(locked or deleted)

diving into the rec by ranalore (2005, January 5)
See, I really have no interest in boosting anybody's fannish cred. I just want the stories I like to get read as widely as possible, in the hopes people will leave lots of feedback, which will encourage the author to write more stories I like. When I say my fannish existence is all about enlightened self-interest, I am totally not kidding, and I think that's true of a lot of fans.

Poll: New authors and rec habits by maeglinyedi (2005, January 26)
I had a most interesting discussion today, about why unknown authors don't get the recognition the more popular authors get, and why so few readers make an effort to find new authors, unless it's by a rec of an author they already know.
While part of the answer seems simple – most people don't have the time to browse around for new fanfiction all day – it was also suggested that perhaps certain people just don't like to read outside their box.

Reccing, advertising, and exposure by scribbulus_ink (2005, February 3)
I've seen a number of posts and comments lately about reccing and awards and writers who are unknown and/or underexposed and/or unappreciated. A couple of points that get brought up is that reccers tend to be circular -- i.e. Reccer A recs Story A; Reccer B reads Story A from the rec lists and recs it; Reccer C reads it from B's list... and so on -- and that rec lists are just repetitive and hurtful to those who aren't on them.
Okay. I can understand people's frustration and feelings of being left on the outside, but I'd like to offer some advice and some insight from a reccer's POV.

When she places them in front of you... by mandysbitch (2005, Febraury 5)
I sometimes think of BSO as a good starter's guide for someone jumping into a new fandom. Once you're in the fandom and you're looking for a more comprehensive guide to what's out there, I recommend a fandom specific recommendations site. There should be more of those.
But I think we do okay, you know? We have pretty broad taste. We all read slash and gen and het - and mpreg if we have to. And we don't all agree with each other which has to be a good thing, right? It means we're catering for a few tastes, not just one.

Recs by seemag (2005, February 5)
I tend to rec fics that take me by surprise, whether it's in their ideas, their execution or characterizations. I like fics that make good use of language, but in a clear and coherent way, and a big plus is if I can close my eyes and 'hear' the characters speaking. And there also has to be some sort of plot or character change/development -- something I can latch on to. I like PWPs and vignettes as much as the next person, but I need it to be one of those 'epiphany moment' stories -- either on my part or that of the character. My decision is made for me when I finish the story and instead of moving to the next page, I hit 'File -> Save'; if I'm giving up real estate on my hard drive for a fic, that's when it officially makes my rec list.

it's in the way that you use it by musesfool (2005, February 7)
(locked or deleted)

(no subject) by nestra (2005, February 18) - But -- does anyone out there have any questions about PolyRecs? Stuff like "If you and shrift don't rec each other, how come you sometimes do?" or "How do you pick the fandoms you read and don't read?" or, I don't know, "Why does it sometimes take you so long to rec the stories that everyone in fandom is going wild about?"

A bit of rec'ing meta: what exactly is a gen story? by raveninthewind (2005, March 25)
I am looser in my definition: I think a gen story can mention a pairing, het or slash, canon or non-canon, and still be considered gen, as long as the story isn't a romance. There has to be a plot that's not focused tightly on a pairing or on sex. Yeah, there's a continuum, and all I can say is, "I know gen when I see it." I go by my overall impression, and what I would say if I described the plot to someone I wanted to pimp it to.

*thoughtful* by colorfulshadows (2005, April 13)
Maybe I'm having a false memory or it's that whole fond blindness that you get when you look back at something long past. But, you know, I don't recall any of my previous fandoms being as obsessed with THIS IS THE BEST OF THE BEST or THESE ARE THE BEST AUTHORS IN [insert pairing here] as Harry Potter.

Fanfiction Canon (no the *other* one) by fabu (2005, April 14)
(deleted journal)

Poll: Fanfic Recs by fabu (2005, April 20)
(deleted journal)

Blithering about reccing process and perspective by norah (2005, April 23)
(locked or deleted)

Maven structures and the internets by norah (2005, May 6)
(locked or deleted)

Poll: When Good Isn't Good Enough by thefourthvine (2005, May 9)
How do you recommend something that's flawed? My policy has always been that if I have to put in a caveat of any kind, I won't be recommending it. (There's a practical reason for this. Actually, two. First, if I start mentioning weaknesses and strengths, it's the first step on the slippery slope to balanced perspectives, and impartiality, and thought-provoking essays, and...look, I didn't start this LJ to reprise my college English classes. I live two blocks from a college. If I wanted to write papers, I could go do it for post-graduate credit; here, I want to be idiosyncratic and personal and wildly biased. Second reason - fandom is wonderful. But it's also a bit bitey, if you see what I mean. A lot of authors view their stories as babies (boy, did I learn that one the hard way, when I was young and relatively pure), and they respond instinctively and violently to any criticism, no matter how constructive or carefully-phrased or accurate or surrounded by truthfully positive remarks. I don't need more flames, thanks.)

Rec the Reccers updated! (And a reccing poll). by norah (2005, May 12)
(locked or deleted)

The HP Slash City-State by aubrem (2005, June 4)
We have our commerce: fanfiction and fanart. We have our academics: the meta specialists. We have our public infrastructure: the archives, the rec lists, the assembled resources and the lj communities. We have our newspapers which, like newspapers in real life, shape the issues and choose the news.

More about public posts by fabu (2005, June 18)
(deleted journal)

In Which I Am Reflexive (on Recommendations, the Nature of Livejournal, and Various Other Things) by thelastgoodname (2005, July 8)
Some links are to people's personal journals, or to communities, and you can find someone's journal quite easily in this manner, but it's up to you; I'm not going to do it for you. Sometimes, I go out of my way to find the link that doesn't go to a journal but rather link to a page. This is important to me, it seems. This is perhaps a flattening impulse on my part, to not make livejournalers more important in the world of links than people who don't have journals. I want all writers to be equal(ish), at least in terms of links to that particular story.

feedback, recs, and maximizing your potential! by hesychasm (2005, July 13)
This is why recs save a writer's ass. If you're not a BNF yourself (and I suppose I define an LJ BNF as someone who has more than 300 people reading her) with what is essentially your own built-in fanbase, a story can hit the fast-moving currents of Livejournal and sink like a stone. It takes recs to give it a longer shelf life -- if you get rec'd by others, especially BNFs, the actual time you posted essentially doesn't matter.

fic-size wars by isiscolo (2005, August 7)
When reading a rec or seeing a fic link, do you prefer to have some guidance as to the length of the fic?

[Not at all connected to the whole furor over whatever the most recent furor is over.] by thelastgoodname (2005, August 23)
What is the opposite of a recommendation, and why don't we (that's the plural we, meaning all of a variety of people in a variety of fandoms) offer them?

recs, refs, and feedback: a month's case study of web statistics by isiscolo (2005, August 30)
In general, there is about a week of lots of hits from a new website rec, and then the ref traffic drops to 0-3/day. With most lj-based recs, hits drop to nothing as it scrolls off people's fpages; the exception is rec journals such as norah's which have quick links to all previous recs by fandom. [ETA: But many of these "recs" are on ljs with small foflists, and don't account for much traffic.]

a rant on shipping, and on being constrained when presenting information in fandom newsletters by bantha_fodder (2005, September 25)
So, anyway, after I took exception to this, I stopped writing and reccing Kara/Lee for a little while. I wrote two fics (one was a Zarek gen piece, and one was a Galactica gen piece), and every fic I recced on GD was a non-K/L piece.
And that's so stupid. I read some really great fic last week, and I felt like I couldn't rec it simply because I AM a rampant K/L shipper, and everyone knows it, and I wanted to prove that being a K/L shipper doesn't mean oppressing fandom or whatever.

The Vid Feedback Project: a Belated Summary by thefourthvine (2005, October 26)
But the thing is - whether you're a FF writer or not, you probably have all the tools at hand to discuss someone else's story. Or, god, I hope you do. But we don't write visual media critiques in seventh grade, and we don't memorize the vocabulary, and we also don't have a lot of experience with group discussions about visual media, so we can't learn by seeing others do it. (Wait. Why am I speaking for everyone? That should be me and I. Sorry.)
(there's stuff in the comments about reccing and vid culture and perceptions thereof)

(no subject) by norah, originator of a comment thread in minervacat's journal featuring the aforementioned as well as meganberrieh (2005, October 26)
TFV and myself provide different CONTENT than many people on LJ, so our tag systems are more likely to be accessed by people who are not us, and hence (possibly) viewed as more "useful"

(no subject) a comment by jenna_thorn on an entry by minervacat on tags (2005, October 26)
I rather like being able to pull a whole page of just craft entries or just work entries on my own journal, or just fiction or a specific universe rec set entries in someone else's (thefourthvine leaps to mind).

Encouraging others to read by elynross (2005, November 5)
What makes me a little crazy is people posting stories or recommendations that apparently don't really want me to be enticed into reading the story -- or they assume that I should want to read any story they write or recommend, regardless of the details. I say this, because fairly often I see people posting things that not only don't tell me the size of the story in question (a minor thing that won't keep me from checking out something that sounds interesting, if only to save for later), but don't give me enough information to tell me whether I'm interested, or not.
(on useful details in recs)

2006 (37)
meta-ish question about reccing by ratcreature (2006, January 19)
I mean, how does one say (diplomatically!) in a rec things like that the story was entertaining, had you totally hooked with the plot and you liked the elements X, Y, and Z about it, but you are aware that others might think the characters are OOC, the plot full of melodrama, the whole set-up like something out of a Lord King Bad challenge, however you did not like it in a train-wreck fashion or anything, but had honestly a good time reading it? And I don't want to sound insulting, and not like I'm apologizing for my preferences either...

Alright. Someone has to say this. Might as well be me. by stoney321 (2006, January 25)
Everything your friend writes isn't wonderful. Everything YOU write isn't wonderful (before the wank begins, please know that I'm including myself in that.) Just because you've written one thing that got "praise" or "acclaim" doesn't mean that EVERYTHING you produce after is as good. Or should be pimped. Or recced. Or listed in a newsletter. There are people, such as myself, that depend on newsletters like the Herald and Jedi_News, for example, to find the good fic. I don't want to read a story filled with spellin erars and bad punctuat-ion.; I count on the EDITORS - did you see that word? They are editors. Which means they have the right to not list junk - that's the JOB DESCRIPTION. I count on them to find the good stuff. People who whine and wage little passive-agressive wars to get their fic/whatever recced are missing the point - and undermining the editors' jobs.

A question about reccing. by emmagrant01 (2006, February 20)
Should people rec or link to flocked fic or art?

On Tags and Though Processes by thelastgoodname (2006, February 21)
It occurred to me, flipping through my tags and the tags of other people who recommend far and wide, that while I tag by vague genre or (not and) fandom, others tag by pairing and specific genre. This might have something to do with how we read.

Stuff about recs. by fabu (2006, March 28)
(deleted journal)

thinking about rec'ing by lurksnomore (2006, March 28)
And you know what? When I think about it, that's kind of sad. Because, on the whole, us fanfic readers are pretty forgiving and tolerant of a lack of perfection (back to the 'look at the canon, for goodness sake' statement). We are also very honest about faults, ours and those we seen in the fanfic we read. And I love to read fanfic. Even imperfect fanfic. I just wish that there was an acceptable way to say, 'I really liked this even though...' because I am happy to not expect perfection.

i'm in a confusing place by aubrem (2006, May 18) - that was before I got to know all the Snarry writers and realized that occasionally I wouldn't be reccing a friend's story. (How do other reccers deal with that?) I think I started that list at the last possible moment I could have because after that I just knew the snarry corner too well. It's incestuous, there isn't much objectivity, there are criss-crossing projects, infrastucture, betaing, story-idea bouncing, pointing, reccing.

Too many thoughts on reccing - including the reccing (or not) of stories written by friends by bethbethbeth (2006, May 20)
You see them being mentioned in your friends' posts, you're in the same challenges, you're writing stories for them in fic exchanges...you start to think you're already friends - and so you're more willing to give their fic a try when you see it. And you know what? It's probably pretty good stuff, at least from your perspective, because quite honestly - if your friends like their work? The odds are you're going to as well. This isn't because you're a slavish follower of your friends' whims, but because one of the reasons people become friends is because they share the same tastes. And then you friend those people so you won't miss their fic, and it turns out they also share your political beliefs or your fondness for dogs or your taste in music, and you're even more likely to read and rec their new stories when they show up.
Except...

Delicious Glue by nounverb (2006, June 10)
(locked)

the rec and not the story of the rec by isiscolo (2006, July 7)
Recs by consensus don't actually tell you anything other than that a bunch of people - people you don't know anything about - enjoyed that particular story. Does that mean that J. Random Reader is more likely to enjoy that story? Well, maybe. But J. Random Reader might be better served by discovering that K. Random Reccer's taste matches his own pretty well, and following her suggestions rather than the aggregate recs of everyone in the fandom who registers an opinion. That's particularly true for readers whose taste goes outside the mainstream.

On Reader Feedback, Reccing and Being Recced by topaz_eyes (2006, July 9)
Works may be recced, just not where you think. It's OK to feel left out, or hurt, or annoyed if no one seems to rec your work where you can see it and bask in the love.

OMG MY FEELINGS ARE HURT!!!11! by rexluscus (2006, July 15)
(deleted journal)

(untitled) by nestra (2006, July 17)
I'm starting here with the assumption that people like to be recced. If you have never hit Ctrl+F and searched for your name in a rec update, this post may not be for you, and let me congratulate you on your solid sense of self-worth.
At PolyRecs, we don't link to stories that can only be found using the Wayback Machine. This means if we can't find your story on a website or LJ somewhere, your link *dies*. It sits there with a notation of "broken link", and people who might otherwise have loved your story will never get to read it. Doesn't that make you sad? It makes me sad.

The Oulangi Thing-- by campfollower (2006, July 18)
Oulangi, in relative obscurity, reads every thing posted on a certain HP fic list and quietly posts reviews of every fic in her journal. Since she reviews every fic posted, some fic gets a good review, some does not. And some of the negative reviews are snarky. It wasn't widely known on the fic list that she was reviewing every fic, that there were negative reviews, that there was snark.
Well, it all came out, as it always does. And it's definitely a named storm. And typically many insane things are being said about it, because well, that's fandom. Tons and tons of crazy. The bottom line is and this is /always/ the bottom line, people who got negative reviews and particularly those who got snarked are up in arms. And people have taken up sides, as usual.

REC101 – An Introduction to Recology by beckerbell and aishuu (2006, July 24)
Course Overview:
This work-shop style course is designed to examine both technique and theory behind creating a fandom recommendation. Participants will discuss what a rec is, study different styles, learn to set-up a rec journal and/or web site, examine rec interaction and discuss issues that may arise during the rec process. The course primarily focuses on fanfiction recs, but will also cover other mediums, such as fanart, music vids and other topics of interest.

Describing a story by fides (2006, July 28)
The other place you will get desciptions of stories is in recomendations - most rec lists will give some information about the story, possibly including what they did and did not like about it, what elements are in the story etc etc
I don't think I have really heard of an author objecting to their story being recced or to what information the person recomending them gives (although if anyone knows of any incedents I would love to hear it - I can think of one possible and that was to do with cross-fandom terminology differences and obviously directly linking is an issue). But is this because the author normally exists in happy ignorance?

About recs by fabu (2006, July 29)
(deleted journal)

Meta time. Fandom marketing and fic reviews by painless_j (2006, August 3)
So you see recs as a way to increase readership, to attract attention to less known/overlooked fics or authors (as one function of recs, not the only one). And you see the not-that-glowing reviews as a way to dertract from it. How? I mean, we assume that a rec will add what wasn't there before, i.e. readers that didn't know of that fic. And "anti-rec" will do what? Detract readers that didn't know of it in the first place? Ah, I see. An "anti-rec" will prevent readers that potentially could read and like the fic from doing it.

Concrit, Feedback, Public Reviews… that stuff by kennahijja (2006, August 11)
It's still of value if a proper review is reposted on someone's LJ after it's been posted for the story – if it's constructive, it may even inspire more people to leave feedback. But from my subjective PoV as a writer, I find it pretty damn insulting if someone posts feedback for somebody's fic to their own LJ, but can't be arsed to give it to the *author*. That's where I feel the exercise starts to neglect the story itself in favour of the reviewer, and becomes a tool for self-promotion.

quick poll re opting out of story reviews by aubrem (2006, August 22)
If an author put "No public critical reviews or discussion please" in their story header would you respect his/her wishes?

The Vid Polls: The Big Honking Summary, Discussion, and Endless Blithering About Weasels by thefourthvine (2006, August 23)
And that is really all there is to it. You, my friends, have the freedom to rec vids. In particular, you have the freedom to rec the vids of the 93 vidders who gave blanket permission. In general, you have the freedom to link any public vid announcement that doesn't say that you can't; in other words, permission to link is implied by the act of publicly announcing a vid, unless or until permission is specifically withdrawn, as long as you are linking within the general fannish community.

Recommending Vids: The How, the What, the Why, and the Threats of Whining by thefourthvine (2006, August 23)
"But if I haven't seen a lot of vids, how do I know I'll always like it?"
Maybe you won't always like the vid you like right now. So what? If you like it, odds are good that most of your friends list will, too - after all, they generally share some of your interests or tastes or they wouldn't be your friends list. So tell them about it. Later, if you decide it sucks, you can look back all ironically and marvel at your naiveté. You can even wear a beret. It'll be bags of fun.

Self-reccing? byowlmoose (2006, September 19)
When people ask me to recommend fic, I'm always more than happy to do it. Unless the fic in question was written by me. From talking to others, I don't think I'm the only one. Getting good writers to self-promote can be like pulling teeth, it seems. I am so reluctant to tell anyone "Hey, I wrote this, and I think it's pretty good, and I think you might like it."

recs? by aubrem (2006, September 25)
People are starting to identify as "reccers." "So and so is a reccer. What's her name isn't a reccer." All this time I hadn't thought of the activity of reccing as a calling. I kind of figured most people did it - they read and if they run across something they like a lot, they post about it in order to point others to it. I sort of remember it being that way in years past. Do people no longer do this unless they've set themselves up specifically as "reccers?" Is this trend all in my mind?

My Fannish Evolution, Part One by thefourthvine (2006, October 8)
So. It's January 2004. I have just read Confidence Men and told Best Beloved about it. And I need to tell other people, but - who is left to tell? (Yes, I did tell Dorinda, but, um. At that point, I wasn't exactly ready for prime time in the area of actual fannish communication. I mean, some would say I'm still not there yet, but I definitely wasn't there then. Dorinda was incredibly kind and good-natured about the whole thing, although I've always wondered if she passed my email around to her friends with, like, "Warning: Total Whackjob" in the subject line. I would've deserved it.) The urge to share the fabulousness - convert people to it, even - built and built and built, and by March 2004, when I set up this LJ at the encouragement of some folks from the late lamented Fametracker Forums - well. I pretended I wasn't going to post. But I wasn't even fooling myself, not really.

A How To Guide: themed lists by painless_j (2006, October 9)
1. So there's a topic/theme/plot you like.
Consider this: have you seen many fics with this plot/theme? Is it a popular theme? I mean, are there many people who like to write and read about it or are there just a few? If it seems to you that it's not a popular plot, don't give up -- it just means that it's a bit harder to search for it. It's much worse if a plot/theme is too popular. Say, I don't think it's possible for one person to compile and maintain a list of fics featuring heterosexual marriage; there are just too many of them! So, use your logic and reader's experience. Think if you want to limit it to certain pairings or make it general. I am, for instance, a non-OTP kind of reader, so I don't limit my searches with one pairing. You might be quite different.

Discussion of Reccing Protocols by cupidsbow (2006, October 19)
So how do you approach reccing stories that provoke a mixed response? Do you avoid reccing those stories all together? Just link'n'quote? Something else? And what do you think about reccing with caveats, or criticism, or other forms of engaged response? (I'm not talking about personal attacks of authors here, which I abhor; I'm talking about that process of making the story your own.)

Ruminations on good manners by dkwilliams (2006, November 17)
Often, I see reviews of stories posted in personal journals, bits of clever sarcasm or slashing mockery, written for the amusement of our friends, not to be seen by the author of the work in question unless they accidentally find it or (more likely) are pointed to it by well-meaning friends. Being clever for our friends may be fun and satisfying, but is it worth it at the cost of someone else's feelings?

lies, damn lies, and website statistics (4) by isiscolo (2006, November 28)
I see the same patterns in my own statistics as well, with far more hits from website recs pages than from del.icio.us pages. I'm grateful to certain reccers who account for a large amount of my traffic! Turning it around, I notice that when I announce an update to my recs site, my traffic on it goes way, way up - hopefully, some of that translates into increased traffic for the stories I rec. And, interestingly, I have noted that for example earlier this month I got a bunch of hits on one of my SGA stories recently from Arduinna's rec site; she'd actually recced that story early this year, but she had updated with new recs (for other writers' stories), and her announcement must have attracted some new readers who either hadn't seen her rec for that story, or who had read it before and wanted a nostalgic re-read.

[Meta] Reading and reccing (or, just because I'm shameless, doesn't mean I'll share). by minim_calibre (2006, December 7)
It's not that I never rec things: heck, there's a recs post just downpage from this one. It's just that I don't do it *often*, and I don't do it with everything I've read and enjoyed, or even with most of what I've read and enjoyed. Most of what I adore, I just don't share with the class. But with most of what I adore, I don't think the class is really missing anything.

On my philosophy of recommendations by espresso_addict (2006, December 10)
I recommend only those stories that I felt were exceptional in one way or another, or highly memorable (in a good way). I never recommend anything without reading it at least twice (and for short pieces more) with an interval in between (often of several months), so my recs are deliberately considered reactions rather than knee-jerk responses. I have tended, in some fandoms at least, to try to avoid recommending stories that are already extremely well known & widely recommended, unless they struck a particular chord with me. That said, new people enter fandoms every day, and a multifandom recommendations site can form a useful introduction. Also, I suspect my site is longer term in its aims than some, so preserving this week's 'recced to death' when everyone's forgotten it seems a plausible reason for including some very widely read stories.

reccing 101 by isiscolo (2006, December 11)
This post is in response to recent discussions about reccing - why we do and why we don't. My primary goal is to encourage would-be reccers, but I hope this is also of use to people who are currently reccing.

To pair or not to pair by espresso_addict (2006, December 13)
In my recent post On my philosophy of recommendations, I mentioned that I don't tend to list pairings for my recommendations. This is partly based on my hatred of spoilers as a reader, partly on the feeling that a story whose entire content can readily be summed up in a pairing isn't generally one I care to recommend, and partly on the (perhaps idiosyncratic) idea that there might be other things to do in a fictional universe than shag

Semi-annual post about recs by fabu (2006, December 13)
(deleted journal)

i tried to give you consolation by musesfool (2006, December 13)
(locked or deleted)

On recs, both mine and seasonal by penknife (2006, December 14)
(locked)

Thoughts on my tastes based on my reccing habits by penknife (2006, December 28)
(locked)

2007 (5)
del.icio.us 101 by arduinna (2007, April 10)
Bringing del.icio.us recs to your webpage in a clean, nice-looking, automatically updated format: http://yuletidetreasure.org/yuletide_on_delicious.txt, created by astolat. This was originally meant to make tracking Yuletide recs easier, but it's flexible and can handle multiple terms, so you can use it for any tag you want.

Things I've Learned About Reviewing by hector_rashbaum (2007, April 22)
1. You don't have to write an essay
2. Knee-jerk reactions really make good reviews. Honest.
3. Beware of sounding condescending.
(list of 8 followed by explanations)

A reccer's disclaimer of sorts... by gossymer (2007, June 26)
I rec the stuff I like. It may be fabulously well crafted in terms of writing style or drawing abilities. Then again, it may not. Nevertheless, if I'm reccing it, then it struck a chord with me on a personal level.

recs, and on reccing, and DS Match, and, you know, yay by isiscolo (2007, November 8)
I mean, I also think that reccing new stories and new writers is equally important - maybe even more so, because these are the writers who are currently producing, and likely to write more, and if someone enjoys a story by a particular writer she is more likely to read her stories in the future. But frequently it seems that stories have a very short shelf-life - if you don't get feedback right away, that's pretty much it.

two fannish things I love by thelana (2007, December 8)
My ways of feeling like I'm contributing something to something I love are limited. When I did it, it made me feel useful. And reading those prompts actually made me think a lot, about what you can look for in a story and how a story can be interpreted. It gave me a reason to look over all those stories that I love and order them.

2008 (5)
FANDOM POLL: please pimp! by glockgal (2008, January 3)
You post a fanwork on LJ. If you HAD to choose, what do you value more: comments or recs?

[Poll] Searching bookmarks/recs/discussions/etc., hitcounts & indirect feedback vs. direct feedback. by transcendenza (2008, January 17)
This poll is brought to you by the combined curiosity of myself and murklins. I think we were talking about whether authors would ever come across our del.icio.us bookmarks of their fics and what they might think about them? Anyway, the questions sort of went in another direction, but basically we were wondering about the prevalence of self-searches (commonly called vanity searches, but I've decided not to since I find it a trigger-y word) and where they're being done. Some questions about the value you place on direct comments vs. indirect feedback via bookmarks/recs/discussions/etc. also worked their way in. ETA: I forgot to mention: this poll isn't just for writers--it's for anyone who makes public posts.

I need a life, part 495,746 by sholio (2008, February 23)
Hey, a question for everybody: When you rec stories, do you feel compelled to point out the flaws in your rec (making it more like a review, I suppose), or do you try to remain positive?
I find myself taking a different approach when I'm reccing things on my journal vs. at a public rec site [...]

Sit down, suck it up and STFU by telesilla (2008, July 21)
Reviews/recs are posted in the reviwer's space or a seperate space designated for recs/reviews and are done for the readers and because the reviewer likes doing them. They have nothing to do with the writer as a person; they're all about the reviewer's tastes and thoughts on yaoi. They're not aimed at improving a writer or a story, they're aimed at telling the potential audience for a story what the reviewer thought of it and why the reviewer thinks people should read or should not read it. I keep hammering on the word "reviewer" here because a review is one person's opinion, nothing more, nothing less.

Meta: Self-Reccing by flutterbev (2008, September 27)
(locked)

2009 (9)
How can I make a useful rec list? by fish_echo (2009, Febraury 22)
I have a good number of fics I'd like to rec (here's what I've recced so far) and I'd like to make my recs as useful to people as possible.
(presentation, themes, reccer notes/summary/review, listing details)

A Reccer's Rant by themostepotente (2009, March 17)
People get hate mail for a lot of reasons.
Me, I get it for reccing.
Okay, so maybe 'hate mail' is a bit strong. Shall we say 'reccing critiques?'

Rec lists: Metafandom essays and non-Fic stuff by thefrogg (2009, March 21)
I've been meaning to make rec lists for a long, long time. I actually sat down and started doing it yesterday, and this is what I have so far. First, a little explanation. Most people assume 'rec list' means 'best of what' out there'. While I do require some degree of quality, particularly readability, coherence, and technical proficiency (spelling, grammar, etc.), the meta essays I rec are going to meet at least one of these criteria:

but i just wanted a hamburger... by stultiloquentia (2009, April 4)
Screw the prose. Gimme emoporn. That's the fanfic that, for them, is doing its job right.
It's, incidentally, exactly the dilemma I'm running into as I play with my fanfic recs page, trying to add an "Id Vortex" shortlist, a.k.a. Lizard Brain, a.k.a. teh kink. Beyond two or three that manage to wallop me equally hard in the nerdbrain and the reptilian hindbrain, I am so confused about what to include.

If You Read My Recs (2009 Edition): by strina (2009, April 17)
I take requests. Reccing helps me track the stories I like and that's awesome, but that's not why I started. There are all these brilliant, AMAZING stories out there and the Internet is infinite; I want to help people find things they'll love, the stories that linger in your head, with phrases that you still remember, five years later. That's the point of fandom, for me.

Won't someone think of the reccers? by bethbethbeth (2009, April 24)
Many of us who maintain permanent recs pages (like my multi-fandom page: Recs Recs Recs) have notes on the page asking anybody who finds a broken link to email and let us know. It's not often that people actually do this, but occasionally I'll get a heads up from somebody, and that's fantastic, because trying to keep story links up to date is a never-ending task. This task is only made more difficult, of course, when companies that provide webspace or archive space are so cruel as to change their URL structure (*shakes fist at fanfiction.net*) or disappear entirely.

Writercon Panel: If You Build It They Will Come by yourlibrarian (2009, August 5)
Rec communities also make LJ a space that has some searchability, which it’s not set up for. People may start just by keeping lists of fic they like, but if those recs gain some traction there may be the development of a centralized and important rec community that can lead to exclusion. She doesn’t believe that anyone starts out intending to be an arbiter of taste in a fandom, but this may develop by simple force of numbers, and it can begin to create battle lines. The plus is that friction may cause additional rec groups to spring up and thus create more connections to more fic, but it can also lead to divisiveness. She also suggested that reccing is a great way to get started in a fandom and becoming a part of the community, contacting people and creating a way to have people interact in return.
Scarlettgirl mentioned that reccing communities are also great for people who don’t want to get into fandom, or who just want to find a bit of something different for a while. She suggested that the way stories are recced can also build excitement and interest. Kalichan agreed and added that it also allows people to be fannish about our own (fan) works instead of just the canon, and thus put the excitement back into the community.
(panel write up)

Poll... by accioslash (2009, October 12)
I was talking with several different people about recs and have noticed that there seems to be a change in the way people rec these days. So....a poll!

diigo vs delicious, and how to set up diigo by cupidsbow (2009, December 19)
Mostly, I began by wanting a back-up site for my recs on delicious; but having now compared the functionality of diigo and delicious, diigo is the clear winner in nearly all respects.

2010 (12)
That discussion about discussing fanwork by zvi (2010, January 5)
But even if the poster of a work says, "Please don't tell me your thoughts on my yaoi," it is totes legitimate for me to write up my thoughts on yaoi and then link to the poster's work. For no other reason than I want to share my thoughts with my circle, and get their thoughts in return.(more content in the comments)

i've run out of gods to burn by musesfool (2010, January 6)
I think part of the problem is semantic - at least, to me, constructive criticism ("concrit") is for the writer (or other writers reading and hoping to learn from the criticism). Critique and reviews (and recs) are for readers.

A matter of taste? by katekat1010 (2010, February 22)
NOT ARBITERS OF TASTE. Sorry. Considering that the Herald has ALWAYS had the power to scour other daily communities and link to those posts, and considering that if I had the time I would actually spend two hours making daily rec lists that would put theirs to SHAME, I just.....

Segregation and Miscommunication in our Fandom by angearia (2010, February 23)
So here's what I believe. The su_herald is being run by a select group of very devoted and generous fans, but there's only so much a handful of people can do. It is my understanding that the Herald's aim is to include all fandom works that reach a certain level of quality (e.g. a fic that manages a basic competency of grammar). I don't believe exclusions of fic or artwork are done with malicious intent, but more a natural skewing of interests caused by the natural segregation that occurs on LJ.

my thoughts about su_herald by ladyofthelog (2010, Febraury 23)
It seems to me that the current dissatisfaction with su_herald stems from the conflicting views about how su_herald should operate and what content it should be cover. There seems to be some frustration with the moderators on this point, but frankly? They are doing their jobs. They are providing, as stated in the su_herald FAQ, "a nice small quantity of good fics to post and for you all to read".

A Reccer's Credo by themostepotente (2010, February 24)
1.) Know courtesy. Reccers are not at your beck and call. We do have lives.
2.) Similarly, this is not our job. We do not get paid for doing this. We rec out of love for fandom, not out of obligation.
3.) No fic is ever too old, too small or too long to rec.
(list is comprised of 15 thoughts on reccing)

Reccing Survey -- Reflecting on Crack Van by cupidsbow (2010, February 28)
Anyway, I thought it was time to reflect on how I rec, and especially how I rec on the Van -- I don't want to go stale! And a good reflection is always best with feedback, dear readers, so please, tell me what you like in a reccer in general, and on [livejournal.com profile] crack_van in particular.
If you've never looked at the rules for the Van, they are here: Posting Guidelines. The short version is: a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 12 recs per month, plus a songvid and a crossover.
Here are some of the specific things I'm pondering, in my quest for the ideal rec set:

Topic: To Rec or Not to Rec (Disappeared Vids) by fs_10percent (2010, April 5)
What, do you think, are the pros and cons of reccing vids that aren't available on the net anymore, and whose makers may, in fact, have removed them on purpose because they didn't want to share them anymore? Is it more unfair to new fen to let them know about awesome things they missed, or to leave them in the dark about those things? Etc.

Reccing BNFs by anon (2010, November 14)
Do you think some BNFs get to a stage where they just don't need to be recced anymore? A point of fandom saturation. For example, there's a BNF writer I really really like, though she's not a favorite on meme, but I never bother to rec her because I figure everyone bumps into a rec for her sooner or later. Am I reccing wrong? Is her writing less awesome because everybody knows it or would reccing her be beating a dead horse?

Delicious, a rant with added raving by rageprufrock (2010, December 17)
(locked)

way more words than need to be said about this when someone else just summed it up as "don't panic!" by roga (2010, December 17)
I didn't use Delicious as a bookmarks folder; I used it as a search engine, which is why it worked. Which is why exporting my own bookmarks (that are, for the record, about 5 years not up to date) won't do me any good. I want to be able to search for "adam/kris kidfic" and be able to click on every single link and see what tags and notes 60 different users left on it. I want to be able to search for "patd bdsm" and (READ EVERYTHING lol but also) find the really filthy near-badfic buried in a comm from 2006 that no one would ever think to rec in a public post but they saved it because they think it's hot anyway.

more delicious thoughts of course by anatsuno (2010, December 17)
Clearly, the loss of delicious is (will be) a loss of networked infrastructure and interconnected meta-data; it's not something that can be replaced. (Oooh, thought. Is the wayback machine caching delicious pages? hmm.) What CAN and MIGHT happen is that we find other places to settle, each of us personally, and also as groups, as communities, but the dust on these things will take time to settle, obviously. Critical mass doesn't happen that fast. And even if it doesn't happen... Fandom survives, yeah? Delicious has only existed for what, seven short years, after all.
Perhaps people will also start reccing on their journals again, or maintaining recs pages on their websites. Obviously mining *someone's* bookmarks or recs is not the same as mining a crowd's, but recs are also working for me very nicely as a reader, I must say.

2011 (4)
Babbling about fandom. by faithwood (2011, March 15)
Back then several people left fandom for similar reasons and I made a poll asking: "What makes you feel like an outsider?" The most popular responses were: "When I'm depressed and can't make myself do anything creative," and, curiously, "When a stupid story gets read and recced and my story, which, granted, is possibly equally stupid, gets overlooked."

Age of Interactivity Meta Series Part 1/8: How do You Define Success in the Fandom? by hollow_echos (2011, March 19)
The fandom is built on interactions with others; it's about making friends to share in the excitement with. Fans interact with each other all the time: through the chain of production that all fan materials go through (author, beta, reader/reviewer, recc'er, artist, podfic generator, and so on) where individuals each create a link in a chain that ultimately delivers a full product to the general population (and they too serve as a link in this chain). Measuring success in this area can mean a variety of things, from making new friends on LJ/DW (Live Journal and Dream Width) that share the same fandom, to participating in fic exchanges or any other number of activities.

archiving links by catechism (2011, April 28)
So, like many other fannish users of del, I am concerned about the loss of the community-driven fic/art recs that we now get from delicious. The opt-in policy AVOS has decided to implement means we're going to lose the links of inactive users, which means it's going to be more difficult to get recs and find things in fandom. Not good!
So I was thinking: Well, I guess we're going to have to archive that. Right?

i'm going to be so fucking pissed if i don't win fandom contrbution of the year by phenylic (2011, October 24)
REASONS WHY A CERTAIN FIC IS NOT ON THIS LIST (from Not Very Likely to 99.9% Likely):
a. I hated it.
b. I disliked it.
c.. I couldn’t find it. (some fics have been deleted/f-locked/redirected, and I haven’t found an accessible link.)
d. It wasn’t completed. (and therefore, I probably haven’t read it. ._.)
e. I forgot about it. /o\ (HAVE YOU SEEN HOW LONG THIS IS. D: IT’S NOTHING PERSONAL, I PROMISE.)
f. I haven’t read it yet. ← 99.9% Likely

2012 (3)
Meta on Reccing by kiki_eng (2012, January 31)
There are opinions and biases at work when rules and guidelines get drawn up and, where there are breakdowns of different fanworks, I think those rules and guidelines say something about how different varieties of fanworks are perceived.
fan_flashworks' rule* about not re-reccing things in the same round would never have occurred to me. I think it ties in with a specific approach to reccing. I think that there's something in there about recs serving to promote works and I think that that's a rule that ties more into the role of recs as promotion rather than recs as fanworks themselves.

Reccing as a [Non] Circle Jerk by bethbethbeth (2012, July 5)
However, one of the things I see people say a lot are combinations of the following: that X-writer moved into a new fandom and they're getting all sorts of unwarranted praise just because they're a BNF and everyone just recs people on their f'lists like one big circle jerk and only the popular pairings get any attention and nobody reads stories by No Name Fans and...blah blah blah.
And so, I went to look at my Marvel/Avengers recs, started only recently around the time when the movie opened in the U.S.
(on the common conception that only BNFs and friends get recced, and her own stats to the contrary)

Flamingo oral history interview, Vividcon convention, August 11, 2012 (2012, August 11)
I'm stuck doing that, the Crack Van, because nobody signed up for it, and I was afraid they'd drop it. So I signed up for it even though there's only, all the fics I would have recced were already recced, so I'm not quite sure what to do. And I'm scrambling to find stuff to recommend. But, so, it's forcing me to read, which is great; it's good for me.

2013 (3)
Fandom: best vs. favorite by tishaturk (2013, March 4)
But mostly fandom runs not on awards but on recs and (increasingly?) on content searching. Recs may take the form of simple recirculation—reblogs on Tumblr, for example, though even there some fans manage to squeeze a remarkable amount of information about the reasons for their reblog into the tags—but many are quite thoughtful and explicit about why the reccer liked what she liked; I saw this in many of the Festivds rec posts from January. Fandom does not, for the most part, assume that what "best" means is a) self-evident or b) shared by everyone, though it does generally assume that if one person likes it then somewhere out there is someone else who will like it too.

Reccing vs Reposting; fandom etiquette musings by altocello (2013, March 14)
My feelings on this are that it would have been fine to flail about how lovely the art was and to post a LINK to the original post, where others could also leave happy comments in a place where the artist can receive due credit. Essentially, a rec post.

Crowdsourcing Podficcing Reccing Tips! by podmod (2013, July 21)
The mods of that comm have asked for podfic reccing tips to point to, and since we're in the middle of a rec challenge, we know there are people here who can answer that!
(advice compiled from the commenters)

2014 (5)
(no subject) by nestra (2014, January 23)
On the other hand, I installed WordPress and did quite a bit of customization, generally through brute force and stubbornness, so I'm proud of that.
I love having what's basically a big database of stories that I like, because it's awfully convenient having it collected in one place. Both because I forget things, and because I trust shrift's taste to catch things that I missed.
I like the fact that it's useful to other people.

Reader Preference Poll by jerakeen (2014, August 20)
I know I'm not the only one occasionally worrying about posting unwanted recs, cluttering people's reading pages, being repetitive and/or an annoyance to the comm's followers. Reccers don't often get feedback, so it's almost impossible to gauge these things.
Which brings us to this huge-ass poll!

The Economics of Fandom: Value, Investment, and Invisible Price Tags by saathi1013 (2014, August 28)
Recs – a fannish ‘service’ – are a form of value.

Hi! Can you please direct me to some sites that have good drarry fanfiction rec lists? Thanks in advance :) answered by dictacontrion (2014, September 2)
Reccing the rec lists. How meta. Also trickier than anticipated. The thing is, there are a lot of well-organized rec lists that I’ve used at some point that stopped updating years ago. I think it contributes to this larger sense that H/D fandom is dying or that there’s no good new work coming out, which is blatantly untrue, but of course you’re not going to see that if you only look at rec lists from 2006. So I’ve split these into a couple of different categories below.

now it's all a wash by musesfool (2014, December 26)
I'm really happy to see the main story written for me getting on recs lists and stuff. *preens*
(entry largely not about recs)

2015 (1)
I Don't Like X But: A Meta Post by thingswithwings (2015, February 3)
[T]he part of the discussion that's generally more sticky is the part where we start to think about comments or recs that go "I don't usually like watersports, but I liked this story." Some argue that this is a neutral sort of comment to make – a statement about personal preference (an "I" statement), and something intended to give the reader information. When it's in a comment, it's often intended as a compliment – "Despite not being inclined to enjoy this, your superior writing made me enjoy this!" – and when it's in a rec, it's often intended as a kind of helpful information – "Even if you do not think this will be your bag, you may like it anyhow, as that was my experience."

2016 (4)
Rec Center: a weekly newsletter of fanfic recommendations by Emma Lawson (2016, February 17)
Rec lists are great for the obvious reason that there’s A LOT of fic out there, and sometimes you need someone else to pick out the good stuff—especially in big fandoms, or for specific tropes or pairings. I think Elizabeth and I, and a lot of our readers, miss how easy it was to find recs on Livejournal etc. Tumblr fandom is harder to navigate in that regard, so a newsletter makes more sense these days
(interview with Elizabeth Minkel and Gavia Baker-Whitelaw)

Fansplaining Episode 31: Get Recced - Elizabeth Minkel and Flourish Klink with Gavia Baker-Whitelaw (2016, September 21)
I don't think I've ever worried about not recommending something good enough, because I don't feel like that would really be a problem. I'm sure that lots of people click through on the recs on our newsletter and don't like it for whatever reason, like tastewise or whatever. But, if I recommended something that I guess was more objectively quote unquote bad which is quite hard to judge I think people would very quickly just not care because you're just gonna backspace out of it.
(segment on reccing runs 6:07-50:42)

The Rec Center #39 by Elizabeth Minkel and Gavia Baker-Whitelaw (2016, September 30)
I think I scared people with the “SHORT” in “1-2 SHORT sentences about…” This was just to keep people from writing treatises about their fave fic. Because these recs won’t really have much context for who you are, just saying, “I love this, it’s a classic” is hard for readers to go on. Why do YOU like it?
(FINAL THOUGHT by Elizabeth Minkel with some notes on the recs they receive, including a lack of diversity)

Klance Fic Rec: Master List by reccing (2016, October 11)
I’ve not included some of the more popular fics that I believe most people are reading already. Aside from that, I hope everyone keeps in mind that this list is just the opinion of one person. Have an open mind when clicking on this list, for both me and the authors that have written the fics!
(meta author's note for a rec list)

2017 (1)
I had stopped reccing fics with fanart because it... by jeusus (2017, June 24)
I had stopped reccing fics with fanart because it was causing drama but fuck it, go read “You’ll Be In my Heart” by anorlost an huxxsux
(short meta comment on a fic rec via fanart and comment)

2018 (3)
Want to make a fic rec post? Grab yourself a header and get to it :) by ao3commentoftheday (2018, May 9)
Suggestions:

• bold the title to make it easier to see
• link to the fic (chapter 1 for multichaps)
• tag the author if you know their tumblr, ask others to tag if you don’t
• include the fandom somewhere (especially if you are reccing fics from various fandoms)
• why do you recommend it?

"I saw a comment about people *recommending fic* meeedeee quotes linzee (2018, May 13)
"I saw a comment about people *recommending fic* like “that would be so incredible” but then dismissed it like it was a Herculean task and I just…“recommending” fic used to be a fundamental fandom activity. Rec culture was a big part of the mid-ground between “creator” and “lurker” imho: it helped develop relationships, get creators’ work out there (& hold it out there longer than 5 minutes), and foster discussions. It was a HUGE part of fandom pre-tumblr."

meditation on the fandom history & future of recs (the latter esp. @ ao3) by cimorene (2018, May 14)
Simply the fact that someone, or several someones, has recommended a thing before isn’t the same as getting a recommendation from someone whose taste you already know is like yours in some respect. Sorting the search results by number of kudos or bookmarks is only going to give you the Billboard Top Whatever list, while reccers are djs, curators of content.

2019 (5)
People who Rec! by emansil (2019, January 7)
This reccing shit is HARD. I mean not only are you reading a crap load of fics, but apparently carefully enough that you can with a great deal of insight comment and repeat what it was about it that you loved. Not to mention the back and forth of adding in the link, and getting all the coding correct.

With fanfic, you have much more freedom to just fansplaining quotes hellotailor (2019, January 29)
With fanfic, you have much more freedom to just say, ‘I’m recommending this particular fic because it’s this one really specific characterization point or pairing.’ And people are gonna just be like, ‘fine,’ whereas if you recommended a movie based on that same thing, people would be like, ‘What the fuck are you talking about? What about the artistic quality of the rest of everything else here?’

Fanfic recs for people who don't know the fandom by melannen (2019, March 21)
Of course there are different reasons why you might be recommending a story to someone who doesn’t know the canon - maybe they just want good fanfic and they’ve said they’re fine with reading outside their fandoms; maybe you are trying to lure them into the fandom; maybe they are just starting on the canon and want stories that won’t spoil them but will draw them in. And each of those (and every individual) would have different needs.

want some candy, little fanthing? by runpunkrun (2019, September 12)
So, instead of worrying about what the future held, I went back and worried about the past. I tracked down my contributions to the Crack Van, where I did a stint recommending The X-Files fics for a month in 2004. Feels like forever ago. Because it was.
And, because I like to torture myself with all the fannish content that's been lost over the years, I thought I'd check back in and see how many of the stories I recced were still available on the web.

rec lists, rec lists, who's got the rec lists by tozka (2019, September 13)
So basically: is there no longer a need for rec LISTS (or dedicated reccers)? Because mostly everything's hosted on AO3 anyway, where you can sort by markers of popularity easily and quickly?
AND: fandom community is decentralized and posting a rec list is no guarantee that anybody will see it (or comment), so what's the point?
(more discussion in the comments)

2020 (3)
Well done for reccing the most famous fics in the... by deancasfanficnet (2020, March 5)
These are fics we’ve received through the form and been asked to spotlight. We aren’t just going to ignore one fic someone has loved because it’s popular! Nor would we ignore a fic because it’s not got as many hits.
(submission-based reccing blog response to complaint about reccing the popular stuff)

On Reccing by dictacontrion (2020, August 14)
Today marks seven straight years of daily fic recs. That’s an entire Hogwarts education. That’s 2,559 daily recs, from 878 fics, plus non-quote recs.
On this occasion, some thoughts on reccing.
Reccing is a form of squee. Reccing is the act of running onto the internet and going “OMG have you seen this fic?????” Reccing is jumping up and down with excitement, but with words. Reccing is sharing something you love with other people, so they can love it too. Reccing is a joyful thing to do.

Guest Post: Reccing as Critical Practice by forestofglory (2020, September 15)
Reccing, short for recommending, is a key example of critical practice. All kinds of communities engage in reccing, but this piece focuses on SFF and transformative fandoms, as those are the communities I'm personally familiar with. A rec can be as simple as, "I liked this, check it out," but are frequently more complicated: teasing out elements that the reccer especially liked or thinks will especially appeal to their audience. Reccing also helps situate works within their literary traditions.

2021 (5)
The Rec Center #287 by Elizabeth Minkel and Gavia Baker-Whitelaw (2021, July 2)
The multi-author rec list has its benefits and drawbacks. I love a single-author list that feels carefully, intentionally put together; we can never recreate that by pulling stuff from a spreadsheet. But it also gives way more of our readers a chance to contribute to The Rec Center, and it lets us include a much wider variety of voices than we envisioned when we started the newsletter.
(FINAL THOUGHT by Elizabeth Minkel on how they rec and how their reccing has evolved over the course of the newsletter)

Elizabeth Minkel on Fanfiction, Culture, And Platforms (2021, November 10)
And all that was great and produced interesting, fun work, but LiveJournal wasn't designed or optimized for this kind of use, so there were some things that suffered. One was searchability—the platform made that extremely difficult, which led to a lot of another fandom practice, reccing, where people create curated lists of works.
(interview largely not about reccing)

How did you come up with the yearbook fic recs by billsfangearring (2021, December 13)
Those posts come from a mix of fics I already know and love and extensive reading for each year. I don’t believe that my selections for those lists represent any sort of objective assessment of the best fics written in that year—nor do I want them to be viewed that way—but I do like to read widely and feel passionate about the ones I choose to review. I usually read 40-50 fics that are new to me for each year, but if I remember right I read 62 for 2008.
(response to an ask, about how she recs and her history)

How did you come up with the yearbook fic recs by consistentsquash (2021, December 13)
What I love about your recs is how you super carefully picked from like twenty years of Wolfstar fandom! The fics are so diverse in themes/tropes/writing styles.
(reblog/comment to the above post, about their history, the reccing is dead meta trope, and also their response to specific recs)

The Stories I Chose by Sumana Harihareswara (2021, December 28)
I love fan fiction, but some fan fiction authors would prefer that others not link to their work outside fan-specific spaces. After I learned this, I started asking for permission, and I only linked to fanfic in my MetaFilter posts if the author said okay or if they'd preemptively given permission in their platform profiles.
(piece about reccing sff stories rather than fanworks in particular)

2022 (3)
Recs organization by doranwen (2022, February 26)
If you're looking through a recs list for a fandom, one which is more than just a tiny handful of fics, how do you want to see the fics ordered?
(discussion in the comments)

Fandom sharing and privacy by melannen (2022, March 3)
I had to sort of codify my own ethical feelings on this a bit when I did the big recs project! What was my line on stuff it was OK to rec and not OK to rec? When am I 'breaking privacy' vs. 'bringing light to a forgotten work'?

Hi Squash! I love your rec lists! I would also by consistentsquash (2022, August 6)
For me a big part of reccing is about sharing my love for forgotten old fics/underrated new fics. Which means I don’t generally know anything about the authors because they either left the fandom or they are pretty new on the scene. I just checked my rec spreadsheet. I have recced around 300 fanwork creators. It’s a lot. Are some of them going to be people who are pro-life/pro-guns/something like that? Definitely.
(response to an ask)

Comments

Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I have boosted the signal.

Re: Thank you!

[kiki_eng]

Awesome, thank you.

[nestra]

Cool! Thanks for including me. I should probably do another one of those since everything has changed with AO3.

[kiki_eng]

Thanks for writing meta.
It was interesting going through everything seeing how some discussions are continual or recurring and others aren't. The personal and the technological changes, especially.
...and I would totally be interested in reading that meta of yours, if you decide to write it. :)

[pronker]

It's so scholarly and historical, I love it! I only began internetting in '05 and enjoy reading things like this.

[kiki_eng]

It was a lot of fun for me, reading all of the things and finding out about all of this history that I missed because I wasn't around on the internet/mailing list(/etc.) or because I wasn't paying attention. I definitely got very distracted by other meta when I was compiling this, too. :)

[eoa]

O.o What a wonderful list! I wasn't around for basically all of fandom history, so whenever I see meta about it, I make the greatest grabby hands possible - and, in the case of such a nice curated list like yours, thank the author - so, thank you! I'll have no scarcity of meta reading for the next few months xD

[kiki_eng]

I'll have no scarcity of meta reading for the next few months xD
I'm glad. :)

Thanks for your comment.

[brainwane]

Found via makamu. Fascinating! Thanks for this compilation. I feel like I have passively absorbed some of the etiquette discussed in several of these posts but hadn't realized it till I read your list and reflected on it.

[kiki_eng]

Thanks for letting me know. :)

I feel like I have passively absorbed some of the etiquette discussed in several of these posts but hadn't realized it till I read your list and reflected on it.
Yeah, it's interesting what bits of the culture you pick up without fully realising.