General
fairestcat - Bulletproof Narrative Kinks - I've been thinking a lot recently about the themes that interest me the most in fanfic, the subjects and plots and character traits that suck me in again and again and again. I call these my bulletproof narrative kinks.

fairestcat - In which I prove that I am a kinky bitch and I seem to have misplaced my shame - Thinking about my narrative kinks of course got me thinking about my other kinks. The smutty kind. The scenarios or concepts or acts that are virtually guaranteed to turn me on in fic. And I thought, what the hell, lets see if anyone wants to talk about those too.

ithiliana - Fandom is *not* like high school! - Have now read the 458,239,349,235th LJ post claiming that fandom is just like high school. Enough is enough.

thirdblindmouse - Where did you put the slash goggles, dear? - So how do you explain when you can see some sort of tension going on that elsewhere you would attribute to budding feelings, but you just can't in this instance?

anidada - Is it Jiles or Genny? I can't decide. - Correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears that the creation of shorthands in BtVS/AtS fandom began with Spike-based ships -- Spuffy, Spander, Spangel, Spillow, etc. -- which is not surprising since Spike gets so much fic action. However, some pairing shorthands work. Others... maybe not so much.

hth_the_first - on emo porn - Mary and I have started using this term in conversation a lot, and because I'm really off the beaten path of metafandom stuff lately, I'm not sure how widespread the phrase is. Anyway, I really like it, because it has a lot of relevance to slash and fanfic, but also to gen and canon, and to me it seems to describe...at least part of what people always talk about as "the slash aesthetic."

ceteramisto - Food and Fandom, a Metaphor - At work when I've been feeling bored, I've been pondering my likes and dislikes and why I feel guilty about having pref. I know I shouldn't feel guilty about having preferences, so why should I feel guilty. It wasn't until I compared my feelings about fandom to my feelings about food in an extremely convoluted metaphor that I figured it out.

necromantic_fic in fanficrants - Underage Sexuality - When people rant here about how characters, say in Naruto, should not be having sex because they are thirteen and the people who write that must be sick pedophillic freaks it just kind of hurts. I suppose it makes you a morally righteous person to say that, but when you do it's a personal attack on that almost 20 percent of 12–14 year olds in America.

harukami - Untitled - "BNFs" aren't so much a feature of tiny fandoms in the same way they are in big ones -- but they still exist. I speak of the people who write the majority of the fic in a tiny fandom, or who do the best art, or who try to organize comms, or who translate things, or who are generous and sharing (note, sadly, that this last isn't actually a prerequesite of the first, but being a generous, helpful fan CAN get the recognition anyway). It doesn't have all the connotation of "BNF", but they're people who stand out more because of their actions within the fandom, even while people look around and recognize each other's names.

alchemia - Untitled - I find this depressing. I find it depressing because on one level, its homophobic, and hate for others does not make the world a better place, no matter how much attempt is made to sugar-coat it with that crap about still loving the person. On another level, that one where all you meta folk talk about slash isn't gay, it's really being about women's sexuality, on thata level, I think it's misogynist.

Fandom-Specific ( Cut for possible spoilers in NCIS, Doctor Who, and Harry Potter fandoms. )

On Creating and Criticism
tkp - Let's talk about word choice. - Every once in a while I'll be reading a fic and I'll stumble onto a word--a word that isn't necessarily uncommon, but a word that makes me say, " Oh. I just know Author had her thesaurus out for this one," and not in a "what a way to flex your vocab" way, but in a "that was completely unnecessary; she should've used a simpler word" way. That is, the word, which wouldn't've caused me to bat an eyelash in a more sophisticated piece, draws attention like a sore thumb because the rest of the piece (conceptually, structurally, grammatically, whatever) doesn't quite...live up to the occasional bursts of elevated vocabulary.

Polls, Questions, Other
aspacer - BDSM/Kink Readership, Writership, Experience Poll - These are questions that intrigue me.

silentauror - Untitled - I've thought a lot about the term "fluff" in the past year or so, and I've been meaning to post a poll about this for some time now.