Thanks for your input, Carole. I guess I'd like to know why you think that strict guidelines would encourage people to act like children. I'm thinking of making it very clear in the userinfo that people who are posting should really be willing to take criticism, and that people who are reviewing fics should always be thinking in terms of making the fics better, and should also keep the author's feelings in mind. For me, being putting that all out there is part of letting people know they're expected to act like grown-ups.

And apart from that, there are lots of different ways of being grown-ups. Having a feel good place where everybody says nice things is one way and I think it's perfectly legitimate because we all have a nice time and the positive feedback encourages us to write more. Having a community where people attack the problems in other people's stories without saying anything about what's good in them might be helpful for some people but it's not a community I personally would want to participate in. I'd be looking for more of a balance, with a really strong emphasis on how it could be done better. But I don't know how good I'd be at communicating that spirit to all the members.

I'm just thinking out loud (er, in keystrokes) here, so please don't take anything I say too seriously. Thanks again, it's really helpful to hear from people with so much experience in fandom.

Oh, and I've meant to ask you for a while, actually, have you found any difference in the quality of feedback you get since you disabled public comments and asked people to e-mail you instead? I know you avoid the trolls, which is nice, but I've wondered whether the comments you get tend to be less squeeful and more substantive since they're going just to you rather than being posted publicly. Just curious.