I've never used beta readers except maybe once... maybe that's why I'm not really into these sorts of communities. It's not that I think I'm a great writer who never makes mistakes (mercy, I wish!) or anything, but perhaps I look at my own fanfic writing as too much of a hobby and I don't want to be bogged down with critique and suggestions.

It's probably related to the fact that I worked as a writer and constantly had everything I wrote critiqued/edited/changed/commented on, etc. And so now, it's too much work to me to worry that much about a particular fanfic. It's laziness, pure and simple. Laziness, I admit. Not that I don't do research before fics---I do a LOT of research. But I guess I'm lazy about sending things to beta and such.

I admit, posting fics publicly definitely is opening up the floodgates for critique, and I can't complain if someone does shoot down a story of mine. On the other hand, that doesn't necessarily inspire me to write more... which may be a good thing... ;D