Regarding the Fanfiction Spam [Essay; Informative]

Not sure if this warrants its own thread. However, I do want to note that this is a recurring topic on the WBO Random Thoughts thread and the WBO server itself. So lets have a space where we can discuss our thoughts on it instead of clogging up other spaces, if we all dont mind that

Some users note that there are times when fanfictions — in the context of the WBO, fan stories about Beyblade — would swarm the site. This is evident under the Latest Posts tab when there would be so many stories in a row. Some people noted how this can be overwhelming and annoying, because its now harder to search through recent posts and that it is unpleasant in general. And to further the point, some people dont even finish their previous stories. They make a new thread nearly every time, as if making ideas on the whim and then they nearly forget their older, unfinished stories

So in this essay, I am going to list out facets of this problem and talk about possible solutions users brought up. Credits to the many users Ive talked to — most of these ideas are yours and theyre the reason why Im writing this today


To be clear: I am a fanfiction writer myself. No, I do not hate fanfics. No, I am not an evil fanfic-hating person who is too old to understand the internet. I do not like gatekeeping content and ideas; I only suggest improvements. You cannot say, “Wow Sands, your opinion is invalid! Stop acting like you know the issue, because we all know you dont write fanfics!” I indeed write stories too. And these issues annoy me just as much as the next, non-writing user

This means anyone is welcome to talk in this thread, not just fanfiction writers. I also want to include the Blading community and everyone who browses the site. This is something this regards the entire WBO


The Essay’s Points

I have some solutions. 1 thing could be having a timer where if nothing is posted from the original poster of the thread (only for things with the FF tag) in a set amount of time, then the thread auto deletes. Another thing could be a delete thread/post button for all users.
So my take on this is pretty simple, Fanfics do need limits, the on thread policy seems fine with some tweaks, banned seems extreme because most fabrics appearing in latests posts are by the same few people, cases where 4 fabrics in a row are just one user, not the one thread rule would be pretty nice, but not allowing chapters posted in that thread would be annoying, honestly tho, I'm even guilty of this but the bland characters are pretty annoying along with terrible and weird plots

My tablet just out correcting fanfic to fabric lol
(my post sounds unprofessional)

Imo, I would do one Creation Thread per user, but I guess 1 fanfic thread is fine.

Yeah, I agree with you, it can be really overwhelming. And tbh, I don't like that much 9 fanfics on the "latest post" tab. But I feel like 1 fanfic thread per user (or even 1 thread on the creations forum per user) is really a good fix.

(Side note: I am, personally, only going to do one Thread on the Creations forums, since I don't see a point on having more than one.)
(Aug. 28, 2021  10:29 PM)Hollowmind8 Wrote: (my post sounds unprofessional)

Imo, I would do one Creation Thread per user, but I guess 1 fanfic thread is fine.

Yeah, I agree with you, it can be really overwhelming. And tbh, I don't like that much 9 fanfics on the "latest post" tab. But I feel like 1 fanfic thread per user (or even 1 thread on the creations forum per user) is really a good fix.

(Side note: I am, personally, only going to do one Thread on the Creations forums, since I don't see a point on having more than one.)
heheh yeah i wonder who would do such a thing

yeah i also think the one thread per user thing is a good fix it allows peeps to not spam and only be able to do one thread (on creation forums) so no spam and no overclogging of the WBO
I've got a few ideas, but they would all require some amount of webcoding be done to the site, and idk how difficult that would be to implement.

A: Make fanfiction threads locked/restricted so that only the creator can post in them, and have a seperate, universal "fanfiction discussion" thread for discussing ANY fanfictions on the site.

B: Overhaul the "Latest Posts" tab and allow us to whitelist/blacklist specific subforums. For example, if you want to see the latest posts on the site but nothing related to fanfictions, you'd blacklist whatever subforum the fanfictions are posted in. Alternatively, if you only wanted to see the latest posts in regards to beyblade news/product threads, you would whitelist those and blacklist everything else.

I personally feel that one (or both) of these suggestions could work, although again, I have no idea how difficult they would be to implement.
I agree with this Sands, people spamming Fanfictions and not even finishing them has been an issue, though, kinda think banning Fanfictions is a bit too far. I think the most logical thing to do in this case is to limit people to only one fanfiction thread, with this method we could get fewer Fanfiction threads around, I love writing and love sharing it with WBO (since most of my fanfics have to do with Beyblade) but I'll have to agree with you on this one, it's annoying for someone to start a fanfiction and not even finish them.
Im glad to see that this thread has been met with some agreement (even the agreement from the people who are known for spamming fanfics). Its awesome to see that we can agree to try to be better despite all this

Im really digging the coding implementation idea. Though, I can only hope since coding is definitely hard and we might not get that at the moment
Would spamming fanfics be considered by starting fanfictions and not finishing them or just making fanfictions that you work on, I'm curious
(Aug. 28, 2021  10:54 PM)UnseenBurst Wrote: Would spamming fanfics be considered by starting fanfictions and not finishing them or just making fanfictions that you work on, I'm curious

i think its consistently starting fanfics within a 1 month time frame and not finishing it

heheh, definitely not something i would do, heh
(Aug. 28, 2021  10:54 PM)UnseenBurst Wrote: Would spamming fanfics be considered by starting fanfictions and not finishing them or just making fanfictions that you work on, I'm curious

both
i agree i also made fanfics and cacelled all of them due to personal reasons so i do feel I am part of the problem
(Aug. 28, 2021  11:10 PM)Beykid2.0 Wrote: i agree i also made fanfics and cacelled all of them due to personal reasons so i do feel I am part of the problem

welcome to my world...
I always try finishing my fanfictions and I've never quit one of them but I'm thinking about making one thread for my fanfictions, any thoughts?
(Aug. 28, 2021  11:13 PM)UnseenBurst Wrote: I always try finishing my fanfictions and I've never quit one of them but I'm thinking about making one thread for my fanfictions, any thoughts?

hmm i think so idk
So... why don't we consider this as an unofficial rule? (The one thread per user one) I mean if all writers keep on making fics every day/week, the spam will increase and maybe the staff will end up deleting the "your creations" subforum.
People could do 1 thread called "[insert username] fanfics" and then post everything (related to the fics) there. Or maybe just change the thread name when one fic ends and other starts. Sth like that would be nice.

People can even name it "[insert username] Creations thread" and post everything related to the "your creations" sub forum there.
(Aug. 29, 2021  2:14 PM)Hollowmind8 Wrote: People could do 1 thread called "[insert username] fanfics" and then post everything (related to the fics) there. Or maybe just change the thread name when one fic ends and other starts. Sth like that would be nice.

People can even name it "[insert username] Creations thread" and post everything related to the "your creations" sub forum there.

hmmm yes that would be a good idea...

we can post all of our fanfics there and change the name if we are changing fanfics! i like that idea
(Aug. 29, 2021  1:21 PM)Kiryu Kazuma Wrote: So... why don't we consider this as an unofficial rule? (The one thread per user one) I mean if all writers keep on making fics every day/week, the spam will increase and maybe the staff will end up deleting the "your creations" subforum.

Mana mentioned that the subforum wont be deleted at the moment. There are some users who actually want Your Creations gone, but I dont think the mods are seriously considering that at the moment — we have that as hope, for now
(Aug. 29, 2021  4:18 PM)BurningSands Wrote:
(Aug. 29, 2021  1:21 PM)Kiryu Kazuma Wrote: So... why don't we consider this as an unofficial rule? (The one thread per user one) I mean if all writers keep on making fics every day/week, the spam will increase and maybe the staff will end up deleting the "your creations" subforum.

Mana mentioned that the subforum wont be deleted at the moment. There are some users who actually want Your Creations gone, but I dont thin the mods are seriously considering that at the moment — we have that as hope, for now

yeah but i dont really think the Your Creations forum should be gone yk like just put a limit on it 👌 perhaps 1 Your Creations every 1/2 months? idk
a bit much for fanfics if you ask me
(Aug. 29, 2021  4:35 PM)GenesisBlader Wrote:
(Aug. 29, 2021  4:18 PM)BurningSands Wrote: Mana mentioned that the subforum wont be deleted at the moment. There are some users who actually want Your Creations gone, but I dont thin the mods are seriously considering that at the moment — we have that as hope, for now

yeah but i dont really think the Your Creations forum should be gone yk like just put a limit on it 👌 perhaps 1 Your Creations every 1/2 months? idk
a bit much for fanfics if you ask me

1 to 2 months won't be enough in the long run, we just need to stick to the 1 Fanfic Thread rule on our own as a precaution to avoid spam, starting preferably today. I don't have problems with someone having more than 1 Creation thread (for example, one thread for Fanfics and another for art) but 4 or 5 Fanfic threads is pretty overkill.
(Aug. 29, 2021  5:09 PM)PinkRose Wrote:
(Aug. 29, 2021  4:35 PM)GenesisBlader Wrote: yeah but i dont really think the Your Creations forum should be gone yk like just put a limit on it 👌 perhaps 1 Your Creations every 1/2 months? idk
a bit much for fanfics if you ask me

1 to 2 months won't be enough in the long run, we just need to stick to the 1 Fanfic Thread rule on our own as a precaution to avoid spam, starting preferably today. I don't have problems with someone having more than 1 Creation thread (for example, one thread for Fanfics and another for art) but 4 or 5 Fanfic threads is pretty overkill.
not even thats enough?!

🤘
(Apr. 11, 2022  6:56 PM)Juliahillll Wrote: I agree with your ideas, the best one seems to be to close the discussion after some downtime.
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I don't know if this is considered a necropost because idk if this is a ever green thread, but you might have necroposted. (Necropost: The act of post in a thread that has been dead for 3 months and isn't an evergreen thread).
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At least new people get to read this and be more aware of what happened in the past and how this affects the WBO in general. Some might find this useful (I'm not writing names)
What seals the deal with the necroposting question is if whether the reply has substance/good contributions or not. In this case, I cant say much because I havent been on the forums much. Who knows? Maybe the spam died down during my inactivity and this thread doesnt matter anymore
(Apr. 11, 2022  8:17 PM)BurningSands Wrote: What seals the deal with the necroposting question is if whether the reply has substance/good contributions or not. In this case, I cant say much because I havent been on the forums much. Who knows? Maybe the spam died down during my inactivity and this thread doesnt matter anymore
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(I re wrote this 3 times thinking if it was worth replying or just leaving at that for the sake of the thread.)
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Even with 1 year here, necroposting is still a fairly new concept to me •–•"
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The spam did came to "an end" thanks to this thread I think, either that or the timing was just uncanny for this thread's creation.
One person was doing it by december/january but chilled down. Some make a fanfic thread and don't finish it but they don't make it at a rate that can be considered spam.
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Even if the spam is dead, this thread can be used to make it remain dead by awareness of the issue. So it still has value (at least in my opinion).