I'm not asking for specifics here, hence this having the "musing" tag and not the "questions" one, but I've been vaguely wondering lately how many of ponyfic's big-name authors are still active. With only a couple of significant exceptions, that will mean on Fimfiction. I'm loath to define "active" too exactly, though I think I mean still active writing fics as opposed to posting blogs.
So, for example, I think I'd consider Cold in Gardez to be in the "inactive" box, since he hasn't published a fic since Refraction's Edge a year and a half ago, and his blog post a few weeks back doesn't change my view of that. On the other hoof, Admiral Biscuit goes in "active", given a latest fic (Candy Apples' Cooking Channel) coming out just a few weeks ago. You get the idea.
Of course, this isn't especially scientific, as writers can sometimes go long periods without a new fic but never consider themselves inactive. I'm not a big-name author of course, but when I published On the Wrong Track in 2021, it was my first non-flashfic story for almost two years – yet I never thought of myself as being completely away from Fimfiction itself.
So there's what I'm musing on: which of the major authors in our fandom are either still putting out stories or are actively still intending to do so? I really don't know how one would go about measuring this, to be honest. I just wonder.
My question is always, if someone's 'last seen' date is 2019 or early 2020, and there's no indication they had planned to leave the site, does that mean they're no longer with us? :c
ReplyDeleteYikes! I mean, it's a plausible thought, but... yikes!
DeleteI am obviously far too late to the fandom to have anything resembling a bead on more than a scattered handful of the big authors, then and now. Especially as my idea of a big-name Ponyfic author is basically anyone I follow/admire/respect who has a decently high count. So someone like Rune Soldier Dan with barely 1K followers would absouletly qualify in my heart, even though overall, only 282nd on the site probably isn't quite it. Other such people I consider big-name authors but probably aren't would include Aquaman (1,098), SockPuppet (725), NavelColt (805), DrakeyC (983), Pascoite (1,094), and even TCC56 (538). I'm the wrong guy to muse on this!
ReplyDeleteThat said, while a lot of big names have for sure left or slowed way down over the years, I do get the feeling we still have plenty of big ones around that are active enough; big names are less likely to leave over time than the smaller everypeople in the crowd, if you get me, as they probably form a larger chunk of the active Fimfic population now. And follower count from a newer user is more impressive at a lower level – TCC56 earned his 500+ for a 2019 author through 70+ stories of a generally very high quality, and no one would argue that Let's Do This, with their 1,057 count and numerous highly-rated stories, isn't one of the big authors these days (less active the past two years, but still averaging a story every 1.5 months in 2022 onwards).
Then you can have middle ground cases. Between Admiral Biscuit and Cold in Gardez above, we have someone like Georg, who has published far less frequently in the 2020s (7 of his 95 stories!), and whose last story was in December last year, and even blogs less and less, but the gaps and slowness aren't quite inactive levels, per say.
Then there's the thing about authors that are huge and constantly active but whose stories are well outside the range of what we and people like us read – Some Leech, with their 300+ stories and 5K+ followers (for a 2017 account!), springs to mind, but gets there via writing fics… of the saucy kind… (over 90% are M-rated) even if the frequency and consistency of their output is clearly a major factor too.
Tl;dr – not easily quantifiable by a long shot, yep, but I too find this interesting to think about. My 2017/18 entry and tastes on fics gives me a narrow range, but even as much as quite a few of the bigger authors have transitioned to active over the last year and change, we still have plenty left. The trend's not done full damage yet!
You do point up a good, er, point there. One person's "big-name author" isn't necessarily another's. Off the top of my head, I couldn't name a single NavelColt fic, whereas I could rattle off quite a few Pascoite titles without trying too hard. Aquaman, too, is an instant "yup, big-name author" to me.
DeleteI think it's not easily quantifiable, as you say. I tend to pick a sizeable number of fics to read from the Royal Canterlot Library, so authors featured there tend to be more familiar names to me -- but as that's no longer active many newer readers may not encounter the RCL at all unless they follow a link or otherwise make an effort to do so.
Also, yeah, M-rated stuff. There are a number of authors with four-figure follower counts who I've never even heard of as they specialise in not merely Mature fics but fetishes I don't care for or even (you can guess which) outright detest. The fact that I've heard of Some Leech at all is an achievement on their part.
Starscribe seems to still be cranking out fics at a reliable rate. I think they make a tidy sum from their Patreon support, so the motivation is there!
ReplyDeleteThat's iisaw... Dunno why I got logged out.
DeleteBlogger/Google seems to be being a pain. Shock news, I know...
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