There's something of an "end of an era" feeling about Fimfiction at the moment. Very recently we've seen Seattle's Angels announce their retirement and now the Royal Canterlot Library has done the same. Both groups have done sterling work over the years in promoting ponyfic, but in truth neither had been fully active for some considerable time. Nevertheless, to see two major reviewing groups officially call it a day in such a short space of time deserves some formal acknowledgement here – hence this post.
Of course, they're not the first big name reviewers to draw stumps. To pick out just one, Chris's wonderful One Man's Pony Ramblings ceased to operate all of four years ago. However, back in 2018 Friendship is Magic was still an active show, and that did make a difference, whatever you thought of its last seasons. Now, the end of both SA and the RCL might be seen by some to prefigure the end of ponyfic as we know it. I'm not that gloomy, but I think it's extremely unlikely we'll ever see stories getting tens of thousands of views again.
I have affection for both groups and am sorry to see both of them depart into the sunset for good – and, being a vain writer (is there any other kind?) I'm flattered that both chose to feature It Doesn't Matter Now. Still, it's the RCL that has the tighter hold on my heart, and not only because I feel more accomplished to have made it in there. As those who read Ponyfic Roundup may well have noticed, RCL-inducted stories have a very good hit rate when it comes to my own feelings.
The remaining large-scale reviewers of ponyfic are, I think, all individuals. Apart from yours truly, there is the inimitable Present Perfect and the remarkable PaulAsaran. I'd also like to mention TCC56, who is perhaps better classed as a recommender rather than a reviewer but who goes into a good deal of interesting detail in their blog posts. If anyone else is out there who reviews more than the occasional fic, please do let me know in the comments!
So, what happens now? Barring some miracle, we'll never see Fimfiction back to what it was in the glory days. There's still a reasonably respectable number of stories coming out, though, and not all of them are clop. The G5 film has provided a modest boost, and hopefully its series will do something similar. But there are still a lot of ponyfics out there that I haven't read. I can't say when I'll choose to end Ponyfic Roundup – but I can say that I don't currently expect that to be soon.
Thanks for the ride, SA and RCL. It's been a lot of fun. As I said in a blog comment elsewhere: the horse will be with you, always.
How have I been following your blog for over three years, and I'm only just now finding out you had a story featured on the RCL? And a story I've passed by many times too! And it was featured over six years ago at that. I must rectify this mistake, and read it right away! At a mere 1.3K, it's a steal.
ReplyDeleteBut yes, I'm as gutted as everyone else to see both SA and the RCL officially hang up their horseshoes, despite both having been dormant or less active for many months. FoME made an interesting comment on Chris' post about them closing up shop, that the momentum of the RCL likely wouldn't have crashed had it not been for the pandemic. It does make you think. Certainly, the exposure both gave, being featured site posts that appeared in everyone's feed, we'll never have that again (well, not unless admins and the powers-that-be despite to upgrade one of the remaining reviewers to being site featured. It could happen!
…Okay, almost certainly not, but it's not impossible.
And yes, like everyone who hadn't already made it, I had "get a story featured on RCL" on the bucket list. Well, that's gone now. But given it was already dormant when I started writing here, it's not as hard to take as it might have been.
Still, I have so many RCL posts to go back through and read the stories of, so the backlog of content remains.
We'll just have to see where the world of Ponyfic gallops off to next, mane riding in the wind. But even if more disappointments and fandom shrinking comes, surprises and delights will come too. And I look forward to them.
I'm not that gloomy, but I think it's extremely unlikely we'll ever see stories getting tens of thousands of views again.
Indeed. The only stories getting those kind of views these days are the ones that update super-frequently (usually the author is making up the fic as they go) and have absolute bucketloads of chapters. Which is basically twigging the system to work to their advantage. Otherwise, yeah, even big established authors only get a couple thousand on their fics, with little even breaking over the 5K mark.
It Doesn't Matter Now was easily the most successful story I've written. RCL, SA, EQD, an HR from PP. Most views of any story (it recently clicked over the 3,000 mark, which is a lot for me) as well. It did get turned down by The Royal Guard, but I can live with that. :P
DeleteHear that, Denise? I'm inimitable. :3c
ReplyDeleteI don't get the reference, I'm afraid -- but yep. "Inimitable" you certainly are. :)
DeleteHoly Carp! How is it possible that I've missed It Doesn't Matter Now until now? Well, gotta correct that, ASAP!
ReplyDeleteTRG always had a weird vibe to it. After reading three inductees of theirs in a row that were genuinely bad, I gave up on them.
I hope you and PP stick with it for a while longer. At least until we know how G5 is going to affect output.
And this is where a whole bunch of people read the fic and respond with "That made it in? Sheesh, and I thought those guys were good judges." :D
DeleteI think I submitted something else to TRG, but that got rejected as well. It might have been We Who with Songs Beguile, but I'm not completely certain. It makes TRG one of only two reviewers I've had more than one fic assessed by but had a 100% failure rate with. (Titanium Dragon was the other: three stories, three Not Recommendeds. :P )
I'm not going anywhere for the moment. How much G5 I end up reviewing I have no clue, but there's still a lot of G4 writing out there I haven't looked at. The medium-length fics I'm now trying to include one of each week, for example. Lots of those to get through. :)