shit i remember from my 2007 - 2013 fanfiction.net experiences (before i finally jumped ship for ao3 like everyone else)
âdonât like donât readâ
uses of the terms âlemonâ and âlimeâ (apparently there was a difference. lemons were porn but iâm STILL not sure what a lime is. i also have NO idea how âlemonâ came to mean âpornâ. not sure i want to, tbh.)
soooo many âi do not own please donât sue meâ disclaimers
fics where the whole premise that the whole cast was trapped someplace together and the reviewers would leave questions in their comments and then the characters would answer them in-story. like âask that guy with the glassesâ except shitty and usually self-indulgent towards the authorâs preferred ships. (i may have written one of these when i was 12.)
authors who legit updated on a schedule (and stuck to it). some every fucking day. (you still see this on ao3, but not NEARLY as much.)
fanfic authors who basically had a following and fandom of their own. (again, this still happens, but not as much. not sure if thatâs a good thing or not.) not bad considering most of them were 13.
âyaoi!!! that means boy kisses!!! donât like donât read!!!â
putting âââââ-â or âxxxxxxxâ bc ff.net wouldnât let you insert a horizontal line to show the end of a section
very long, very rambley authorâs notes
some of which had the authors interacting with/talking to the characters in the fic.
fics that werenât so much stories as they were a chapter-by-chapter detailing of all the cliche plots and tropes used in that fandomâs shitty fanfics. (i actually sorta miss these, tbh)
songfics. no, not fics inspired by songs. fics where the lyrics were put in between every paragraph, with some lyrics altered to fit the characters. it was horrific.
fics that were up-front about the oc being a stand-in for the reader so they can read about themselves getting with their fave character. as in, it was written in second person and the summary outright said the pov character was meant to be the reader.
the forums being used for roleplay before tumblr rp was a âthingâ
long, LONG author profiles, filled with things like âcopy/paste if youâre a [whatever] shipper!â or obviously fake sickly sweet anecdotes (think chain email levels of bad), or worst of all (in my opinion), a pro-life anti-abortion story from the point of view of a fetus. it was as bad as it sounds, if not worse.
listing all your ships on your author profile page
seeing a title that was all lowercase letters and thinking âlazyâ rather than âaestheticâ
â101 one ways to annoy [insert character here]â (voldemort was popular for these things)
it being fucking impossible to find f/f fic that wasnât porn
writing ships as âcharacterxcharacterâ instead of âcharacter/characterâ
authorâs notes in the middle of the story. literally you would be reading a fanfic and all of a sudden, in between paragraphsâŚÂ âA/N: awwww isnât it cute how theyâre thinking the same thing!!! XDâ
for that matter, authorâs notes using the XD emoticon
people FLIPPING THEIR SHIT whenever their fave author (or just a well-established author in the fandom) changed their username. ESPECIALLY if they changed it from something fandom-specific to something more neutral.
âcharacter x/character y. NO CHARACTER X/CHARACTER Z.â bc apparently you think iâd think your fic clearly marked character x/character y would be nothing but character x and character z making out.
trollfics trying to capitalize on my immortalâs infamy. there are still trollfics, of course, but they tend to be more subtle.Â
for that matter, trying to pass a trollfic off as a legitimate fic rather than just admitting itâs a parody
specifically reading fics for your notp just to bash it in the reviews
people putting replies to reviews for the previous chapter in the authorâs notes (this died down a LITTLE once ff.net finally added a reply function, but not much)
the great fanfiction.net purge (ahh yes. history lesson time. basically, back in the olden days of fanfiction, when everyone actually used ff.net, one fateful day, back in biblical times â 2011 â ff.net decided to make MA rated stuff â basically porn â not be allowed on the site anymore. ofc people kept posting it anyway, but then ff.net started deleting stories from the website with no notice to the authors. just poof! gone. the aftermath was HORRIFIC. people were FURIOUS, as a lot of people had no backup and just lost their stories. so ff.net stopped enforcing the rule, but the damage was done. this was when people began to officially leave for ao3, i think.)
lots of harry potter fanfics about the my immortal versions of the characters interacting with the canon characters. some of these were actually quite funny â i think theyâre still around, but i donât see them as much. (i actually wrote one of these stories. it is still, to this day, the most popular story i ever wrote.)
drabbles that were ACTUALLY 100 words long.
fictionpress (a sister site for original fiction. it was like wattpad before wattpad was wattpad. it never really took off. come to think of it, i may still have some stuff on there from when i was 12 i need to take down)
âcrackficsâ that consisted mainly of âlulz iM SO RanDOm!!!111!!!!!oneone XD cheeeeeeeese!!!!!!â humor
âi suck at summariesâ
âthis is my first story so please be niceâ
âiâll only update if i get 10 good reviewsâ
AUs before âAUâ was a really widely used term, so the authorâs note would have a length explanation for why they had to change things for the story and apologizing over and over instead of just noting the AU in the summary
AUs out of laziness rather than for creative/plot reasons (ie, âlunaâs a gryffindor in this fic because i couldnât find another reason for her to be hereâ)
authors notes apologizing for late updates
being genuinely shocked when you found a GOOD fanfic
blakekathryn
gummygunk
dailybridgerton
prguitarman
izzy806
