For me, it's always things like proper spelling and grammar. I figure that an author should try and make it as professional as possible if they want to attract readers - using chatspeak and the like in a summary makes me think they don't really care about who reads it and that it's not a particularly special story.

Use of the dub names in the summary is usually a turn-off for me, too. I just can't relate to the characters by those names anymore. I'm sure I'm missing out on some pretty good stories by skipping over the ones with dub names (even thought I have made some exceptions), but that's the way I am.

Oh, and also the phrase, "[any canon character]xOC" makes me want to skip.

theres more but my minds dull at teh moment

You are missing out on some stories. But all in all, just because they use the original names does not mean that they will be portrayed like they were in the original. I've seen Daisuke call Hikari 'his girl' and so on. I've also seen Davis portrayed as Daisuke.

Other turnoffs include but not limited to...

'Tai(chi) has always had feelings for Sora. Now that she's dating Yamato, will he be able to tell her his feelings?'

'After seeing TK and Kari together, Davis...'

'Takeru is a cold hearted bastard and Hikari is an optomistic...'

'AU. characters are a bit OOC'

'light and hope[insert something here]'

'Fluff...'(this depends on my mood and author)

Other include

Anything that reminds me of Silver1's 'Walkabout', romantic film, talking about feelings that were not in the show, plus more

Turn on's includes: (actutally, this one always varies)

Yeah, I know, it's a bit unfair of me, but it's just difficult for me to read a story when the dub names are used. I guess it's the difference between hearing V-mon's cute voice saying "Daisuke" and Veemon's ridiculous lisp saying "Davis." That's all it is, really.

Wow, and I thought I was picky about jobs.

Here's another things that gets to me:

"So like [insert decent summary here]"

What I like to see in summaries is a clear indication of which continuity it will follow (because things like Digimon, Fire Emblem, Pokemon and what-have-you have multiple continuities), who the "main" characters are, and what the general feel of the story will be. It's not hard to put that into a few short sentences. I also don't mind if something like "Friendship fic" is stuck on the end. That goes with the general feel.

Friendship fics? quite rare in this fandom but they are still there. Also, romantic one-shots that have feelings being created in about 1000 words or less

And it's really not that hard to write more than 1000 words. Some things have an excuse (like a 1sentence challenge or something), but unless you're being extra specific and focusing in on one little moment, the story probably needs to have at least 1000 words to have any sort of impact.

Other things that catch my attention are friendship fics between two characters who did not get the time to interact during the run of the show. I once read a nice Jyou and Daisuke friendship fic and it was one of the best friendship fics out there.

Also, for the record, some of the best Digimon fanfiction I've read has not used the original Japanese names in any way, shape, or form. In fact, because so many people insist on using the Japanese names, I find they tend to have even more atrocious stories, just because that's the more popular route and most people go that way. There's more opportunity then for not so great stories.

Ugh, I hate that too. I really like to leave people hanging on pairings sometimes, and it's kind of disappointing when I reviewer even goes so far as to ask what the pairings are ahead of time, because they're used to being told right from the get-go. I just want to say "well I don't know, I think everyone in this is going to end up being attracted to that bush over there, but could ya read it and find out just in case? You might even like it!" I think I might enjoy a story that ended up with the pairing Daisuke/holly bush, as long as it was well written.

[For the record, I'm definitely not still a tiny bit upset about that review.]

Also, for the record, some of the best Digimon fanfiction I've read has not used the original Japanese names in any way, shape, or form. In fact, because so many people insist on using the Japanese names, I find they tend to have even more atrocious stories, just because that's the more popular route and most people go that way. There's more opportunity then for not so great stories.

Yes. I know. The main reason for my preferences has already been stated and proven quite irrational, but I do have other, more practical reasons, and I just don't feel like arguing about them.

And yeah, Davis and the holly bush. At this point, I'd read that too if it was well written!

I don't know. I was just saying that if a good writer suddenly chose to write Daisuke or any other character becoming attracted to a plant, I might end up liking the story just because it had good writing.

Yeah good spelling/grammar is always good, though I take it as more of a given even though the majority of FF.net uses chatspeak and it makes me sad.

I also don't like abuse of Japanese words. "OH BOB-KUN-CHAN-SAMA-SENSEI-I-DON'T-KNOW-JAPANESE-BUT-I-LIKE-TO-PRETEND-I-DO!!!"

I'm fine with using the Japanese names or the dub names when it comes to anime, except I usually don't know who the Japanese-named (or however I'm supposed to call them) characters are and I get confused.

I also hate "ugh this is not a good summary but read it anyway" because although I find writing summaries hard, if your summary sucks why should someone read your story? It can be the most amazing thing ever but if it's a summary like that, I'm just going to skip over it.

AU is something I'm kind of iffy with in most sections. I've only seen like two good AU, and the rest are all just wish-fulfillments and...ugh.

That's all I can think of for now. Good thing, otherwise this might become a five-page long essay.

What I do like in a summary, though, is when the summary tells you so much, and yet at the same time it tells you absolutely nothing at all. Those are the kind that send your imagination into overdrive because there are so many possibilities of what it could mean. That gets me wanting to read a story more than anything else. A vague summary can be a good thing, if you do it the right way.

Agreed x 10,000. It's a common joke in my circle of friends to scream "KAWAII!" in the most wapanese accents whenever we begin to talk about anything japanese. But I must admit, I was quite the wannabe back in the day, so... :).

So is everyone in the CCS fandom :D. But yes, putting in random Japanese words or "Fangirlism" as i call it, is very annoying when it's just there. While I don't mind stuff like 'sensei', 'chan', or 'kun' as that is somewhat respectible, words like KAWAII, BAKA, and so on are annoying.

Bad spelling and grammar, obviously. I'm a grammar Nazi, so if I see even one grammar mistake in a summary, I won't read it. I always make the best effort to make my summaries and titles appropriately capitalized, spelled, and written, because first impressions matter the most. I, like everyone else, have the occasional error in my stories, but the summary and title are the most important to get right.

It used to annoy me when people said the couple in the summary (I'm not sure who said it, but I agree - if I read that, I would say, well, what's the point in reading it now?). But then, on my other account, I wrote a fic with less popular couples and boy did I lose a lot of readers when they found out who the actual couples were. From then on, I made a point in my stories to say beforehand who the couples were so I wasn't pointlessly flamed. Who knows, though, I might change that for my DM fic. It seems like people here are more open-minded and mature than the section I used to write for.

Bad spelling and grammar, obviously. I'm a grammar Nazi, so if I see even one grammar mistake in a summary, I won't read it.

Grammar nazis, unite! I'm such a grammar nazi - sometimes my friends give me death glares as a result of my obsessive correcting.

It used to annoy me when people said the couple in the summary (I'm not sure who said it, but I agree - if I read that, I would say, well, what's the point in reading it now?). But then, on my other account, I wrote a fic with less popular couples and boy did I lose a lot of readers when they found out who the actual couples were. From then on, I made a point in my stories to say beforehand who the couples were so I wasn't pointlessly flamed. Who knows, though, I might change that for my DM fic. It seems like people here are more open-minded and mature than the section I used to write for.

In my personal opinion, there are some instances where it's okay to state the couple in the summary. A one-shot, for instance, will be a waste of time if you didn't like the couple in the first place, because there isn't enough development in a one-shot to make anyone like it. Also, a story that is all about bringing one couple together might need a warning too. I think I only say that because I want to know what kind of stereotypical story I'm going to get if I choose to look at the story (not that I would anyway).

But, if it's a slice-of-life with a wide range of characters, I'd much rather be surprised. It's more fun that way. In fact, it would probably ruin the story to have the couples predetermined for the readers. Especially when one of the only things that carries drama successfully is relationship problems. Actually, any story that isn't completely romance shouldn't have a warning on it as far as the couples go.

Unless someone is anti-yaoi and the story ends up with a guy/guy pairing. I guess it serves them right anyway for being so close-minded (is laughing evilly).

Sorry, I rambled a bit.

P.S.: This new forum setup is eating my brains. Hopefully this is a work-in-progress.

You know something that really repels me from a summary; "Character X is (something cliche) and character Y is (something even more cliche). The two meet unexpectedly; will love blossom between them?" Considering that many of these stories ignore the digimon and are on average OOC, I always wonder...why?

Also, "Canon character does something out of character to canon character. (Insert amazingly lame, overused, cliche, WTF question here).

Is it just me or are these becoming far to common on this site?

Grammar nazis, unite!

*goes to hide in an attic with journal* Well, there's my lame joke of the day

As for writing the couples on the summary, I think people do it just to get more reviews especially if they put the more popular ones there

And yes, this new set up does in deed suck.

You know something that really repels me from a summary; "Character X is (something cliche) and character Y is (something even more cliche). The two meet unexpectedly; will love blossom between them?" Considering that many of these stories ignore the digimon and are on average OOC, I always wonder...why?

I'm starting to hate the word "blossom," because of this site. Seriously. I am.

Is it just me or are these becoming far to common on this site?

If it didn't seem like a crazy amount of work, I would try and start up some type of FanFiction contest - just within the Digimon section. I like what they do over at MediaMiner (actually, they've got one of their huge annual contests going on right now: http://forum.mediaminer.org/index.php?t=msg&th=34433&start=0&), it's a good setup and it works. I remember someone started up something last year, but I don't know if she's still with it or not, and I don't think it really got out to enough people in the end.

I'm starting to hate the word "blossom," because of this site. Seriously. I am.

Ever since I arrived at my University, I *hate* the word 'hella'. I mean, it's not even a real word nor does it derive from any word thus it has no roots. Also, I hate romance movies in General as I know they will soon make their way here. I also hate High School Musical but that was before this site.

I've though of making a contest with categories like Best Second point of view story and stuff along that category that will give this fandom a bit of diversity. However, I don't think to many people would be willing to do that.

I agree with everyone on the whole grammer thing.

Another thing that I stay away from is high school fics that totally ignore that the digital world ever happened. What I mean is something like:

Ken is an exchange student coming to whatever school. There he meets the popular girl Hikari and it's love at first site. Problem is, she's with Daisuke the school bully! What will Ken do!!!

I can't stand these!!!!!

Davis bashing of any kind is enought to make me go runing away from a story. Anything that involves light and hope being togather due to some divine force. Anything that has Takeru and Kari being the perfect couple while Davis and left with nothing and no one.

What really turns me off is when people try to make one of the DD's the bad guy in a social situation. Such as... "Davis like Kari, but TK doesn't like that. So he decides to screw Davis over for his own personal gain!" Okay... so I've actually never seen a summary like that, but you get my drift. And I mean that with any characters, really. I personally don't think that any of the DD's are vindictive enough to ruin one of their friend's lives, ever, so it just seems OOC to me.

I'm also not a fan of stories that are supposed to be 'team fics' but only focus on one main character. Like, if it's a story about the DD's going to the Digital World to fight some foe... the focus shouldn't only be on Sora. Or, the author shouldn't focus on every character in the story except for Joe, Yolei, and Cody because they don't like those characters... that always irritates me.

Or, the author shouldn't focus on every character in the story except for Joe, Yolei, and Cody because they don't like those characters... that always irritates me.

Needless to say, I agree with you whole-heartedly. In fact, it's to the point where I'll read a story that puts those characters in the spotlight and shoves everyone else into the background, while I would never read something that did the opposite.

Seriously, it's great if an author likes Hikari. I honestly can't comprehend her being someone's favorite character, but if she is, then so be it. But play around a bit! Even if every one of your stories has the same character in there, at least try and do something different with them. Write a oneshot exploring what Hikari and Jyou's friendship could be. Do a drabble about a situation you've never seen her in before. The whole point of fanfiction, for me, is to play around with the characters. I want to see what they do given different circumstances, and that's why I write them.

The whole point of fanfiction, for me, is to play around with the characters. I want to see what they do given different circumstances, and that's why I write them.

It is? I always though the point of fanfiction was to go watch a bunch of romantic movies and then rewrite them replacing the names with characters from an anime. I've been lied to.

Now what currently gets me is holding a story hostage until you receive an X amount of reviews. Seriously...WTF? I understand maybe getting at least one review before you continue (though I personally find it as proof of writing just to get reviews), but asking for ten? And I'm not talking about those stories that make you think about life but those average ones that make you say "hey, I think this is the 10,000th time I've read this plot." I mean, I've seen well written stories have only one review (sometimes, it's the one I left) where the author continues writing just for the sake of continuing.

*bitterly leaves to go make sense of physics*

Now what currently gets me is holding a story hostage until you receive an X amount of reviews. Seriously...WTF? I understand maybe getting at least one review before you continue (though I personally find it as proof of writing just to get reviews), but asking for ten? And I'm not talking about those stories that make you think about life but those average ones that make you say "hey, I think this is the 10,000th time I've read this plot." I mean, I've seen well written stories have only one review (sometimes, it's the one I left) where the author continues writing just for the sake of continuing.

I rarely find a good author who does that, but whenever I read a mediocre story that does this, I'm tempted to just review with "here's your flippin' review. get on with it."

...seriously. If I held my stories hostage, they'd never get finished.

I am actually less tempted to review because the story I was mentioning said that in an authors note in the first chapter only had them updating a few days later with only three reviews. I believe in writing for the sake of writing and improving and seeing that says to me that all you expect is reviews that say "OMG!!! UPDATE LULZ" that you learn nothing from.

Actually, when one of my chapters does not get reviewed like the previous one did, I just take it as if that chapter is below a certain standard and use it as an incentive to try harder on the next one.

Just for laughs, I was checking out the crossover sections and saw some pretty weird summaries. The way they wrote them automatically turned me off but the concept they were combining got the better of me. Sadly, my gut was right at first and I regret reading. But picture that; a summary so bad that it actually draws your attention...scary.

I agree with you wholeheartedly on the "holding chapter hostage" point. I absolutely hate when people do that, and I've left reviews before to tell people that by doing that, it most nearly proves that they do not write for the sake of writing, but to get the most reviews. I would rather get three well thought out, constructive reviews, than 15 "update soon!" reviews.

Ah, gosh, I hate it when the author begs for reviews. It's so... childish.

Anyway, what repells me in a summary... well, pretty much everything that's been stated. Bad grammar is a definite turn-off, as well as "lolz I know, summary sux". I mean, seriously... if you admit your bad at summaries, can I trust you to churn out good paragraphs? Also summaries that don't give you information and just tell you to read tick me off. A summary is a first impression of your story, make it a good one!

Summaries that admit to character bashing are also a turn-off. Oh, and any story that involves a character, like Davis or Tai going evil because he saw Kari/Sora with T.K./Matt.

I'm going to have disagree on the pairing thing. I don't know, I just prefer to know what kind of romance the story is going to have, so I know what I'm getting into. But then again I am very, VERY picky about my Digimon pairings, so meh.

Oh! And any medieval AU stories turn me off. As well as any summary that admits to getting rid of the Digimon partners (not for Spirit Evolution, but just plain not featuring the Digimon at all).

for the last seven million times, STOP. BASHING. THE. DUB. it really ticks people off like me who enjoy the dub more. RIDICULOUS LISP? stop bashing derek stephen prince, he voices half the dub for azulongmon's sake!!!!! (although i have nothing against noda junko/junko noda. he's cool) PLEASE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

anyway, being no fan of romance, anything lovey sends me away at once. use of japanese names sends me away too. lack of spelling and grammar annoys me, but what i really dont like is 'i suk at summarys plz read', which i seem to see a lot. have bit more confidence/spellcheck people!

i am a big fan of the dub and i get angry when people bash it, and the voice actors who waste their lives bothering with it since it gets bashed so much on these forums. i dont like the japanese version at all. sorry.

Ah, someone after my own heart! I love the dub, as well, and it also thoroughly annoys me when authors bash the dub. Turns me away from the story.

Generally, I think authors should just stay away from bashing in general. They're always going to offend somebody and lose somebody as a reader.

*stares* im a girl.

Good thing I didn't call you a boy, then, huh? -grins- And it's just expression, hun. No need to freak.

yeah, i know. 'hun' makes you sound like dub Ranamon.

dub bashing is annoying. people say the dub is rubbish, but in the japanese version they dont actually know what is been said! they rely on the fansubs, and every fansub ive found has been dodgy...*shivers* never again...

...obviously I am unable to say anything here without offending someone. It's a wonder I don't just turn off e-mail alerts and ignore the FF.Net forums all together.

Hands up everyone who has been offended by one of my statements in the past! I know there are more of you!

ANYWAY.

I kind of wish we had chapter summaries, just to give readers who are getting alerts more of an idea of what's going to happen in the chapter and maybe get them a bit more excited to read it when they get the alert. I also wish the character limit on the summaries was just a tiny bit longer. I always seem to have the perfect summary in mind and it's always six or seven characters too long for the limit here.

Miss Takin, please calm down. BlackExVeemon is new to this forum. She only joined today, as a matter of fact. So, there is absolutely no way she could have been talking about you. And if you were referring to my comments, then know that I was not even thinking of you or the discussion that has been going on in these forums. I was speaking strictly of authors who bash the dub in their actual stories or even in their summaries. You were not the topic of this little interchange at all.

And yeah, I actually agree with you. Especially if the chapter summaries were optional. That way, certain authors would find a need to change their summary every chapter, and in the process, give away key pieces of information to those who have yet to read the story. And I also agree on the summary limit. I actually prefer shorter summaries to be quite honest, but one or twice I have been caught by that character limit.

On to the sensitive subject of the dub, people on both sides need to realize that everyone has different taste and thus, hating/liking the dub is of personal preference. Example; I enjoyed the Evangelion dub and while there were things that they could have improved, I don’t think it’s fair for some fans to call the voice acting out of place (and w/o the dub, we would not have my new icon). However, that’s their opinion and I’m not going to spend every second of my (limited) free time to explain something that I enjoyed. If an excellent dub such as Eva has people who hate it, then obviously a dub like 02 should have an equal or greater hate going towards it. Just saying, don’t expect people to say the dub is as good as the original because if remakes of songs says something, that’s just not the case (unless you count ‘All Along the Watchtower’)

As for dub-only-fans that hate the original, I just find that strange. Back when I had the time to do what I’m doing now, I used to troll some forums where people took what the dub said as law. I would, naturally, explain certain changes that the dub made towards the show and I would always get the same responses of the dub being superior because the original did not have something that the dub inserted (and no, I’m not referring to those lame jokes). I kept telling these people if something is not supposed to be there, it is not supposed to be there for a reason. Of course, I always got about ten responses telling me to go do something to myself that is on average more fun with someone else.

I don’t hate every dub; it is just that I usually prefer the original because there are things if dubs aimed at kids that have to be changed for whatever reason. Airbrushing of some kanji/hiragana/katakana of the background, I hardly noticed that (though I do find it silly). Saying a character was possessed when he originally acted of his own free will, not cool. Why? Because it’s changes like those that dramatically alter a character. Oh and combining episodes/skipping over important arcs. That’s not cool either (unless, you know, they cause about 300 seizures when aired).

I am not going to delete your post, GuitarDude, but it is WAY off topic. So, I must ask everybody else to, please, not respond to it. If you wish to continue this discussion about the dub, we have a topic for that. Please head that direction if you feel the need. Thank you!

Sorry for more off-topic, but...

Yeah, I know, it's a bit unfair of me, but it's just difficult for me to read a story when the dub names are used. I guess it's the difference between hearing V-mon's cute voice saying "Daisuke" and Veemon's ridiculous lisp saying "Davis." That's all it is, really.

for the last seven million times, STOP. BASHING. THE. DUB. it really ticks people off like me who enjoy the dub more. RIDICULOUS LISP? stop bashing derek stephen prince, he voices half the dub for azulongmon's sake!!!!! (although i have nothing against noda junko/junko noda. he's cool) PLEASE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

:(

Just saying. It was pretty hard for me not to make that connection.

And now I'll unsubscribe to this topic and never look back. ^_^

*laughs* Thanks for putting this back on topic, Miss A.! Anyways,

I kind of wish we had chapter summaries, just to give readers who are getting alerts more of an idea of what's going to happen in the chapter and maybe get them a bit more excited to read it when they get the alert. I also wish the character limit on the summaries was just a tiny bit longer. I always seem to have the perfect summary in mind and it's always six or seven characters too long for the limit here.

I definitely agree on this one Miss. Takin. That would be a great idea, and I do often find myself short a couple words because of the summery limit, which is really annoying when you've come up with this great summery and it won't fit!

Also,

In my personal opinion, there are some instances where it's okay to state the couple in the summary. A one-shot, for instance, will be a waste of time if you didn't like the couple in the first place, because there isn't enough development in a one-shot to make anyone like it. Also, a story that is all about bringing one couple together might need a warning too. I think I only say that because I want to know what kind of stereotypical story I'm going to get if I choose to look at the story (not that I would anyway).

But, if it's a slice-of-life with a wide range of characters, I'd much rather be surprised. It's more fun that way. In fact, it would probably ruin the story to have the couples predetermined for the readers. Especially when one of the only things that carries drama successfully is relationship problems. Actually, any story that isn't completely romance shouldn't have a warning on it as far as the couples go.

This is kind of what I was getting at when I spoke about not wanting to know the parings in a summery. There are cases when I don't mind and feel it's okay (like the examples you stated) but I also agree that a story that isn't completely about romance shouldn't waste summery space with parings. That's not the whole point of the story so why put them in the summery?

With me, it's just too often writers put in the pairings, and sometimes it can ruin the whole suspense of who's going to end up with who. I once came across a romance story that had a very intriguing summery, which didn't state the main couple. Now, if the author had mentioned the couple, and I was the type of person who only read about couples I like, I would have overlooked it. But, since I was willing to give it a shot, I ended up reading this great story that turned out to be a Sorato. As many of you know, I'm a Mimato fan, but this story was awesome and I loved it, despite not having a particular favorite couple of mine. Just because it's not a favorite doesn't mean you won't be pleasantly surprised like I was.

That's why I mean when I say sometimes I like to be surprised.

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