quiet_tiger | Livejournal Versus Archiving

Why are there so many livejournal communities devoted to the same things? Exactly how many communities exist for Smallville Slash postings? I just. It astounds me.

And yet, pickings over at the SSA have been slim for months (even while season 4 was still airing). This could be because the slashiness of the show just isn't what it used to be, or people just aren't writing, or because there are ten or twenty communities for people to post to, instead.

Without the SSA, I would not be a slasher. I would not be a fanfic reader or writer. When I first stumbled across it about a year and a half ago, I couldn't keep up with the amount of new posts, and then I read fewer genres than I do now. I read what I could get my hands on. When that dried up a bit, I explored authors.

Eventually, I explored livejournalland. It's just that for those people not familiar with livejournalland, it's intimidating, and a bit tricky to navigate. You're never sure of what you're looking at. You may not recognize names. It's a web to explore, but it helps to have some sort of guide.

Do the various communities actually encourage different things? There is at least one for just CLex. There're probably ones for just het. There's that new flashfiction one. But. Why? What am I missing? What is wrong with the ones that exist? Do people not know about them? Is that why new ones keep cropping up? Will there soon be one for just Luthorcest? Or one for just futurefics?

It's come to the point where I, who regularly checks only two communities I haven't joined, and neither of them are related to Smallville, have seen the same story posted and crossposted multiple times. Is that really necessary? I'm not trying to be snotty, though I know I often seem to be, but I just really don't understand why all the excess is necessary. Is it to gain more feedback? Is it to share the story with more people? If most of the same people are members of all the communities, how many different people are actually being reached?

Different communities for different things I understand, be they a Virgin Lex, or Lana-bashing, or one devoted to Martha Kent (I have no idea if these latter two exist, just making things up). But I don't understand the need for ten or twenty livejournal communities for people to post fics where Clark and Lex boink. I mean, we all get it. Clark and Lex are slashtacular. But we all know it. I don't understand the need to post it to five different communities.

That brings me back to archiving. Sort of. There's the SSA. There's fanfiction.net. These are two different sites. Rarely have I read anything on the SSA and thought, "Damn, this is utter crap." However, when I read through stuff on ff.net, I thought that about way too many fics. Hence, I don't check out ff.net any more- the odds are against me. Then there is that relatively new archive, the Full House one (which is a terrible name, IMO, because it brings to mind the TV show Full House, where slash should not exist). What's that like? I haven't checked it since I first heard about it. Level Three and the Wild Coyote almost never seem to have updates.

Maybe the explosion of livejournal isn't the problem. Not that there's necessarily a problem. Perhaps other archives are drawing people away from the SSA. Or maybe it is the lack of Clexy goodness on the show. But if that were true, there wouldn't be new communities springing up. Why not revive the old?

But hell, even I haven't written something CLex in months. Haven't even been inspired to. Granted I've veered into DC slash, because I <3 it, so I've been spending much less time with the CLex. Even the virginlex stuff I've posted to the SSA has only been an afterthought because I wrote it specifically for that community, and not all of it is on the SSA, just the stuff with Bruce Wayne.

But I do want to start a community for just Bruce Wayne/Lex Luthor slash. Because it's hard to find. Because it's not quite Smallville- unless it's set there- and it's not quite DC, so it's hard to place anywhere. And maybe people will be encouraged to write more, so that our beloved billionaire issue-ridden woobies can find comfort in each other. Mmm, Brex.

So, I suppose what I'm asking is, has there been an increase in the number of livejournal communities that encourage the exact same thing? Am I just imagining it? Has there been a decrease in the number of fics archived to sites like the SSA or ff.net? If there are so many fics written for the communities, how come that same number hasn't been archived? Or maybe it has been, just not to archives I'm familiar with. Is livejournal taking over the archives? If so, why now?

Most importantly: What am I missing?

It'd be an interesting research paper. (see, I'm a nerd).