2) I love LJ because it gives me a way to feedback without having to sign up for yet another board/archive site, but if I read someone's story and really like it, the first thing I do is check their user info to see if they have a website, and I bookmark those. You know, something I've noticed, is that some authors post their fic to their LJs, but still post it to their webpage, and at the bottom of the story where they leave their info for feedback, they are not only leaving their email address, but also a link going back to the LJ post so that you can leave a comment there. That seems like a nice compromise to me.
Websites tend to be cleaner and it's great to have a good author's fic all in one place, and be able to avoid having to wade through all the other fic I'm not interested in reading. And that's really what it comes down to for me. I like having everything there. I like that a story can be all on one page (since webpages don't have character limits like LJ does) or the breaks are more natural if it is broken up. I like going in, being able to see if a fic is finished, or how many parts it's in. And, even though it can sometimes be really badly done, I like how webpages look *distinctive*. Some people have their LJs set up so everything is in their style, but a lot just go to the generic black on white with blue trimmings LJ default. It's also nice, because you can see if the author writes in other fandoms that you like, or if they also vid, or whatever. LJ just has too much other stuff, and you have to skip back, and a single fic can be multiple posts, websites are just cleaner.
My guess is people are moving away from the personal sites because the free ones are chock full of ads and the pay ones are getting more and more expensive. Really? I know the free ones are full of ads, but I would say that the pay ones aren't all that expensive. I have multiple websites. In fact, if you're willing to shop around and look for deals you can get websites pretty much for free. I have gotten websites for $10 for the full year, $1 for the full year, and even my main webpage that I pay for is only about $100/year and it has so much bandwidth and disk space that I don't know what to do with it (I'm currently hosting, like 5 webpages on it and never really have a dent in my bandwidth or disk space). And the thing is, and I *know* I'm not alone in this, I'm totally willing to share this space. One of the sites I host is a fic archive for a QaF writer I met years ago. I host raxhels vids, I host my own, and another SGA/SPN vidders, and have put out an open call to anyone else who'd like to have their vids hosted. I know that with the deals going on out there, it is just as inexpensive to get a webspace with a ton of space and bandwidth as it is to get one with only a little, and the abilities to give individual people access to their own part of the webpage. If you think about it, it would be *super* easy for a group of say, 10 authors to get together and purchase the plan I have, host all of their fic/fandom stuff, as well as having some room for personal stuff, and then only have to pay $10 for the whole year.
LJ vs. Websites
You know, something I've noticed, is that some authors post their fic to their LJs, but still post it to their webpage, and at the bottom of the story where they leave their info for feedback, they are not only leaving their email address, but also a link going back to the LJ post so that you can leave a comment there. That seems like a nice compromise to me.
Websites tend to be cleaner and it's great to have a good author's fic all in one place, and be able to avoid having to wade through all the other fic I'm not interested in reading.
And that's really what it comes down to for me. I like having everything there. I like that a story can be all on one page (since webpages don't have character limits like LJ does) or the breaks are more natural if it is broken up. I like going in, being able to see if a fic is finished, or how many parts it's in. And, even though it can sometimes be really badly done, I like how webpages look *distinctive*. Some people have their LJs set up so everything is in their style, but a lot just go to the generic black on white with blue trimmings LJ default. It's also nice, because you can see if the author writes in other fandoms that you like, or if they also vid, or whatever. LJ just has too much other stuff, and you have to skip back, and a single fic can be multiple posts, websites are just cleaner.
My guess is people are moving away from the personal sites because the free ones are chock full of ads and the pay ones are getting more and more expensive.
Really? I know the free ones are full of ads, but I would say that the pay ones aren't all that expensive. I have multiple websites. In fact, if you're willing to shop around and look for deals you can get websites pretty much for free. I have gotten websites for $10 for the full year, $1 for the full year, and even my main webpage that I pay for is only about $100/year and it has so much bandwidth and disk space that I don't know what to do with it (I'm currently hosting, like 5 webpages on it and never really have a dent in my bandwidth or disk space). And the thing is, and I *know* I'm not alone in this, I'm totally willing to share this space. One of the sites I host is a fic archive for a QaF writer I met years ago. I host
(cont. some more)