13/11/07: From the F1slash Community on Livejournal

An open letter to all writers:

It can be very tempting to rattle off a fic as soon as inspiration hits you and then to post it straight-away, but with a bit of patience you would be amazed just how much something you have written can be improved. An extra set of eyes can be useful for pointing out those silly little mistakes that are so easy to overlook, or even to point out a continuity error that seemed to make perfect sense to you at the time. A beta can give you increased inspiration, turning your quick ficlet into some master-piece epic, or can help you to think about things in a totally different way. It also helps if your beta has a working knowledge of the fandom, I know the content of these fics is in no way suggested as being reality but things such as a race results, team names, basic limits of the human body are based in the real world.

Each writer has their own opinion of what makes a good beta, but at the very least a beta should be someone who isn't afraid to turn around and give constructive criticism. We all love to be told, as a writer, that we are awesome but sometimes it's just as good if a beta comes back to you and says 'I really liked this but all of this could really do with some work'. On a personal note, when I was new to this fandom my first few fics were posted without a beta and it took a friendly nudge to get me to use one - not only do I now look back over those fics now and flinch but I have made some really good friends out of the beta's I now use.

Everyone who is a part of this community loves to sit down and read a good fic, and while the occasional error here or there may not totally distract from the story as a whole, it can make some passages hard to understand. I, as a mod, do not want to end up censoring anyone as at my heart I am a fan of this fandom (well duh) and I do not want to discourage anyone from posting their work here either, but I do want to see not only inventive stories but basic good quality writing as well.

An open letter to all readers:

This is your community as well. There are many of you out there (only need to look at the user info to see that) and it would be so nice to see more of you commenting. I know that not all fics are too all peoples tastes etc but if you have taken the time out to read someones work than let them know ok? Also, do not be afraid to leave constructive comments. Writers love to have their ego stroked or be begged for more of the same story, but we also enjoy being poked about areas we could improve in as well. The key here is to be constructive, don't just go 'That sucked' or anything like that, say what you liked/didn't like/have a problem with and then expand upon it.