Apparently, all it takes to get back on Fanlib's radar after 2 months radio silence is leaving a comment on Henry's blog.

( The thing is... )

I just had an hour-long convo with David Williams from Fanlib.com and I actually feel ( better about the site and the company's goals )

I got an invite today from a new fanfic archive called fanlib.com. I'm curious about them, and sent them a big long email basically giving them my honest thoughts on the site thus far, and we'll see how that goes.

I understand fandom's frustration with the signal:noise ratio at fanfiction.net, but the truth is, that's still the best run multi-fandom automated archive out there for a variety of reasons. And the only way the signal:noise ratio will ever improve is if a) better writers archive there and b) the writers who do archive there become better writers. Which puts 100% of the responsibility on the individual, which is why it's a long uphill battle, and usually the focus of the community's complaints. It's not the site's fault that it's so easy to use, so established, that every 12 year old kid can use it and does. But Xing has spent 10 years perfecting it, and working his damnedest to make sure it runs as well as it can, and serves the community as best it can, without courting C&D letters from every studio out there.

What I'm curious about is how a new multi-fandom automated archive can successfully position itself. Because if they want to present themselves as a genuine alternative, then they have to decide how best to do that and pour time and effort into it. And that means carving out a niche for themselves by offering features the other sites don't or can't, and providing better features than what's currently out there. By presenting an alternative that works as well or better than those other sites, just to rate. And so far I'm not impressed by their site, but I am impressed by their drive. I'm also wondering how long that can last. Then again, if you'd asked me ten years ago if I thought FFN would still be around today, I'd have laughed.

I still think that for content delivery systems, single-fandom archives, single autho archives, livejournal, and FFN have got all the community needs. Except for built-in filters that allow cream to rise to the top. And for that, the community has always provided, in terms of word-of-mouth by way of recs. But fandom as a whole is so damned pessimistic and looking for the negative that I wonder how successful any new site can be, unless they start from a really solid jumping off point.