Pretty much the same for me. Once I started reading fanfiction I read a few Harry/Ginny and some Hermione but once I branched out they became dull and tedious. Well the ones I could find were anyway. Perhaps my standard just went up

 

:facepalm I love it when people bitch and moan that they hate a certain thing and that it's clogging up their website, but then when a site devoted to that thing goes down, they cheer.

Guess what? For every person there is doing their own thing on their own site, that's a few more stories you don't like that aren't clogging up your preferred site.

I can only pray that some day an army of slash-only sites will pop up, and the slash writers could take their Harry/any-and-every-guy-Harry-hates horseshit over there.

It's a really simple concept: If you don't like the subject matter a site is devoted to (in this case, H/Hr, JP/LE, DM/GW, and R/LL), then don't go to that site.

When a site like that goes down, not only are many of the stories simply lost forever (dead author, story only hosted on that site, et cetera - Which other people may care about, even if you don't), but most of the authors that are still active will have to seek another hosting option... possibly at "your" site.

Then you'll be crying, "I wish they'd take their shit stories to a site of their own." Gee, what a novel fuckin' idea. See, in this case, it's not the people minding their own business on their own site who are being the dicks.

What the Barenaked Ladies didn't tell you in that song, is that "the kind of guy who laughs at a funeral" is usually some kind of asshole.

In my case, I rarely went to Portkey. Usually, if I read something there, it was because someone else had recommended it. Mainly, I was too lazy to go there and search for stuff, on top of the other sites I went to.

Still, the site's existence never did me any harm, and I won't be kicking up my heels and celebrating if it dies. In my opinion, it's almost never a good thing when an HP fanfic site goes down, if you are into HP fanfic; that goes for whether you actually frequent the site in question or not.

TL/DR: 90% of everything is shit. Pairing has little to do with it, although I will admit that the more unlikely the pairing, the harder the author will have to work in order to make the story readable.

Guess how many authors are both willing and able to do that work?

Yeah...

 

Ah, but the very fact that the site dedicated to this is shutting down in itself shows that the fans dedicated to that particular fandom are dying off. This is nominally a bad thing for the fandom as a whole, true, but it diminishes your argument somewhat.

Besides that, personally I'm resigned to the unstoppable influx of shit anyway. More people pissing in the sea of piss will change very little.

 

You might have meant that there are some authors which write the story only to promote some pairing instead of telling an exciting story where the pairing is a subset. Sometimes you get the feeling that the writer has some kind of serious obsession with a character, not just sympathy or dislike to some book character's attributes but something which transcends into something "real" for these writers. As if they live out some phantasy with their virtual crush in these stories and anything which endangers that gets bashed for the sake of it.

That usually results in cliches, redundant plot devices, filler fluff with some extremely cheesy romance.
Radaslab + Robst + broomstick flyer + muggledad + friends are some of the prime candidates which work like a demolition crew for certain pairings.

 

Well, in my case I just dislike bad romance and there's just too much bad one.

Though marked as Adventure and it seems to be dead, that was the most promising romance start and fresh story I've liked this year in that genre.
I know, Harry/Ginny but it's a story where Harry never went to Hogwarts, didn't know about his fame or the magic world, Dursleys dropped him into an US orphanage, magical world thinks him dead and he comes back from the US to start uni in the UK on a scholarship. He meets Ginny in a pub in oxford who visited some muggleborn friend on an easter vacation in her 7th and from there Harry is sucked into the magical world.

The characterization felt excellent to me and imho gave tribute to the theme of the HP world, Weasley family and about the culture clash, 17/18 year olds which felt real. I know, surely not the typical food here but the few chapters there are definitely impressed me and with a lot potential outside the romance beginning.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5403782/1/Hero

P.S. Awaits crucification by the Anti Ginny mob now

 

I think my main point was more along the lines of "People shouldn't crow over other people's misfortune." which is valid anytime, anywhere (unless the person's misfortune is the direct result of them being a dick).

What, you don't want to be caught in a bad romance? :awesome

*ducks and runs*

 

-___________-

I still maintain that she's saying "Watch out, brrrro'mance!" during the bridge.

(Can't unhear it)

 

Just out of curiosity, can someone post a link where they actually said they were taking it down? I don't see any announcements or anything on the site.

 

http://fanfiction.portkey.org/story/8073

Coming Back Late is the only really nice H/Hr fic that I've ever read. I have a few H/Hr fics that I read, but they are more guilty pleasure fics and I enjoy them for reasons other than the pairing.

Actually, this fic sort of falls into that category as well since I mostly love the original take on the Hallows and how being their master is not exactly healthy for the person in charge of all three of them. They kind of fuck up Harry pretty good. The writing is technically sound in most instances.

I've never been a huge stickler on pairings as I'll read pretty much anything that isn't a slash fest. With that being said, I think it would be kind of nice to actually see an author (read: Joe) write an epic H/Hr fic. Because, in all honesty, Harry/Ginny (Hero Trilogy ftw!), Harry/Fleur, Harry/Lily, etc. all have at least one epic fic, but I can't find that with H/Hr which is sad considering there is a Snape/Lily fic that is better than every H/Hr fic I've ever read.

 

There are a few, but they mostly take place after Hogwarts (Paradigm of Uncertainty trilogy, Forever Knight, Paradise Lost). I have yet to find an epic story involving the H/Hr pairing that takes place while they are at Hogwarts (though there are a few good ones though, but I would never consider them epic).

 

Well, I would have to reread all the portkey hermione stories I have bookmarked to judge the EPIC state, but a few I remember to have really liked once like "Orb of Slytherin" and there were also a lot better post HBP stories with Hermione back then.
But even if there weren't really big screen "epic" stories like the Hero Triology I think the only vampire story I thought readable was Blood Bound with Hermione too and that should count for bonus points.
Maybe you can call Turn Me Loose an epic Harry/Hermione unplanned notromance because she carries his child and the Luna part fizzled away.

P.S. Who knows, maybe all these stories also aged badly now. Lately I read the 7 chapers of the 2nd Stranger story again and despite a few really strong scenes I actually understand why he stopped. The whole Grindelwald setting there was badly thought out, the same with the Katie!GirlWhoLived and the personality/philosophical angle just didn't click. Am I the only one here who enjoyed the Hero trilogy at the beginning but couldn't read further in the 3rd part where the bigger than life thing got really far too BIG, even for Joe. I thought the struggle on his Odyssey voyage through the different worlds the most interesting part by far.

 

I wouldn't call them epic either. I'm talking Hero, Wastelands, The Lie I've Lived, Gentleman Usher of the Scarlet Rod, Retsu's Folly (update that shit Nuhuh), D&R, and Denarian when I say epic. All I'm saying is that it has to be easier to write an epic Harry/Hermione than Harry/Ginny. Though, to be fair, the best writers seem to prefer offbeat ships.

Please note that by offbeat I mean crazy hot veela, a hot girl with a twin, and various combos of characters from other series that are also ridiculously hot....

Edit:

I'm pretty sure there is a joke there...somewhere.

 

I guess it all depends on your definition of epic. I consider a story epic if it occurs all over the world, where the story is almost bigger than the characters. In this case, both PoU and Paradise Lost fit. The only problem those stories have is that they occur after Hogwarts and take a lot of liberties with the HP universe and HP magic (i.e. they are more like traditional fantasy than HP fantasy).

So if those stories don't qualify, could you explain what qualifies as epic in your definition?

 

To me, an epic story is one that at the end makes you wish you hadn't read it, so you could read it for the first time again.

Nonjon's A Black Comedy is such a fic, so is his Where In The World Is Harry Potter series. Reign Of Power by Fayr Warning also belongs in that category and when I finally do end up finish reading Wastelands and Renegade Cause is completed... I'm fairly certain they'll be in this group as well.
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Portkey is apparently not dead, but having MAJOR server issues. Good to know that the archive of stories isn't going to be lost.