Would be interesting to see how the trends have change over the years, so if anyone remembers the trends, copy the time table and fill in what you remember.


02-02.5:
02.5-03:

03-03.5:
03.5-04:

04-04.5: Ginny Lovers starts to infest FF.net
04.5-05:

05-05.5: Azkaban fics
05.5-06:

06-06.5: Harry send back in time.

 

As I've only been reading fanfiction for a year now I can't really add anything to this, but I must say that it will be interesting to see.

Perhaps set the start of indy!Harry as the publication date of Power of Time?

 

the 4th year animagus craze started rather early and dark harry started around the time 9-10-03 which is when http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1514208/1/ this came out

 

That really wouldn't work. Mostly because fanfiction.net seems to think that RossWrock posted the Power of Time in 1970

 

I think that's because they removed his fic after some false report and then brought it back after he complained to the admins... yeah I know, who would have thought?

 

I think the first box should be marauder fics. There was a period where ff.net was 70% MWPP.

 

Ugh, I don't remember what year it was when I started reading Harry Potter fics, but it was pretty good then. All I know was that it was before DLP existed, and when people gave real reviews instead of "UP|)473 $00|\|!!11!!1" Please forgive my us of leet speek there...

 

Hmm it's not the fact that fics are getting worse, it's that your judgements and expectations are getting higher as you get older/more experienced fanfic-wise. Oh and the fact that it was far easier to come up with an original idea or concept three years ago.

 

I seem to have noticed that a large number of "Harry uses and learns Magic as a child" since Louis IX released 'Mastermind Hunting', probably read about 3-4 since it came out. That was mid-05 when he released it.

As for fanfiction years, I'd have to say 05, lots of good ideas/stories that came out last year though there have been a few interesting ones so far this year.

 

I dunno... 2003 seemed pretty good to me; it was when Full Pensieve first started writing Year of Rebellion. And everything was alot more original back then..... I feel old now just thinking about it.

 

2003-04 was the best years IMO.Everything new started there including (slash(euuccckk).

 

Well, i have noticed a rise in the number of "Harry attends a foriegn school where he learns X number of wierd types of magic and becomes some sort of magical creature" since The Second Chance at Life came out. And most aren't done half as well.

 

I think the earlier years were good for me because 1. it was easier to sort the good from the bad 2. It was more fun and there was no Ootp/HBP to f@#k things up.

I think canon ended up spoiling my enjoyment of fan fic.
Before Ootp people could use more imagination, now it's all boo hoo Sirius and boo hoo Dumbles.
I mean for goodness sake Sirius was in Harry's life for less than 5months(in contact terms).
Also he was a psychotic, unpredictable moron and utterly annoying. I'm glad he was killed off.
As for Dumbles, how many here would cry if there headmaster at school died.
He was an authority figure who pissed on Harry's life by dumping him at the Dursley's and abandoning Harry.
I enjoyed seeing him get his because he sat on his arse and ignored the obvious.
If he knew all those things about Tom then why didn't he stop it.
I just hope the gormless pair (RW/HG) get AK-ed and Ginny gets tortured to death.

 

If you look at some post GoF fics, they have a lot of original stuff, but then once OotP comes out, a lot of first chapters have to do with Harry moping around his room, not getting much to eat, and cryiong about Sirius. So I agree with Litha on that, also with the fact that it was easier to sort good from bad.

Also, the same kind of thing happened with the Naruto fandom. I remeber when you could actually search through a couple of pages and not see ANY slash at all, but then the # of stories exceeded 10,000, and that was when you started getting the REALLY crappy stories.

 

I feel you pain brother. Joking aside, I haven't been in the fanfiction world long enough to actually answer the poll but what strikes me more and more often is the flood of bad written fics, not to mention slash fics, that have innundated HP fandom.

As for Naruto...I have almost given up hope on a good written fic there.

 

Hum... i voted 2003, and i was going to mention full pensieve, but someone beat me to it. Anyway, it was a good year. it also had olafr's time of change, "betrayed", the "trouble in paradise" fic, along with the splendid's fic by lady alchymia, that is now restricted to her website... i think the name was "harry potter and the emerald tablet". Great fic, splendidly written, and harry/susan to boot.

 

I have to agree with you here. There are times I look back on fics I read when I first entered the realm of fanfiction, and can't believe I read them.

 

I can say that Russian fanfiction was pretty original and interesting in 2002-2003 years with high quality canon-size fanfics, but now 95% contains fan girls stuff and slash, and even that all with pathetic quality; so I moved to English fanfiction year ago, but it seems ff.net meets the same destiny I vote for 2004 overall. And of course before OotP all fanfics where much simpler with general audience much younger that in present day. (I don't include fangirls of course. They are cancer of our fanfiction society and must be eliminated )

 

Barb's Trilogy, discounting the prequel which couldn't interest me, really started of a lot alternate dimension, Hunkish Harry, Animagus, etc etc. Few, could, of course compare with him.

The release of OoTP 4 years ago really sparked off fanfiction, and only around 03-03 did it began to expand enormously, a good number of em being pretty interesting stories. H/Hr I think started off as a big wave around that time?

But soon after Cassandria Claire's slash fics, hell interesting, and Irresistible Poison, slash of course, and especially Harry/Draco slash began to expand enormously. Consequently, H/Snape found, in my mind, it's FlagBearer as well: First four parts of the Tea series.

And Gin slut began creeping around 00-01, though back then it used to be pretty okay, not that many cliche's to eat from, so author's actually thought up original stuff.

A lot of the community is just sheep: find the few most reviewed fics of the year, and you'd probably know what kinda trend people followed. And often, these flagbearers aren't too good either: The Nightmare of MegaPussy!Harry Past, and even Rosswanker's are bullshit and okay respectively, in my opinion.

Well, if I had my old bookmarks I could prob go into much more detail, but anyways...

 

I find late '04 to '05 was pretty good. I started reading around then and quickly joined up in C2's because I was shifting through a bunch of 200+ word stories. 99% slash and the ones that were not... well, lets just say that it was the scourge of ff.net. I've seen some good HP fics. Mostly found from C2's and even then I had to dig.

On the Naruto front, join C2's they will get you some sense of organization. Keep in mind though, you still have to dig somewhat for a good fic.