Hell just look at how femine the guy is period. He's gone through most of puberty now and he's only managed one kiss pre-Whore? And he's among the most popular wizards in the world?? WTF is he gay?

 

Err.. I'm not sure it's sexist.

First of all, you should note that many sites require mandatory gender specification, so they could personalize messages with sir/ma'am and stuff like that.

As for the gushy stuff, the thing is, I WANT to read it. Just not from female POV.

God knows how many times have I've encountered perspective change during love scenes. At first, the writing is about Harry hitting on some girl. Yes, there's usually some fluff and stuff but I can take it, no problem. But then, when they start kissing, the author explains how SHE feels during the kiss... Which is understandable if the author is a girl, but don't do anything for me. I really, really don't read romances so I could learn how it is to make out with a guy. That's something I really don't want to know.

So, I honestly don't have anything against females or think they are inferior or any shit like that - I just don't wanna read about POV character (whith whom I indentify myself if the writting is good) kissing/fucking a guy. That's it. Is that so wrong?

 

Though this is often true, a good enough author can get around it. Gender doesn't always have a lot to do with this so much as personality of the author.

 

I'm with Silent on this one. On a different note, when's the site gonna be up? Last post regarding that said before the new year but...

 

Could we have a section for OC stories? Er...like stories that are SET in the Harry Potter Universe, but have nothing to do with Harry and the gang?... Not to mean Mary-sues/Gary-stus, i've read a couple that were actually quite good.

 

Too few of them for a whole section... I think.

 

How are you going to select Admin for the site?

 

Very nice! To it being up soon, that is.

And personally, I think a gender field on the author's account is a pretty good idea. Just make sure there's "Male, Female, and Both" with "Both" as default. I suppose "neither" sort of works, but "both" just looks more interesting in my mind's eye.

Briefly reiterating the gender argument, I'll be bluntly honest, in that Harry Potter wouldn't be anywhere near as popular if he were female. Both because of the natural gender bias, but also because of all the other baggage that being female entails. I'm not bringing up the physiological differences specifically, though I truly fear some of the fanfic that might come out from that, but mainly the issues and pressures and differences between the two genders. Growing up as a girl and growing up as a boy are still entirely different things. And if it was Harriet Potter, then the boys would not have half as much interest, and the girls would complain about the lack of or excessive "real" girl issues. Boys are the dumber, less emotional, and more logical of the genders. Their needs are simpler. That makes them a much better subject for the story. Not that it can't work with girls, just that I doubt it would have even a tenth of the popularity it does now.

And for all the aspiring writers, you really must quote the brilliant Melvin Udall, who when asked how he writes women characters so well, happily explains, "I think of a man, and I take away reason and accountability."

 

Err...Do you think it's possible to have users select the color they would prefer their background to be? After spending so much time on this site the white hurts my eyes...

 

Agree about color schemes thing...

I can't stand black on white, which is why I usually download the whole stories using Teleport Pro and than alter them: search & replace few things and replace css styles with my customized ones; the final product is white on black with font Veranda 40pt and blue quoted texts (easier reading of large paragraphs).

 

Okie dokes. Yeah I can see that. I just read stories and sometimes wish I knew if the author was male/female given how big they keep making Hermione's bressesses. Either that or we just have very strongly differing definitions of the word ample.

I think a lot more suggestions will be coming once it's up and in use, rather than purely brainstorming here.

 

Do you think it would be possible for authors to be able to create folders for say a series of stories? Like say for example L.S. decided to make Happy Red prince into more than one story he could put them in a folder under his author name with a series title....do you understand what I'm asking? Cuz I'm not sure I made it clear enough....