Hah! Those Russian pirating criminals, I should have known. ;-) I don't know why I didn't think of that, actually, other than that I don't really participate much anymore. I was stunned when I found out from Morgan Dawn that most of the downloads of our vids are from eastern Europe; I knew it had been huge in Oz and western Europe, but it hadn't occurred to me that the east would be big, too.
I appreciate the advice. To be honest, I never cruised many of the links beyond when I went looking; all my favorite fan sites have vanished, such as Michael's Obeyance Pool, and the like. I've never been to FF.net except once by accident, and it was enough to make me never go there again (it's odd, but everyone assumes that's where I've seen fic, and yet it just is not a place I would ever willingly visit), but unfortunately this very well-known Buffy fic was there and it was the only place to find it.
I'm not terrifically happy with message board recs because it usually comes from people whose taste in no way matches mine, but a couple folks have mentioned this today, so I think it's definitely worth a look. It sounds like you get where I'm coming from in some respects, so that adds to the worth, definitely. I think that even with the prevalence of things like LJ, though, this would still be one of those feral fandoms like Xena. I mean, people don't even know they're *in* fandom in LFN, I find, and so for someone like me, who's been around for a long time, it's always struck me as peculiar in a lot of ways. The vids are very amateurish and the vidders don't seem to know that there are these things called vids, and so on... it's an expectation difference, I guess, is what I mean. My expectations of fannish product are different than what is on offer in LFN, so it's been a place I don't play much.
I'm by no means an expert on the fandom, and I fear that people think I'm trying to put myself into that role by writing this. I just have a deep and abiding interest in the series and in Michael and Nikita as a couple, which is how I came to write this. Luring others with solid links and fic and such... I'm just really grateful there are other like yourself who've come up with solid recs, because I doubt I may ever be able to do that.
Re: Part 2
I appreciate the advice. To be honest, I never cruised many of the links beyond when I went looking; all my favorite fan sites have vanished, such as Michael's Obeyance Pool, and the like. I've never been to FF.net except once by accident, and it was enough to make me never go there again (it's odd, but everyone assumes that's where I've seen fic, and yet it just is not a place I would ever willingly visit), but unfortunately this very well-known Buffy fic was there and it was the only place to find it.
I'm not terrifically happy with message board recs because it usually comes from people whose taste in no way matches mine, but a couple folks have mentioned this today, so I think it's definitely worth a look. It sounds like you get where I'm coming from in some respects, so that adds to the worth, definitely. I think that even with the prevalence of things like LJ, though, this would still be one of those feral fandoms like Xena. I mean, people don't even know they're *in* fandom in LFN, I find, and so for someone like me, who's been around for a long time, it's always struck me as peculiar in a lot of ways. The vids are very amateurish and the vidders don't seem to know that there are these things called vids, and so on... it's an expectation difference, I guess, is what I mean. My expectations of fannish product are different than what is on offer in LFN, so it's been a place I don't play much.
I'm by no means an expert on the fandom, and I fear that people think I'm trying to put myself into that role by writing this. I just have a deep and abiding interest in the series and in Michael and Nikita as a couple, which is how I came to write this. Luring others with solid links and fic and such... I'm just really grateful there are other like yourself who've come up with solid recs, because I doubt I may ever be able to do that.