At the Forum

There is a discussion going around trying to establish what is good
writing or at least what pieces merit being discussed by the more or
less permanent writers of the forum - usually people recommending
stories. Whether they are biased or not (by genre, friendship, or
adulation of an established/already recognized author here, etc. ) is
another story.

The most important problem is that not everyone writes for the same
reasons, that is obvious but it is not so obvious from the answers and
counter-answers made in the discussion. Some people write with an eye
on being published and among them there are those that write for the
masses, others write for the selected few in literary criticism and
others attempt to please both the masses and academia.

There are also people here who write purely for their own enjoyment or
as an outlet for their creativity or their emotions and are not too
concerned with mass recognition or financial rewards (that may be an
added bonus but it is not their primary concern). I know because I have
written pieces primarily because I enjoy making them (and/or laughing)
knowing that few people will read them and that I will never get any
money out of them but it's fun.

In summary, in a place like ABCtales there is no way of knowing the
author's intention and therefore hard to judge the merit of his or her
work. Maybe if a special section called "For literary critics" (or
something like that) were to be created then people's comment on their
literary worthiness would be valid. However, there is little chance
that such an idea coming from the general membership will be put into
effect given the amount of work that the employees here have to deal
with and probably the numerous proposal for changes that they
receive.