Eight Years Out: Musings On Our Eighth Anniversary
February 14, 2010
Eight years isn't a particularly long time—even on the Internet. GLBT Fantasy Fiction Resources might predate Facebook, YouTube, and LOLcats, but it's got nothing on blogging, Wikipedia, or writing novels in a month.
So, why mark it as a milestone? Because the site has finally matured. The goal of the overhaul completed in 2009 was clean, accessible, standards-compliant code—and it succeeded. In the months that followed, I went even further, stripping away as much clutter and deadwood as possible—including a handful of old interviews, an archive of obsolete news, and dozens of ineligible reviews—and rewrote the guidelines for brevity and clarity. I now take as much pride in the site's appearance and underlying construction as I do in giving readers an outlet for their opinions.
Of course, that same custom code also makes us an online dinosaur. Why post a review on someone else's website when you can just as easily deploy your own blog? In the eight years we've been online we've hosted reviews from thirteen people, but the lion's share were written by only three—MonkeyCMonkeyDo, eRIK, and myself, accounting for 87% of reviews.
But we're still here and still queer, eight years out. So if you've ever wanted to try your hand at writing a book review—and don't mind using creaky old software like email—come join us.
In the meantime, I'll leave you with some numbers put together by my inner geek, some of them informative, some just for fun.
Here's to another eight years.
Reviews Posted by Year
| Year | Total | HR | Rec | NR | % negative |
| '02—'03 | 55 | 31 | 17 | 7 | 13% |
| '03—'04 | 110 | 69 | 36 | 5 | 5% |
| '04—'05 | 66 | 40 | 17 | 9 | 14% |
| '05—'06 | 102 | 49 | 41 | 12 | 12% |
| '06—'07 | 41 | 17 | 14 | 10 | 24% |
| '07—'08 | 22 | 11 | 6 | 5 | 23% |
| '08—'09 | 25 | 10 | 9 | 6 | 24% |
| '09—'10 | 44 | 17 | 15 | 12 | 27% |
| Overall | 465 | 244 | 155 | 66* | 14% |
* 71% written by me
Frequency of descriptive words used in reviews:
| fun: 31 | boring: 13 |
| engrossing: 29 | tedious: 11 |
| delightful: 21 | weird: 10 |
| brilliant: 17 | baffling: 6 |
| edgy: 4 | pretentious: 2 |
Three words that appear only once: existentialism, erection, and jello.
(Fortunately not all in the same review.)
Eight Years of Feedback
- Number of positive email messages received: 31
- Number of hatemail messages received: 3
- Number of fake bounce messages sent in response to hatemail: 1**
- Number of authors who've sent feedback about reviews of their work: 3
- Number of authors who've requested a review be removed: 1
- Number of reviews removed at an author's request: 0
** LOCAL module (TROLL-Filter 1.0.3) reports:
Message text rejected by mail.glbtfantasy.com:
The message body violates glbtfantasy.com's
Anti-Troll policy. This message has not been delivered.
X-Troll-Checker-Version: Troll-Filter 1.0.3
X-Troll-Status: Yes, hits=9.8 required=5.0
tests=BAD_LANGUAGE_01, IRRATIONALITY_02, AD_HOMINEM_01,
POT_KETTLE_BLACK_01, WEAK_SARCASM_02
X-Troll-Level:++++++++++
Our Editorial Staff
© Finder | GLBT Fantasy Fiction Resources | 2010
