Hello! Thought I'd wade in... I agree with icarusancalion that recs need to be a lot more central, but I think it could be a lot more fluid than just having centralised rec lists for fandoms.
The way I would suggest is that people would personally collect fic that they like (similar to the ff.net system of favourites), but you would also have a secondary list where, like the 'friends of friends' thing on LJ (does anyone use that?) you'd have a list of all the things recommended by your recs. It wouldn't represent itself as definitive, so people would still be encouraged to check out newbies, and also there wouldn't be any sense of objective quality, because the whole thing would radiate from you - yet at the same time, it would still grow quite large and introduce you to lots of fic.
I mean, there could be a few options, so you would still be able to rec a story but avoid the author's recs (if you thought they had dubious taste!) - say buttons at the bottom of each fic saying 'rec fic', 'rec author', 'add author's recs to list' or whatever. That would also allow for a more automated central list as well if people wanted one.
I think I'm probably sounding far too eager, but it's the sort of system I've always wanted from a website, because it's the process I always go through trying to find more fic anyway.
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The way I would suggest is that people would personally collect fic that they like (similar to the ff.net system of favourites), but you would also have a secondary list where, like the 'friends of friends' thing on LJ (does anyone use that?) you'd have a list of all the things recommended by your recs. It wouldn't represent itself as definitive, so people would still be encouraged to check out newbies, and also there wouldn't be any sense of objective quality, because the whole thing would radiate from you - yet at the same time, it would still grow quite large and introduce you to lots of fic.
I mean, there could be a few options, so you would still be able to rec a story but avoid the author's recs (if you thought they had dubious taste!) - say buttons at the bottom of each fic saying 'rec fic', 'rec author', 'add author's recs to list' or whatever. That would also allow for a more automated central list as well if people wanted one.
I think I'm probably sounding far too eager, but it's the sort of system I've always wanted from a website, because it's the process I always go through trying to find more fic anyway.