Collector of good stories, thrilled to find another fanfic gem. Only those are listed below, so I recommend you take a look at them when you’re in need of something good to read. My favourite stories are varied, because I don't have my preferences set in stone, though I have developed some dislikes over time, like the Harry/Ginny pairing or endlesssly rehashing canon. Fem!Harry is something I usually skip as well because it feels somewhat alien to me. However, there are a few precious exceptions to that rule and those are in my Favourite Stories below. For me a good plot is most important, good writing and good grammar are next and when originality is involved it gets even better. And I discovered my love for slash stories! Turns out slash fans and -authors are quite often men-loving women, but I’ve found a few gay authors who write awesome slash stories too.
In contrast to what many people would like to believe, life and everything that entails, isn’t black and white. People aren’t usually 100% attracted to the opposite gender, it’s a gliding scale. Sometimes people only like their own gender, sometimes they only like the other gender and a lot of times it’s somewhere in between. Is that wrong? No, I don’t think so because it’s how you're born. And if you believe all life has meaning because your god creates all life you should be able to accept that. Your god must be OK with it, otherwise that person wouldn’t have been created now would they?
Some advice for easier reading: it's good to know that you can change the look of the page to suit your needs of the moment. Apart from the functions on your machine FFN provides extra possibilities on the story pages. Look at the little row of symbols near the top, they can change the look of the page, like the size of the font (that’s the letter the text is written in), the font itself, the width of the text over the page and the best feature of all (for me at least): the contrast switch. It switches the page from black text on a white page to white text on a black page. It’s much easier on the eyes and when you’re reading right before you go to bed it makes it easier to go to sleep after, especially if you adjust the brightness of the screen as well.
During the existence of this site, the admin(s) of this site create havoc every few years by initiating major witch hunts on stories that are in some way violating the ToS. Their modus operandi is ruthless: delete first, give notice afterwards. That goes for everything, even minor offences like having a summary that’s not K-rated on a T-rated story. But, in their defence, some users are clearly in the wrong. The fact that stories can’t be rated MA doesn’t mean content like that falls under the M-rating.
I like to read those stories too, but please publish them somewhere else, there’s enough choice in other sites with more protection for young kids in place. Here, on one of the largest sites on the internet, these stories are not safe.
On her page here Toki Mirage wrote the following which I’d like to quote:
"In regards to FFNET getting up in arms about porn and violence on the website…
Funny fact, for anyone who’s interested. I met someone in the industry that told me why FFNET is so against smut. Advertisers. Competitors for companies like Ford, for example, apparently take screen shots of these ads displayed next to smutty bits of writing and send them in as “complaints,” saying things like “I’m horrified that your company is being represented in this way, blah blah…” Scandal. So that’s a mystery solved for me. You can now blame ads for all your problems. ADS, the pandemic, a literary version of AIDS that strives to attack your stories in their deepest, darkest recesses…”
So… a non-commercial site has a lot going for them in this light! When you have ‘smutty bits of writing’ publish those on a site like Archive of Our Own (AO3). The site is fan-driven and not commercial. Read their ToS and you’ll see your stories are safer there. Also, they’re not 'selling' your data to other commercial parties like ‘some’ commercial sites do! And things I like best: when there are problems, like story piracy or other abuse the admins react fast as lightning to do what they can to solve the problem. Also, they publish a monthly newsletter that keeps you informed about the goings on at the site.
I read this on old-crow’s page, an author who has written many fine stories over the years and I wholeheartedly agree with what he says:
“There are so few post-Riddle stories that have held my interest. Far too often the wizarding world resembled bombed out Berlin, circa 1945, or Harry being Head Auror, or in a bad relationship with Ginny.
My thought is for the HP fics to thrive well into their third decade, they need major deviations from Canon. Bobmin's Sunset/sunrise pair would do well if they were published today. Nobody needs yet another third year tale with a microscopic twist that takes eleven chapters to become apparent.
Honestly I think it's time for recognizable OCs (IE Dan Granger's brother, Emma's Dad, Mr/Mrs Creevey to be featured in sizeable roles in stories - for the storyline to move an arm's length away from her world. Everything is still recognizable but Dumbledore and Ron don't need to be featured.”
I have an account on AO3 under the same name as here and I've been collecting wonderful stories there as well. Check out my profile there if you're interested. And did you know authors get a message from FFN when you favourite/follow them or their stories giving them your name and profile link? So, tell the authors about it if you liked their story.