Stepping in to clarify something.
Anna said:
I honestly didn't know that I was supposed to label it that way. In fact, from the talk that I've heard about tank endings, and the description that is on Anne's Place, I thought that it was usual for them not to be labeled.
I remember a discussion last year on the fic list where opinions differed on whether Tank Endings should always be labelled or take the reader by surprise, but no concensus was reached. So while I understand that Tank Endings aren't to everyone's taste, there is indeed no rule forcing authors to label them as they post it.
Posting a TE as the "final" part of a fanfic has been common practice for years. It seems to have become part of the TE tradition to "fool" the reader, as long as the section is very quickly outrageous enough for the reader to understand what it is about (like all traditional TEs). While I'm aware that it won't entirely satisfy readers who really don't enjoy Tank Endings, changing the title of the post to reflect the content after a few hours at most seems to be the only way to tie the two extremes.
I do understand that some readers may be upset by reading something which they thought was a legitimate story instalment, especially if it doesn't become clear relatively soon that the instalment is a TE. But it seems to be very difficult to find a compromise. While I know feelings always run high on this type of issue, I would like to request that all posters remain polite when discussing it, so that if possible we can avoid any more hurt feelings.
I also suggest that we draw a line under the recriminations here; if necessary, the issue of labels for TEs could be discussed in the Fanfic-Related forum so that they don't hog this comments folder.
Kaethel
Fanfic Forum Moderator
