Arawn, since the feedback thread which was "hijacked" was mine, I think I can give you my two cents worth. I don't mind discussion of the themes of my stories, as long as the discussion begins with the story and not with some poster's opinion of whether or not the story should have ever been written, especially if the poster hasn't even bothered to read the story. I don't mind if folks read a deathfic warning and tell me that they won't read this particular story, because that means they at least opened the post despite seeing my name on it. Not everyone likes sad stories, and that's perfectly okay. I don't like certain kinds of stories either, but others do. Does that make me right and the others wrong? No. It means we're different. And that's not only okay, that's really great. It means we have a whole palette of excellent stories to choose from.
I also don't mind if the discussion grows beyond a single page, as long as the discussion is about the story or the theme or some variation of what's been written. The thing that bugs me is when a poster makes some statement about the story that comes not from what's been posted, but comes from his/her own particular way of looking at Lois and Clark and the mythos that's grown up around them. For example, there have been stories about the fallout from Clark "killing" Johnny Corbin as Metallo. Not everyone agrees with the conclusions drawn in those stories, but that doesn't mean the authors are wrong to present them, as long as everybody remembers that opionions are like armpits and everybody has a couple of them.
(Slight thread hijacking here.)
The problem that I have with assigning Clark the blame for Corbin's death is two-fold. One, Corbin was still alive after Clark melted his legs. He was immobile and malfunctioning, yes, but not dead. He didn't actually die until Vale pulled the Kryptonite out of his chest.
And that brings me to my second point. Johnny Corbin had been mortally wounded and already would have been dead had he not been transplanted (without his consent, mind you) into that robotic body. At that point, he was no longer fully human, and his brain was existing on life support. No heart, no digestive system, no warmth to his metal skin, nothing but his brain. Lucy quickly realized he wasn't human anymore. Vale's removal of the Kryptonite was little different from someone unplugging a respirator or external heart pump on a quadraplegic patient. It's killing, I agree, but Superman didn't do it. Vale did.
And I'm sure someone will disagree with me, maybe even several someones.
(We now return you to your regularly scheduled feedback.)
Anyway, I'd rather have feedback that's a little off the subject than none at all. If someone cares enough to type out his or her reactions to something I've written, I'm going to read it. I may be thrilled, I may be bummed, I may wonder what that person was tripping on, but I'd still rather have it than not.
