Things you *hate* to see in fanfiction

[Pale Wolf]

Well, the question is, do you prefer that, or would you rather have to scroll right every line?

[nuclear death frog]

I actually prefer white on black for text, it is much easier on the eyes than black on a white background

Uh, no, it's not. White-text-on-black is much, much, MUCH harder on the eyes. Your vision must be truly awful if it's easier for you to read white-on-black than black-on-white.
Want proof?
Books. How many books are printed black-on-white? Billions. At least.
As for white-on-black? I can't think of any. I'm not sure I've ever even *heard* of any.

[Pale Wolf]

Actually, I've got to agree with Troll - black's way easier on the eyes.
As to why books are printed on white...
What's the ideal? Print out a couple of letters on an otherwise blank page, or drench the page in ink and leave a few spaces? Printing on white saves ink.

[nuclear death frog]

Actually, I've got to agree with Troll - black's way easier on the eyes.

I really don't understand how that could possibly be the case. White corresponds to blank space, and your mind automatically tries to edit out the blank space so it can focus on what's there. Printing in white makes it harder because it's like a disconnect.
Meh. Whatever. I'm not calling anyone a liar -- well, not on purpose -- but it just seems highly odd.

[Pale Wolf]

Hm, I'll say first off that black is easier for me. My experience is my basis for this opinion, and does not necessarily correspond with anyone else's.
I just complained about people who say their opinions are the be-all and end-all of the matter, so I figured I needed to lead off with that

White corresponds to blank space, and your mind automatically tries to edit out the blank space so it can focus on what's there. Printing in white makes it harder because it's like a disconnect.

Hm... Never thought of it that way, actually. 'Does strange things to your brain', I guess you mean?
Well, in my experience...
Black reflects less light, and so you're getting distinctly less light beamed from your monitor into your head. Basically, your eyes don't have to do as much work to process it - you know how it's more restful to look at dark colours, right? Same case.
Although from your opinion, maybe there's an argument for white-on-black being easier on the brain...

[lwf58]

As for dark text on a light background... Scientific studies have been conducted about it, because it matters quite a bit to companies who put up a web presence. Reverse colors are used for the shock or 'cool' factor, but are not recommended for long text reading for the very reason nuclear death frog mentioned: your brain expects to see dark text, and it messes with it when you don't. If you look at the Lost Library, the color scheme wasn't arrived at overnight. I experimented for years before settling on the combo I use.
That said, remember to stay on or near the topic. While minor diversions away from topic are okay, this conversation has gone about as far away from it as it should without getting back to the subject at hand. Please note my own example; even if I reply to an off-topic remark, I try to include something that conforms to the thread, and I never carry it more than one or two replies.
Of course, this time my effort to get things back on track backfired on me....

[Vasey]

Well, the question is, do you prefer that, or would you rather have to scroll right every line?

Alternatively you could just use HTML files with paragraph tags and that just wouldn't be a problem.

[TerraEpon]

I prefer text files, myself. As being semi=on topic, I hate it when the only way to read something is with HORRID HTML. Thankfully FF.net is just fine, and something like the Lost Library is pretty good.
-Joshua

[Cyber_Skaarj]

Another little annoyance that I've just found; when an author has a character shake their head to agree to something and nod to disagree. An expample from one of Ozz's fics (for shame, Ozz, for shame!);

“Mmmhmm.” Ranma nodded. “All business mostly. Humidity was absolutely horrid, but I did find myself in the most interesting shop during on some of my free time…” She let the pair hang hopefully on her words for a moment before continuing with a wink. “But we’ll save that for later. Right now, I believe there’s a bowl of chocolate-pistachio ice cream with your name on it, Sa-chan. Rocky road, Ami?”
“Oh, yes, definitely.” Ami shook her head vigorously while Usagi was practically salivating at the prospect.

[TerraEpon]

I agree there, though one could very easily "shake her head yes" or something of that nature.
-Joshua

[B'man]

Well, in some places you do shake your head to mean yes, and nod it to mean no. I don't think Japan is one of those places though -_-

[Pale Wolf]

In a technical sense, 'shaking' can be done in any direction - a vigorous nod is a shake
Probably what Ozzinator was thinking. Might've forgot that the term 'shaking head' refers to a side-to-side shake.

[Nekomata-sensei]

1. Flames, as in: OMG! WTF!? You %(#)@ Harry/Ginny pairings 5ux0rz and are fannon! t3h real Roulng was kindapped! I'd reed th3 storys and fond romatic stuf under it! You baka tool!
2. Bashing, as in: Yes, I know this is an alterverse, but Ranma wouldn't convieveably behave that way, even though this Ranma is different because of a change of events in his formative years that could convievably cause this change, why are you even writing Ranma fanfiction, this _so_ is not Ranma, because he acts totally different! And his attacks are different too! You've got a lot of glaring plot holes by the way, and even though they aren't really plot holes that are you're fault, but caused by how I interpreted the source different than you or read a different translation, I'm going to complain about it and tell you how bad you're writing skills are. Just because I can write a coherent scentence and I'm not insulting you directly I think I'm better than you and those flamers.
3. Whiners, as in: I don't like your story! You made it a Ranma/Akane fic! I think Akane is a evil b*)#&! Even though I know you don't agree with me, please don't make this a Ranma/Akane fic, but a Ranma/Ukyo fic instead, because I'm a Ranma/Ukyo fan. Here is a bunch of reasons why Akane is an evil b)@*$ and why Ranma/Ukyo is the only real pairing! Isn't Ukyo cute?! Oh! And I'll stop reading and flame you if you don't stop your romatic subtext between Akane and Ranma and change it to a Ranma/Ukyo pairing. Maybe you should have Akane and Ryoga have xxx and Ranma walk in on them? Because we _know_ that happens in cannon since Akane pretends to not know about P-chan even though it's obvious. I even heard on a chatroom that Takahashi admitted it's true!
4. Jerks, as in: Wow, this story sucks, I can't believe you're wasting your time writing fanfiction! Fanfiction is stupid! It's obvious why I'm wasting my time on this site reading your fanfiction, I really love fanfiction and don't want to admit it. I'm wasting my time with this review because you wasted my time, I liked the title to your story and the setting you drew it from, but I didn't like what you did with the characters and I noticed you spelled this one character's name the german way, rather than the american english way. I hate germans you know! You must have been involved in the halocaust!
What is CC?
Constructive Criticism of course. Let's take an example. Imagine a piece of art, let's say, a drawing of Ranma, which is good, only the artist gave Ranma two left hands. Someone who wants to write constructive criticism would point out that Ranma has two left hands, the thumb is on the same side on his right hand as on his left hand and the artist made a mistake because he was holding his hand oddly while he was referencing the pic with his own hands, and they'd explain how to draw the hand properly and exactly how they were able to tell the hand was another left hand, and perhaps give advice for how to fix it.
It is not constructive critisism to say, I like the drawing, but, you are pathetic at anatomy, look, Ranma has two left hands! Mixing compliments with insults is what that is.
Now lets say we have a Sailor Moon fanfic. In it, Usagi eats ice cream slowly, to savor it, does well on her homework, and doesn't steal Rei's manga, because she's the perfect princess! Most people, I'd say, would probably tell the person that Usagi is out of character, they'd bash, whine, flame, and act like general jerks towards the author, asking if they'd actually read the manga/watched the anime, and tell them they'd made Usagi a mary sue, before giving them some half hearted compliment about something if they want to appear to be nice and inteligent and giving constructive criticism. Someone who writes real constructive critisim would point out that Sailor Moon is acting out of character, and show _why_ by referencing points in the manga/anime, where she ate ice cream like a starving Ryo-Oki, got poor grades, and stole Rei's manga, and give advice for how they could still keep the general gist of their plot while still having Usagi behave in a cannon manner.
The difference between normal critisism (or even flames/bashing/whining) and constructive criticism, is that constructive criticism can help the writer improve their work and understand what's wrong with it from a rational and logical perspetive presented by the person giving the critism, and understand that person's views, rather than just be told them. Also, everything but constructive criticism is often wrong or at least written for the wrong reasons, such as the writer of the critisism thinking the creator of what they are criticising is stupid and should be told off for something.
What's worse is people who complain about a story that is true to the source material, in the manner of constructive criticism, citing evidence and whatnot and giving good advice on how to fix things, based on ill conceived notions from their fandom, of course this is a fanfiction only sort of thing. The main place I see this is in pairings. For instance people commenting on how a Harry/Ginny pairing is wrong and giving all sorts of evidence why a Harry/Hermione pairing would be better for some story from the origional source, even though cannon Harry Potter is Harry/Ginny in the Half-Blood Prince. Now if they're commenting on stuff that happened differently in the fanfiction that paints Ginny in a bad light and Hermione/Harry pairing possibilities in a good light, which is different from cannon in that story, then this is much more reasonable.
My primary motivation for this is because of people complaining about characters behaving out of character, when I believe they could plausibly be in character, depending on how you interpret the source.
For instance, let's say I'm writing a fic where Ranma decides being a boy is worse than being a girl and that he's going to lock his curse and become a girl for good. A lot of people would rant and rave about how out of character this is, not matter how much evidence I present in the form of inner monolouge from Ranma that shows that Ranma was only ever really happy in girl form interacting with people as a girl, without even changing actual events, but simply making viable interpretations on Ranma's feelings about them.
And then people will start whining about how the character's not Ranma and I might as well be making up some other female lead who was never a boy and completely ignoring Ranma's history, various talents, and the setting that the story still draws from, and asking me why I'm even calling this a Ranma fanfic and why I'm not writing some origional story with this character I 'completely made up'. If you don't like Ranma as a girl fics, _fine_, there _are_ people who do like them, don't try to complain that a story is implausible and bad when you have no good arguments as to why and aren't listening to the person's arguments for why it works.
Also, don't diss writing styles. I saw script format complained about on the first page of this thread. I have actually _liked several_ script format fanfics I've read, that were well written and funny, and the formatting didn't detract from the story or it's readability. Just becasue you may not like a certain writing style, doesn't mean is is a bad writing style. It would be like saying Jazz is a completely useless type of music, ignoring that there are plenty of people who enjoy listening to Jazz.
Sadly, I have a horrible feeling I'm going to get replies to this from people defending their opinions that girl Ranma fics are completley implausible and suck, and that Harry/Ginny is a horrible pairing and Harry/Hermione is better, and that I'm using bad examples in some way, and trying to explain to me why scrip formatting 'really does suck', or some other such nonsense, because they're offended by what I've written here. Or if they want to not look as stupid, they'll snipe at this some other way, shuch as point out all my grammatical or spelling errors or complain that my paragraphs are too long or my examples of the wrong things to do are inaccurate, exaggerated, and insulting. (which they are somewhat supposed to be, becasuse they are intended to be exxagerated and sarcastic to prove a point)

[nuclear death frog]

Also, don't diss writing styles. I saw script format complained about on the first page of this thread

Since I made the first post in this thread which mentioned script format, I feel compelled to respond.
The principal reason that I don't like it is because to me it jars the flow of the story. If I wanted to read a script, I'd pick up a copy of one play or another, but if I haven't sought that out on purpose I don't want to see it.
The second reason I don't like it is because I've never seen a story where it was carried off well. And I'm not interested in searching for one or finding one, so don't bother sending me any links.
I have no interest in debating this, and it would likely be deemed spamming to do so, so this will be my only post on the matter.

[Mitchell]

Reduntdent information.
THats one of the things that really annoy me about fanfiction, and while I understand how it comes about, it can ruin the flow of a story. What I mean about redundent information is Information is given that we have already received, but charecters act as if this is brand new information and react accordingly.
While the story is pretty good, I'll give an example of Path of Chaos, by Lord Rance. So far Ranma and Yosho learned that Ranma's mother was Tokimi about three times in as many chapters, and each time Yosho is shocked and horrified.
In other fics it happens like in the first chapter the story goes that Ranma completed his graduate degree in math and suddenly in chapter four, he cant solve simple math problems because 'Ranma is not really a thinker'.
If there is one thing that I want is that Relevent information is used. If Ranma goes and learns maths and graduates at the top of Math class, it is feasable that he can solve simple math problems. If he studies computers, then he should know how to operate them. '
Every time I see a fic where Ranma has graduated High School with good marks supposedly, and then find he has the equivelent education to a preschooler I want to screem.