Here is my strategy to filter through the dross:
I use the “favorite story” lists of people who seem to have similar tastes in stories as me. How do I know if someone has a similar taste in stories as me? Well, if someone has written a story in a style that I like, probably they have a similar taste in stories. (Basically, I assume that people like to read the same style of stories that they write.)
I got started out reading fanfiction other than HPMOR by reading some fics from EY’s favorite stories list, and then for each of those stories that I liked (that is, basically all of them, seeing as I like more or less the same kind of stories EY likes), I read other stories by that author, and I read stories on that author’s “favorite stories” list, and then read other stories by authors of those stories, and stories from their favorite lists, and so on.
I use the “favorite story” lists of people who seem to have similar tastes in stories as me.
I have automated this method, but my current weighing scheme isn’t very good. In case anyone can suggest a better one, below is my setup.
Each user has a rank that describes how similar their taste is to mine. Each story has a rank that describes how much I like it. We start with user ranks being all 0, and with story ranks reflecting my preferences. First we set each user’s rank to be the average of the ranks of the stories he likes (‘average’ can be replaced by any other function of the number of those stories and the sum of their ranks). Then we set each story’s rank to be the sum of the ranks of the users that like it. Then we normalize, so that the sum of all story ranks is, say, 100. Then we repeat.
The main problem with the above is that any user who likes only the top-ranked story will come on top. If instead of using the average of the story ranks we use the sum, people who like more stories will have an advantage. When I have the time, I’ll try functions like sum/(sqrt(a^2+n^2)-a+1), where n is the number of stories the user likes. I’m open to other suggestions. But note that the ranking procedure takes ~5s per repeat, so fiddling with parameters until it works isn’t a good option.
One disadvantage of that method is that the stories it gives you will mostly stay local to one fandom, unless you’re lucky enough to spot a talented multifandom author, and those are pretty rare. (Eliezer is one, though, which helps.) Good if you’re only looking for Harry Potter fic, bad if you’re looking for good writing and aren’t too concerned about milieu.
Another possible disadvantage is that you might end up with a reading list full of remarkably weird kinks: favorites lists tend to be weighted towards unique tastes. This is probably less of an issue on ff.net with its content policies, but something to keep in mind if you spend a lot of time sifting through (e.g.) AO3 or LJ.
Good points. Out of familiarity, I tend to stick to Harry Potter fanfic, so I don’t find that so problematic. (Although all in all, it could be a problem, case in point, note that Luminosity (A rationalist Twilight fanfic by Alicorn, which by the way is an amazing story, even if (like me) you have not read the Twilight books and have no intention of doing so) is an example of a very good non-Harry Potter fanfic that I read that I did not get to by this method. (I got to it from talk here on Less Wrong.) )(Although, that said, I could have gotten to it this way, as EY did add it to his favorite stories list.)
I stick to fanfiction.net for the most part, so as you said, the weird kinks thing doesn’t really affect me. (And I doubt I would want to read much of the weird kinks stuff in the first place.) But you do make a good point in saying that this strategy works only within a certain context, and yes, you should be aware of its limitations. (As you pointed out.)
Frankly, I read Luminosity because of how much everyone raves about it here, and it didn’t appeal to me at all. Put it down after a dozen or so chapters.
I think my biggest problem is that I’m not a fan of stories as pure vehicles for teaching. Teaching on the side is fine, but trying to embed large amounts of rationalist pedagogy in the middle of a story, to the point where it takes over, is frankly a good way to ruin a story. HPMOR manages to be good despite it, as far as I’m concerned, not because of it. But all Luminosity had was rationalist classroom teaching and Twilight—there’s better venues for both(Sequences and landfills, respectively), and it has none of the insane humour or early plot that brought me into HPMOR.
The plot gets thicker further in. It does take a while to ramp up; if I didn’t hate editing things I’d go compress the first half of Luminosity considerably to get it off the ground sooner. The didacticism falls away almost completely later on, which was mostly accidental on my part but you might find more pleasant.
Fixed. Thanks for pointing it out. I often find that I seem to use parentheses far to much, and in this post it just went to an extreme, to the point were I lost track of what level of parentheses I was in.
Looking for fics with a theme you like (such as whodunnits or backstory vignettes or hurt/comfort or wingfic where the characters are American high schoolers) can locate good authors in any fandom, which you can then use as sources for search inside the fandom.
You can also pick original works you like in the first place and see what the most popular fics thereof are like.
Here is my strategy to filter through the dross: I use the “favorite story” lists of people who seem to have similar tastes in stories as me. How do I know if someone has a similar taste in stories as me? Well, if someone has written a story in a style that I like, probably they have a similar taste in stories. (Basically, I assume that people like to read the same style of stories that they write.)
I got started out reading fanfiction other than HPMOR by reading some fics from EY’s favorite stories list, and then for each of those stories that I liked (that is, basically all of them, seeing as I like more or less the same kind of stories EY likes), I read other stories by that author, and I read stories on that author’s “favorite stories” list, and then read other stories by authors of those stories, and stories from their favorite lists, and so on.
I hope this advice helps you. If you want specific fanfic recommendations though, you can check out my fanfiction.net favorite stories list.
I have automated this method, but my current weighing scheme isn’t very good. In case anyone can suggest a better one, below is my setup.
Each user has a rank that describes how similar their taste is to mine. Each story has a rank that describes how much I like it. We start with user ranks being all 0, and with story ranks reflecting my preferences. First we set each user’s rank to be the average of the ranks of the stories he likes (‘average’ can be replaced by any other function of the number of those stories and the sum of their ranks). Then we set each story’s rank to be the sum of the ranks of the users that like it. Then we normalize, so that the sum of all story ranks is, say, 100. Then we repeat.
The main problem with the above is that any user who likes only the top-ranked story will come on top. If instead of using the average of the story ranks we use the sum, people who like more stories will have an advantage. When I have the time, I’ll try functions like sum/(sqrt(a^2+n^2)-a+1), where n is the number of stories the user likes. I’m open to other suggestions. But note that the ranking procedure takes ~5s per repeat, so fiddling with parameters until it works isn’t a good option.
One disadvantage of that method is that the stories it gives you will mostly stay local to one fandom, unless you’re lucky enough to spot a talented multifandom author, and those are pretty rare. (Eliezer is one, though, which helps.) Good if you’re only looking for Harry Potter fic, bad if you’re looking for good writing and aren’t too concerned about milieu.
Another possible disadvantage is that you might end up with a reading list full of remarkably weird kinks: favorites lists tend to be weighted towards unique tastes. This is probably less of an issue on ff.net with its content policies, but something to keep in mind if you spend a lot of time sifting through (e.g.) AO3 or LJ.
Good points. Out of familiarity, I tend to stick to Harry Potter fanfic, so I don’t find that so problematic. (Although all in all, it could be a problem, case in point, note that Luminosity (A rationalist Twilight fanfic by Alicorn, which by the way is an amazing story, even if (like me) you have not read the Twilight books and have no intention of doing so) is an example of a very good non-Harry Potter fanfic that I read that I did not get to by this method. (I got to it from talk here on Less Wrong.) )(Although, that said, I could have gotten to it this way, as EY did add it to his favorite stories list.)
I stick to fanfiction.net for the most part, so as you said, the weird kinks thing doesn’t really affect me. (And I doubt I would want to read much of the weird kinks stuff in the first place.) But you do make a good point in saying that this strategy works only within a certain context, and yes, you should be aware of its limitations. (As you pointed out.)
Frankly, I read Luminosity because of how much everyone raves about it here, and it didn’t appeal to me at all. Put it down after a dozen or so chapters.
I think my biggest problem is that I’m not a fan of stories as pure vehicles for teaching. Teaching on the side is fine, but trying to embed large amounts of rationalist pedagogy in the middle of a story, to the point where it takes over, is frankly a good way to ruin a story. HPMOR manages to be good despite it, as far as I’m concerned, not because of it. But all Luminosity had was rationalist classroom teaching and Twilight—there’s better venues for both(Sequences and landfills, respectively), and it has none of the insane humour or early plot that brought me into HPMOR.
The plot gets thicker further in. It does take a while to ramp up; if I didn’t hate editing things I’d go compress the first half of Luminosity considerably to get it off the ground sooner. The didacticism falls away almost completely later on, which was mostly accidental on my part but you might find more pleasant.
Noted. No promise I ever get back to it, though.
You’re missing a close-parenthesis.
Fixed. Thanks for pointing it out. I often find that I seem to use parentheses far to much, and in this post it just went to an extreme, to the point were I lost track of what level of parentheses I was in.
You should use an editor with brace-matching.
Looking for fics with a theme you like (such as whodunnits or backstory vignettes or hurt/comfort or wingfic where the characters are American high schoolers) can locate good authors in any fandom, which you can then use as sources for search inside the fandom.
You can also pick original works you like in the first place and see what the most popular fics thereof are like.