Now that's just weird.

Fanfiction.net rules - Entries not allowed on any part of the website said:

1. Non-stories: lists, bloopers, polls, previews, challenges, author notes, and etc.
2. One or two liners.
3. MST: comments inserted in between the flow of a copied story.
4. Stories with non-historical and non-fictional characters: actors, musicians, and etc.
5. Any form of interactive entry: choose your adventure, second person/you based, Q&As, and etc.
6. Chat/script format and keyboard dialogue based entries.

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Most of these rules seem fair and logical to me, doing nothing but saving space and culling material that should not be allowed. Fair enough. But there's one that sticks out as a bit funny. Guess which.

5. Any form of interactive entry: choose your adventure, second person/you based, Q&As, and etc.

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Yeah, that's weird. The second person perspective is banned, because it's apparently too 'interactive' for ff.net.

To clarify, the second-person perspective is one where the story is told from the point of view of the reader, in a sense. For example:

Making this up on the spot said:

You pull open the door cautiously, poking your nose into the corridor. You hear a soft swish to your left and jerk back reflexively, feeling something flash past your face.

"What the hell was that?" hisses Katie from behind you.

"No idea," you reply grimly, "but it almost got me." Even more carefully this time, you look slowly out into the corridor.

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And so on. This perspective is far less commonly seen than the staples of first- and third-person POV, but it is a valid literary technique nonetheless. So why is it banned?

Rule #5 aims to reduce the posting of stories that require audience participation - whether it be 'ask my characters questions!' or 'Which door will Bobby go through?'. This is fair enough, as these kinds of fics often require much less effort on the writer's part, and as such are discouraged.

Yet poor, innocent second person gets a bad rap because . . . well . . . because? Just because it happens to be the perspective used in those ghastly Choose Your Own Adventure novels doesn't mean it's not valid in and of itself! It's relatively common in thriller and mystery novels ^{[citation needed]} as it adds to the sense of fear and paranoia ^{[citation needed]} often required to make these kinds of stories effective.^{[citation needed]}

someone with more common sense than me said:

I think they mean interactive 2nd person, rather than stories that happen to be 2nd person.

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Perhaps this is true, but the way the rule is phrased (under the heading 'Entries Not Allowed' and all) heavily implies that it is a blanket ban on the second person.

So at best, a poorly worded, misunderstood rule. At worst, a vicious attack on literature. Thoughts?

It doesn't really matter what they meant by the rule if they didn't word it right. There are plenty of good second-person stories that probably won't be posted because they read the rules and didn't think it was allowed, or people that did do it without it being interactive, and get reported over it due to someone else not understanding.

Maybe you should write them an email requesting that they word that rule in a clearer way.

I assume it's banned because of what 'someone with more common sense than me' said in your quote above, but the blanket ban - especially on a part of the website that is an attention-puller to say the least - implies that it's just bad writing to do ANYTHING in second person, when it's obviously a valid literary technique. Weird...

^Only thing is that fanfiction.net is naturally full of bad writing to begin with. =/

Hence this entire post is null and void. They should just ban everyone from uploading fanfiction and delete everything that's on there. The average quality would skyrocket.