In honor of Rectober having wrapped up (SO MUCH FUN! all the kudos to birdsofshore for being awesome!), I thought I would ask ya'll a few questions about recs.

Obviously reccing is a big part of what I do on here, and I read a ton of fic with a variety of pairings and in multiple different fandoms. But I was wondering how other people went about recs. My "process" is probably a lot different from those of you who don't do a ton of fandom hopping, so I was curious!

1. What do you like in a rec? What are the things you absolutely need in a rec or in a rec list?

For me, I need a Title/link to the work, a summary, and a rating. If it doesn't have all of those things (especially if it's a huge list from somebody I don't know), I usually back button pretty quickly. But I also think the author's name and a word count should be there. And I really prefer if there is some kind of reason why the reccer liked it.

2. Spinning off of that, how important is the "Why" to you guys? Does what a reccer says about why they are reccing a fic influence you?

It definitely does for me, and I'd say most rec lists I've encountered leave this part off. I'm guessing it's just a matter of time constraints, but I do think those lists are less compelling.

3. Do you look for recs lists? Or do you just stick with recs from people you know/trust? Or do you rarely even read fics based on recs?

I often read fics based on recs. When I break into a new fandom I usually google rec lists and make my way through some of the prominent ones. I also frequently read recs from people I know. Especially this Rectober! I actually ended up reading a fic whose canon I'm not at all familiar with, which was a first for me.

4. I know a lot of rec "forms" have a place for excerpts from the fic. Do you find this useful? Do you look at these?

For me, I don't think I have ever once look at an excerpt included in a rec. I tend to make my decision on whether or not to read based on the header/reccer's thoughts, and it's just as easy for me to get a feel for the writing once I've started reading.

Finally, I had a personal question about reccing:

If I had a fic I liked, but I was hesitant to rec because of XYZ reason, do you think its better to leave a warning about said problematic issues, or just not rec it at all. This has happened a few times, and I've sort of waffled back and forth.

For example, I read an older H/D fic awhile ago that I thought was generally good, but there were (what I felt) were some significant issues regarding characterization and a few other details. In this particular fic, there ended up being a later scene that bothered me so much I had to stop reading, but before that I was enjoying the fic overall and would have recced it, but I don't know how comfortable I would have been doing that it without letting people know about some of the issues (it was a loooooong fic, and I think people should have an idea of potentially bothersome things, if they are planning to commit that much time.)

This fandom especially is super positive, but sometimes I feel like that hinders the ability to completely address problematic issues. I honestly appreciate reading candid notes when I look through rec lists, but I was curious what others thought.

LOL, I probably should have made a poll, but I already typed all this up, and not I'm too lazy to go and create a poll too...SORRY GUYS!