... but I have to disagree, at least in large part. I can perfectly well understand being disturbed or annoyed or angered by the thought of people mangling your characters. Many people are very attached to their characters. I am, in fact, attached quite strongly to a lot of them, but I'm a sufficiently arrogant bastard that I will simply mock anyone who gets them wrong, rather than feel as though someone has done something terrible to ME.
However, once you throw your characters out into the open, you should recognize that people *WILL* be doing that kind of thing. It's not a MATTER of whether they "should" or "shouldn't". I would certainly encourage you to say "Please do not tell me about the fanfics you write", but trying to stop people from writing them is not only doomed to failure, it can backfire on you if you try to push it. It's a bad mistake. The worst impressions I've gotten that were associated with fanfic weren't of the "one-handed fic" authors, or the slashficcers, or the mega-crossovers, or the Mary Sues; it's of the companies or individuals who went raving bugzerk over this really harmless amusement, biting the hands that were feeding them.
I can see not LIKING people to do fanfic, but not making an issue of it. The same basic offense, from my point of view, exists in people who misinterpret your work's meaning or your characters' purposes -- and this is an established branch of scholarly endeavor. People WILL misinterpret your work. I can see publicly mocking their incompetence and inability to understand your material, if that floats your boat, but not trying to forbid them from doing it in the first place. After all, they'll still be THINKING it, won't they?
I see where that comes from...
However, once you throw your characters out into the open, you should recognize that people *WILL* be doing that kind of thing. It's not a MATTER of whether they "should" or "shouldn't". I would certainly encourage you to say "Please do not tell me about the fanfics you write", but trying to stop people from writing them is not only doomed to failure, it can backfire on you if you try to push it. It's a bad mistake. The worst impressions I've gotten that were associated with fanfic weren't of the "one-handed fic" authors, or the slashficcers, or the mega-crossovers, or the Mary Sues; it's of the companies or individuals who went raving bugzerk over this really harmless amusement, biting the hands that were feeding them.
I can see not LIKING people to do fanfic, but not making an issue of it. The same basic offense, from my point of view, exists in people who misinterpret your work's meaning or your characters' purposes -- and this is an established branch of scholarly endeavor. People WILL misinterpret your work. I can see publicly mocking their incompetence and inability to understand your material, if that floats your boat, but not trying to forbid them from doing it in the first place. After all, they'll still be THINKING it, won't they?