... but I found this post interesting. It wouldn't have occurred to me that a gift or challenge fic, publicly posted and accessible, has different rules than any other public fic (which, to me, means fair game). See, the thing is, when a person signs up for a fest or fic exchange, they do it willingly and knowing full well their story is going to go out in public. You know? It's not really private, is it? That said, the point about criticizing a fic written to specifications is valid - but I was thinking it's kind of stupid, anyway, to say "Harry would never bottom!" (whether the fic was a fest fic written to that prompt or not), you know? But things like flow, grammar, plot holes ... well, those are whoopsies regardless of whether the fic was written to prompts or not, yes? An as for waiting for the author reveal ... well, the story's out there. People are reading it. That's when they want to respond, with squees and other things. Seems to me courteous critical comment is as appropriate then as it ever is with publicly posted fic.