I see your point on people messing with the characters in fanfic thing. I mainly got into Fanfic back about... eight years ago or so while hunting for info about Dragonball Z (This is back when it was pretty much only shown on Telemundo here in America) and I came across a story and... it was love.

And I get the squick on Non-Canon pairings, I very rearely read fic on Lost because... The characters are hard to get right and I just don't want to see them butchered up.

You know what my prediction is though? Fanfic has become a pretty huge subculture, and I think it's going to start affecting the publishing world. I think there will be internet scouts for publishing houses like there are music scouts for labels, and they'll find new authors that way. Or at least, that's what they should do. Yet one more industry revolutionized by the internet. :)

Oh man, that sounds awesome and needs to be true becuase there are so many awesome people out there who should be writing professionally but lack the right kind of deals to do so.

I apologize for the muddled response BTW, my sleeping pills are kicking in and my brain is struggling to stay awake.