It looks like I agree with many of the commenters above!
As a writer, I prefer third person limited POV, mostly because I like getting into one character's head and staying there. I like presenting a story from one person's perspective, especially when there's a mystery or some sort of plot point that requires a revelation. I just find it easier to keep everything straight in my head when I am telling it from one person's perspective.
As a reader, I also prefer third person limited, for many of the same reasons. I like getting inside one character's head and seeing the story from their POV. This works especially well in the HP fandom IMO because the canon itself is (almost always) told in third person limited, so a similar structure in fanfic seems to mirror that well.
My issue with second person is that I really don't like the whole ABH (Anywhere But Here, another name for second person in case you haven't seen that term before) genre -- it always feels like someone is trying to tell the reader what they ought to feel in a particular situation, and that just grates on me. There was an ABH fic I read once that basically had "you" watching two characters have sex. It was fine until the end, when the characters notice "you" are there and pull you into the sex scene and... stroke "your" cock. I got to that and went 0_o. Cause you know, I'm female, and that sort of threw me out of the whole thing.
And I think it bothered me on some deeper level, because for me, reading or writing fan fiction is not about self-insertion. Sure, I base characters' reactions to things on how I would react, but also on how I know other people close to me would react -- that's a great resource and I'd be a fool not to use it. But I want to read about characters someone else has created and have the option to draw any parallels myself. I dislike the idea of the author telling "me" how I ought to react in any particular situation, if that makes any sense.
As for third person omniscient, I suppose I see it well done only rarely. It often just results in something confusing, and I think it's much harder to convey certain kinds of stories that way. I have read fics where the writer was able to keep many different POVs clear, but the general rule seems to be not to switch inside a single paragraph.
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As a writer, I prefer third person limited POV, mostly because I like getting into one character's head and staying there. I like presenting a story from one person's perspective, especially when there's a mystery or some sort of plot point that requires a revelation. I just find it easier to keep everything straight in my head when I am telling it from one person's perspective.
As a reader, I also prefer third person limited, for many of the same reasons. I like getting inside one character's head and seeing the story from their POV. This works especially well in the HP fandom IMO because the canon itself is (almost always) told in third person limited, so a similar structure in fanfic seems to mirror that well.
My issue with second person is that I really don't like the whole ABH (Anywhere But Here, another name for second person in case you haven't seen that term before) genre -- it always feels like someone is trying to tell the reader what they ought to feel in a particular situation, and that just grates on me. There was an ABH fic I read once that basically had "you" watching two characters have sex. It was fine until the end, when the characters notice "you" are there and pull you into the sex scene and... stroke "your" cock. I got to that and went 0_o. Cause you know, I'm female, and that sort of threw me out of the whole thing.
And I think it bothered me on some deeper level, because for me, reading or writing fan fiction is not about self-insertion. Sure, I base characters' reactions to things on how I would react, but also on how I know other people close to me would react -- that's a great resource and I'd be a fool not to use it. But I want to read about characters someone else has created and have the option to draw any parallels myself. I dislike the idea of the author telling "me" how I ought to react in any particular situation, if that makes any sense.
As for third person omniscient, I suppose I see it well done only rarely. It often just results in something confusing, and I think it's much harder to convey certain kinds of stories that way. I have read fics where the writer was able to keep many different POVs clear, but the general rule seems to be not to switch inside a single paragraph.