i need, and can only really provide, line by line betas. when i send off a story, i want it picked clean down to the bones, even if it does occasionally break my heart when reading it. i can still remember the very first fic i ever had proofed by someone other than myself, and it was a heart-wrenching experience (i was only sixteen at the time). the copy i got back was filled with all kinds of notes on just about everything. i do believe i cried when reading parts of it, mostly out of sheer embarassment at some of the (deeply glaring) mistakes i hadn't spotted myself. however, i learned from the experience, and i think the story was all the better for it. i'm at the point now where a good, throuough beta only makes me wince a little (ok, a lot), though, and i defintely hate posting stuff unproofed.

i always give credit to my betas, and although it wouldn't bother me hugely if someone forgot to credit me, i'd rather they did. as for being the beta, honesty is very important to me, so although i usually try and get betas for others done as fast as i can, i would really prefer if someone would tell me how fast they want it back so i can give it special attention if they're in a proper rush, even if it is just that they think it's really swell and are dying to post. i can't imagine sending someone a story with the errors (capitalization, missing story arcs etc) you mentioned above. that strikes me as kinda... rude.

i really should do more beta reading. i'd forgotten how much fun it is to help someone work out the issues in their story and help them out. i would have offered to read yours for you, but by the time i saw the post you had about six comments, so i figured you were ok.