This is probably a dumb question, but I'm still sort of new at this.  What do the exclamation points mean when you see them referring to fics, as in Vamp!Buffy or Amnesia!Spike?  Obviously, I know that this story will feature a vampire Buffy or that story a Spike with amnesia.  But why are they used like that?

I have no idea - unless it's just a fanfic thing to alert people to the non-canon subject matter?  Seems silly to me, but I'll bet there's an explanation. I'll be interested to hear it.

I thought exclamation points were just used for the fun of it.  Well, and also to keep things simpler.  Like, I love amnesia stories involving Spike.  So, in my fangirliness, I put the exclamation point in:  amnesia!Spike.  But slaymesoftly is right if that's the real reason:  it is kind of silly. 

I think it's used to tie the words up, like the slash between Spike and Buffy is used to indecate them in a relationship. It's probably used to say more with less words. Vamp!Buffy, by itself, tells you that Buffy is turned into a vampire in this fiction without writing a long sentence.

Yeah, but you could do it just as easily without the exclamation point - "Vamp Buffy" gets the point across just as well. I think it's just a cutesy/silly fandom thing that caught on.

I think the description like that, with or without the exclamation point, is like naming Barbie dolls - you've got Malibu Barbie, Babysitter Skipper, Vamp Buffy and Amnesia Spike.

Okay...I just got all silly and pictured a Malibu Spike.  LOL

Kathleen

*snort*  I think you need to write about him, Kathleen....

Spike on the beach...I think that deserves an exclamation point. (!)

Spike naked on the beach deserves more than an exclaimation point...